Posts from — April 2010

“Those who know and love these gardens will appreciate this lavishly illustrated book. Professionals looking to adapt Seattle’s community gardening model elsewhere will find a useful template.” – Seattle City Living

Greening Cities, Growing Communities: Learning from Seattle’s Urban Community Gardens

by Jeffrey Hou, Julie M. Johnson, Laura J. Lawson
University of Washington Press (Oct 2009)

Although there are thousands of community gardens across North America, only Seattle and a few other cities include them in their urban development plans. While the conditions and experiences in Seattle may be unique, the city’s programs offer insights and lessons for other cities and communities. Greening Cities, Growing Communities examines:

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For Azure’s 25th anniversary, we explore the role of design in an all-consuming subject. There’s a profound shift taking place in the realm of what we eat, how we eat it, and the social and political climate around food.

The Urban Farm

By Lloyd Alter
May 2010

Excerpt:

A new model for food production suggests we’ll be growing more of what we eat, right where most of us live: in the city.

Michael Pollan famously distilled his recommendations for a modern diet down to seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Con trary to his prescription, delivered succinctly in his latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, our current food system excels at delivering manufactured products in supersized portions, mostly corn, fat and meat.

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29, 30 October, 2010
Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP)
Four themes are defined as entry points into the discussion of ‘sustainable food planning’:
(1) Urban Agriculture
(2) Integrating Health, Environment and Society
(3) Food in Urban Design and Planning
(4) Urban Food Governance

Urban Agriculture

Convenors: Prof. Dr. Han Wiskerke and Jan-Willem van der Schans (Rural Sociology Group – Wageningen University)

Urban agriculture receives more and more attention today, in the developed as well as the developing world. Urban agriculture is the growing of food in and around cities, using urban resources such as vacant plots of urban land, run-off water, volunteer labour, etc. and producing goods and services for the urban market.

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Virag Puri from Gotham Greens poses on the roof.

Investigating Urban Agriculture

Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010,
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Knoll Showroom,
76 Ninth Avenue, 11th Floor,
New York, NY 10001

Please join Urban Green Council for a lively panel discussion of the issues surrounding urban agriculture and its potential applications in New York City.

Locating the production of food in our cities and on the buildings within the city (Building Integrated Agriculture) offers a valuable response to two major challenges of modern urban living: the need to reduce the distance food travels before arriving on the plate of urban consumers and the need to reduce the environmental impact of buildings.  Cultivation of food crops within the built environment can reduce our environmental footprint, cut transportation costs, enhance food security, save energy, and enrich the physical surroundings of building occupants.

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See Martha’s Chicken Show!

Martha shares footage of her Bedford chicken coops and chats with Susan Orlean about the newfound popularity of these friendly birds. Audience members bring their own chickens to the show.

Now playing: Martha’s Chicken Coops

See the show playing here.

Martha also is a vegetable gardener extraordinaire. More on the next page.

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Photo by by donkeycart. The Urban Orchard is a homegrown fruit and vegetable exchange established by Friends of the Earth Adelaide and the Goodwood Goodfood Co-op. It meets on the first Saturday of every month to share surplus backyard produce, conversation and skills. Visit website here.

55 minutes of audio discussion on Australia Talks

ABC Radio National
April 5, 2010

Agriculture in Australia accounts for less than five percent of GDP – about the same as the creative industries – yet the world’s food supply faces unprecedented challenges from population growth, and climate change. Could urban food production be a possible solution? Join us for a special edition of Australia Talks recorded at the Queensland State Library with contributors to the latest Griffith Review: “Food Chain”.

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Stadtgärtnerin Gwen Schantz. Photo Heike Buchter

Von wegen, in den USA schützt keiner die Umwelt! Gwen Schantz aus Brooklyn will nachhaltig wirtschaften – und zwar auf ihrem Dach.

Who said no one in the United States protects the environment! Gwen Schantz from Brooklyn will operate sustainably – and on the roof.

