Posts from — July 2011

Most city dwellers who raise chickens, like Babineau, do so for their eggs — not for slaughter

By Benjamin Shingler
Canadian Press
July 16, 2011

Excerpt:

MONTREAL – Each morning, Marci Babineau steps out the backdoor of her Montreal townhouse to fetch a half-dozen eggs from the chicken coop in her yard.

“It still amazes me everyday,” says Babineau, a yoga teacher who had chickens growing up in suburban California. “I always thank them, because I feel like saying, ‘I’m glad it’s you, not me (laying eggs).’”

While backyard chickens are permitted in Babineau’s area, an upscale municipality on Montreal island, they remain an underground movement in most North American cities amid concerns about smell, sanitation and noise.

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Stirling Agricultural Village National Historic Site of Canada.

Finding affordable farm space amid sprawling urban hubs is a nightmare.

By Jessica Leeder
Globe and Mail
Jul. 15, 2011

Excerpt:

National and provincial parks bordering Canada’s most populous cities are making an innovative addition to the list of activities allowed on protected land: farming.

Once elbowed off the land by ecologists bent on locking up massive tracts for the restoration of waterways, woodlands and wildlife habitats, farmers are now being invited back by conservation agencies that have come to view growing food as key to their sustainability. Momentum is particularly strong among parks near urban regions with strong local-food economies.

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RFP – Request For Proposals – Vacant land for cultivation and sale of crops

RFP – Request For Proposals
8/15/11
45 pages

The City of Boston acting by and through its Public Facilities Commission by the Director of the Department of Neighborhood is seeking proposals for its Grassroots Program Urban Agriculture Land Lease RFP. This RFP is intended to assist initiatives for the development of urban agriculture in the City of Boston, increase local food growing opportunities and provide community benefits.

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Video Report – Rooftop Farms in New York

By Monika Vosough
Wall Street Journal
7/13/2011

Entrepreneurs are looking to urban farms and rooftop gardens as an alternative to traditional farms. While start-up costs are higher, these efforts could pay off with long-term environmental benefits and better tasting veggies.

Deb Heighway in a greenhouse in one of the eight Gorge area home gardens that she has under cultivation. Photograph by: Arnold Lim, timescolonist.com

Urban farmer does the work; neighbours provide land, water

By Pedro Arrais
timescolonist.com
July 13, 2011

Excerpt:

Deb Heighway’s journey into SPIN farming began with the germ of an idea. Today, three years later, her urban farm in the Gorge area of Saanich has taken root in eight of her neighbours’ yards.

SPIN stands for Small Plot INtensive, an inexpensive-to-implement farming system for plots under half a hectare. The concept was created by two Saskatoon farmers, who have popularized the idea in North America.

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“The winner will watch recording history go down in front of their eyes as they join Snoop Dogg as he creates his next new masterpiece.”

Look to the Stars
July 13, 2011

Rapper, actor and cultural trendsetter Snoop Dogg is adding philanthropist to his long list of accolades. The legendary entertainer and record producer has partnered with leading charity auction site charitybuzz.com to give one lucky fan the experience on a lifetime for a cause he’s passionate about.

Snoop is auctioning the rare opportunity to join him in his California recording studio to benefit Urban Farming and the Snoop Youth Football League.

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We now have about 100 plots of land rented out.

NTD Television
2011-07-13 09:03

Residents in Beijing pluck their own vegetables straight from the soil in urban farm plots that have sprung up on the outskirts of the city.

A recent string of food safety scandals have prompted some health-conscious citizens to boycott the markets and grow their own produce by renting their own plots on a local farm.

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Forget the humble veggie patch!

House and Leisure
July, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s a new dawn for farming in the city. Cape Town blogger and urban farmer Matt Allison has turned his garden into an all-out allotment, producing more than 40 varieties of herbs and vegetables. He chatted to HL’s assistant editor Leigh Robertson about his gardening passion…

Out in the suburbs the drone of lawnmowers is a common soundtrack to sunny weekends, with pottering around the garden something of a national sport. But while most people might be found doing normal suburban gardening pursuits like, say, pruning roses or trimming hedges, peer over the fence into the backyard of Capetonian Matt Allison and you’ll find things looking decidedly more rural.

