The Lyonnaise urban farm: soil-less culture is coming to our cities

Context

The current trend is a significant increase in urban populations and therefore an increase in demand for food in the city. It was from these issues that the FUL project, Ferme Urbaine de Lyon, was developed as a response to overcrowding, to feed more and more people in a context where it is always more difficult to maintain agricultural spaces in the city.

Project

Today the project is as follows: Develop “indoor” plant production units for manufacturers, whether they are in the food, agrifood or any organic industry in general . The start-up FUL offers an abundant plant production solution without any pesticide and that is constantly adapted  to the needs of the beneficiary.

Production is automated, growing conditions can be managed remotely and the indoor system is unaffected by climatic variations. Resources are also used in less quantity, but productivity increases.

The Ferme Urbaine Lyonnaise pilot site was inaugurated in October 2016 on the Doua campus in the premises of INSA, Lyon.

Today the plants are on different levels (up to 15 superimposed levels) supporting hydroponic tanks where the nutrient solution is liquid mixed with trace elements and mineral salts. It circulates and then returns to the starting point in order to be cleaned, in other words, rebalanced before being returned to the circuit again.

The concept takes as a starting point the resources that one finds within the urban space itself and aims at putting them at the service of a quality vegetable production.

Project leaders

Twenty years ago Philippe Audubert (today director general in charge of development and communication) created an urban planning agency with Didier Gaydou: it was in this context that the idea of ​​an urban farm was born. This quickly took on another dimension with the meeting of Christophe La Chambre (today in charge of finance and marketing), who at the time was doing research on the weak signals that will become the strong signals of tomorrow, in particular urban agriculture. In September 2013, the team was formed and created Ferme Urbaine Lyonnaise in the months that followed. Since then, two new people have joined the project: the current technical and innovation director, Patrick Simmonin as well as an agricultural engineer, Paul Agnus.

The Little Extra

FUL does not stop at the simple production of plants intended for food but opens its doors to all bio-based industries thus encouraging a wider field of very diverse actors to turn to plants or at least to facilitate production.

Written by Timothée Blourdier, volonteer LFC - November 2018. 

Last modification : 30 Mar 2020.