Introduction

Rooftops are places of fantasy and imagination - places that sit above the din and chaos
of the city, engaged with and yet apart from the city's motion. Rooftops yearn for the sky
and yet are grounded to the city through the buildings which they top. What better place
could there be for a garden? Or even better, a garden and a source of food? In this thesis,
I will explore the topic of rooftop agriculture, one that has little comprehensive literature
written about it. I will examine case studies and the potential for the expansion of roof
gardens, as well as barriers to their successful implementation.

Cities have effectively driven out agriculture from their boundaries. Food systems today
seem more and more nonsensical - the number of farmers is in constant decline, as large
agribusinesses win the majority of government subsidies and increasingly learn ways to
combine petroleum (or mechanization) and grossly underpaid migrant labor into food.
Food arrives in the city from hundreds of miles away. It is often neither fresh nor good.
Pesticides and preservatives may also diminish the health value of produce.

There is an urgent need for more sensible food systems. A countervailing movement in
organic and local produce branches from the dominant agricultural trend. This movement
is closely linked to the idea of food security, a term established at the 1996 World Food
Summit, referring to the availability of "safe, nutritious, personally acceptable and
culturally appropriate foods, produced in ways that are environmentally sound and
socially just."(1 Rabinowicz, 2002. See bibliography throughout for more detailed
citations.) The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a report in
2000 stating that a total of 31 million Americans were food-insecure

in 1999, including 12 million children. (2 Ibid.) According to Nobel Prize-winning

economist A.K. Sen, famine is not typically a product of inadequate food supplies; rather,
it is more a consequence of the avoidable economic and political factors that lead to
poverty and inequality.(3 Sen, 1981.)

One of the most vital components of this movement towards increased food security is a
system of grassroots urban agriculture, grounded in community and school gardens.
While urban agriculture cannot be relied upon alone to reduce hunger, it should be an
important component of a comprehensive system of food security. Individual urban food
production rarely confers self-sufficiency; more often it is a means to supplement one's
diet with safe and adequate food. Through urban agriculture, city residents can learn to
sustain themselves with food that they have produced with their own hands, but if urban
food production is to reduce hunger and poverty, then it must also be part of a broader
strategy.

Ultimately, urban agriculture should be coupled with other reforms aimed at reversing the
concentration of agricultural production into fewer and fewer hands. This means
supporting not only initiatives for urban agriculture, but also supporting small local farms
and working to transform an unjust agricultural system in which large agribusinesses are
subsidized at the expense of small farmers in and outside of the United States, and in
which fossil fuel use and mechanization are overused, at the expense of global
environmental and social health, in part because of perverse taxes and subsidies.
Agricultural mechanization was widely implemented throughout the world during the
"Green Revolution" of the 1960s and 70s, when the creation of improved wheat, rice, and
corn that were more responsive to controlled irrigation and petrochemical fertilizers
allowed for more efficient conversion of industrial inputs into food.(4 Collins et al.,
2000.) As a result of the new seed varieties of the Green Revolution, agriculture globally
produces tens of millions of extra tons of grain a year.(5 Ibid.)

Some celebrate the Green Revolution for having saved millions of lives from starvation
by increasing agricultural productivity, and others lament it for having reduced
agricultural sustainability and global environmental health. The issue is indeed complex:
agricultural mechanization seems an inevitable product and continuation of the Industrial
Revolution, and the reasons for its development are both good and bad. But we need to be
aware of its dominance and effects, both direct and indirect. According to World Bank
and Business Week analyses cited by Food First, global hunger has actually increased
since the Green Revolution, proving that the increased outputs made possible by
agricultural industrialization do not seem to solve problems of world hunger, as
inequality and poverty prevent an appropriate distribution of food.(6 Ibid.)Wealthier
farmers gain control of agriculture when the viability to succeed competitively depends
upon purchasing expensive inputs. Not only does this harm small-scale, local agriculture
and waste fossil fuels, it also seems to adversely affect health and food security. In North
America, the average food product in the supermarket has traveled 1400 miles before
ending up on the shelf.(7 Rabinowicz et al., 2002.)

