by Catherine Calvert, VIA Architecture
The American Farmland Trust blog had an interesting piece today on a new trend in airport hospitality – food service establishments that feature fresh products from the local region. San Francisco International is one of the first to include this kind of amenity, and other airports including Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall and LAX are following suit on a smaller scale.
Certainly any kind of fresh food is welcome, as airports are notoriously challenging environments for the healthful-minded traveller. It is likely that it is easier to sustain a year-round supply of fresh food in the Bay Area than it might be in regions where fresh food is more seasonal in nature.
I’ve always wondered however, at the extent of flat land occupied by airports, and if there might not be a higher and better use for the fields in between runways. If the safety issues could be resolved, could this land be made productive and/or more ecologically functional? Wouldn’t it be interesting to land in a cornfield that happens to also contain an airport? Food for thought.