Through Urban Agriculture, we approach the diverse goals of urban sustainability, including food security, food equity, efficient food supply chains, natural resources management, mitigation of urban heat island effects. In economically developed countries, urban planning practices treated agriculture as a temporary activity for vacant lots before conversion to more profitable residential, commercial, and industrial land uses. Urban Vertical Agriculture, in our vision, is a long-term solution for increasing food quality and reduce comsumption of natural resources through intensive production of fresh and perishable vegetables that have high long distance transportation costs from rural farms, organic cultivation, diversifying crop selection, and incorporating non-cropping services such as tourism, environmental education, green job training, nature therapy, and creation of lively neighborhood.

Limited space and competitive real-estate markets are impediments for in-ground urban agriculture, while farms retrofitted to roofs occupy otherwise underutilized space in the built city environment. Converting even a small portion of this space to agriculture presents important opportunities for advancing urban agriculture.