Urban gardens can provide a forum for community connections in addition to the produce
that they can provide. Urban gardens often serve as purveyors of tradition for immigrant
communities, for instance when immigrants are eager to continue agricultural traditions
that they left behind in their native countries. Community gardens may offer immigrants
the opportunity to grow food that they are otherwise unable to access in North America.
Urban gardens can serve as urban oases -- as vital green spaces that offer city residents a
respite from the concrete along with opportunities to connect with the dynamic lifecycles
of a garden.

Rooftops are often places of privilege; top floors of buildings often turn into penthouse
apartments for the rich. The heights of buildings are frequently rarified spaces. This
distinction follows a classical notion of hierarchy, illustrated by a pyramid - the peak can
be an untouchable, extraordinary space that floats above the masses. This makes sense.
Height means distance from the masses of the city. Height for skyscrapers confers
prestige on a business that calls the building its own. Height is distinction. Height is fresh
air and escape. Rooftops can flatten the hierarchy when they are accessible to all and
particularly when they hold community gardens.
Rooftop gardens, as a specific urban agriculture niche set within a broader system of city
gardens, enjoy their own set of distinctive benefits. Rooftops are underutilized and rarely-
considered urban spaces with great potential for creative development. There are
essentially three options for rooftop gardens. The first is container gardening, a less
formal, cheaper form of roof gardening. In container gardening, few to no modifications
are made to the existing roof structure; containers - anything from plastic swimming
pools to recycled-wood planters - are placed on a rooftop and filled with soil and plants.
The second type of roof garden, in which the rooftop actually becomes the planting
medium, involves more intensive investments, but comes with its own set of advantages,
including greater storm-water retention, building insulation, and the formation of
patchwork urban "stepping stone" ecosystems, which work to reverse the fragmentation
of ecosystems that follows urbanization by offering temporary habitats to fauna such as
birds and butterflies during their long migrations. The third rooftop garden possibility is
rooftop hydroponics, in which plants are grown in a soilless medium and fed a special
nutrient solution. Rooftop hydroponics can be the lightest of the three options and may
offer the possibility for faster plant growth and increased productivity.

Conclusions and Implications

Despite having many benefits, roof gardens face clear challenges to their widespread
application, in all of their forms - container gardens, green roofs, and hydroponic
gardens. The most significant are issues of access and roof load capacity. These barriers
are especially problematic in liability-obsessed countries like the United States, although
concerns for safety and building protection are certainly valid. Lack of knowledge or
incentives, funding, water supply, safety, and the harshness of rooftop environments are
also major barriers. Still, rooftop agriculture is slowly becoming more common,
particularly in the developing world, where rooftop food production may have a
significant impact on food security and income, solutions are creative and site-specific,
and roofs are often built of different materials than those in the developed world. The
green roof industry is quickly gaining visibility and respect in North America, and a few
cities, including Portland (Oregon), Toronto, Chicago, and New York, are beginning to
create incentives for green roof construction. Still, we are a long way from the kind of
progress that has been made in Switzerland and Germany.

It is unfortunate that so many green roofs are not built for accessibility, because
inaccessibility prevents the realization of a great deal of rooftop potential. Without
accessibility, green roofs serve many impressive environmental functions, yet additional
community or food security benefits are lost. The inaccessibility of green roofs, of
course, makes sense in light of cost constraints and liability concerns. The most ideal
form of rooftop agriculture, in terms of its potential to maximize ecological, agricultural,
and community benefits all at once, is in fact green roof agriculture. With the rapid
expansion of the North American green roof industry, expansions for green roof
agriculture might also expand. Of course, green roofs are also the most expensive of the
three types of roof gardens, and, for that reason, are not a possibility for many sites. Nor
do they make sense in all situations - where people have created a rooftop garden system
that they can build out of local materials and repair and maintain themselves, as in
Senegal, India, and St. Petersburg, they use their intimate knowledge of local conditions
and available materials to design elegant, simple systems that increase their self-reliance.
But one would hope that as municipalities, states, and nations learn the advantages of
creating incentives for green roofs, even now-unlikely green roof projects will become
possible. Along this vein, affordable housing organizations are working with Earth Pledge
Foundation's Viridian Project to bring green roofs to underserved housing communities in
Chelsea, Harlem, and Brooklyn, all of which are to be completed by the summer of
2004.(92 Cheney, 2004.)

