Farming Hi-Rise Rooftops

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Story Published: Oct 20, 2008 at 11:03 PM MDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 5:14 AM MDT

By Todd Kunz

TOKYO, JAPAN - Making rooftops green is nothing new.urban centers around the world are trying to green their buildings. What is new is going one step further and actually farming on rooftops.

When it comes to farming in Tokyo's concrete jungle, the sky's the limit amid the hustle and bustle from the humans below. What are bees doing on the rooftops? Making honey, and it is very good.

A high rise rooftop isn't the place you'd imagine tens of thousands of bees would call home. A few years ago, neither could anyone else. When two mavericks started their rooftop hives, Atsuo Tanaka kept hearing his neighbors say...

"Please stop Mr. Tanaka."

But then came the honey. So much gooey goodness they distribute it to all their nearby businesses who now say their environmental project is sweet.

"If bees fly around, flowers bloom," says Kazuo Takayasu. "We're inviting new environments to thrive."

News of their success spread to another rooftop. This one, is sake company Hakutsuru Sake, growing it's rice. A lush, though small, rooftop of blooming plants.

"Rice. rice, rice!"

In just months, this field will become what's in this bottle. You wouldn't think rooftop rice could produce anything high quality, but the sake company says it produced remarkably good sake.

It has been so successful, that Hakutsuru Sake is now growing vegetables on its roof so employees can truly eat local.

"Rooftops can transform into usable greenery," says Asami Oda.

A half dozen rooftops in Tokyo's Ginza District are topped with rooftop farms and more are planned. These urban farmers say this is a small step toward solving a number of global
crises like global warming and the rising cost of energy and food, only made worse when importing and exporting food nation to nation.

"We think this is a new way to look at major world cities," says the Ginza beekeepers.

They hope to spread their urban farming idea beyond these rooftops to other
cities and try to bring man-made structures back into balance with nature.

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