From rooftop to restaurant: Mountain Partnership Secretariat's hydroponic garden supplies FAO colleagues with freshly grown produce

18/11/2024

Today, diners in FAO headquarters will be able to taste five different types of lettuce – Canasta, Romaine, Trento, Lollo and Catalogna Chicory – all of which will be prepared and served by staff at the FAO buffet restaurant, just a stone’s throw from where they were grown!

“This will be the first time that colleagues will eat food produced in FAO headquarters – and it’s all grown using only organic fertilisers”, said Giorgio Grussu, Project Coordinator of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, who coordinates the initiative spearheaded by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and Sapienza University Botanical Garden of Rome and is supported by the Italian Development Cooperation. “Every month, with each new harvest, the rooftop vegetable garden will give colleagues the opportunity to connect with their food, see where it comes from and learn about the advantages of an innovative application of hydroponic cultivation techniques”, added Giorgio.

Connecting with our food systems

Hydroponic systems create excellent growing conditions in limited spaces and with limited natural resources and can work as an integration to soil-based agriculture, especially when there's a scarcity of water and fertile soil, like in mountainous or urban areas. Where needed, hydroponics can be scaled up to improve food security, while contributing to the strategies to combat climate change and soil degradation.

FAO’s hydroponic system introduces innovative techniques, marking a step forward in traditional hydroponics – a test bed for researching resource management in soilless farming. The produce of the FAO rooftop hydroponic garden is also tested by Sapienza University of Rome to ensure there are no traces of urban pollution.

“It’s exciting to see the plant-based diet discussions evolving at FAO. Plant-based diets can be very diverse and tasty, and they are part of our heritage”, said Aleksandra Wybieralska (OCB), a member of the newly founded plant-based discussion group at FAO. “In the end this is a symbolic initiative, but at the same time it shows that these prototypes are scalable – and even a small change can create a snowball effect.”

In return for the haul of lettuces, the FAO buffet restaurant has agreed to sponsor the Rome-based Mountain Partnership Summer School, GROW - Agrobiodiversity in a changing climate, which trains 30 young professionals each year on the importance of biodiversity in agriculture under climate change.

This initiative contributes to FAO’s Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy.

Watch the video about FAO’s hydroponic garden initiative here.

Written by FAO