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Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn. Photo by Liu Xin.

Rooftop agriculture (RA) is the production of fresh vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers on rooftops for local consumption.

By Aaron Quesnel, Joshua Foss, Nina Danielsson
School of Engineering Blekinge Institute of Technology Karlskrona, Sweden 2011
125 pages

Abstract:

Cities present many opportunities to improve socio-ecological sustainability through efficiencies of scale and access to resources and services. These benefits are often compromised by rapidly increasing urban populations demanding energy, water, resources and food that are sourced, produced and transported from rural areas in unsustainable ways. A systems level approach to understanding the complex challenges cities face is required to strategically plan for the future. Rooftop agriculture is one measure that can help address many sustainability problems cities are currently faced with.

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Before and after on Vipul’s terrace.

The beginning of a kitchen terrace garden

By Anu Shankar
Urban Leaves
July 10, 2011

Excerpt:

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Kitchen Gardens? Chances are, you would conjure up an image of an independent house surrounded by a patch of land, a section of which is filled with veggies. At least, that’s how it was for me. I remembered one of my uncle’s houses, where we had a bit of land behind, where my grandfather enthusiastically planted carrots and cabbages. It was terribly exciting for a city girl like me who had never seen vegetables being grown before, and I spent almost every minute of my holiday peering at the plants and seeing if they had grown yet!

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Vancouver deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston (in front), pictured with Mayor Gregor Robertson (behind), presented the city’s environmental action plan to city council on Tuesday.

Goal 10: Vancouver will become a leader in urban food systems.

2020 Target: Increase city and neighbourhood food assets2 by a minimum of 50%.

Accountability: Director of Social Policy, Community Services Group

Highest Priority Actions (3 year):

1. Support urban agriculture by:
a. Creating 5-6 community gardens/yr;
b. Enabling 3 new urban farms;
c. Encouraging 2 new farmers markets;
d. Adding public fruit trees;
e. Investing in 3 neighbourhood food networks and
f. Support the development of a Vancouver Food Hub

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Mike Levenston of the City Farmer Society puts meat and fish scraps, dairy and waste food paper such as pizza boxes in Vancouver’s yard waste bin. Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG, Vancouver Sun

If it is successful, there are plans to expand it to all neighbourhoods next year

By Jeff Lee
Vancouver Sun
July 12, 2011

Excerpt:

It can take years for recycling programs to catch on. It took 15 years for Vancouver’s blue-box recycling program to achieve a 77-per-cent participation rate. San Francisco, which brought in its food-scraps program in 2000, has a 30-per-cent participation rate. Seattle, which began diverting food scraps in 2005, has a success rate of 50 per cent.

But the incentive is there, says Chris Underwood, Vancouver’s manager of solid-waste management. Fully 35 per cent of the city’s garbage – or about 129,000 tonnes – is made up of kitchen and compostable wastes, he said. Of the more than three million tonnes of garbage produced in the region, 55 per cent is already diverted to recycling and composting.

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Among the Gerlach schools students who have worked in the community garden are: front, left to right, Chase Bridges, Crystal Bingley and Erin Nolan; and back row, left to right Kyle Katz, Marissa Tullar, Ariel Marshall and Daphne Reynolds. Below, the gardens are thriving earlier this week. / Susan Skorupa/Reno Gazette-Journal.

Gerlach’s community garden is a surprising patch of green

By Susan Skorupa
RGJ.com
Sept 24, 2008

Excerpt:

Despite its location at the southern edge of the Black Rock Desert, Gerlach has become a garden spot of Northern Nevada.

This summer, while no one was looking except the residents of this tiny community, Gerlach bloomed.

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Link here to watch the video report.
El Centro de Agricultura Urbana La Romita promueve zonas de cultivo dentro de las ciudades. Fuente: Azteca Noticias. 06 de julio de 2011.

