Cobra.

Cobras and the Russel’s viper are responsible for the close to 20,000 yearly snake bite deaths in India. Many of these fatalities occur because of the Cobras’ appetite for rats. It’s not uncommon for the snakes to lay in wait for the rodents inside a home or a hut. If a human gets in the way the encounter usually proves fatal.

The Big Four are the four venomous snake species considered to be responsible for the greatest number of human deaths caused by snakebite in South Asia.

Indian cobra, Naja naja, probably the most famous of all Indian snakes.
Common krait, Bungarus caeruleus
Russell’s viper, Daboia russelii.
Saw-scaled viper, Echis carinatus.

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Urban Agriculture in Detroit

By John Gallagher
Free Press
August 20, 2010

Excerpt:

Detroit businessman John Hantz is inching closer to a deal with the City of Detroit to commercially farm about 110 acres of city-owned vacant land on the city’s east side.

Details remain under negotiation, and it was not clear how soon, or even if, a deal will be struck.

Two people familiar with the negotiations say that the effort centers on about 110 acres of vacant city-owned parcels scattered within an area bordered by Jefferson Avenue on the south, Mack on north, Van Dyke on the west and Cadillac on the east.

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Nick Brusatore, the inventor and co-founder of TerraSphere, walks through the facility explaining the process of vertical farming.

The operation of a TerraSphere facility is similar to that of a high-tech greenhouse. TerraSphere employs an automated, software-driven plant growth system that can be used to grow a variety of crops–from lettuce to tree seedlings to rare medicinal herbs. The core TerraSphere technology is a module that places rows of plants perpendicular to an interior light source. Locating the seedlings close to the light allows for higher light levels when using low level lighting. A psi pressure of 90 is used when feeding through the sprayers to ensure even distribution of the nutrient solution to the crops. The result is an abundance of plants with strong, compact, and multi-directional growth.

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Weed Patrol— (Foreground) Inmates Mike Myers (left) and Kris Knight tend the Columbia County Jail garden. Photo by Stover E. Harger III

Garden Gang

By Stover E. Harger III
Portland Tribune
The South County Spotlight,
Aug 18, 2010

Excerpt:

On the surface it’s just a small plot of soil, straw and fledgling vegetables. But for a group of prison workers, the Columbia County Jail garden represents something more – a little bit of freedom.

For a few hours a day, around a dozen inmates take turns maintaining the “Development Garden,” caring for hundreds of vegetable plants, the produce of which will be donated to the Columbia Pacific Food Bank. Families in need get the fresh vegetables and the prisoners benefit as well. They get a chance to breathe in some fresh air after being cooped up inside for most of the day. The sun, or even rain, beating down on their skin is a welcome relief, they say, from being enclosed behind the thick jail walls.

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Garden at our DRCSC – Development Research Communication and Services Centre – rooftop, Kolkata, India

By Anshuman Das, Shankar
Bhattacharya, DRCSC
20.08.2010

Excerpt:

Our office is on the middle of a crowded city, Kolkata. (formerly called Calcutta, the city is classified as the eighth largest urban agglomeration in the world.) Though we work with sustainable agriculture in rural West Bengal, we hardly experience any greenery when we are in the city.

We have a very small space on our rooftop, but we are growing a garden there throughout the year. This year, we have gardened systematically. We focused more on the design aspects in order to set a model for how a small space can be planted vertically to produce a good amount of vegetables.

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Craig Strong, left, executive chef at Montage, and Nic Romano, founder and owner of VR Farms, show the bounty picked fresh from the farm at Bella Collina Towne and Golf Club in San Clemente. Photo by Leonard Ortiz, The Orange County Register.

The 1 1/2-acre parcel close to the clubhouse is fully planted

By Cathy Thomas
The Orange County Register
August 18, 2010

Excerpt:

Golf greens and vegetable gardens might seem incongruous, but not at VR Green Farms in San Clemente. Nestled on a slope of the Bella Collina Towne & Golf Club, just east of the clubhouse, urban farming flourishes.

There’s rainbow chard, celery and assorted herbs. Cabbage, summer squash and shallots thrive, along with 180 red flame grapevines. And glorious tomatoes. There are enough tomatoes to harvest more than 400 pounds a week in the summertime.

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