Posts from — November 2010

Why grow your own food when you can kick your feet up and watch somebody else farm your backyard?

By Katy McLaughlin
Wall Street Journal
Nov 13, 2010

Excerpt:

James Lucal in Seattle has them all beat. He not only brings home the local produce, he got a local to grow it for him directly outside his home. And yet he spent almost nothing for this luxury, and lifted not so much as a trowel to make it happen.

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SmartDwelling 1 is designed for a specific region, the American Gulf Coast

By Steve Mouzon
The Original Green
June 9, 2009

Excerpts:

The Kitchen Garden is the one part of SmartDwelling I that a few people look at and say “you can’t be serious!” For them, buying food at the grocery store is simply too ingrained in their version of modern life to ever consider raising any appreciable portion of their own food. And make no mistake about it… the areas devoted to food in SmartDwelling I would likely provide most, if not all, of the food needed by a family of three or four for an entire year, assuming you used the space efficiently.

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Brooklyn Grange

By Dulce Fernandes and Chris Hunt
Ecocentric
11.19.2010

Excerpt:

“At the end of the first season, Ecocentric returned to the Grange to take in the view, admire the vegetables and catch up with Gwen Schantz. Check out the interview to hear her thoughts about roofs, urban ag and plans for the future.”

Link to website here.

Video by Rebecca Gerendasy of Cooking Up a Story

Cooking Up a Story (CUpS) is an online television series (and blog) about people, food, and sustainable living.

Excerpt:

The “Tour De Hive” neighborhood tour, a spinoff of the Portland’s popular Tour de Coop that provided public tours of urban chicken coops. Similiarly, the Tour de Hive offers for those who wish to participate in this free event, the opportunity to see working bee hives in a cluster of Portland neighborhoods, and to ask questions of their hosts to learn more about the bees, and urban beekeeping opportunities.

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Urban Agriculture, Pierce Street.

4,000 acres of available land in Detroit could supply up to 75 percent of fresh vegetables and 40 percent of fruit available to residents

By Kathryn Colasanti, Charlotte Litjens & Michael Hamm
The C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU
June 2010

Reported by Andrew Krietz
State News
Nov. 18, 2010

Excerpt:

In a study published in the current edition of The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, MSU academic specialist Kathryn Colasanti found the more than 4,000 acres of available land in Detroit could supply up to 75 percent of fresh vegetables and 40 percent of fruit available to residents.

Those numbers became apparent after a bulk of her master’s thesis project was complete in May 2009, she said.

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Image by Bob Krist.

Empowerment of farming communities is completely a new concept

Presented by Antony Funnell
ABC
18 November 2010

All three of our guests were in Australia recently for a week-long series of design workshops, public talks and events, held at The Edge, in Brisbane. The event was called ‘Unlimited: Designing for the Asia-Pacific’.

Three perspectives on food, our urban environment and future tastes. Our guests:

CJ Lim, author Smart-cities and Eco-warriors.
Founder of Studio 8 Architects and Professor of Architecture and Cultural Design at the Bartlett, University College London.

Paul Bennett
Managing Partner (Europe) and Chief Creative Officer at IDEO.

Jeb Brugmann, author of Welcome to the Urban Revolution.
Urban strategist, author and thinker.
2009 Future Tense program on vertical farming

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Smartcities and Eco-Warriors

By CJ Lim, Ed Liu
2010

Unchecked growth of our cities at the expense of agricultural land is threatening food security and sustainable urban development worldwide. Reframing the way people think about urban green space and the evolution of cities, CJ Lim explores how the notion of the smartcity can reintegrate agricultural practices and cultivated land within urban environments. The hybridization of agriculture and establishment of the city-dwelling farmer can lead to an association that is symbiotic, reducing carbon emissions and food shortage, in addition to less tangible but equally significant environmental and social benefits.

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Applications for the United Way of New York City’s Seed Grant Fund due November 24th!

For 2010-2011, Seed Grant funds are targeted at urban farming initiatives in New York City. Funding can be used to transform unused or “under-used” land to vital, food-producing spaces or to expand an existing urban farm. In either case, the urban farming initiative fit within the applicant’s general scope of community services and assist in the expansion of community outreach services related to nutrition education and wellness. In the project proposal, applicants must clearly explain how an urban farm fits within their scope of work and how this funding will directly benefit the intended target population.

