Going green is taking on new meaning as technological innovations and rethinking are providing solutions to age old problems like food and water shortage. The urban farming movement is attracting lots of interest not just because it can reduce transportation and it’s related environmental cost; but also it provides an opportunity for people to be empowered and creative in harvesting food they’ve planted themselves.
Just recently City Slicker Farms an Oakland California based community organization has been awarded a 4 million dollar grant to purchase a 1.4 acre parcel of land at 28th and Peralta streets in West Oakland, and construct a new urban farm park! In early 2010, City Slicker Farms conducted a community based planning process with residents of all ages and came up with an exciting farm park design. But with most things one solution will not work everywhere: particularity where land may be limited or non existent.
In his book the “Vertical Farm” former Columbia Professor Dickson Despommier says Verticle Farms may very well provide a solution to over population and increasing food demands. But if the idea and scale of a vertical farming structure seems just too impractical. It’s not for Converted Organics Inc. which announced today that it has closed on the 
acquisition of 95% of the membership interests in TerraSphere Systems, a rapidly growing pioneer in the vertical farming market.
“The acquisition of TerraSphere expands Converted Organics the Company portfolio of sustainable, environmentally-friendly green assets and is a continuation of our strategy to grow our business through accretive acquisitions,” said Edward Gildea, President and CEO of Converted Organics. Land based urban, roof based and skycraper vertical farms have the potential to transform agriculture as we know it; and solve much of the world’s pressing problems at the same time.