Rooftop food gardens work best atop buildings where food is consumed or
processed - at 401 Richmond, for example, on an office building which houses
a cafŽ, near restaurants in Brisbane, Australia, and atop houses or apartment
buildings in Senegal, India, Italy, Montreal, and St. Petersburg. When land at
grade-level becomes available, food is not consumed close to the roof
garden, or garden care has not been well coordinated, rooftop agriculture has
been less successful, for instance at Toronto City Hall's permaculture and
kitchen garden green roof plots, on the Field to Table/FoodShare warehouse in
Toronto, or with the brief herb plantings that Peter Carr-Locke did on MEC-
Toronto's green roof. In countries like the United States, where food costs for
many people are only a small part of income and most don't feel threatened
about their food supply or safety, few people will take the initiative to begin
rooftop agriculture projects. But those that do will create projects, whether
short or long-lived, that spread a bit of the enthusiasm for the potential that
roof gardens can have - and, just as urban community gardening has grown
tremendously within the past decade, into a real, vibrant movement -- so
might rooftop agriculture. Erica and I, regardless, will continue to look hard
for a roof on which to try out our ideas.
 Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor
Name and Employment

Year 2006

Buck,
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural Dr.
Steven and Resource Economics,
University of California,
Alwang
Berkeley

Metcalf,
“Modeling Farm-Level Costs
of the Yield Reserve Dr. Bosch
Todd
Andrew
Program.” Employed:
Legislative Aide Baltimore
and
County, Maryland Dr. Pease
Feizollahi,
Non-thesis/paper M.S.
Dr. Taylor
Ali

Maupin,
“Valuing the Environmental
Benefits from GM Products Dr. Norton
Jason Derek Using an Experimental
Procedure: Lessons From the
United States and the
Philippines.” Employed:
Ph.D. student, Department of
Agricultural and Applied
Economics, Virginia Tech

Spitzer,
Non-thesis/paper M.S.,
Employed: Ph.D. student Dr. Taylor
Ryan School of Public and
International Affairs, Virginia
Tech

Young,
“Profitability Analysis of
Forage Based Beef Systems Dr. Bosch
Darin Clifton in Appalachia.” Employed:
Carolina Farm Credit, Pilot
and
Mountain, North Carolina Dr.
Groover
Year 2005
Ames,
“Monte Carlo Experiments on
Maximum entropy Dr. Hilmer
Allison
Jennifer
Constructive Ensembles for
Time Series Analysis and
and
Inference”
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Dr.
North Carolina State
University.
Spanos
Baez,
“Potential Economic Benefits
from Plantain Integrated Pest Dr. Norton
Carolina Management Adoption: The
Case of Coastal Rural
and
Households in Ecuador.”
Employed: Instructor,
Dr.
Universidad de SanFrancisco,
Banos, Ecuador
Alwang
Edwards,
“Feed Price Risk
Management: A Case Study Dr. Pease
Josh of a Virginia Poultry
Integrator.”
Employed: Assistant Program
Director, Agrimetrics
Associates, Inc.
Midlothian, Virginia

Kleczyk,
Non-thesis/paper M.S.,
Employed: TargetRX, Dr. Bosch
Ewa Horsham, Pennsylvania

Knight,
“Export Taxes In Argentina: A
Case Study” Dr. Geyer
Russell Employed: Agricultural
Henry Economist, National
Agricultural Statistics
Service, United States
Department of Agriculture

Mauceri,
“Adoption of Integrated Pest
Management Technologies: A Dr.
Maria Case Study of Potato Farmers
in Carchi, Ecuador”
Alwang
Employed: AmeriCorps,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Ricker-
“Cost-Effectiveness
Evaluation of Integrated Pest Dr. Norton
Gilbert, Management (IPM)
Jacob Extension Methods and
Programs: The Case of
Bangladesh”
Employed: Economic
Research Service, United
States Department of
Agriculture

