There’s a new side to locally grown food for city folk. We’re not talking about 100-mile diets and farmers’ markets selling produce from upstate New York. We’re talking about eating food grown within your borough, city block, or building.

Sound far-fetched? Talk to Wally Satzewich, co-founder of urban food growing network Spinfarming (spinfarming.com). He grows food in 25 small city sites and sells produce profitably at The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market in Canada.

GreenThumbNYC (greenthumbnyc.org) is part of an urban grassroots movement; there are already hundreds of productive vegetable gardens in the city.

Dr. Dickson Despommier, professor at Columbia University, takes urban farming to a whole new level with a vision of erecting large scale vertical farms that can grow enough produce to fully feed the entire city (verticalfarm.com).

With a growing worldwide population, shrinking farm land and the majority of people living in urban areas, creating a network of urban farms which feed each city is a smart move security-wise.

City planners take additional parking and transportation needs into account when looking at future building. What if in the future they added urban food needs into the equation so new developments had urban farming elements?

Brooklyn was once one of the largest agricultural areas in the country. With urban farming, Brooklyn and Manhattan could be agricultural centers.

Idaho had the potato. Brooklyn basil or Manhattan mesclun anyone? Come on, New York. The sky’s the limit.