Hundred Acre, an urban hydroponic farm located in the Century City business park, is expected to see its first harvest in about four weeks.
Behind the project is Chris Corkery, the founder of Planet to Plate, a community development firm created with the mission of revitalizing distressed real estate with green infrastructure, empowering individuals in underserved communities, and promoting supply chain resilience.
“Hundred Acre is about building a scalable rapid response model that facilitates a hyper local ecosystem through the decentralized production of food,” says Corkey. “The project is founded in creating personal agency, local equity, and increased social and environmental impact, and it’s based on the idea that a broken food system can be changed, one step at a time.”
The specialized urban farm, which just planted its first round of seedlings last week, will utilize a 5,000-square-foot controlled environmental system with vertical hydroponics. Initial product offerings will include seven varieties of greens including holy basil, spring mix, arugula, baby spinach, endive, rainbow chard, and hemp seedlings with an anticipated production of about 1500 lbs of produce per week. That produce will be distributed locally (within a 100-mile radius) to restaurants, caterers, grocers and schools, providing a consistent, sustainable, traceable source for nourishing produce.
"Ultimately," says Corkery, "Hundred Acre Farm aims to create an ecosystem that brings together food businesses, non-profits, educational institutions, and the surrounding Milwaukee community."
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