New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'

“Grow – Episode 6” – Excellent series!

‘Farmtina’ – When Martina put a few cucumbers in pots on her balcony in Brooklyn, New York, she had no idea where it would grow from there. A creative spirit helps her face the challenges of city gardening, such as space…and soil.

More Grow episodes can be found here.

YWCA Evanston/North Shore.

The YWCA said the program will help empower local women.

By Jessica Rudis
Evanston Patch
Jan 27, 2012

Excerpt:

Colorado based CoBank recently announced that it will contribute $34,000 over the next three years to help the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to support an expansion of their urban farming initiative.

The urban farm started in the spring of 2009, when the YWCA built a small raised bed vegetable and herb garden to grow fresh produce for Mary Lou’s Place, their domestic violence shelter for women and children.

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Sustainable ideas: Above, Dave Carlson in the garden of his home. Carlson runs Common Ground Community Farm in Burnaby, a community supported agriculture project. Photograph by Jason Lang.

Sustainable model of farming brings together growers and consumers

By Christina Myers
Burnaby Now
January 25, 2012

Excerpt:

Last season, he grew dozens of different crops, from herbs to squash and everything in between, and had 17 members. He also sold produce at a number of local farm markets.

This year, he’s hoping to expand his membership to 60, particularly with residents in neighbouring communities like New Westminster, for the 20-week season.

And he may bring in some new “friends” as well.

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Will garden plots adjacent to homes make up for the loss of Oahu’s prime agricultural lands?

It’s a worldwide phenomenon, and one that doesn’t bode well for Mother Earth. Has the “Market” become our lord and master?

By Jack Kelly
The Kona Story
Jan 25, 2012

Excerpt:

The Ho‘opili project on Oahu has come back before the Land Use Commission again. Developer D.H. Horton is seeking rezoning of 1,500 acres of prime agricultural land from Ag to Urban, to allow construction of an 11,750-home subdivision. D.R. Horton first brought the project to the LUC in 2009, but the request was denied because it lacked an adequate timeline for the development.

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A Food project in Chicago, IL

Our vision is to show how rooftop farming is a vital part of the urban agriculture movement to create a sustainable and equitable food system. Join us by helping us grow fruits & vegetables, organically & sustainably on the roof. The rewards for your pledges include options to visit us for a tour, cool gear, fresh produce, and even come by to volunteer on the rooftop!

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See the full page image here. (3.3MB)

Movement all over the country has had a healthy influence in cutting down excessively high price of commodities – 700 acres in St. Louis city lots turned under and cultivated in concerted drive on high cost of living (WW1)

The Agen Standard
Ogden, Utah
June 23, 1917

Excerpt:

The deduction drawn by those who are studying the effect of city gardens is that the city “farmer” can break the back of the high price of any vegetable that he is able to produce himself, if he will. It is to be expected that a failure in any line this year will result in special efforts the following season to protect this line.

The thrift garden, an accidental development of the war, seems to be a fixture in American life, judged by its brief career.

The hundreds who are thriftily producing garden truck where only weeds grew before will not only profit by the cash saving in their foodstuffs, but to a man, boy and woman, they are reaping dividends already in better health, strength and spirits.

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Christina Mwinjipe inspects her cassava crop (Mapinga Village, Tanzania, 2012).

“My annual letter this year is an argument for making the choice to keep on helping extremely poor people build self-sufficiency.” Bill Gates

For Christina and other small farmers—and for hundreds of millions of extremely poor people living in slums in big cities—getting food is the most pressing daily concern. And food is strongly connected to another constant worry: basic health. The lack of adequate nutrition is a key reason why poor children so often die of diseases like diarrhea that richer and better-fed children are able to fight off. Poor nutrition in childhood also prevents the development of both the brain and the body, severely and irreversibly limiting children’s ability to grow, learn, and become healthy, productive adults. Ultimately, there is very little in Christina’s life—or her children’s lives—that doesn’t depend on her cassava crop.