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This issue profiles innovative urban agriculture policies and projects

Fall 2010
Vol. 12. No. 4

CitiesAlive will be in Vancouver from November 30th to December 3rd – the 8th Annual Green Roof and Wall Conference. See website here. A new course on Rooftop Urban Agriculture will be launched at CitiesAlive.

In this issue:

Urban Agriculture – Designing the edible building envelope

Seattle City Council, sponsor of the City’s new urban agriculture policy.

Farming for the City. From barren, unproductive rooftop to fertile agricultural oasis teeming with people, chickens and bees, Brooklyn’s Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a catalyst for community and food security.

Diary of an Urban Apiarist. When bees go to collect nectar, they don’t use shopping carts. These and other lessons learned from the front-lines of rooftop pollinator pampering in New York City.

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Zellen. Life Science – Urban Farming lectures

Nov. 2010
In German

Excerpt:

Between workshops on harvesting, collecting seeds, the garden can be explored. The youth clubs of HAU present material they have worked on for several months, and die Helmis will show “Hans-Guck-in-die-Luft”. The mother of 19-year-old Hans is an outstanding tightrope walker, and his father a famous ornithologist. Hans is clumsy and living in his own world, but he is also a very talented draughtsman and bird voice imitator who has to cope with the conflict between an artist’s life and reality.

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Urban chickens have caught on in other Ohio cities such as Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo

By Mike Bowersock
NBC
November 16, 2010

Excerpt:

Bexley, which is home to Capital University, upscale retail and high culture, soon may be home to chickens — legally.

One area of the East Side suburb is ranked among the country’s top 100 richest neighborhoods — with a median family income of $322,000 dollars.

That same city likely will approve urban chicken farming.

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Berkeley Community Gardens in the South End of Boston in winter. Photo by Anty Diluvian.

Bring new life to city parcels that have sat empty

By Meghan E. Irons
Boston Globe Staff
November 16, 2010

Excerpt:

Deep in the belly of Dorchester, past crusty corner shops and barren tree limbs, lies an empty, overgrown lot on Glenway Street. It is a desolate patch the City of Boston wants to revive with farming.

City officials have tapped Glenway and two other city parcels for a pilot project in southern Dorchester to place more locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables on Boston’s dining tables. The idea is to get local farming experts to till the land and raise plump tomatoes, broccoli, or zucchini that would be sold to neighborhood restaurants, farmers markets, corner stores, or fancy hotels.

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Complete paper online

The Journal of Field Actions
Special Issue 1 - 2010 : Urban Agriculture
By Brody Lee, Tony Binns and Alan B Dixon

Abstract:

In many developing countries, urban agriculture makes a significant contribution to the livelihoods of urban populations, in providing food security and income generation. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital city, urban agriculture is a longstanding feature, but rapid urban growth is leading to greater competition over land use, such that this practice is being increasingly threatened by conversion to non-agricultural urban uses. The quality and safety of foodstuffs grown in urban areas is of growing concern to both consumers and producers in developing country cities such as Hanoi, where a large share of the city’s food supply is grown within the urban area.

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Caswell Community Gardeners, Saskatoon.

Community gardens have grown exponentially

By Rachel Engler-Stringer
The Star Phoenix
Nov. 16, 2010

Excerpts:

This summer I was working on a project documenting various food and agriculture-related initiatives in and around Saskatoon and I came across all sorts of exciting approaches people in this city are taking to produce food within city limits. In addition to the most well known example of urban food production – the community garden in its various forms – there are many others. There are urban market gardening projects using various models that creative entrepreneurs have undertaken in the last number of years (market gardening means growing food to sell for profit). There are rooftop gardening initiatives underway.

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Part 1 NBC Nightly News.

Aquaponics

Aquaponics, a method of growing fish and plants together, creates a closed loop system that some say could help to address food shortages in places without access to fresh produce. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports.

See Part 2 on next page.

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Kingsborough Community College, view of ocean from the campus.

