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rooftop growing
by Barbara H. Shaw
With nearly half of all humans living
in urban areas, and many cities
beginning to amend their codes and
regulations to allow the construction of
roof gardens, people around the world
are warming up to the idea of creating
outdoor oases on their rooftops.
in its infancy in many North
American locales, rooftop growing is
T a hough
well-developed practice elsewhere. In
India and Singapore, tiny, high-tech rooftop
farms in the range of 50 square meters
provide profitable jobs for housewives
and retired workers. Roofs can be ideal
for hydroponic growing, too. Some mini-
farms are now so high-tech that one acre
can produce 700 tons of produce using
aeroponic methods. Each year, more
rooftop growers advance to productive
commercial-size operations like this.
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