It's called Food from the sky and it's the innovative project of the London supermarket Thorntons Budgens, which sells organic products grown on its roof
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousHave you ever heard of supermarkets who sell the food produced on their own roofs? No? Neither do we, before seeing them with our eyes a London, where in the northern part of the city, a Crouch End, far from the City we made this beautiful discovery. The food that comes from heaven, literally.
How not to satisfy the curiosity to know who was behind this brilliant but simple idea? A woman, Azul-Valerie Thome, a little visionary perhaps, but with a great hope, that of transforming the landscape of our cities and at the same time producing something good for our health, as well as for the sight. And that's how it is over the roofs of supermarkets Thorntons Budgens the first crops appeared last May.
In the middle of Crouch End, in fact, the independent shop of Thorntons Budgens. Seen from the outside it looks like a small one supermarket, apparently normal, but which hides this secret. Just go up to the roof to find out. Well 450 square meters of color in the middle of the tall buildings, a refuge where you can find colorful flowers and insects, but also boxes of vegetables, herbs, fruit and bushes, which are sold a few floors below.
The idea of the project "Food from the Sky"Was born when the woman meets Andrew Thornton, the owner of the Budgens shop:" I was looking for a sustainable food project for a new supermarket and I was wondering if using the roof was suitable ".
And apparently, it was. There were in fact ideal conditions for plants, including the heat related to supermarket heating and to the lighting systems, conveyed to the roof. Thus also limiting the risk that winter frosts could damage the crop. Even less than a km 0. That would already be a great achievement.
Furthermore, a course of permaculture, to explain how the progetto Food from the sky, and visits to local primary schools have begun.
Food from heaven, not only because it is produced above, but also because it has a social and solidarity value. The food collected and left unsold at the end of the day is distributed by volunteers to those who need it most.
A godsend, literally.
Francesca Mancuso
