Posts from — March 2010

Goats from City Grazing trimmed the hillside behind Alemany Farm. Photo by Brian L. Frank

Fewer Farms to Feed ‘Local’ Appetite

By Justin Sheck
Wall Street Journal
San Francisco Bay Area
March 11, 2010

Pocket-size farms have sprung up in cities around the Bay Area in recent years, part of a movement to bring consumers closer to the sources of food they buy.

But even as these small farms show up in urban neighborhoods, bringing with them a sense of a local agricultural revival, the continuing decline in the availability of farmland in the Bay Area’s traditional growing areas threatens to leave consumers further away than ever from where their food is cultivated.

In recent years, the region has lost large tracts of farmland to housing and commercial development.

[Read more →]

Film by Dr. Shadi Hamadeh

American University of Beirut
In Arabic with English subtitles
2004
(Very interesting! Mike)

Animal husbandry remains the livelihoods of many communities, even in urban areas. This documentary film is a live witness of Arab Khaldeh families raising sheep in the suburbs of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, an integration of rural communities in urban areas.

Watch the film here.

Visit the Regional Website of Urban Agriculture in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region here.

Roberta’s already grows about 20 percent of its needs, in a good week, in a small roof garden in back of the restaurant and in a backyard garden several blocks away.

Michelle Knapik
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
March 10, 2010

Excerpt:

Once inside the unassuming entrance of Roberta’s, if you can cast your gaze past the wood fired stove and pizza gurus, let your olfactory senses take in something beyond the sweet aroma of ricotta pancakes sopping up maple syrup, and put down your mason jar of local beer, you will see, hear and experience the backyard urban oasis – a farming oasis that is. But don’t look out, look up. There is where you will find the first of the rooftop greenhouses.

The hoop greenhouse is built on top of a shipping container that is fitted out as a radio station. The semi vacant lot next door is also being transformed into greenhouse space that will tie into a fledgling compost operation. Look closely as the construction of this greenhouse and you will find yourself peering into salvaged factory windows.

[Read more →]

13 – 2 X100 ft rows of growing power.

By jnicholl
Center for a Livable Future
March 8, 2010

Excerpt:

This past weekend, I witnessed hundreds of volunteers working in a very tangible way to take back the food system for a community. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” This was a stride. Two high schools in Richmond, Calif in the span of one weekend built urban school farms at their respective school sites. Supported by Urban Tilth http://www.urbantilth.org, those students, teachers, parents and community volunteers laid the infrastructure and built the capacity to grow significant amounts of local produce in Richmond.

[Read more →]

4 million cracker packages with seeds inside and a pledge to build 50 community-based home farms

Home Farming is about growing your own herbs and vegetables, no matter where you live. To help people on their path to Home Farming, four million packages of Original and Reduced-Fat Triscuit crackers will include cards with basil or dill herb seeds that can be planted directly into the ground.

A recent Triscuit survey found nearly two-thirds of Americans are interested in growing food in a backyard garden. And three out of four of those surveyed prefer to eat foods with a few, simple ingredients, reflecting a popular desire to get back to the simple joys in life. (The Triscuit Home Farming Study, fielded by StrategyOne, is a national telephone survey among a representative sample of 1,018 U.S. adults conducted January 14, 2009 and January 17, 2009.)

[Read more →]

A burned out house is demolished in Detroit on Feb. 12. After decades of decline that has gutted many once-vibrant neighborhoods, Detroit is preparing a radical renewal effort on a scale never attempted in this country: returning a large swath of the city to fields or farmland, much like it was in the middle of the 19th century. Photo by Carlos Osorio/AP

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

Associated Press
March. 8, 2010

DETROIT – Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

[Read more →]

Michael Levenston, executive director of City Farmer, is happy that Vancouver city council has passed a motion that as of April 22 will allow residents to dump fruit and vegetables into their yard waste bins for composting. Levenston is pictured at the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden on Thursday. Photo by Jenelle Schneider, Province.