Zeit Online
In German
April 4, 2010

Excerpt:

Gwen Schantz sieht so aus, wie man sich eine New Yorkerin aus einem angesagten Viertel vorstellt: Die Augen verborgen hinter enormen Designergläsern, an den Ohren gehämmerte Silberscheiben, dazu ein lässiges gelbes Hoodie-Sweatshirt und derbe Stiefel. Nur, dass sie die Stiefel tatsächlich braucht. Schantz ist Bäuerin – auf den Dächern Brooklyns.

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Blue Pike Farm by Carl J. Skalak, Jr. See larger image here.

Blue Pike Farm

Blue Pike Farm is the first farm started in Cleveland proper in the 21st Century. We are dedicated to growing fresh products, using natural and sustainable agricultural practices. To that end we collect and compost organic matter from local municipalities, coffee shops and roasteries, and local food markets.

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Abeni and MilkyWay.

LaBrie Family Farm

By Novella Carpenter
Author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
April 4, 2010

Excerpt from her blog:

I’m ready to announce it to the world: I’m starting another urban farm. It’s in San Lorenzo (okay, maybe it’s a suburban farm…). One acre, a barn, with fruit trees and fields. My farm partner, Abeni, brought some of the goats up today and installed them in their new digs. Read about it here, at the new blog, LaBrieFamilyFarm.

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Naomi Johnson’s photos of local food and farmers

Transit’s ‘art buses’ make their debut in Asheville, North Carolina

Mountain Xpress
03/27/2010

Three Asheville area artists have won the city’s first “Art on Transit” competition, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department announced recently. Each artist will be awarded a $750 honorarium, and their design will grace both sides of a single bus. The winners were: Ray Noland’s “Jeweled Forest,” a color-splashed, whimsical forest; Naomi Johnson’s photos of local food and farmers; and Nina Ruffini’s “Message,” featuring bunnies adrift in boats.

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Who Grows Your Food? from Anthony-Masterson on Vimeo.

Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms

By Thomas Wheatley
Fresh Loaf. Atlanta news, politics, media and mischief
March 25, 2010

Excerpts:

Boston-born and Harvard-educated K. Rashid Nuri’s love of agriculture has taken him around the world. The 62-year-old urban farmer — and former Clinton appointee to the U.S. Agriculture Department — operates Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms, a network of organic metro Atlanta farms that offers fresh food and teaches how crops can enrich lives and build communities.

What made you dedicate your life to farming?

I’m a child of the 1960s. Back then, we were talking about nation building. In order to build a nation, you’ve got to be able to feed, clothe, and shelter your people. So I decided that I wanted to learn everything about food, from the seed to the table.

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Photo by Gloria

The Farm in the City

By Gloria
Turning Toward the Sun blog
April 1, 2010

Excerpt:

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, which oversees Nashville’s public housing for low-income families, is developing a community garden near the new John Henry Hale Apartments on Jo Johnston Ave. near downtown Nashville, about a ten-minute drive from my house. MDHA has commandeered an unused plot of public land just north of I-40 and is turning it into a gardening oasis for nearby residents, or for anyone who wants to buy in for $5. This afternoon there was a meeting at the neighborhood’s community center for organizers and potential gardeners, where they showed the plan and explained the rules. I bought in.

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Samurai Urban Farm. Though each family decides how much of its garden to devote to farming and how much to ornament, most try to grow enough vegetables to meet their own needs.

Samurai farmers of Edo (present-day Tokyo)

Edo. Cultural period of Japanese history corresponding to the Tokugawa period of governance (1603–1867)

Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan
By Azby Brown
Kodansha International. February 1, 2010
Hardcover: 232 pages

Excerpts:

Urban Farming in Edo did not start in a planned fashion. Rather, it was a spontaneous response to acute economic and agricultural conditions. Records show that, during the late Edo period, nearly every urban samurai family maintained a vegetable garden, and that over the years these gradually replaced large sections of their ornamental gardens. Consequently, to say that Edo was a vast urban farming area is no exaggeration.

