Problem Description, Requirements, Restraints, and Research
Description
We hope our design will help alleviate hunger throughout the world. 842 million people are hungry in our world as of 2013 ("World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide."). We aim to help the hungry by providing a means of producing fresh food for those who don't have much space to cultivate a garden or constant access to water. Hunger is a worldwide problem in both rural and urban communities, and one's location shouldn't stop one from having access to fresh food.
Fresh, natural food should not be a privilege, but a given. Poor nutrition causes 3.1 million, or 45%, of deaths in children under five each year ("World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide."). However, when one is impoverished, the healthy meal is not an affordable one. Processed food is much cheaper, but it does not provide all the nutrients that people need to sustain a healthy lifestyle. A Happy Meal at McDonald’s, for example, while cheap, does not sustain a person as well as a dinner consisting of pure vegetables and protein, which are high in fiber. Although processed food is a cheap alternative to alleviating one’s hunger, it creates more expensive problems in the long run, like type two diabetes or obesity. Therefore, to help those who afford to buy fresh food, we hope to provide people with a cheaper alternative.
While volunteering during our sophomore year of high school, we visited a community garden in the Queens. The woman running the garden told us a lot about how a community garden gives poorer parents an opportunity to instill good nutrition in their children and gives the children a safe place to stay after school if their parents are not at home. Since teens who do not participate in after-school activities are three times more likely to skip class, use drugs or alcohol, or engage in sexual activity than those who do (http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/issue_briefs/issue_CrimeIB_27.pdf), the community garden not only fed a generation, but kept it out of harm’s way.
Our design will benefit the welfare of communities and solve the hunger problem in general. Our invention is also small and requires little effort to maintain, so that even a family working long hours or living in a small space can grow their own healthy, cheap food.
Requirements
The product must grow ripe plants using a minimum amount of of water, since ⅓ of the population lacks sufficient access to fresh water ("Water Statistics."). Since we want our product to be compact and easy to use, it must fit into a 3’ by 3’ space to accommodate those in small living spaces, or in urban areas and utilize only simple technology that will “span generations, providing style and utility to a range of age groups” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/technology/personaltech/28basics.html?_r=0). Our product must be cheap, strong enough to withstand the weight of the growing crops, durable enough to withstand high temperatures, and, ideally, be able to grow many kinds of plants, including those indigenous to the area where it is being used.
Restraints
Our design, since it involves the growth of plants, is really only viable during the growing season of the place where it is being kept. Likewise, our design needs the care of its owner to thrive; it must be situated near an adequate light source and given water into its tank-base.
Research
Despite the above limitations, we believe the average family and the family suffering with hunger would be interested in this design. Across the globe, increasing numbers of people are becoming more interested in using vegetables and fruits to help “to alleviate hunger and poverty” while “improv[ing] nutrition and diets, while increasing incomes and improving livelihoods” ("Five Vegetables You've Never Heard of That Are Helping to End Hunger.") This is a trend found in cities even in Africa, which “grow ... by 14 million people every year [and] ... are increasingly becoming centers for food production and innovation”("What Works: Feeding Cities."). The food produced not only feeds the individual families producing it, but is sold for a profit so the families can “earn an income” ("What Works: Feeding Cities." ). Women in a Nairobi, Kenya slum grow “gardens in abandoned plots of land” or in sacks ("What Works: Feeding Cities." ). However, we imagine that as the cities continue to grow, these lots will not be available for use as gardens anymore. We hope our design might benefit these people who are already growing food for profit and daily sustenance. Our design is much more compact and minimizes labor and might be of great use to those who seek to grow their own food, like the Nairobi women, whether they are poor or not.
We hope our design will help alleviate hunger throughout the world. 842 million people are hungry in our world as of 2013 ("World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide."). We aim to help the hungry by providing a means of producing fresh food for those who don't have much space to cultivate a garden or constant access to water. Hunger is a worldwide problem in both rural and urban communities, and one's location shouldn't stop one from having access to fresh food.