Tanellari,
“The Economic Impact of
Investment in the Food Dr.
Eftila Processing Industry in US
Rural Counties: The Case of
Reaves
Scott County, Virginia”
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Applied Economics,
Virginia Tech

Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor

Year 2004 and Employment

Andino,
“Price Risk Management
Strategies for Virginia Dairy Dr. Purcell
Alexandra Producers”
Elizabeth Employed: Research
Associate, Department of
Agricultural and Applied
Economics, Virginia Tech

Coppedge,
“An Economic Impact
Assessment of the Green Dr.
Emily Jean Industry of Virginia”
Employed: International
Alwang
Business Machines,
Washington, D.C.
and
Dr. Eaton
Morris,
“A Case Study Assessment of
the Feasibility of Blended Dr. Kohl
Alicia Moyer Training for Agricultural
Lenders”
Employed: Research
Associate, Department of
Agricultural and Applied
Economics, Virginia Tech
Moyo,
“The Economic Impact of
Peanut Research on the Poor: Dr. Norton
Sibusiso The Case of Resistance
Strategies to Control Peanut
Viruses in Uganda.”
Employed: Statistical
Analyst, TargetRX, Horsham,
Pennsylvania

Victoria,
“Impacts of Best
Management Practices on Dr. Kohl
Vanessa Farm Financial
Francesca Performance.”
Villanueva Employed: Senior Project
Economist, Triangle
Economic Research, Durham,
NC.

