Former Meatpacking Plant Transformed into Self-Sustaining Farm

In an ironic makeover, a former Chicago meatpacking plant and slaughterhouse has found a new purpose as the city's first self-sustaining, vertical farm. Located in Chi-Town's Union Stock Yards, the 93,500 square foot brick building once specialised in mass-producing red meat - one of the least environmentally-friendly industries out there. Now, it is a sci-fi-like space dedicated to non-waste-producing urban farming.

Projects inside 'The Plant' include a tilapia fish farm, beer and Kombucha tea breweries, aquaponic farms which harvest vegetables, and a mushroom garden. The Plant will also host to a group of bakers and caterers that will work together in a communal kitchen area. Upcoming projects include 'living' walls, and rooftop gardens.

All of these endeavors have taken up a zero net waste policy, made possible by an interconnecting indoor ecosystem of sorts. The used grains from the beer brewery will be used as fish-food for the tilapia; the waste produced by the fish will nourish the mushroom garden and hydroponic plants; those plants will clean the water, which may be cycled back up to the fish tanks. Initially aided by a combined heat and power system, as well as an anaerobic digester, the Plant will be entirely self-sustaining. The project hopes to be taken off the power grid in just a few years.

By the end of this year, the Plant hopes to have five rentable tenant spaces, and its renewable energy system up and running by next June. By 2016, the building is set to be fully functional, creating 125 neighbourhood jobs, and keeping over 10,000 tons of food waste out of landfills each year.

Human waste is an obvious problem, says Melanie Hoeskstra, the Plant's director of operations. The renovations made to the Plant are workable in any old building: “It’s not a perfect system, but it’s really close," she says of the Plant. Sounds like city planners should take a note or two.