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Fears about food safety have prompted some young Chinese professionals to try growing their own

By Martin Patience
BBC News, Beijing
Aug 3, 2011

Excerpt:

Juggling their iPhones with spades, a group of young professionals are getting their hands dirty – digging vegetables.

During the week, they are teachers, PR consultants, and computer programmers. But at the weekend, these city slickers return to the soil.

“We’re worried about food safety,” says He Liying, explaining why they grow vegetables.

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Volunteers from City Slicker Farms helped install raised beds in Laura Blakeney’s yard to avoid contaminated soil. Photo by Nate Seltenrich.

Urban farming has become hugely popular in the East Bay, but lead and other heavy metals in the soil pose potential health risks. Meanwhile, there’s little consensus on what to do about it.

By Nate Seltenrich
East Bay Express
Aug 3, 2011

Excerpt:

These are the dilemmas that cities and urban gardeners now face. Yet organizations like City Slicker Farms are working hard to develop safe, practical solutions to soil contamination. Since 2005 the organization has set up 170 backyard gardens, including about 140 in West Oakland, all at no cost to the recipients. The initial step is always a soil test. While few lots exhibit truly dangerous levels, most are elevated and require some form of remediation — typically, covering the soil with mulch and growing vegetables in raised beds.

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Growing food with a view

It’s always exciting to see a food garden growing in a unique location. Brad’s large deck is six floors up at roof level with a spectacular view of False Creek and downtown Vancouver. A large variety of containers grow herbs, fruit and vegetables, and two compost bins make soil for the garden.

Casey O’Leary of Earthly Delights Farm. Photo by Laurie Pearman.

Recently, the City of Boise’s Planning and Development Services formed an Urban Agriculture Committee

By Tara Morgan
Boise Weekly
Aug 3, 2011

Excerpt:

But these recommendations, while still open for debate, have upset some of Boise’s few existing urban farmers.

“It just seems backwards to me to impose all these regulations before you’ve even come up with a way to help people farm,” said Casey O’Leary of Earthly Delights Farm.

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Tara Tracy

The Cecil Whig
Aug 2, 2011

Tara Tracy has been named the Urban Agriculture Manager at the Delaware Center for Horticulture, following a rigorous national search by the nonprofit based in Wilmington’s Trolley Square neighborhood.

As head of Urban Agriculture, Tracy is responsible for developing and implementing food production and community gardening programs, including: TheDCH’s Urban Farm at 12th & Brandywine on Wilmington’s northeast side, the greater Wilmington area’s Urban Farm Coalition; and 23 community gardens in New Castle County.

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Image via The Wall Street Journal.

Herbs and vegetables common in Latin America, such as yerba buena (“good herb”), cilantro and tomatillos, grew alongside Italian staples like basil and tomatoes next to African-American classics like collard greens.

By Sophia Hollander
Wall Street Journal
Aug 1, 2011

Excerpt:

The 2.5-acre plot is actually a working farm in the heart of the Bronx called La Finca del Sur, yielding 30 pounds of produce a week at peak harvest. Wedged between Metro North tracks, the Major Deegan and the Grand Concourse, it is the largest of a growing network of farms across the Bronx that health and government officials say will soon rival Brooklyn and Manhattan’s more celebrated web of local food producers.

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