Photo by Michael Klassen

Heavy subsidies for urban agriculture in the long run will do more harm than good

By Mike Klassen
City Caucus
Aug. 29, 2010

Excerpt:

I’ve listened to the arguments, I’ve watched Food Inc. a couple of times, and my thumb couldn’t get much greener than it currently is. However, I’m not convinced by arguments put forward by the eat local movement that we must invest more land, time and financial resources into urban agriculture. This is not to suggest that I think we should eradicate community garden programs, but that we fully consider the costs of “being green” and weigh them against other city priorities.

[Read more →]

Many of the “city farms” are in fact intended to be only cultivated at weekends

By William Andrews
Japan Trends
August 23, 2010

Excerpts:

J-Cast news is reporting that shimin noen (or farms located near cities) have increased threefold over the last 15 years, up to 3,382 sites for fiscal 2008, with local governments and NPOs inundated with applications for certain areas.

Around 70 per cent of these “farms” are 50 square meters, with the rental cost as little as 5,000 yen (about $58) for a year’s use. Many of these aspiring farmers are said to be middle-aged salarymen and retirees keen to get their fingers green.

[Read more →]

This farm will create green jobs and provide healthy food to the community

The Viet Village Urban Farm project represents an effort to reestablish the tradition of local farming in this community after Katrina. New Orleans East was one of the most damaged areas of the city New Orleans during the storms of 2005. In response to the devastation, the community has organized around the idea of creating an urban farm and market as the center of the community. The farm, located on 28-acres in the heart of the community, will be a combination of small-plot gardening for family consumption, larger commercial plots focused on providing food for local restaurants and grocery stores in New Orleans, and a livestock area for raising chickens and goats in the traditional Vietnamese way.

[Read more →]

Our School At Blair Grocery.

The Lower Nine urban farm concept is spreading

By Phil Blidner
Time Magazine
Aug. 27, 2010
Phil Bildner is Co-Executive Director of The NOLA Tree, a teen service organization.

Excerpt:

When the levee along the Industrial Canal failed back in 2005 and the wall of water drowned much of New Orleans’ Lower Nine, the area north of Claiborne Avenue — the poorest section of the neighborhood — was hardest hit. Not surprisingly, the stretch has been slowest to recover. Five years after the devastating hurricane, the area still does not have a supermarket or store that sells fresh produce. Today, where houses once stood, jungle-like growths have consumed the lands. Other homes, still abandoned, are slanted and Burtonesque.

[Read more →]