The Voice of America features Farming in the City

At work in an Alleycat Acres garden. Photo by Alleycat Acres.

Farming in the City: Joys of Growing Food

by Ann Dornfeld
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report
July 5, 2010

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of 125 million people.

The short article is about Seattle’s Alleycat Acres. Sean Conroe and Amber Banks are interviewed. Following the story, 42 people from around the world used their limited English to comment on the story and speak about urban agriculture.

Examples:

ZX Cindy (China)
What a coincidence! People in my city (I live in Chengdu, a middle-sized city in Southwestern China) are also enjoying a new trend to grow foods by themselves. They rent a small piece of land in the suburban areas, and plant vegetables there. The rent is about $180 a year. All the things from the soil belongs to you, of course. The enthusiasm for growing food from a life-simultation computer game called HAPPY FARM, but in which your friends will steal your products and vice versa!

Ton Nu Truc Huong (Vietnam)
I like this article so much. I believe it is very interesting when we grow vegetables by ourselve and eat them. It can save our money and be good for the health. However, the most difficult problem is that how we can find out the land to do this in urban areas which have a big population.

Korea (Jane)
When I was young, my parents grew some vegetables in the garden. But these days there aren’t any places in the cities. I always want to grow some vegetables. Do I have to move to country??

See the complete story here.