Posts from — September 2011

Andrew Monbouquette, left, and Dan Susman traveled the country filming urban gardening efforts for their documentary “Growing Cities.”

“The average age of a farmer in the United States is 57. We need a new generation to replace those who are retiring.”

By Bob Fischbach
World-Herald
Sept. 3, 2011

Excerpt:

Susman secured fellowships and grants to cover filming costs, and the two set out in early May on an urban-gardening pilgrimage that began in Denver. They saw beekeeping community gardens in a Latino section of Los Angeles, then toured a 100-year-old suburban farm in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Next came the lively urban farming scenes of Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Seattle.

[Read more →]

Sprout City Farms, in partnership with the Denver Green School, Denver Urban Gardens, and Denver Public Schools, is building a one-acre vegetable farm in a corner of the schoolyard at the Denver Green School (DGS).

DGS is a public elementary and middle school (pre-K to 8th grade) focused on environmental and social sustainability through a “hands-on, brains-on,” project-based approach to learning. The Denver Green School Community Farm aligns perfectly with the values of the school, providing opportunities for students to engage in the natural world, food production, and interaction with the local community. It also gives them space to run around outside chasing grasshoppers.

[Read more →]

The Australian Community Gardening Movement And Repertoires For Change

By Claire Nettle
Bachelor of Environmental Studies Master of Applied Science (Social Ecology)
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of History and Politics, University of Adelaide, December 2010
359 pages

Abstract:

There has been a resurgence of community gardening activity in Australia over the past decade. This coincides with increasing concern about food security, urban sustainability, social isolation and the preservation of community space. Community gardening has been adopted by divergent actors, from health agencies looking to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to radical social movements seeking symbols of non-capitalist social and spatial relations. This thesis contributes to a systematic research account of the Australian community gardening movement by considering community gardening as a site of collective social action.

[Read more →]

Understanding the recent trend in food production activities within the limits of a developed nation’s capital

By Peter de Lange
Master thesis in the program Environment and Resource Management
University Amsterdam
Aug. 21, 2011
69 pages

Abstract

Urban agriculture, the practice of growing food inside a city, can play a significant role in a cities food system, especially in feeding the urban poor. Its presence varies greatly across regions, however, and it is predominantly seen in Asia and Africa, where it is often practiced out of necessity, in order to feed families or gain much needed additional income.

Urban agriculture is not confined to developing countries, however, and, in recent years, is becoming increasingly popular in cities across the United States and Europe. One such city is Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, where especially community gardens have sprouted up in the last three years.

[Read more →]

The Tempelhof project stands in contrast to Germany’s strictly regulated traditional allotments

Deborah Cole
Jakarta Globe
September 02, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s sunflowers instead of planes and kale instead of kerosene at legendary Tempelhof Airport, site of the Berlin Airlift and now home to one of Europe’s biggest and most unusual urban gardens.

Launched by a dozen “pioneers” in April, the Allmende Kontor plot now has about 300 people growing fruit, vegetables and flowers between the former runways of the airport, which closed nearly three years ago.

[Read more →]

‘Food from the Sky’ in London at Budgens supermarket, which has 17,000 visitors a week

By Eifion Rees
The Ecologist
July 26, 2011

Excerpt:

The idea is to give other community projects all the information and advice they need, to help them realise what’s involved and how to make it work, says Budgens Crouch End’s owner, Andrew Thornton.

‘For other stores to take this on they’d have to believe it wasn’t going to be terribly onerous for them, and our work will help with that side of things.’

[Read more →]

Potato Harvest Day – Students at Queen Mary Elementary School work with Summerhill Seniors

Video by Charlie Miller and Damian Inwood
The Edible Garden Project

Excerpts:

Two years ago the Queen Mary Community Garden was built in North Vancouver. Included in the garden were four large plots dedicated to the students at Queen Mary Elementary School – right next door.

Students take part in planning, planting, and maintaining the garden plots for their classroom. We work with students from grade 3, 5, and 7. They each have a compost bucket in their classrooms that they empty in the garden composters; a great was to learn about closing the loops between food waste and helping their garden grow.

See more here.

