Coming soon, to a city near you: open-source agriculture

By Danielle Gould
Grist
12 Apr 2011

Excerpt:

Most people attempting to build a viable urban agriculture business are acutely aware of the enormously challenging and time-consuming process of navigating zoning regulations. Having worked in this sector, I can personally testify that the process is tedious and time-sucking. Over the past couple of years, a number of cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago have begun enacting, or at the very least exploring, new regulations. One of the major challenges facing policymakers, however, is identifying effective policies and best practices.

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Gertjan Meeuws, left, and John van Gemert, right, of PlantLab, a private research company, during an interview with The Associated Press in a lab where he is growing herbs and vegetables under LED lights in Den Bosch, central Netherlands. AP Photo.

Advocates say new approach to farming could be an answer to the world’s food problems

By Arthur Max
Associated Press
4/11/2011

Excerpt:

Meeuws and three other Dutch bioengineers have taken the concept of a greenhouse a step further, growing vegetables, herbs and house plants in enclosed and regulated environments where even natural light is excluded.

In their research station, strawberries, yellow peppers, basil and banana plants take on an eerie pink glow under red and blue bulbs of Light-Emitting Diodes, or LEDs. Water trickles into the pans when needed and all excess is recycled, and the temperature is kept constant. Lights go on and off, simulating day and night, but according to the rhythm of the plant — which may be better at shorter cycles than 24 hours — rather than the rotation of the Earth.

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Chinese vegetable gardens, c. 1880s, below Pacific Heights at approx. today’s Union and Gough Streets in “Cow Hollow”.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

“Cow Hollow’s history shows that cities used to produce much of their own food.”

By Ben Tarnoff
Where the Buffalo Roam
Apr 11, 2011

Excerpt:

In 1849, when the Gold Rush brought hordes of gold speculators to San Francisco and rapidly transformed the small Mexican village into a major city, Cow Hollow was a valley irrigated by several creeks, with a large freshwater pond. It was an ideal place to graze cattle. The first dairy sprung up in 1861, and more soon followed.

On land now occupied by cupcake shops, clothing boutiques, and sports bars, there existed hundreds and hundreds of cows, supplying milk to the growing population of San Francisco. The city needed it, because no large agricultural region yet existed: San Francisco developed so rapidly, most food was imported rather than grown in California.

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The Multidimensional Benefit of Urban Agriculture – Urban Vegetable Production: a three decades Struggle against Poverty in the Heart of an International Diplomatic City of Addis Ababa

By Tamirat Assefa,
Bezabih Emana
Apr 10, 2011
Publisher:VDM Verlag Dr. Müller

In a poor country where agriculture is not only the livelihood of most population, sticking to the traditional methods of production, harvesting and marketing will not only hold the producers under the yoke of destitute living conditions but also results in inefficient utilization of scarce resources. Urban vegetable production has been practiced in Addis Ababa for almost three decades by vegetable producers’ cooperatives along river banks.

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