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Aquaponics is ideal for schools, community projects, household self sufficiency and if scaled up, for commercially viable mixed crop food production.

Charlie Price from the social enterprise Aquaponics UK, explores the role aquaponics can play in the future of our collective food supply. He provides an insight into both the applications for aquaponics but more specifically a new approach to urban agriculture, turning wastes into resources and transforming disused urban spaces to provide not only food, but resilient communities.

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Chickens are part of the neighborhood in a portion of Tarzana zoned for residential-agricultural use. A developer wants to build an elder-care facility in the area. Photo by Genaro Molina.

In one of the city’s few residential-agricultural zones, developers want to raze five homes to build a 37,500-square-foot elder-care facility. Neighbors are divided.

By Ann M. Simmons,
Los Angeles Times
January 23, 2012

Excerpt:

A chicken, a raven and a peacock greeted Lisa and Ron Cerda when they moved into their southeastern Tarzana neighborhood almost two decades ago. It was just the sort of bucolic reception the couple hoped for when they fled crowded West Los Angeles for one of the city’s rare residential-agricultural zones, a district that permits farming and the keeping of livestock.

Today, the Cerdas say their rustic neighborhood is threatened with extinction. Schools, synagogues and commercial businesses have crept into the district, despite dogged opposition from dozens of residents.

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From the Library and Archives Canada.

24 Aug. 1942
Québec, Quebec

The Perry Sisters, employed at the Dominion Arsenals Ltd. plant, armed with rake, watering can and pitchfork, help look after the vegetable garden where they are working.

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Helps to Feed 200,000 People Every Month

By John Cueler
growingyourgreens
Jan 6, 2012

From Irvine Wiki:

The Incredible Edible Park a 7.5 acre community garden in Irvine and is located at 15058 Harvard Ave Irvine, CA, next to the meeting of Harvard Avenue and the Walnut Trail and Metrolink. Southern California Edison has an easement on the land and after years of being empty and overgrown with weeds it was decided to transform the area into a park.

The Incredible Edible Park is one of the last vestiges of agriculture in Irvine and features beans, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, oranges, potatoes and squash just to name a few. The crops grown and maintained by the community six days a week and up to 1,2000 volunteers a year. It is subsequently donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County to help feed thousands of hungry families.

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In the field.

“Our research was conducted with 35 farming families across eight sites.”

Team: John Brett, Jessica Cook, Dr. Debbi Main, Kate Oviatt

Excerpt:

Of the 35 farm families interviewed, only one reported growing crops primarily for personal consumption. Most indicated that they may consume a little of their produce, but reported that they buy most of their food. Farm families that grow crops exclusively for personal consumption are likely to have other means of employment and, therefore, spend less time working in the field–which is probably why we didn’t run into more subsistence farmers in the field. Once crops are harvested, the majority are sold through one or more of the many distribution options available to Delhi farmers.

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See a large readable image here.(5.2MB)

And a few facts and figures to show what an average Washington family can save by doing so

The Washington Times
April 29, 1906,
Magazine Section

Excepts:

That the best things of life are to be gathered from simple sources was never more truthfully shown than In the transformation of an unsightly debris strewn back yard into a thriving profit-bearing vegetable garden. How this evolution can be brought about, what is its beginning and its probable outcome with relation to both the cost entailed and the benefits to be derived are questions which enter the mind every spring and summer when the problem of supplying the table with fresh green vegetables becomes of household importance.

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Photo by Amy Senese.

Hear Feed ‘Em Freedom Grower at 31.30 minutes in the radio show. Slide the button forward to the chosen time.

By Krista Tippett
On Being – American Public Media
January 19, 2012

We travel to Detroit to meet the civil rights legend Grace Lee Boggs. We find the 96-year-old philosopher surrounded by creative, joyful people and projects that defy more familiar images of decline. It’s a kind of parallel urban universe with much to teach all of us about meeting the changes of our time. Radio interview here.