The Edible Map of Hackney by Mikey Tomkins. “You Are Hungry: Mapping An Edible Urban Hackney” investigates how much food can be grown on 25 hectares of south Hackney. Complete map here.

More and more people are finding imaginative places for growing food in urban environments

By Edward Platt
The Guardian
1 September 2011

Excerpt:

The map offers a beguiling vision of a district recently ravaged by riots, and yet it isn’t entirely wishful thinking. When Tomkins had greeted our small group half an hour before with a pot of his London Fields honey, he had explained that the tour we were about to embark on would not only take in the places where food might be produced, but the places where it was already in production.

[Read more →]

The Honeytrap cocktail.
35ml Krupnik honey liqueur
25ml The King’s Ginger liqueur
15ml rosewater
15ml lemon juice (about half a lemon’s worth)
25ml honey

Shake with ice and serve with a twist of lemon in a martini glass.

By Ian Douglas
The Telegraph
23 Aug 2011

Excerpt:

Mikey Tomkins keeps the hive on top of the hall and organised the event as part of his work at Sustain, a charity that promotes good practice in food production. ‘We’re a charity, we promote food in huge variety. There’s the sustainable fish for London campaign, the real bread campaign, and Capital Bee [a Sustain campaign sponsored by the Mayor of London's office] is part of Capital Growth, which promotes food growing in London.

[Read more →]

Whole Kids Foundation™ Taking Root With School Garden Grant Program – To be considered, applications must be received by 5pm CST, December 31, 2011.

AUSTIN, Texas. (Aug. 17, 2011) — Whole Kids Foundation in partnership with FoodCorps is now accepting online grant applications for its first major initiative, the School Garden Grant Program, which will be funded by a six-week, in-store donation drive at all Whole Foods Market stores, and online at wholekidsfoundation.org, from Aug. 17 to Sept. 30.

Created to help schools grow students’ relationships with food through gardening, the new program stems from the nonprofit’s mission of supporting schools’ efforts to improve children’s nutrition.

[Read more →]

The International Rescue Committee’s New Roots Community Farm brings refugees together to share experiences and feel a connection to their new home through community gardening and nutrition and micro-enterprise programs. The farm is located on 54th Avenue and Chollas Parkway in City Heights. Photo by Photo by Ruxandra Guidi / KPBS.

Radio Series

By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Patty Lane
KPBS, San Diego State University

Monday Aug 29, 2011 – The Grow It Yourself movement (GIY).

Tuesday Aug 30 – We look at problems with urban farming, and how that might affect local refugee and immigrant communities.

Wednesday Aug 31 – Low water edibles and growing your own at home without a yard

Thursday Sept 1 – Local restaurants embracing community farming and bringing it to the table.

[Read more →]

In 1988 people weren’t farming,(in the city)” said planning director Amanda Thompson.

Written by Doug Richards
11 Alive News
Aug. 31 2011

Excerpt:

Decatur, Georgia — Decatur has been a city disinclined to discourage the agricultural tendencies of its urban community.

With a two-acre community garden in the Oakhurst neighborhood, with chickens scratching in the backyards of intown bungalows, where a family with three pygmy goats in the backyard raises nary an eyebrow– it’s all part of the Decatur landscape.

[Read more →]

Growing vegetable crops within towns and cities, to supply urban markets, is becoming increasingly popular. Photo credit: FAO/Erick-Christian Ahounou.

Radio Interview in Zimbabwe

Interview by Busani Bafana
Agfax – Reporting Science in Africa
September 2011

Interview with two urban farmers who belong to the Northvale Farmers Association, Mr Leonard Mafuwa as well as Mr Mlamu Limkula, who are urban farmers on the outskirts of Bulawayo.

In much of Africa, growing food crops on small plots of land within the city is frowned upon by urban authorities. However, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a more positive attitude to urban agriculture is developing. A multi-stakeholder forum has been established to lobby for urban farming, and the city council is in the process of developing a strategic plan, as well as policies and by-laws, to optimise urban farm production. Two urban farmers and an economic adviser to the forum discuss some of the challenges and solutions for city-based agriculture.

[Read more →]