Fruits, Vegetables: Just Phase 1 of project

By Frank Luba
The Province
5 Mar 2010

Vancouver has made it easier for residents to be nice to the Earth on April 22 — which just happens to be Earth Day.

Starting then, people that live in single-family residences can start pitching their fruit and vegetable waste into their yard waste bins so it can be composted.

[Read more →]

Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Studios

Deborah Netburn
LA Times
December 31, 2009

Ever since “It’s Complicated” was released in theaters last week the online garden community has been buzzing about Jane’s (Meryl Streep) vegetable garden, above. Its lushness, colorfulness, perkiness … well, it’s almost pornographic. One doesn’t know whether to envy it, or to be concerned about anyone that eats from it.

“The idea was it was meant to look like a real cook’s garden,” said Jon Hutman, the film’s production designer, speaking on the phone from a hotel room in Italy. “We try to make the movies look real, but a very delicious version of real.”

[Read more →]

This ad was aired on controversial TV program, the Glen Beck show.

Survival Seed Bank

Excerpt from Survival Seed Bank website.

You don’t have to be an Old Testament prophet to see what’s going on all around us. A belligerent lower class demanding handouts. A rapidly diminishing middle class crippled by police state bureaucracy. An aloof, ruling elite that has introduced us to an emerging totalitarianism which seeks control over every aspect of our lives.

As the meltdown progresses, one of the first things to be affected will be our nation’s food supply. Expect soaring prices along with moderate to severe shortages by spring. If you don’t have the ability to grow your own food next year, your life may be in danger. Supply lines for food distribution in this country are about three days, meaning a dependence on “just in time” distribution systems, which will leave store shelves empty in the event of even the smallest crisis.

[Read more →]

Urban Agriculture issue of Zoning Practice

by Nina Mukherji and Alfonso Morales
Zoning Practice – American Planning Association
March 2010
Nina Mukherji received her master’s degree in conservation biology and sustainable development from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Alfonso Morales is assistant professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

As sustainability moves up the municipal agenda, cities have begun to take an interest in urban agriculture as a way to promote health, to support economic and community development, and to improve the urban environment. This article places urban agriculture in a historical context, examines regulatory approaches, and makes recommendations for planning and zoning practice.

[Read more →]

On a visit to King’s Cross, in London, John Denham and Hilary Benn saw the way in which local charity Global Generation is using a temporary lease to create portable allotments in a series of construction skips, located on one of the capital’s largest regeneration schemes

Grow your own revolution gets major land boost

Communities and Local Government
Great Britain
3 March, 2010

Plans to bring under-used and uncared for land back into use so that local communities and keen would-be fruit and vegetable growers have somewhere to get digging, were announced today by Communities Secretary John Denham and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.

There is a huge interest in ‘growing your own’ with people wanting to get more in touch with where their food comes from, as well as staying active and spending more time outdoors.

About 300,000 gardeners in England already have allotments but demand still outstrips supply and the Government is therefore announcing new ways of meeting people’s desire to dig in.

[Read more →]

GH_Peek in Progress from The Greenhorns on Vimeo.
13 minute trailer.

The Greenhorns

With help from Patrick Kiley.

“The Greenhorns” is a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community — its spirit, practices, and needs. It is the filmmakers’s hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture — to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming.

The film will be completed by June, with a release campaign across the country later this year and into 2011. A quarter to a third of the farmers in the film operate in an urban setting. Examples: Louella Hill (the Baltimore cheese maker) and Brooke Budner (San Francisco gardener) and Allemany Farm in California.

[Read more →]

Reclaiming our agrarian heritage

By K. Rashid Nuri
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 5, 2010

In his State of the Union address, President Obama enumerated ongoing problems requiring his attention: health care, the economy, job creation, environmental issues and lack of renewable fuels. In doing so, he suggested that increasing agricultural exports would help solve some of these problems.

While export agriculture might indeed help some corporations, it is unlikely to resolve issues directly affecting the public. One thing that would, however, is urban agriculture. While not a panacea, urban agriculture can allay many of the concerns mentioned by the president, and it can do so in several critical ways.

