Heath Café customers can pick their own greens from healthy Edible Wall
Runcorn: November 23rd, 2021: The Heath Business and Technical Park has partnered with Merseyside social enterprise Farm Urban’s Greens for Good campaign to bring healthy, locally grown greens to people in the Liverpool City Region.
Farm Urban has created an ‘Edible Wall’ for the Heath Café where customers can pick their own leafy greens that have been grown using pioneering hydroponic vertical farming technology. Farm Urban Co-founder Dr Paul Myers says: “People can pick and enjoy greens from the wall whenever they like, giving people access to some of the freshest, healthiest, most sustainably grown food on the planet.”
The Heath’s Catering Manager Anthony Stonebanks says: “Our customers have been intrigued by how this Edible Wall works and what the produce tastes like. This week we have honey roast ham on the menu using salad from the Edible Wall as a side dish. Customers are invited to pick produce from the wall and have been taking this home or using it to accompany the lunches we serve to them in the café.”
Vertical farming is a central feature of ‘Heath Park’, the Liverpool City Region ‘Beacon Project’, which is the vision of SOG Group, owner of The Heath, to transform its Runcorn site into a 21st century version of Port Sunlight. SOG has produced an innovative scheme to regenerate the location into a Net Zero Carbon community ahead of Government emission targets. Through repurposing existing buildings alongside new developments to create a Net Zero environment powered by renewable energy, SOG will develop a unique community which meets the challenges of both Climate Change and the Government’s commitment to levelling up.
Part of SOG’s research included a world-first pilot study into Vertical Farming by Farm Urban and University of Liverpool which demonstrated that vertical farms powered by hydrogen can be a game-changer in the battle to halt climate change.
Dr Myers says: “The new model of Vertical Farming we have trialled at The Heath indicates Net Zero food production is possible. This fully integrated model of Vertical Farming can become a sequestrator of CO2. In simple terms, a 5000 Square Metres Vertical Farm utilising this new technology and run for just ten years is the equivalent of planting 2.1 million trees. Just ten farms converted across the UK in this way would be equivalent to planting 21 mature million trees.”
Dr Myers adds: “The Heath will be working with Farm Urban over the next 12 months with the aim of creating a healthier and happier working environment. The Edible Wall is a small hydroponic vertical farm.
Hydroponics is a way of growing plants in water instead of soil, which means we can grow food in any environment. Food grows upwards in space-saving vertical towers.”
He says that traditional farming has a huge impact on the environment and that Vertical Farming has key benefits that tackle some of these problems. Vertical farming:
- Is 100% pesticide free
- Uses 90% less water than if grown in a field
- Leaves zero waste
- Produces nutrient rich food
- Provides an easy way to harvest fresh living produces
“Growing vertically, we don’t need a large amount of floor space, which means even in the heart of the city, we can all have access to living, tasty greens,” adds Dr Myers.
For details on ‘Heath Park’ visit: www.heathpark-uk.com
For further details on Farm Urban’s ‘Greens for Good’ campaign visit: https://www.greensforgood.co.uk
For more on Farm Urban go to: https://farmurban.co.uk/
For information on SOG and The Heath Business and Technical Park visit: www.theheath.com
Issued on behalf of SOG Group
Media contact: Paul Smith Associates (PSA) +44 (0) 7771 623 007
E-mail: paul@paulsmithassociates.co.uk
Note to Editors:
Photos:
- Jens Thomas, Co-Founder of Farm Urban with Lesley Banks, SOG’s Sales and Marketing Manager
- Artist impression of the Vertical Farm proposed for Heath Park project
- Dr Paul Myers, Co-Founder of Farm Urban and Heath Park’s Vertical Farming Consultant
