Micro-farming – algae, plankton, insects

By Jakub Dzamba
University of Toronto
Nov, 2009
Email: k.dzamba@utoronto.ca

Excerpts:

The purpose of this living document is to add clarity and factual depth to a concept called micro-farming; where the remarkable ability of micro-organisms and insects to rapidly reproduce is harnessed for the production of food.

Third Millennium Farming (3MF) is about using species of micro-organisms (algae and plankton) that are much better converters of sunlight into plant biomass than even our fastest growing crops, and similarly using species of micro-livestock (insects) that are much better converters of plant biomass into edible meat than even our fastest growing livestock.

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Photo by Michael Levenston. Larger photo here.

Olympic Edibles

Maria planted this garlic last fall and it’s come up in the shape of the Olympic rings – ‘surprisingly’. Beneath the rings are some baby carrots pulled from the garden this week – they’ve overwintered. The vegetables are growing in City compost made from residents’ yard waste.

On the next page see more Olympic garden fever including:

Singer Sarah McLachlan with the Olympic Torch

France’s National TV crew at our garden.

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To be published April 2010

by Manny Howard
Scribner (April 27 2010)

“With My Empire of Dirt, Manny Howard has created a new job category, gonzo agriculturalist. The squeamish and the vegan-hearted shall enter at their own risk, for this is no gentle Farmer’s Almanac. It’s more like war reportage—on one side, angry rabbits, crazed chickens, and a patch of backyard clay so dry it makes concrete seem loamy; on the other, a Brooklyn-raised City Boy, who won’t take crop failure for an answer. Howard takes living off the land to an urban extreme that will make people think even harder about where their food comes from. Ultimately, though, as tornadoes come and fig trees nearly go, he discovers a marriage that needs tending to, proving that when it comes to love, at least, you shall definitely reap what you sow.”
—Robert Sullivan, author of Rats and Cross Country

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Published by Local Government Association (LGA)

The LGA has revised this best-selling resource for allotment officers and associations, to provide an update on the policy framework, legislation and practice affecting allotment gardening.

1 The second edition of this guide was commissioned by the LGA in September 2006, and substantially updates the original which was published in June 2001. The preparation of the guide has been managed by the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens.

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