CLIENT: BLUMA FARMS
It was an iconic day in Berkeley, but any day would be if you were standing amidst the rooftops and simultaneously in a field of flowers.
On behalf of our client CCOF, we explored this city/country mashup in the context of a campaign about hydroponics (a divisive one in the organic world). Our goal was to re- assess the way we see and discuss this topic. Our method was one part journalism, one part photo ethnography, and two parts research and interviews. Here is a sample of our final product.
PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY
PUBLIC RELATIONS
CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT
Looking up from the sidewalk, you can’t miss which building has the urban farm on top. The rosemary cascades over the roof’s edges, the buckwheat blooms with bushy abandon, and the hedgerows are an unmistakably verdant green beacon against the blue Berkeley skies.
“There’s a lot of life up here,” observes Joanna Letz, founder of Bluma Farms, as she looks out onto the sparkling San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate Bridge from her rooftop perch. Her farm is a remarkably verdant quarter acre in downtown Berkeley and she’s right about the amount of life: her mid-city high-rise rooftop farm is attracting beneficial bees and hummingbirds with its hedgerows, ever-changing array of organic cut flowers, and culinary herbs which wind up on the tables at local farms and restaurants.
“There’s a lot of life up here.”
— Joanna Letz, Bluma Farms.
Sitting at multiple heights, her farm is perched atop the sixth and seventh floor rooftops of this mixed use residential building, providing visual eye candy whether you’re looking up from the street, standing in the middle of a patch of vibrant zinnias and night-fragrant nicotiana, or flying above for that bird’s eye view with a drone.
Letz has been in agriculture for 15 years, first apprenticing with the late and truly great “Amigo” Bob Cantisano, an organic pioneer. After growing for four years on acreage in Sunol, Letz began hearing the call to commute less and provide her labor of love closer to her hometown, Berkeley. She also keeps organic principles close to her heart: “I learned how to farm with organic practices as the foundation, so it’s always been a core part of my farming career and a core value. As far as [organic for] marketing — truth is people don’t care as much when it comes to flowers. I personally think it’s important so I’ve been committed to farming organically and being certified.”
As the largest rooftop farm on the West Coast, Letz’s ambitions match her deeper purpose around connecting people with organic products. And since the U.S. imports 80% of its cut flowers, she rally-cries “buy local flowers!” and asks us all to rethink what we could do with the many rooftops which remain empty.
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