Cleveland, OH

It’s Friday night at Playhouse Square.  Passerby on Euclid Avenue gaze into the glass-enclosed studios of WVIZ Ideastream and watch as a diverse group of entrepreneurs, developers, marketers, and students pitch their startup business ideas. The pitches are short, impassioned, and direct. Participants had the chance to throw their support behind the ideas they liked the best and had the most potential. And by the end of the weekend, presenters had the chance to make their dream a reality by launching their startup business.

One such group formed around the idea of building hydroponic greenhouses to grow organic produce in urban Cleveland. With decreasing availability of farmland and a dwindling supply of cheap oil for transporting food, there is an emerging market for locally-produced food. But in Cleveland, Ohio the growing season on open farmland is only a few months out of the year. You could build a normal greenhouse, but with most of the usable farmland already purchased by farmers or developers, where would you put it?

Discussing website layout and marketing ideas

Ideally, you would want to take advantage of the dozens of vacant or run-down urban lots throughout the city of Cleveland. But in many of those locations, soil contaminants and existing structures make traditional urban gardens implausible to setup. So, should we abandon the idea of growing food locally throughout the year in greenhouses? We didn’t think so. Our team found a solution: hydroponics.

Hydroponics (from the Greek words hydro water and ponos labor) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.

Source: Wikipedia

Developing financial strategies

With hydroponics, we can construct urban greenhouses that can be built on land unsuitable for traditional urban gardens or greenhouses. By removing the need for growing soil and instead using liquids to fertilize plants, we can bring fresh, organic produce to Cleveland year-round. Unlike some local produce that contains pesticides and some organic food that’s been transported hundreds of miles to get to your dinner table, our urban hydroponic greenhouses can provide the best of both worlds: organically and locally grown.

Organizing the business plan

Our team has worked diligently over the weekend (consuming copious amounts of pizza, coffee, and energy drinks along the way) to find a business plan that can make this dream of sustainable, organic,  local food a reality. We are currently working to finesse the idea into a polished presentation to give this evening, with the goal of launching Local Food 365 tonight. Wish us luck!