“The Effects of Conservation Dr. Geyer

Zhang, Easements on Land Values”
Xiaowei Employed: M.S. student,
Department of Accounting
and Information Systems,
Virginia Tech
Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor
Year 2003 and Employment
“Sanitary and Phytosanitary Dr. Orden
Bakshi, Measures: The Case of and
Nishita Mexican Avocados” Dr. Peterson
Employment: Independent
Consultant, San Francisco
“Effects of Spatial Dr. Bosch
Bonham, Information on Estimated
John Farm Nonpoint Source
Pollution Control Costs”
Employed: Research
Associate, Department of
Agricultural and Applied
Economics, Virginia Tech
“Rotational Grazing and Dr. Bosch
Hutchins, Greenhouse Gas Reductions:
Blair A Case Study in Financial
Henderson Returns”
 “An Ex-Ante Economic Dr. Norton
Mishra, Impact Assessment of Bt
Sanjiv Eggplant in Bangladesh, the
Philippines and India”
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Resource Economics,
Oregon State University
“Increase in Calorie Intake Dr. Norton
Mutuc, Due to Eggplant Grafting:
Maria Proof of Concept With the
Erlinda Use of Minimum Datasets”
Manalo Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Applied Economics,
Texas Tech University
“Education and Socio- Dr. Mills
Mykerezi, Economic Wellbeing in
Elton Racially Diverse Rural
Counties: The Contribution of
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Applied Economics,
Virginia Tech
“The Economic Feasibility of Dr. Taylor
Rios, Arturo, Partially Replacing Coal with
D. Poultry Litter During the
Production of Energy in
Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay
Watershed”
Employed: Economist, North
Carolina Department of
Revenue
Non-thesis/paper M.S., Dr. Geyer
Watson, Employed: Brown &
Daniel Edwards Accounting
“A Parametric Simulation Dr. Reaves
Wetzel, Model for Evaluating Cost and
George L. Effectiveness of Remote Dr. Younos
Monitoring for Risk
Reduction in Rural Water
Supply Systems and
Application to the Tazewell
County, Virginia System”
 Employed: Ph.D. student, Dr. Mills
Whitacre, Department of Agricultural
Brian and Applied Economics,
Virginia Tech
Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor
Year 2002 and Employment
“An Economic Surplus Dr. Norton
Boakye- Evaluation of Aflatoxin-
Yiadom, Reducing Research: A Case
Louis Study of Senegal's
Confectionery Groundnut
Sector”
Employed: Ph.D. Student,
University of Bath, UK
“Assessing Factors Affecting Dr. Taylor
Bonabana- Adoption of Agricultural
Wabbi, Technologies: The Case of
Jackline Integrated Pest Management
(IPM) in Kumi District,
Eastern Uganda”
Employed: Assistant Lecturer,
Department of Agricultural
Economics, Makerere
University, Kampala, Uganda
“The Influence of Dr. Stephenson
Cartwright, Conservation Programs on
Lauren Residential Water Demand:
Synthesis and Analysis for
Shared Vision Planning in the
Rappahannock River Basin”
Employed: Institute for Water
Resources, Alexandria,
Virginia
“Comparisons of the Dr. Stephenson
Crouse, Educational Outcomes from
Tricia L. Distance Delivered versus
Traditional Classroom
Instruction in Principles of
Economics”
Employed: Grant
Administrator, Office of
Sponsored Programs, Virginia
Tech
 “Deciding to Diversify: A Dr. Jones
Dickinson, Case Study of Seven Virginia
Keith Farm Businesses”
Randolph Employed: Associate
Extension Agent, Warrenton,
VA
“The Adoption of Genetically Dr. Norton
Hareau, Modified Organisms in and
Guy Gaston Uruguay’s Agriculture: An Dr. Mills
Ex-Ante Assessment of
Potential Benefits.”
Employed: Researcher at the
National Agricultural
Research Institute, Uruguay
Non-thesis/paper M.S., Dr. Orden
Johns, Employed: Internal Revenue and
Andrew Service, Washington D.C. Dr. Peterson
“The Economic Implications Dr. Jones
Lensing, of Proposed Changes in the and
Christine Retail Meat Pricing Series” Dr. Purcell
Defended: September, 2002
Employed: Research
Associate, Virginia Tech
“Transgenic Pest Resistant Dr. Norton
Mamaril, Indica Rice: An Ex-ante
Cezar Brian Economic Evaluation of an
Castillo Adoption Impact Pathway in
the Philippines and Vietnam
for Bt Rice”
Employed: Instructor,
Department of Agricultural
Economics, University of the
Philippines Los Baños
“A Case Study on the Dr. Jones
Wilkerson, Economic Feasibility of
Joseph Producing Maple Liners in a
Edward Traditional Tobacco
Greenhouse.”
Defended: April, 2002
Employed: Farmer, Alton,
Virginia
Young,
“Cooperative Infrastructures
for Small Water Systems: A Dr. Jones
Micki Case Study”
Defended: April, 2002
Employed: Krispy Kreme,
Winston-Salem, North Caro-
lina
Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor
Year 2001 and Employment
Angelis, Non-thesis Master’s degree Dr. Taylor
Lucy Defended: May, 2001
Employed: Rapid Response
Unit, Private Sector Advisory
Services, The World Bank,
Washington, D.C.
Bergtold, “Projected Economic Impacts Dr. Norton
Jason of the New Partnership
Agreement Between the EU
and ALP States on the
Senegalese Groundnut
Sector”
Defended: August, 2001
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Applied Economics,
Virginia Tech
Ghosh, “The Role of Virginia Tech in Dr. Mills
Joydeep Human Capital Formation”
Defended: July, 2001
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
Economics, Washington State
University
 “Strategic Alliances in Beef: Dr. Purcell
Hudson, Concepts and Design”
Taylor Defended: January, 2001
Employed: Market Analyst,
M&M/Mars, Hackettstown,
NJ
“Tools and Techniques for Dr. Kenyon
Jenkins, Managing Risk for Virginia
Brian Grain and Oilseed Producers”
Defended: July, 2001
Employed: Commodity
Analyst, Bellingham
Commodities, Reston, VA
“Developing Sustainable Dr. Coale
Sink, Scott Agricultural Enterprises for
Rural Communities: The Case
of Packaged Agri-Tourism in
Southside Virginia”
Employed: Entrepreneur and
Part Time Instructor, Depart-
ment of Agricultural and Ap-
plied Economics, Virginia
Tech
“Agricultural research in Dr. Taylor
Soufi, Senegal: Economic surplus
Widad evaluation of the adoption of
peanut farmers”
Defended: June, 2001
Employed: Ph.D. student,
Department of Agricultural
and Applied Economics,
University of Wisconsin
“Effects of Access to Credit, Dr. Alwang
Spear, Ken Women’s Empowerment and
other Factors on child
Nutrition in Malawi”
Defended: August, 2001
Employed: Peace Corps,
Togo
“The Exchange Rate and Dr. Orden
Xu, Miao U.S./Canadian Relative
Agricultural Prices”
Defended: August, 2001
Employed: Research
Assistant, Virginia Tech
 Thesis/Major Paper Title Advisor
Year 2000 and Employment
Beddow, “Protocols for the Assessment Dr. Norton
Jason of Economic and
Environmental Effects of
Integral Management
Programs”
Defended: May, 2000
Employed: Ph.D. Student,
Department of Applied
Economics, University of
Minnesota
Kee, Gary “Hog Profit Margin Hedging: Dr. Kenyon
A Long-term Out-of-Sample
Evaluation”
Defended: April, 2000
Employed: Associate Risk
Manager, Kraft Foods,
Glenview, IL
Shangguan, “Understanding Food Stamp Dr. Alwang
Zhaoyun Program Participation Among
Female-Headed Households:
Has it Been Affected by
Participation in the
AFDC/TANF Program?”
Defended: July, 2000
Employed: Graduate Student,
Accounting Department,
University of Connecticut
Speir, “Two Cost Analyses in
Cameron Resource Economics: The
Public Service Costs of
Alternative Settlement
Patterns and Effluent
Allowance Trading in Long
Island Sound”
Defended: January, 2000
Employed: Analyst, Oregon
Public Utilities Commission,
Salem, OR