Fresh, natural food should not be a privilege, but a given. Poor nutrition causes 3.1 million, or 45%, of deaths in children under five each year ("World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide."). However, when one is impoverished, the healthy meal is not an affordable one. Processed food is much cheaper, but it does not provide all the nutrients that people need to sustain a healthy lifestyle. A Happy Meal at McDonald’s, for example, while cheap, does not sustain a person as well as a dinner consisting of pure vegetables and protein, which are high in fiber. Although processed food is a cheap alternative to alleviating one’s hunger, it creates more expensive problems in the long run, like type two diabetes or obesity. Therefore, to help those who afford to buy fresh food, we hope to provide people with a cheaper alternative.
While volunteering during our sophomore year of high school, we visited a community garden in the Queens. The woman running the garden told us a lot about how a community garden gives poorer parents an opportunity to instill good nutrition in their children and gives the children a safe place to stay after school if their parents are not at home. Since teens who do not participate in after-school activities are three times more likely to skip class, use drugs or alcohol, or engage in sexual activity than those who do (http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/issue_briefs/issue_CrimeIB_27.pdf), the community garden not only fed a generation, but kept it out of harm’s way.
Our design will benefit the welfare of communities and solve the hunger problem in general. Our invention is also small and requires little effort to maintain, so that even a family working long hours or living in a small space can grow their own healthy, cheap food.
Requirements
The product must grow ripe plants using a minimum amount of of water, since ⅓ of the population lacks sufficient access to fresh water ("Water Statistics."). Since we want our product to be compact and easy to use, it must fit into a 3’ by 3’ space to accommodate those in small living spaces, or in urban areas and utilize only simple technology that will “span generations, providing style and utility to a range of age groups” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/technology/personaltech/28basics.html?_r=0). Our product must be cheap, strong enough to withstand the weight of the growing crops, durable enough to withstand high temperatures, and, ideally, be able to grow many kinds of plants, including those indigenous to the area where it is being used.
Restraints
Our design, since it involves the growth of plants, is really only viable during the growing season of the place where it is being kept. Likewise, our design needs the care of its owner to thrive; it must be situated near an adequate light source and given water into its tank-base.
Research
Despite the above limitations, we believe the average family and the family suffering with hunger would be interested in this design. Across the globe, increasing numbers of people are becoming more interested in using vegetables and fruits to help “to alleviate hunger and poverty” while “improv[ing] nutrition and diets, while increasing incomes and improving livelihoods” ("Five Vegetables You've Never Heard of That Are Helping to End Hunger.") This is a trend found in cities even in Africa, which “grow ... by 14 million people every year [and] ... are increasingly becoming centers for food production and innovation”("What Works: Feeding Cities."). The food produced not only feeds the individual families producing it, but is sold for a profit so the families can “earn an income” ("What Works: Feeding Cities." ). Women in a Nairobi, Kenya slum grow “gardens in abandoned plots of land” or in sacks ("What Works: Feeding Cities." ). However, we imagine that as the cities continue to grow, these lots will not be available for use as gardens anymore. We hope our design might benefit these people who are already growing food for profit and daily sustenance. Our design is much more compact and minimizes labor and might be of great use to those who seek to grow their own food, like the Nairobi women, whether they are poor or not.
One of the lot gardens from "What Works: Feeding Cities." (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
"Five Vegetables You've Never Heard of That Are Helping to End Hunger." Nourishing the Planet. Worldwatch Institute, 23 May 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/five-vegetables-you’ve-never-heard-of-that-are-helping-to-end-hunger/>.
"Water Statistics." Water Statistics. Global Water Partnership, 25 May 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.gwp.org/Press-Room/Water-Statistics/>.
"What Works: Feeding Cities." Nourishing the Planet. Worldwatch Institute, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/what-works-feeding-cities/>.
"World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide." Hunger Statistics. WFP, 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. <http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats>.
"Water Statistics." Water Statistics. Global Water Partnership, 25 May 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.gwp.org/Press-Room/Water-Statistics/>.
"What Works: Feeding Cities." Nourishing the Planet. Worldwatch Institute, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/what-works-feeding-cities/>.
"World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide." Hunger Statistics. WFP, 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. <http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats>.