Gene Fredericks wants to turn empty big box stores into hydroponic and aquaponic growing centers using the latest technologies.
Fredricks has launched a business called "Big Green Boxes" to make it happen.
Grist's Bonnie Azab Powell asked Fredricks how he got the idea:
"Living in the East Bay [across from San Francisco], I saw so many empty vacant warehouses and wondered what could be done with them and for the community at large, especially in light of the recent economic downturn. The idea of growing food came to me. I spent a few months investigating the technology, economic feasibility, and societal desirability of doing indoor growing. I got such an amazingly positive response on all fronts that I decided to put together the team that could pull it off."
FULL STORY: The New Agtivist: Gene Fredericks is thinking inside the city’s big box

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