Title: Using Information Communication Technology to

Promote Agriculture for Youth Empowerment
This study explored the idea of using information communication technology to get more
youth involved in the Jamaican agricultural sector. The primary focus of the study was to
investigate why many youth in Jamaica do not choose agriculture as a career. The
objectives of the study were to determine the perception of youth in Jamaica towards
local agriculture; determine the factors that influence Jamaican youth’s attitude towards
careers in agriculture, and to explore whether or not information communication
technology could be used to influence youth to choose careers in agriculture. This study
also examined the advancements that have been made in information communication
technology, as well as agricultural technology both globally and locally. The researcher’s
intention was to examine how these advancements could be applied in encouraging youth
to work in the agriculture industry, and consequently contribute to improving Jamaica’s
overall economy. The research involved reviewing existing literature on current
information communication technologies (as well as modern biotechnology) being used
to advance the agriculture industry. The study comprised male and female Jamaican
youth between 15 - 24 years.

A total of 50 respondents participated in the survey. The respondents were selected using
purposive sampling from academic institutions across Jamaica, which included the largest
and oldest University in Jamaica; Jamaica’s only agricultural college, and high schools
throughout the country. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through
face-to-face questionnaire surveys and analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques,
such as percentage tables and graphs.

The study revealed that some youth in Jamaica have a negative view of local agriculture,
and as a result are not encouraged to pursue careers in agriculture. The negative view of
Jamaican agriculture held by these youth, has primarily arisen from a lack of access to
adequate information on the vast opportunities that exist within the local agricultural
industry. The study further revealed that the current strategies being used to promote
agriculture among youth in Jamaica are inadequate. At least two main conclusions may
be drawn from this study. Firstly, the majority of youth surveyed have a poor perception
of agriculture in Jamaica, as they believe that pursuing agriculture in Jamaica would
cause them to have a low social status and a low income. Secondly, youth in Jamaica
could be influenced to choose careers in agriculture. Youth could be influenced by ICT if
it allowed them to be exposed to the many opportunities that exist within the Jamaican
agriculture industry.

To get a copy of the full version of this Thesis, please contact me at: keron.morris@gmail.com