Getting to the root of food shortages

By Mick Roberts

While visiting Singapore and witnessing first hand its dense population, Sydney design student Ian Edwards had an idea that could one day lead to easing poverty and malnutrition in the world’s crowded cities.
The 22-year-old student’s final year design project at the University of Technology Sydney has won him a prestigious award for work that could lessen those two problems plaguing urban populations in developing countries.
For the first time in history, urban residents have gone beyond rural residents as a percentage of the total world population. By 2030, the United Nations predicts the proportion of people living in cities globally will reach 61 per cent, with almost 80 per cent of those living in less-developed countries.
The availability of food in urban areas is less than in rural areas because country people can farm for their food, Mr Edwards told The City News.
‘They have small-scale farms just for growing their own food, but that’s difficult in urban areas because, especially in developing countries, these areas are very dense and overpopulated and space is very limited.’
While in the birth country of his mother, he noticed a number of community building projects aimed at helping residents support themselves ‘ Project Eden was borne. He looked into developing a kit to assist survival farming in cities for his final year industrial design project.
The Broadway resident came up with an effective method of growing food that can reach consumers quickly. He said one of the most efficient forms of small-scale cultivation is a type of hydroponics called aeroponics.
Taking the basic technology of commercial aeroponic units and re-engineered it to make it more affordable and suitable for the urban poor in developing countries, Mr Edwards has come up with a portable upright frame made from tubular steel, in which fits trays of plant containers, a tank to hold the water and nutrient solution.
A foot-operated pump delivers the nutrient spray to the plant roots.
‘Basically the plants grow in mist,’ he said.
Mr Edwards suggests that users would consume an average of a quarter of the crop themselves, giving them access to fresh food and also allowing them to make an income from the surplus.
‘I’ve designed this to cater for leafy vegetables that spoil quickly,’ he said.
As a result Mr Edwards won the Graduate of the Year award from the Design Institute of Australia for the project, and is now waiting to hear about how he will do in the prestigious Dyson Awards.
After graduating last year, he now is working with industrial design consultancy D3.
‘It’s just what I wanted ‘ the perfect job,’ he says.
‘I’m using a lot of what I learned at university, and I’m learning a lot at the same time.’
As for Project Eden, Mr Edwards says he has a long way to go to get it from concept to reality.
‘I think the ideas that make up the project are all sound,’ he says. ‘So even if Project Eden itself doesn’t get very far, the ideas could be developed and eventually turn into a solution that has the same goals.
‘But it’s definitely something I’d like to come back to eventually because I enjoyed doing the project, and I was really proud of the result.’