Prinzessinnengarten, an urban agriculture project in the heart of Berlin.

13 full-time positions threatened, as is the result of 30,000 hours of volunteer work per season

The future of the Prinzessinnengarten is uncertain. The Property Fund plans to sell the city-owned plot at Moritzplatz. The Property Fund has been commissioned to sell the plot on behalf of the Berlin Senate. This could mean the imminent end of the garden.

Open spaces offer opportunities for social engagement and new forms of urban life. They are part of the creative, beautiful and wild Berlin that is so fervently espoused by politicians. Moritzplatz exemplifies the threat to such spaces, but also the opportunities that arise from them. It could become a model for forward-looking property policies that takes into account the value of places such as the Prinzessinnengarten and that include citizens on an equal footing and from an early stage.
In order to establish a sustainable future for the Prinzessinnengarten and to appropriately involve the neighborhood around Moritzplatz in the development of their living environment, we demand the following:

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Green thumb: Kenji Nakahara, who spent his entire working life at Toyota Motor Corp., tends vegetables he is growing on a farm in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, in July. KYODO

City provides all the training as baby boomers leave automaker

By Yui Matsutake
Japan Times
Aug. 30, 2012

NAGOYA — In the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, a growing number of retired corporate employees have taken up farming thanks to a city-run agricultural training program.

The city, the home base of Toyota Motor Corp., launched the training center in 2004 ahead of a surge in the number of retirees when baby boomers began reaching retirement age in around 2007.

It was a big hit and now more than 250 participants are actively engaged in farming.

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Cops discovered an incredible 3 million bees being kept as “pets” at a house yesterday. Photo by Andrew Cote/Nyc Beekeepers Association.

‘It’s gotten out of hand,’ admits Yin Gin Chen. Beekeepers swarm upon Corona house and confiscate insects and take them to undisclosed location

By Clare Trapasso And Oren Yaniv
New York Daily News
Aug 23, 2012

Excerpt:

A residential Queens block became a buzzy battleground with nearly 3 million bees swarming around a modest brick house on a lot teeming with 45 hives.

Brazen beekeeper Yi Gin Chen, 58, claimed he started with one hive two years ago and the insects just multiplied.
“It’s gotten out of hand,” he said. “I don’t have the time or resources to do this.”

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Unidad de Producción en el Centro de Caracas. Al Lado Del Hotel Alba Caracas Funciona Una De Las Unidades. (foto: Omar Sierra)

Urban agriculture is one of the strategies promoted by the government of President Hugo Chavez to increase food supply, combat poverty, recover urban spaces and reduce environmental effects caused by the use of agrochemicals.

Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the U.S.
TECHNICAL: Urban agriculture in Venezuela
August 2012 (in Spanish)

Excerpts:

Food Sovereignty is the “power of states to define their own agricultural and food policies according to objectives of sustainable development and food security” – La Via Campesina, 1996

Achievements (translated by Google)

With a total investment of USD 44 billion by the national government, now in Venezuela, is produced at a low cost and nationwide: onion, sweet pepper, leek, basil, celery, eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, cilantro, lettuce, tomato, radish, beets and green beans in spaces promoted by urban agriculture. By July 2012, there were 26,296 agricultural production units (UPA) from home gardens, community, institutional and school, in 10 states of the country prioritized (Anzoategui, Aragua, Carabobo, Distrito Capital, Lara, Miranda, Monagas, Tachira, Vargas and Zulia), rising food production of 457.9 tonnes in 2009-6340 201,216 tons in May.

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