ArkFab

2/21/2011

WHEAT STREET GARDENS ARKFAB PROGRAM:

BUILDING CAPACITY FOR VERTICAL FARMING IN ATLANTA

To Whom It May Concern:

The ArkFab program is seeking a grant to expand operations at the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban
Agriculture’s 4-acre Wheat Street Garden to include gourmet mushroom cultivation and aquaponic fish and
vegetable production using a unique integrated living system based on successful designs from Cascadia
Mushroom Works in Bellingham, WA and Growing Power in Milwaukee, WI.

Since their launch in 2006, our fiscal and site sponsor, Truly Living Well, has provided the local Atlanta community
with approximately 10,000 pounds of organically grown vegetables and fruit direct from our certified natural
farms annually. The Truly Living Well Wheat Street Garden is a nonprofit 501c3 capacity building project that
develops human, technological, resource, and institutional capabilities to retrofit the built environment for urban
agriculture in Atlanta. ArkFab extends this initiative to gourmet mushroom cultivation and aquaponic fish and
vegetable production; areas of agriculture that are ideally suited for vertical farming, or farming in multi-story
urban commercial space.

Our proposal requests $19,602 for capital expenditures and two months of operating costs. In addition to
constructing four 15’x’30’ greenhouses to produce fresh gourmet mushrooms, fish, and salad greens we will offer
education and research opportunities to community
members and students through our partnerships with the Mayor’s Office’s Atlanta Mentorship Program for
Sustainability, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and the Georgia Tech Center for Biologically Inspired Design.

We appreciate your time in helping us make this proposal a reality by forwarding it to interested parties, providing
feedback, or notifying us of funding avenues. Please call me at 404-247-6827 or email me at liamratt@gmail.com if
you require further information or have any questions concerning this proposal.

Thank you,

Liam Rattray
ArkFab Program Manager
http://arkfab.org
Wheat Street Gardens
350 Old Wheat Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30312

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 ArkFab ArkFab: Building Capacity for Vertical Farming in Atlanta
EXECUTIVE OUTLINE
Program The ArkFab program is seeking a grant to expand operations at the Truly Living Well Center for
Abstract Natural Urban Agriculture’s 4-acre Wheat Street Garden to include gourmet mushroom
cultivation and aquaponic fish and vegetable production using a unique integrated living system
based on successful designs from Cascadia Mushroom Works in Bellingham, WA and Growing
Power in Milwaukee, WI. Education and research opportunities will be made available to
community members and students through our partnerships with the Applied Mentorship
Program for Sustainability, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and the Georgia Tech Center for
Biologically Inspired Design. Funding in the amount of $19,602 is requested for capital
expenditures and two months of operating costs.

Program The Truly Living Well Wheat Street Garden is a nonprofit 501c3 capacity building project that
Description develops human, technological, resource, and institutional capabilities to retrofit the built
environment for urban agriculture in Atlanta. ArkFab extends their initiative to gourmet
mushroom cultivation and aquaponic fish and vegetable production; areas of agriculture that are
ideally suited for vertical farming, or farming in multi-story urban commercial space.

Our unique integrated living system

Figure 1 SPORE One, a mushroom growhouse
will produce gourmet mushrooms,
fish, and salad greens by upcycling
organic waste biomass from local
breweries, coffee shops, and municipal
arborists through a multi-stage
bioconversion process. Four 15’x30’
greenhouses will be built to produce 100
lbs of gourmet mushrooms a week, 30
heads of lettuce a week, and 480lbs of
tilapia fish a year.

Spent grains, coffee grounds, and wood chips provide us with a valuable substrate for the first
input to our bioconversion process. These inputs are then used as a growing substrate for
gourmet mushroom cultivation in SPORE One. The output of this system is mushroom compost,
which is, in turn, fed to red wiggler worms in the Wheat Street Garden’s vermicomposting
operation. Worms from this operation, duckweed, and algae grown on site are then fed to tilapia
fish in SOL One, an aquaponics greenhouse. Fish waste from this aquaponics system is converted
through a microbial biofilter to plant food for
salad greens grown in a hydroponic system.

Unlike conventional farms, food in this

system is cultivated within 10 miles of our
market, without the use of irrigation,
herbicides, pesticides, growth hormones, or
unsustainable sources of ocean-mined fish
feed. ArkFab operations will be a net
carbon sink and help Atlanta mitigate and
adapt to climate change by sequestering
Figure 2 Sol One, an aquaponics greenhouse
carbon in quality soils. for fish and vegetable production

