"Food's Future: World's Largest Urban Farm"

Question

by Jon Henley

On top of a striking new exhibition hall in the southern 15th arrondissement of Paris, the world’s largest urban rooftop farm has started to bear fruit. Strawberries, to be precise: small, intensely flavoured and resplendently red.

They sprout abundantly from cream-coloured plastic columns. Pluck one out to peer inside and you see the columns are completely hollow, the roots of dozens of strawberry plants dangling into thin air.

From identical vertical columns nearby burst row upon row of lettuces; near those are aromatic basil, sage and peppermint. Opposite, in narrow, horizontal trays packed not with soil but coco coir (coconut fibre), grow heirloom and cherry tomatoes, shiny aubergines and brightly coloured chards.

“It is,” says Pascal Hardy, surveying his domain, “a clean, productive and sustainable model of agriculture that can in time make a real contribution to the resilience – social, economic and also environmental – of the kind of big cities where most of humanity now lives. And look: it really works.”

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Question
Use the passage to answer the question.

In 3-5 sentences, evaluate how the author’s choice to include the quotation in the last paragraph helps to achieve the author’s purpose in writing the text.

Answer 1

The author's inclusion of Pascal Hardy's quotation serves to reinforce the article's theme of innovative urban agriculture and its potential benefits. By presenting Hardy's perspective, the author emphasizes the practicality and effectiveness of the rooftop farm as a model for sustainable agriculture. This not only highlights the farm's contributions to urban resilience but also provides a credible voice to the argument, making it more compelling for the reader. Furthermore, Hardy's assertion that the farm "really works" adds a sense of optimism and faith in the future of urban farming, aligning with the author's purpose of advocating for such initiatives in densely populated cities.