In 2012, Hurricane Sandy exposed the vulnerability of the East Coast’s centralized food distribution system when the hurricane nearly missed Hunt’s Point Distribution Center, the world’s largest centralized food distribution hub that provides wholesale food to the entire eastern coastal seaboard. A storm surge from rising seas flooded major highways and blocked wholesale food distribution trucks from delivering food. This, combined with a power loss that shut down refrigerators, nearly plunged the region into a temporary food shortage. Reliance upon centralized food production and distribution systems like vast monocultures or foreign imports is becoming increasingly problematic due to threats from climate change or global pandemics like Covid-19.
In an attempt to reduce the 1,200 miles that the average food product travels before reaching a consumer’s plate, urban farmers are expanding onto rooftop farms and into repurposed freight containers to bring fresh food grown locally into the city center. Consuming food closer to the place it was produced dramatically reduces the carbon footprint from the energy used during transportation and supports local businesses.