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Goals • Sustainable Urban Food Production by using mushroom cultivation and aquaponics
techniques to produce gourmet mushrooms, fish, and salad greens.
• Urban Agriculture Capacity Building by training an assistant manager, working with the
Atlanta Mentorship Program for Sustainability and the Georgia Tech Center for Biologically
Inspired Design to develop volunteer opportunities and student projects.
• Vertical Farming and Urban Retrofitting Research by working with researchers at the
Georgia Tech Research Institute, the Georgia Tech College of Architecture, and the local green
bioconversion industry to develop new methods and technologies to retrofit the built
environment for urban agriculture for food, fuels, biomaterials and ecosystem services such
as waste water treatment.
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation by sequestering carbon in the form of quality
vermicomposted soils (soils contain approximately 75% of the carbon pool on land) and
contributing to a resilient local food system.
• Local Landfill Diversion by redirecting organic waste streams from local coffee shops,
breweries, and municipal arborists to our operation.
Objectives • Construct four 15’x30’ greenhouses at the Wheat Street Garden.
• Produce 100 lbs of gourmet mushrooms a week, 30 heads of lettuce a week, and 480lbs
of tilapia fish a year.
• Sell direct to consumer through community supported agriculture programs, farmers
markets, and restaurants.
• Provide a worksite for two undergraduate university projects through our partnership with
the Georgia Tech Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID).
• Provide workforce development training with hands-on aquaponics and mushroom
cultivation technique workshops for youth enrolled in the Applied Mentorship Program for
Sustainability (AMPS).
• Publish an annual guidebook for the construction and operation of our facilities under an
open source hardware license to empower other ecopreneurs to replicate our grow systems
and to stimulate a national network of resilient urban food systems.
• Work with the Georgia Tech Research Institute and green bioconversion industry
partners to scale the ArkFab initiative to full-scale commercial operation within two
years.
Timeline • Submit Grant Proposal, February, 2011
• Expected Grant Notification, April, 2011
• Obtain Materials and Begin Greenhouse Construction, April, 2011
• Complete Greenhouse Construction, June, 2011
• ½ total production capacity, July, 2011
• Reach total production capacity, August, 2011
• Complete hands-on workforce development training with AMPS, August, 2011
• Publish an ArkFab guidebook, September, 2011
• Begin university student projects with CBID, September, 2011
• Complete first set of student projects with CBID, December, 2011
• Complete NSF/USAID/USDA grant proposals for full scale vertical farm, January 2012
• Secure a redfield property for full scale vertical farm with GTRI and local industry partners,
January 2013

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Worksite

Figure 3 Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture’s

Wheat Street Training Farm
350 Old Wheat Street NE Atlanta, GA
Evaluation • Financial statements will be kept to provide necessary financial data for future expansion and
replication.
• Electricity, propane, and water demand will be measured and logged.
• Mass of organic waste collected and vermicompost generated will be measured to estimate
carbon sequestered.
• Performance evaluations will be conducted by Truly Living Well Director, Rashid Nuri, and
Dr. Jeannette Yen from the Center for Biologically Inspired Design.
Staff and Since their launch in 2006, Truly Living Well has provided the local Atlanta community with
Organizational approximately 10,000 pounds of organically grown vegetables and fruit direct from our certified
Information natural farms annually. Truly Living Well is the fiscal and site sponsor for ArkFab.
• Rashid Nuri, Director, Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture, Mr.
Nuri is the founder of Truly Living Well. The origins of Truly Living Well Natural Urban
Farms date back more than 40 years to Rashid’s undergraduate years at Harvard College.
He has spent his professional life studying agricultural systems throughout more than 35
countries in the world. Urban farms are an essential element of local food economies in all
the countries he has lived and he brings this background to his work.
• Liam Rattray, ArkFab Program Manager, Wheat Street Gardens, has 7 years of
experience working in sustainable food systems as a farm hand, farmer’s market
manager, policy advocate, mycologist, and gardener. Mr. Rattray is a certified ecological
designer. He began by taking part in the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms
(WWOOF) exchange when he was 16 years old. Since then he has been manager of the
East Atlanta Village Farmer’s Market, started the Georgia Tech Community Supported
Agriculture Program, held a position as Chair of the Georgia Tech Sustainable Food
Committee, and is responsible for spearheading his university’s adoption of local and
organic foods in its dining halls. Rattray is currently a steering committee member of the
Atlanta Local Food Initiative and the legislative aid for Georgia Organics. He is a member
of the Georgia Mushroom Club, has built his own mycology laboratory, and is a graduating
senior from School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
• TBA, ArkFab Assistant Manager, Wheat Street Gardens, we are seeking a qualified
applicant for this part-time position. Applicants require experience cultivating
mushrooms from wild cultivars and an interest in holistic systems thinking.

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Collaboration ArkFab is a capacity building initiative for the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban
and Agriculture. ArkFab is an education and research partner with the Applied Mentorship
Partnerships Program for Sustainability, the Georgia Tech Center for Biologically Inspired Design and the
Georgia Tech Research Institute. The land for the Wheat Street Garden site is leased from the
Wheat Street Baptist Church. The Wheat Street Training Farm would not be possible without
funding from the Blank Family Foundation, the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, the EPA,
and support from our City Councilman Kwanza Hall.

Capital Costs & Funding Requested

Wheat Street Garden ArkFab Program

“Sol One,” Aquaponics Greenhouse (1920 gallon) $4,010

“Spore One,” Mushroom Incubation Tunnel $3,000
“Spore One,” Mushroom Growhouse $3,910
“Spore One,” Spawn Laboratory $3,550
Pasteurizer (400 gallon) $570

TOTAL CAPITAL COST $15,040

20% CONTINGENCY $3,008
2 MONTHS OPERATING EXPENSES $1,554
TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTED $19,602
Sample Income Statement
Wheat Street Garden ArkFab Program
Revenue Weekly Annually
Gourmet mushroom sales revenue
$1,000 $44,000
(100lbs/week @ $10/lb)
Tilapia sales revenue
$55 $2,400
(480lbs/year @ $5/lb)
Lettuce sales revenue
$90 $3,960
(30heads/week @ $3)
Total sales revenue $1,145 $50,360
Expenses
Supplies expense $152 $6,688
Utilities expense $40 $1,760
Salary expense $585 $25,740
Total expenses $777 $34,188
Net Income $368 $16,172

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