Haz tu propia ensalada

Jueves 31 De Marzo De 2011

Excerpt:

El próximo sábado 2 de abril, el grupo Sembradores Urbanos, en la Ciudad de México, inicia el taller Ensaladas Urbanas, una muy antojable propuesta inspirada, de acuerdo con sus organizadores, en los principios de la permacultura para cultivar y cosechar ensaladas orgánicas en espacios reducidos. A través de este taller, se pueden aprender sobre las variedades de cultivos comunes y gourmet para mezclas de ensaladas sabrosas, nutritivas y coloridas.

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Play Video above.

Urban Farming is a Crime

By Alexis Wiley
WJBK – myFOXDetroit.com
July 2011

Excerpt:

Bass’ cool garden has landed her in hot water with the City of Oak Park. Code enforcement gave her a warning, then a ticket and now she’s been charged with a misdemeanor.

“I think it’s sad that the City of Oak Park that’s already strapped for cash is paying a lot of money to have a prosecutor bothering us,” Bass told FOX 2′s Alexis Wiley.

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Estimated harvest figures show over nine hundred pounds of tomatoes, 330 pounds cucumber, 250 pounds of sweet peppers, 120 okras and large amounts of cilantro and habanero pepper.

LoveFM Belize
July 08, 2011

Six months after the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries introduced the Urban Agriculture Program in South side Belize City, families have been able to literally reap the fruits of their labor. These backyard vegetable gardens have been the foundation for which over fifty five families, approximately three hundred residents have benefitted. An award ceremony that marked the completion of phase one of the productive cycle was held this afternoon at the Cumberbatch Field.

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©Ana Fisyak, Laura Stinger, Lacey Tauber vie The Pratt Institute

Expect an adaptation of codes and zoning regulations, and an explosion of urban crops in New York City.

By Leonel Ponce
Inhabit New York City
07/07/11

Excerpts:

Architecture schools are beginning to incorporate urban rooftop farms into their curriculum. Under the direction of Elliott Maltby and Gita Nandan of Thread Collective and recent graduate Tyler Caruso, students at Pratt’s Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development are undertaking a summer Design-Build Studio in Rooftop Agriculture.

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Rooftop and empty lot gardening in urban areas may help with access to fresh food, but it may not reduce our carbon footprint. (DTN file photo by Darin Newsom)

Call it farming or gardening, as you wish. As long as it’s done for the right reasons, in deference to population-density concerns, without spurious claims for the environment and without delusions of self-sufficiency, urban agriculture deserves to be treated with urbanity.

By Urban C. Lehner
The Progressive Farmer
07/08/11

Excerpt:

Yet as commendable as urban farming is, some of the claims made for it seem dubious. Skim those Google results and you’ll quickly find folks claiming cities can eventually feed themselves. Maybe they can in theory, but the impracticality of the suggestion is breathtaking.

For cities to become self-sufficient in food, millions of urbanites would have to spend part of their time farming. Farming, urban or rural, is hard work. Organic farming, which urban-agriculture advocates favor, is especially hard work. This Urban and urbanite, for one, has no interest in trundling up to the rooftop after work every night to pull weeds.

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July 9 – Seattle Tilth’s Chicken Coop & Urban Farm Tour

Using our map with descriptions of each site, you can choose your own adventure. Some highlights include a Coop Expo at the Rainier Beach Farm with several builders ready to show-off a variety of coops that are made-to-order, a certified organic garden-to-market project used for mental health therapy, a community garden with a large chicken coop for Asian immigrant elders, a chicken coop with a green roof, rain barrels and neighboring goats, and a diverse garden with bees, worm bins and medicinal plants used to make herbal tinctures and salves.

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Beth Bainbridge of Park Slope is an NYU graduate student who is working with Green Guerrilas at the High School for Public Service youth farm. Photo by Todd Maisel/News.

“My dietitian friends are working in hospitals, so they’re envious,” she says.

By Jordan Teicher
Daily News Writer
July 7th 2011

Excerpt:

Forget photocopying and coffee runs.

New York college students are leaving the office behind and getting their hands dirty at summer internships at urban farms throughout the city. And they don’t miss the air conditioning.

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