First higher-education institution in New York City to launch an urban farm

By Ryan Maye Handy
Sheepshead Bites
Nov. 15th, 2010

Excerpt:

Kingsborough Community College will be the first higher-education institution in New York City to launch an urban farm tilled by students, the school announced on Wednesday.

Kingsborough is launching the “Build a Garden in Brooklyn” project to teach students about urban agriculture and organic farming practices. It will contribute produce to the Culinary Arts Program and the college cafeteria, according to project supervisor Dr. Stuart Schulman.

“The farm will function as an outdoor classroom,” said Schulman, who is also the Executive Director for Economic and Work Force Development at Kingsborough. ”Instead of sitting in a classroom and talking about vegetables, students actually grow and harvest them.”

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The Food project.

Deposition of Particulate Matter as a Mechanism for Trace Metal Contamination of Urban Gardens

By ESTES, Emily, CARTER-THOMAS, Megan R., and BRABANDER, Daniel J.

Geological Society of America
Nov 1, 2010

Boulder, CO, USA – If you’re a vegetable gardener in a lot of older cities, there’s a fair chance you have a significant amount of lead in your soil. One common mitigation approach is to build a raised bed and fill it with freshly composted, low-lead soil from elsewhere, right? Maybe not, according to researchers studying the mysterious case of the lead contamination found within raised beds in community gardens in the Boston communities of Roxbury and Dorchester.

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Albert Maysles in his garden. Photo by Todd Selby. “One of the most appealing corners of the house is the back garden, a snug oasis visible through the kitchen window beyond a shimmering curtain of colored glass bottles and decanters of oils and vinegars. Here, in a space adorned with a brick floor, hanging plants, pots full of flowers and a little pool, the couple sit and drink gin and tonics, framed by a backdrop of colorful peace flags from Tibet that flutter in the breeze.” (NYT, Rosenblum, 2009)

Albert Maysles, born in 1926 (84 years old) is an award-winning documentarian and a Guggenheim fellow. Along with his brother David, he brought us the cult classics Gimme Shelter (1970) and Grey Gardens (1976).

Urban Farming’s ‘Victory”

By Cudjoe
Special to The Michigan Citizen
Nov. 14, 2010

Excerpt:

This spring, Urban Farming, along with Uni-Dig, The City of Detroit, Wayne County Children and Family Services and Atlantic Records among others, is planting their largest garden in the city to date. The garden will be approximately 10 acres on the corner of Gladstone and Linwood and the food will be free for anyone who needs it.

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Manang Summa (carrying a basket) along with other mother-beneficiaries and their daughters during one of their community activities.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)

is a poverty reduction and social development strategy of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to extremely poor households to improve their health, nutrition and education particularly of children aged 0-14

Manila Bulletin
November 14, 2010

CAGAYAN DO ORO CITY (PIA) – After attending a Family Development Session (FDS), Hermie S. Dinaga, 32, and Charlie Dinaga, 33, of Barangay San Isidro, Talakag, Bukidnon both agreed that gardening can provide nutritional needs for the family. They have five children, now 10, nine, six, four, and three-years-old, who are all sent to school.

Backyard gardening was promoted by Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) as a response to one of the project’s goals which is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger through FDS which are attended by couple beneficiaries on a monthly basis.

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The union of Deppe’s scientific knowledge with her personal gardening experience

By Carol Deppe
Chelsea Green
Oct. 2010

Oregon plant breeder Carol Deppe has a BS in zoology from the University of Florida, a PhD in biology from Harvard University, and specializes in developing public-domain crops for organic growing conditions, sustainable agriculture, and human survival for the next thousand years. She is author of Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving (Chelsea Green, 2000) and Tao Te Ching: A Window to the Tao through the Words of Lao Tzu. See www.caroldeppe.com for news and further adventures. Deppe lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Well-know author and farmer Gene Logsdon says about the book:
“The Resilient Gardener is the most comprehensive and detailed book about gardening that I have read to date, and I could not find one sentence that I would quibble with. Not only does Deppe discuss all the immediate, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of information about producing and using homegrown food, but also all the surrounding environmental and cultural aspects of gardening that are so vital to success. A must read for beginning gardeners, and full of details even the most experienced will find invaluable.”

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