In the countdown to our Two Feet Showcase, we are profiling some of the teams we’ve been working with over the last six months. First up is Farmwall – they are transforming our cities into food-growing ecosystems.
We sat down with Farmwall’s co-founder and chief communications officer Serena Lee about her experience.
What problem is Farmwall tackling?
Producing food for our cities causes a number of different problems, from climate change, to pollution, to deforestation. The inefficiencies in the way we produce food creates food waste and further waste from the plastic packaging it is stored in.
Within the hospitality industry, there aren’t a lot of options for herbs and microgreens, meaning there is a real lack in consistency and variety, and by the end of the week the microgreens served in our restaurants aren’t as fresh as they could be, and a lot of produce goes to waste due to improper storage.
What is your solution?
Farmwall is an urban agriculture company that aims to transform our cities into food producing ecosystems.
We have designed indoor, vertical farms for restaurants and cafes. Farmwalls produce microgreens that are picked on site, meaning our restaurant partners have the freshest produce possible. It only takes two minutes to go from farm to plate, drastically reducing waste, packaging and food miles.
We are also building an urban aquaponic farm that supplies naturally-grown, spray-free, fresh and delicious greens to the restaurant/cafe door while providing us with a base for delivering our social, educational and environmental programs.
Is there a highlight of Two Feet you’d like to share?
Hmm… this is such a tricky one to answer! We’ve been so lucky to have benefitted from the resources, expertise and connections that TDi has been able to give us along the way, it’s hard to pick a particular highlight.
That said, I think for myself and Geert (another co-founder) we really found the session on intent with Bessi (Graham) so inspiring. Working on that helped us frame our story as a team, and was a grounding point that we could continually go back to.
“We’ve been so lucky to have benefitted from the resources, expertise and connections that TDi has been able to give us along the way…”
What’s the big vision for Farmwall?
First and foremost we want to really establish ourselves in the market here in Melbourne first, but then we would love to take Farmwall to international markets. We’re also thinking how to expand beyond the hospitality sector, maybe into residential or aged care facilities.
We could even see us expanding the technology to have an even greater impact in communities that suffer from food insecurity. We’re just really excited by all the different possibilities!
Food is a real connector that binds us, and the Farmwall model is just the first step in our bigger vision for what this could be.
If you’d like to meet the Farmwall team in person, be sure to sign up to our public showcase.