Exotic Farming

If Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, and Bashar al-Assad suddenly planted vegetable gardens in the front yards of their residences, that would be exotic farming. When she was the US First Lady, Mrs. Obama did encourage young people to eat nutritional vegetables by planting a vegetable garden in the White House's backyard, and she invited students from Wisconsin and other States to help harvest the crops.

     Looking around the world you can find other examples of exotic farming. Until late in 2018, Pakistan kept eight buffaloes to provide milk for its prime minister. To grow alfalfa for nearly one million cows, Almarai, the largest dairy producer in oil-rich, water-poor Saudi Arabia, paid $31.8 million for 1,790 acres of land in California. Unfortunately, growing alfalfa there diverted water from the Colorado River that was needed by drought prone California.  Transporting heavy, bulky animal feed thousands of miles also required burning fossil fuel that emits the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

     Other examples of exotic farming offer better options. A London warehouse has become an aquaponic vertical farm that grows salad greens and herbs and produces fish. On the roof of a former factory in The Hague, Urban Farmers, a Swiss aquaponics system does the same. Berlin's Infarm modular, indoor hydroponic systems grow herbs, radishes, and greens right in Metro Cash & Carry supermarkets.

     Look up aquaponics and hydroponics on the internet. These exotic new urban agricultural projects can be near consumers in shops, restaurants, schools, and hospitals. They can provide job opportunities for those trained to find balconies and roof tops with micro climates that have sun and little wind, to decide what crops to plant, to monitor quality, and to find customers.