“Detroit, because we have this position in the history of the country and the world, is creating that alternative — not in words but in action,” she says. “There’s a group on the east side called Feed ‘Em Freedom Growers; if you don’t have food you can’t be free. Detroit has over 1,000 community gardens. Urban agriculture started very simply with some African-American women seeing some vacant lots.

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Bangalore produces over 2000 to 3000 tonnes of waste everyday. The centralized government composting plant can handle only 500 tonnes per day. The rest reaches dumps that are illegal.

In just five years the Daily Dump team has helped over 4,500 customers in Bengaluru to compost household waste in terracotta pots, and these customers keep around 5,522kg of organic waste out of landfills every day. What is remarkable about Poonam Bir Kasturi’s waste management process is its simplicity, and the cleverly designed terracotta pots add a touch of earthiness to it.

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Credit: Salon, Mignon Khargie / Chee-Onn Leong via Shutterstock.

It’s easy to make fun of, but as more and more farming moves downtown, eating local is taking on a new flavor

By Will Doig
Salon
Jan 21, 2012

Excerpt:

With penny-farthings, handlebar mustaches and four-pocket vests back in fashion, the rise of urban farming should just about complete our fetish for the late 1800s. Today, you can find chicken coops on rooftops in Brooklyn, N.Y., goats in San Francisco backyards, and rows of crops sprouting across empty lots in Cleveland.

That it fits so snugly into the hipster-steampunk throwback trend is what makes urban farming ripe for ridicule. (“Portlandia” has taken a crack or two at it.) But could city-based agriculture ever make the leap from precious pastime to serious player in our cities’ food systems — not just for novelty seekers and committed locavores, but for the Safeway-shopping masses?

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Smart Gardener Fund Raising from Smart Gardener on Vimeo.

Using technology in smart ways, we make this easier, and much more personalized, based on your location, household size, tastes, and growing conditions.

Smart Gardener is built with proprietary IP and delivers consumers highly personalized tools and garden plans based on key inputs including geo-location and household size. Our service is also differentiated by a complex weather mapping algorithm, an extremely rich database of over 500 plants, as well as ecommerce to purchase the best organic seeds available online.

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By Susan LeVine and Tom Shepherd
Summerland Publishing
January 1, 2012

Many years ago, every citizen had a garden. Today, some of us are too busy or don’t know how to grow a garden. So, how do you make a garden and become a citizen farmer? This Handbook for Citizen Farmers was written by Tom Shepherd and Susan LeVine. Tom has been an organic farmer since 1973 and shares his secrets in this simple format to inspire children, families and schools to grow their own garden. Susan, a gifted artist, provides beautiful watercolor illustrations that help tell the story of growing a wonderful garden of your very own.

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A brief glimpse of urban agriculture projects in Catalonia beginning at minute 18:25 of the film and ending at 20:40. Simply drag the slider button along to the chosen start time and press the play button.

From the film: Another Life Is Possible – Homage to Catalonia II
By Joana Conill, Manuel Castells and Àlex Ruiz

Catalonia, Spain comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona.

A documentary, a research project, a story of stories about the construction of a sustainable, solidary and decentralized economy. Weaving nets that overcome the individualization and the hierarchical division of work. Thousands of people every day all over the world. Here and now.

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“People can’t be expected to live more sustainable lives if they don’t even know the most basic terms and principles that define sustainability.”

For the past three years Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton have crisscrossed the USA to learn this new language of sustainability from its foremost practitioners in food and farming. Alice Waters on edible schoolyards. Wes Jackson on reinventing wheat farming. Joel Salatin on embracing the value of saner farming practices. Vandana Shiva on the global imperative of protecting seeds. Paul Stamets on how mushrooms can save the world. Will Allen on Food Security. Temple Grandin on the humane slaughter of animals. Farmer John on the revolutionary idea of community-supported agriculture.

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