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“Marcy” Kaptur (born June 17, 1946) is a Democratic Member of Congress from Ohio’s Ninth Congressional District. She is currently the longest-serving woman in the House; in the Congress. Serving her fourteenth term, she ranks 30th out of 435 members in seniority and serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Creating the Office of Urban Agriculture responsible for coordinating USDA activities across the $120 billion annual budget to ensure that these authorities are unleashed for communities that do not traditionally participate in USDA programs

(Vancouver’s City Farmer has been Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture since 1978!  Mike  :=) — Canadian federal government next?

H.R. 4971 – March 25, 2010
To increase the emphasis on urban agricultural issues in the Department of Agriculture through the establishment of a new office to ensure that Department authorities are used to effectively encourage local agricultural production and increase the availability of fresh food in urban areas, particularly underserved communities experiencing hunger, poor nutrition, obesity, and food insecurity, and for other purposes.

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Image from Chicken and Cat Clean Up by Sara Varon.

Now that some homeowners are allowed to keep the birds, officials expect some to be abandoned when reality sets in

BY Tiffany Crawford
Vancouver Sun
APRIL 2, 2010

Excerpt:

Anticipating a wave of buyers’ remorse, city staff are recommending the city build a special shelter for hens they expect will be abandoned by owners having second thoughts.

The 36-page report to city council details every change the city will have to make before backyard egg farmers will be allowed to set up shop. In March 2009, council lifted a 30-year prohibition on keeping urban hens and directed staff to develop the guidelines.

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Urban Certified Organic?

Researchers from the Department of Geophysical Science working in the area of Food and Environment at The University of Chicago are currently evaluating the application of the National Organic Standards to Urban Agriculture. The U of C team of Geoponicuns are working in collaboration with several national and international organizations, to determine and address the inherent challenges of preserving organic integrity on urban farms.

By Julia Govis:
For questions and/or comments, contact:
Email: govis@geosci.uchicago.edu

Consumer demand for organic food continues to climb according to a 2009 press release by the Organic Trade Association.(1) Growing concerns over food safety and chemical usage in conventionally raised farm products are some of the reasons cited by consumers choosing to purchase certified organic food.

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Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser (left) traveled to
Jefferson City to testify in favor of House Bill 1848. Jason Holsman (right).

Urban Farming Task Force

The Missouri Expatriate
22 March 2010

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Shortly after two o’clock today, the Missouri House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture Policy unanimously voted to pass a bill [HB1848] sponsored by State Representative Jason R. Holsman, D-Kansas City, which would create a task force to study urban agriculture and vertical farming in Missouri’s metropolitan areas. The committee also unanimously voted to mark the bill as a ‘consent bill’ which means that the proposed legislation is non-controversial in nature. Consent bills are often fast-tracked through the legislative process as they can usually be passed out of the house without substantial change.

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Yara-Grow Regina Community Garden in Winter 2010 – Canada

February 12th, 2010

Today was one of those frosty days that begged to be captured! The temperature was only -7 degrees Celcius, the humidity was high, almost 100%, and the winds had not yet come creating the perfect day to photograph the frost.

For those who are visiting our site from around the world, it may be hard to believe that come May we will begin to work the soil again for a new growing season.

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UVic students dig flower beds in front of a campus library, in part to protest the university’s inaction on a communal agriculture project. Photo by Geoff Howe for The Globe and Mail

Guerrilla green thumbs also aim to raise awareness of global food security issues

Brennan Clarke, Victoria, BC
Globe and Mail
Apr. 01, 2010

Excerpt:

For the second straight week, University of Victoria students armed with garden implements, potted seedlings and pails of compost dug up a patch of lawn and planted gardens in front of the McPherson Library as part of an ongoing turf war with the administration over communal gardening on campus.

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