AGRICULTURE
Acceptable Strategies
“Agriculture” is broadly defined in the Living Building Challenge to include crops, apiaries, orchards, livestock, and other cultivation strategies that contribute to human health and/or food consumption.
The project team should determine specific agricultural strategies (e.g., crops, orchards, and/or husbandry) based on and appropriate to the project’s location, climate and culture.
The following is a list of some established strategies that meet the Imperative requirements. Other strategies may also comply.
- Traditional in-ground cultivation of produce.
- Raised beds, greenhouses, vertical gardens, and rooftop gardens used to grow produce.
- Livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, and bees.
- Produce grown through hydroponics or aquaponics.
- Aquaculture, if raising fish for human or livestock consumption, not just ornamental.
- Orchards or other tree-based food production, such as tapping maple trees for syrup. Existing maple trees on site may also contribute to the percentage of agricultural area.
- Ethnobotanical and medicinal gardens—for topical use as well as edible (e.g., aloe plants for use on skin).
- Agroforestry.
In all cases, the products of the agriculture must be harvested and either used for, or distributed for, human consumption.
Prohibited Strategies
The following strategies are prohibited because they do not contribute to human health and/or food consumption:
- Ornamental gardens.
- Flowers for commercial sale.
- Forestry.
- Non-food goods, even if the crop is used to produce a tangible good on site (i.e., mulberry plants to feed silkworms if the silk is harvested).
AGRICULTURAL USE PATTERNS
Project teams should plan seasonally and regionally appropriate agricultural strategies and attempt crops in multiple seasons as climate permits. Seasonal changes should be documented to convey expected use patterns. At least one season of agriculture must be planted and harvested before the virtual site visit which takes place after the 12-month performance period during the LBC certification audit.
ALLOWABLE AREA
Agriculture does not have to be implemented on the ground plane, nor does it have to be horizontal: rooftop agriculture and vertical vegetated walls or structures may also contribute. The landscape may also fulfill multiple needs. For example, fruit trees may still allow other programmatic functions under their canopies. The agricultural area does not need to be contiguous. For vertical plantings (green walls, vines, etc.), project teams may count either the vertical surface area or the horizontal ground area, but not both. See Figure 2-1 for further guidance on calculating agricultural area in these and other situations.
Project teams should measure the area allotted for each agricultural strategy to account for the strategy’s functional and spatial requirements. For example, the amount of area needed for raising livestock depends on the site’s location and how the flock/herd is managed. The ideal tree density for an orchard will vary depending on soil type and topography, tree variety, rootstocks, training systems, the presence of irrigation, and the grower’s management capabilities. For a single tree, the project team may use the estimated full-growth canopy. For an orchard, the project team may also count the spacing required between rows, so the trees don’t shade one another.
There may be additional permaculture or polyculture opportunities for growing crops or raising livestock underneath the canopy as well. If this is the case, this area may be double-counted, but not triple-counted (see figure 2-2). For example, if a chicken run is placed under the estimated full-growth canopy of an apple tree and farmed bees harvest pollen from the apple blossoms, the orchard may be counted only twice.
RESILIENCY STRATEGY
The amount of food or food storage, in the case of residential projects, required during an emergency is based on 2,100 nutritious calories per person per day (see Food and Nutrition Needs in Emergencies cited under Resources for guidelines). Projects with significant seasonal differences in occupancy must store food or have food storage to accommodate the season with the highest level of occupancy, or establish a plan for seasonal variation. See Calculations.
The food storage space should have characteristics conducive to keeping the food in edible condition until needed, without refrigeration, in local conditions. Ideally, the storage area provides a space that is dry, cool, and dark.
In locations where food can be grown year-round, project teams may count food that can be provided from the on-site agricultural area. However, the food should provide a balance of nutrients per the guidelines in the Food and Nutrition Needs in Emergencies or another comparable reference document.
Non-residential Projects
The intent of the Imperative requirement is to provide food to all those present during an emergency. Project teams are required to base the calculations for the amount of food required on 75% of full time equivalent (FTE) occupants acknowledging that 100% of building occupants may not be present 100% of the time, or at the time of an emergency. Where project uses bring regular visitors to the site, project team are not required to factor visitors into the calculation of emergency food. However, project teams are encouraged to develop a resiliency plan that factors in the potential needs of visitors.
As stated above, project teams may count food produced through on-site agriculture in season toward the quantity of food required. However, stored food must be available outside of the growing season. For stored canned/packaged food, project teams need to develop and document strategies for replacing supplies before those supplies get too old for healthy consumption. These strategies must ensure that the food does not go to waste. For example, food may be given to employees or donated to a food bank on a regular, rotating basis.
Residential Projects
All residential projects must demonstrate the capacity to store at least two weeks’ worth of food for the home’s maximum number of occupants using 2,100 calories per person per day. The storage capacity does not need to be in addition to storage for daily use. Each residential unit can have sufficient storage for its residents, or, in some circumstances, such as in managed housing for at-risk populations, it may make sense for the building owner/manager to have a centralized emergency food storage area.
Quantity of Storage
There is not a specific means for all projects to determine the area of storage needed per calorie required. Project teams should identify a specific complement of food that provides 2,100 healthy calories, measure the volume it occupies, and use that as a multiplier. Alternatively, project teams may use another method if pre-approved through a Request for Ruling.
WEEKLY FOOD ACCESS
Project teams have the option to provide less on-site agricultural area if they also directly provide weekly access to healthy local food that addresses a community need. The weekly access must occur throughout the year to the extent that locally produced and raised food is available, recognizing that in some circumstances, there may be variability according to climate and/or local practices. For example, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is an accepted strategy that may only be available for six months of the year in one region, while in another region where the climate is comparable but greenhouses are commonly used, the offerings might be available for ten months. In still other locations, healthy local food may be available year-round. Project teams may combine strategies in order to provide weekly food access throughout the year.
Some examples of ways that projects could provide weekly food access to healthy local food include:
- Providing space for and hosting a weekly farmers market.
- Being a collection point for a local farm’s weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that is accessible to building occupants and community members.
- Providing space for food truck(s) selling healthy local food on at least a weekly basis.
- Providing retail space for a store that sells healthy local food.
Raising food on-site, and providing that food to the community, is also an acceptable approach when all of the following conditions are in place:
- Project occupants are involved in the on-site agricultural production
- It can be demonstrated that sharing the food would not result in deprivation for the project occupants, and
- The food grown on-site is distributed to community members who would otherwise struggle to get fresh, healthy food, either by the project occupants, or through an ongoing relationship with another organization that is structured for such distribution.
In order to determine what kinds of food access the community needs, project teams will need to do research in the surrounding community. This research can take many forms, but must result in a clear and documented understanding of the community’s needs related to food access. For example, a project team may wish to contact local organizations or government agencies serving the community that may have an understanding of and information on the food access issues and desires within the community. Alternatively, a project team may wish to physically survey the local community to determine what stores, farmers markets, and services are in the area that provide access to healthy local food and where there are gaps. A project team could also gather similar information through interviews with local community members.
Regardless of the technique used by the project team, the goal is to identify what already exists in the community and what is needed in order to develop a solution that provides a needed service or amenity in the community. The assessment of community cultural and social equity factors and needs, required in Imperative 01, Ecology of Place (C1), could incorporate this research into the community’s food access needs, making for a more streamlined and effective process.