[Read more →]

Rendering by Amy Seek of Flatbush Farmshare

Petition to the Mayor of New York

By People’s Garden NYC

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

We, the undersigned people of New York City, respectfully request that a vegetable garden be planted in front of City Hall.

This garden will represent New Yorkers’ commitment to education, public service, healthy eating, and environmental stewardship. This garden will be tended by NYC public school students, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and our region’s talented gardeners and farmers. The harvest will be donated to a nearby food pantry to feed the hungry.

[Read more →]

Shiho Fujita, 24, established the “Nogyaru” (farm gals) Project

by Elizah Leigh
Green Wala
March 03 2010

Excerpt:

Working the earth with your own two hands isn’t exactly the type of activity that many of us would choose to don our Sunday best for. It probably wouldn’t even occur to most people to bother primping or preening because it’s not as if the crops really care how you look. Farming is a dirty business after all, with dust swirling in the air, the sun beating down on your neck and endless acres to plow, fertilize, weed, water and harvest. Breaking a sweat is just part of the process but Japanese model, singer and fashionista farm girl pioneer Shiho Fujita is intent on proving that you don’t have to be schlumpy to show the land who’s boss. Why would a twenty-something have any interest in digging in the dirt? Her motivation happens to be one part damage control, one part fresh green entrepreneurial spirit.

[Read more →]

Bite-It

February 2010
A C.I.P. Film

A group of Katimavik youth volunteers set out into North Vancouver and Vancouver to find out some answers about environmental initiatives on the subject of food security. They interviewed Mark Bomford, UBC Farm; Emanuel Langlois, Katimivik Participant; Heather Johnstone, Edible Gardens; Michael Levenston and Sharon Slack, City Farmer; Chef Scott Rowe, Salvation Army; Nicole Robbins, Organics@Home; Melanie ter Borg and Karen Morton, ecourbia.

Plus: How to cook it, and how to raise your own.

By Adam Starr
GOOD Blog
March 2, 2010

Excerpt:

By now we all know that eating a lot of meat—especially factory-farmed meat—isn’t very good for the planet. Fortunately for meat eaters, some meats are more sustainable than others. And as it turns out, rabbit is one of the healthiest, leanest, and most environmentally friendly meats you can eat.

There are many reasons for this. Mark Pasternak of the famed Devil’s Gulch Ranch explains, “The biggest reason that rabbits are a sustainable meat choice is that they eat forage, which is not useful for humans. This means that rabbits don’t compete with us for food calories.” Rabbits are also, as Meatpaper editor and co-founder Sasha Wizansky points out, an ideal choice for urban farmers.

[Read more →]

Commonwealth Orchards Project- Glasgow. Photo by Local Action on Food

Urban orchards plan starting to bear fruit

By MARK McLAUGHLIN and MICHAEL BLACKLEY
Edinburgh News
01 March 2010

It has planted the seed of an idea which has the potential to blossom across Edinburgh.

The unlikely creation of a fruit orchard in one of the most deprived areas of the city is set to be followed by projects city-wide.

The city council-backed initiative could see school grounds, parks, allotments and even back greens used for growing fruit

The Evening News told last year how a community initiative had led to an orchard with apple, pear, plum and cherry trees being created in Wester Hailes.

[Read more →]

Photo by Erika Schultz/ The Seattle Times
Becky Warner (center, with tiller), a former software engineer, works with Alleycat Acres volunteers at a plot of land the group is developing into a neighborhood-focused urban farm on Beacon Hill. Warner is pursuing a career change into agriculture.

Alleycat Acres, a new urban-farming collective that ultimately hopes to turn bits of unused land into food sources for needy Seattle residents, kicked off its efforts on a plot across from Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Golf Course.

By Marc Ramirez
Feb 28, 2010
Seattle Times

Excerpt:

The seeds were planted with enthusiasm, sweat and bright-eyed optimism. Task by task on a sunny springlike Sunday, volunteers stepped up on a plot of land across from Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Golf Course.

Someone to help build a retaining wall? Check. Someone to smooth over beds of composted soil? Check.

[Read more →]