The term “cube farm” could take on a whole new meaning if a European trend for turning vacant office spaces into community gardens takes off. Jo at officebroker.com shares a belly warming story about how an old office building is being retrofitted for use as a vertical farming site near Manchester Airport in the UK. A 5 story tall office block is being turned into a community vegetable garden to grow food sustainably.

This move toward local food production has been stymied on the small scale by the lack of gardening space in heavily populated residential urban areas. Using commercial real estate for farming works around that problem by providing plenty of square footage (layer upon layer) to support food production for city dwellers. As the cost of transporting food from remote agricultural sites increases, this type of local gardening option will no doubt become even more popular.

This begs the question: What role could secondhand office furniture play in these office farms? Will an old filing cabinet double as a tool storage unit? Could a cubicle with glass panels serve as a greenhouse? Suggest more uses for old office furniture in the comments!