Posts from — January 2011

Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farm business in Long Island City, NY. Photo by Cyrus Dowlatshahi via The Greenest.

Roundup of news from “The Greenest – Superlative Ideas for a Sustainable Future”

By Derek Denckla
The Greenest
January 3, 2011

Excerpt:

What is new now about urban agriculture is increasing numbers of farmers and widening diversity of experiments motivated by intersecting crises in climate change and in public health.

A majority of urban agriculture projects gaining public attention are less than a few years old. There are many bold experiments that are untested with farmers who are new to their profession. So the urban farmer story will begin to evolve from “newness” to a theme of “sustainability.” With so many commentators and communicators recognizing the newfound importance of urban agriculture, I wonder what will happen in this next phase of its development which will be less glamorous, harder to track and thus commanding of less immediately gratifying attention.

[Read more →]

From Seed to table with One Seed Chicago – 2011 seeds are Radish, Eggplant and Swiss Chard

Childhood obesity is a serious problem facing our country, and it is compounded by the fact that many of our youths in urban areas live in so-called “food deserts.” Experts in the field of childhood nutrition are working on remedying this decades-long problem, but there is a short-term solution with potential to change live for the better. Give people seeds to farm their backyards, windowsills, patios and community gardens. Then follow the seeds with gardening information and a network of community gardeners ready to embrace the new crop of gardeners. That’s exactly what’s happening in Chicago, IL.

Through the One Seed Chicago project NeighborSpace, Chicago’s land trust for community gardens, has given away more than one million seeds since 2008. Every year three seeds are put up for a vote and residents vote for their favorite and the winning seeds is distributed absolutely free to everyone who voted. The goal is to unite the city in a celebration of gardening by giving seeds away for free to local residents.

[Read more →]

An urban farm in Brooklyn.

Is there enough vacant space in your typical big city to even come close to supplying the community’s needs?

By bigkingken
Big Ten Science blog
January 4, 2011

Excerpt:

One of the coolest ideas that has come about through the whole “green” and “sustainable” movement, in my opinion, is that of urban farming. I mean think about it. You’ve got all of this space in a city just sitting around doing nothing. Completely empty lots that not only are eyesores to the community, but a drain to the city’s tax dollars. Add to this the fact that numerous studies have shown that poor, urban populations are much more likely to be obese with all of the resulting medical problems associated with it, and it is easy to see where the idea came from.

[Read more →]

Doylestown PA’s W. Atlee Burpee was just eighteen, when he started his own mail order business in 1872. By 1888, he had transformed the family home “Fordhook Farms” into his own experimental agricultural station where he grew and tested new varieties of flowers and vegetables before offering them for sale in his catalog. When W Burpee died in 1910, his was the largest seed company in the world.

Children can learn to enjoy healthier foods if they grow them with their parents. It’s easier than you think.

By George Ball
Opinion – Wall Street Journal
Jan. 3, 2011
Mr. Ball is chairman of the W. Atlee Burpee Co. and past president of the American Horticultural Society.

Excerpt:

In our research at Atlee Burpee, we have found that kids who grow vegetables alongside their parents eat them regularly and with gusto. Peas, green beans and raw carrots—the very vegetables that kids are told to eat, their parents’ admonishing fingers wagging—are particular favorites.

[Read more →]

Olla’s long term goal to urbanize flower production

For a social enterprise start-up like Olla Urban Flower Project, community is everything. Our innovative plant and flower shop located in Gastown continues to grow organically by word of mouth and takes strength and inspiration from our community partnerships.

Our fabulous initiatives taking root in 2011:

New partnership with SOLEfood Inner City Farms that will help us move towards our goal of urbanizing cut flower production.

New workshop series examining urban gardening techniques and flower arranging traditions from around the globe.

[Read more →]

A tiny farm plot that will soon be tranformed to residential complexes. Photo by Tim Cheung.

Hong Kong villages at mercy of urban developers

By Tim Cheung
CNN Asia
4 January, 2011

Excerpt:

After decades of rapid urban development, farming villages like Ma Shi Po are on the verge of extinction in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong doesn’t strike people as a city that promotes a back-to-nature lifestyle and the brutal truth is younger generations here don’t always have the luxury of interacting with nature. Many have “probably never been to a farmland,” according to Sandy Chan, an amateur environmental advocate.

[Read more →]

Ken Dunn, of the Resource Center, removes snow from around one of the hoop greenhouses at City Farm, which has been run for 10 years on a city-owned acre at Clybourn Avenue and Division Street, last week. Photo by Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune.

“If this passes, our work would be over.”

By Monica Eng
Chicago Tribune
January 3, 2011

Excerpt:

In an effort to regulate the new crop of urban farms, Mayor Richard Daley last month presented a proposed ordinance to the City Council. City officials say the new rules are aimed at “nourishing urban agriculture,” but some of Chicago’s top urban farmers believe they will stunt the growth of grass-roots projects.

Crafted by the Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning, the ordinance and its accompanying protocols propose requirements on fencing, plot size, processing, landscaping and zoning that would apply to urban farming in all its forms: commercial production plots, nonprofit farms and community gardens.

[Read more →]

Photo of Liz McLellan. July Aug ODE Magazine.

Taking root in the city

By Casey Miner
ODE – The online community of Intelligent Optimists
July/August 2010 issue

Excerpt:

Dave Bell still remembers the tomatoes that changed his life—gorgeous, almost iridescent tomatoes glowing on a shelf at the Liberty Heights Fresh food market in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dave and his wife, Jill, who were just dating at the time, often shopped at the market and they asked the owner, Steven Rosenberg, where the tomatoes came from. Europe, he told them. Farmers grew them in hothouses.

Dave thought that sounded crazy. The costs of growing, the energy use, shipping the tomatoes across the world on a plane—how could that be sustainable? He and Jill asked Rosenberg if anyone grew tomatoes locally. I wish, Rosenberg said. I’d buy everything they grew.

[Read more →]

The Living Cities company, created in 2008 by Queen’s student Nathan Putnam, aims to bring urban agriculture to the city

By Janina Enrile
The Journal – Queen’s University
Oct 22, 2010

Excerpt:

Living Cities has helped to create many changes in the Kingston community. Providence Care Hospital, for example, has allowed Living Cities to use some of the unused space on their property for their urban farming.

“They’ve been very receptive to our ideas and very supportive of the ideas we’re trying to make [happen],” Putnam said, adding that the overall feedback from the community has been very positive.

[Read more →]

Starting a raised garden bed using lasagna layer gardening at Jess Levine’s Wonder City Farm in Cleveland, Ohio. Located on East 55th Street, it is the former site of the Hofbrau Haus Restaurant and parking lot. Photo by Morgan Taggart.

Urban agriculture projects bring hope — and food — to communities that have long suffered from a glut of empty lots.

By Arionna Brasche
Shelterforce – The journal of affordable housing and community building
Fall 2010

Excerpt:

Doing something with vacant land is a timely and urgent issue in Cleveland. In a city that has struggled for years with population decline, the foreclosure crisis only made matters worse, with approximately 22,000 foreclosures occurring since the beginning of 2008. These foreclosures have worsened the city’s problems with vacant lots and homes, of which it now has 20,000 and 11,500 respectively.

[Read more →]