New York City Urban Farm on a Barge

NEW YORK--Standing behind a podium in front of a crowd of several hundred people, Ted Caplow lifted a ripe green vegetable and said, "This is a pretty cool cucumber."

The cucumber in Caplow's hand had been grown with no pesticides or net carbon emissions, and with recirculated water--in a hydroponic barge floating on the Hudson River. Caplow, executive director of the nonprofit New York Sun Works Center for Sustainable Engineering, is the designer of the Science Barge, a combination of an environmental education center and potential model for sustainable urban agriculture.

On Friday morning, a press conference kicked off the barge's opening to the public at Pier 84 off of Hudson River Park,

Powered by a combination of solar energy from photovoltaic panels, five wind turbines and a generator that runs on biodiesel and waste vegetable oil (commonly known as "french fry grease"), the Science Barge generates zero carbon dioxide emissions.

An on-board greenhouse uses hydroponic technologies to grow
vegetables using a quarter of the water that traditional agriculture
would. Inside the greenhouse, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, herbs
and lettuce