Dig For Victory

Ministry of Agriculture
Britain 1941

“During the Second World War, getting the most from your little plot of land was crucial. This film, produced by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1941, explains how to prepare an area of ground for growing your veg, and shows why not having space is simply no excuse.”

Students of MET Rishikul Vidalaya gardening in their school.

Fed up with food grown with chemical fertilisers, ecologically concerned Mumbaiites are taking to terrace farming and more

Humaira Ansari reports
DNA Daily News
Mumbai, India
March 20, 2010

Food inflation, hoarding of grains, Bt brinjal… Food has dominated national headlines for quite some time now. But while most choose to whine, a few are making a choice about what lands on their plate. Some are opting for organic food, others growing their own vegetables and herbs.

Preeti Patil, 42, donned the farmer’s hat when she transformed the 3,000sqft terrace of the Mumbai Port Trust’s central kitchen into a mini-farm. The intention was to recycle the garbage generated at the canteen daily. Today, the terrace garden grows over 100 varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Sugarcane, tamarind, guava, mint, banana, corn, cashew nut, orange and mustard harmoniously coexist here. Butterflies and moths only enrich the biodiversity.

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City’s feature garden wins three awards at Canada Blooms

City of Toronto
March 19, 2010

The City of Toronto’s feature garden – “Get Growing Toronto! Urban Agriculture in our City” – won three awards at a special Canada Blooms ceremony last night. The City’s garden, which aims to show people how easy it is to grow vegetables, herbs and fruits in any space, received the following awards:

• Outstanding use of annuals and perennials
• Universal access award (recognizing the most accessible feature garden)
• Best overall use of plant material

Gardens were judged by a panel of experts in the fields of horticulture and landscape architecture, as well as members of related media.

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Photo by Warga, Craig NY Daily News. Urban Planner Tom Angotti of Windsor Terrace in his empty plot of land next to his house in Brooklyn. Angotti is planning on making the abandoned lot into an urban farm with the help of neighborhood volunteers.

Brooklyn farm

BY Katie Nelson
New York Daily
Saturday, March 20th 2010

An empty lot tucked between an apartment building and a pedestrian bridge in Brooklyn could be a new launching pad in the “eat local” movement.

Fourteen years after he bought the 5,000-square-foot parcel, college professor Tom Angotti is hoping to turn it into a community farm.

It’s too much work for him and wife, Emma, so they’re asking their neighbors for help – and promising to cut them in on the veggies they hope will grow.

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Richard Pederson from the Southside Community Land Trust

By YERTpod5 Team
Aug 15, 2007

Meet Richard Pederson, the City Farmer of Providence, and learn about how the Southside Community Land Trust created an oasis of beautiful nutrition in an inner-city neighborhood. The land on this little plot is filled with wisdom, but the gardeners have painted some timeless advice on signs throughout the garden so that the newcomers can learn more quickly.

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Photo by Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian. Larry Thompson is longtime owner of Thompson Farms, one of the few working farms inside an Oregon city. He raises scores of fruits and vegetables and is active regionally and nationally in farm-sustainability initiatives

Urban development and farming

By Dana Tims
The Oregonian
March 20, 2010

Excerpt:

His vision holds the power to radically alter the way the Portland region and others like it are configured. Food-producing farms, far from being excluded from urbanized areas, would be integral to them.

“A long time ago, communities were built around farms,” Thompson said. “It’s an idea we need to revisit.”

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