Category — Articles

From left, Larry Morrow, Mike Gordon, Molly Wright and Mary Beth Litofsky pick okra and tomatoes at the interfaith garden behind Congregation Beth Shalom. Photo by Marcia Vanderlip/Tribune.

This year, the interfaith garden has already donated more than 500 pounds of produce to The Central Pantry, St. Francis House, the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen, as well as to individual families in need.

By Marcia Vanderlip
Columbia Daily Tribune
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Excerpt:

On this particular Monday, the produce selection had held only a few bags of carrots until Lowenberg showed up. He brings produce to the pantry three times a week. It all comes from a 40-foot-by-50-foot garden plot of former farmland behind Congregation Beth Shalom, a Jewish house of worship. The garden there is tended by volunteers from Beth Shalom and from the Newman Center, which is a Catholic congregation.

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Even though this may appear to be a rural setting, Karmi James, left, and Jeff Boni are weeding their robust urban garden. Photo By Karen Schiely.

They named the minifarm Paqarina, which means “dawn” or “beginning” in the indigenous Quechua language of the Andes

By Mary Beth Breckenridge
Akron Beacon Journal
August 28, 2011

Excerpt:

AKRON, Ohio – Karmi James and Jeff Boni brought little more than interest to their urban gardening venture.

James had done a little gardening as a kid, but neither knew much about growing food before they planted their first garden not far from the old Firestone factory in Akron, Ohio. Today, however, they’re operators of Paqarina Farm, an organic garden on Ira Avenue just south of downtown that produces fruits and vegetables to feed themselves and sell to others.

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Local leaders working to broaden use of community gardens

By Heath Urie
Daily Camera
08/27/2011

Excerpt:

Hunched over the miniature jungle growing along the street near his University Hill home in Boulder, Scott Hoffenberg plucked a glistening purple object from the ground and shook off bits of dirt.

“This is the first eggplant of the year,” Hoffenberg said. “In a couple weeks, we should be pulling 100 to 150 of these off each week.”

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After taking a gardening class, Ron Finley planted vegetables, flowers and fruit in front of his Crenshaw-area home. It offers a free meal and a gathering place for the hard-pressed neighborhood. Photo by Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times.

Ron Finley planted a garden that fed both stomachs and souls in an area where healthful food is scarce. When the city demanded he remove it, neighbors protested and a councilman stepped in to mediate.

By Steve Lopez
LA Times
August 20, 2011

Excerpt:

Consider this the latest installment in the “no good deed goes unpunished” chronicles.

Our story began last spring, when fashion designer Ron Finley admitted to himself that, while he’s always enjoyed gardening, he didn’t really know what the hay he was doing.

“I’d just stick something in the ground and see what happened.”

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A former school lot at Grandy and Warren is part of a large parcel of land being considered for the project.

Suspicious eastsiders compare RecoveryPark to a ‘plantation’

By Christine MacDonald
The Detroit News
Aug 19, 2011

Excerpt:

Detroit — There are no libraries, schools or recreation centers in Lucy Butts’ neighborhood on the near east side. And she says there are three ways out: death, jail or, very rarely, college.

The nonprofit SHAR Foundation wants to provide another path: an elaborate, $220-million farming project that would bring fresh food, thousands of jobs, dozens of small businesses and hope to a neighborhood where that’s been rare for a while.

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Latest archaeological discovery: we’re pretty sure this is the murder weapon. Photo: Nina Lalli

Nina Lalli lives with one man, two dogs, and six chickens in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

By Nina Lalli
Grist
17 Aug 2011

Excerpt:

I brag a lot about the various smells and chores generated by farm life in Bed-Stuy. But it surprises even me to hear myself go on about which hen is laying the biggest eggs or how the squash is taking over the garden. How did I go from being a single lady in a third-floor walk-up to running a farm with a guy I had known for less than a year?

Considering my inclination toward rescuing filthy, abandoned street animals and my love of food, it’s really a wonder it took so long to happen.

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Will Allen, “Farming is one of the most humbling things you can do.”

By Al Lewis
FOXBusiness
August 03, 2011

Excerpt;

What begins with worms employs more than 100 people, some of whom started volunteering when they were 8 years old. Allen says he pays “a living wage,” which in Milwaukee averages in the range of $35,000 a year. And he’s helped many of his workers land college scholarships.

Allen hopes to add 150 more employees, and he foresees thousands more employed in similar operations as the urban-farming trend he’s helped inspire keeps growing.

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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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McDonald’s Rooftop Gardens. Graphic by Demian Repucci on OpenIDEO.

Grow Local and Eat Local, City Council Says

By Sydney Ember
New York Times
July 29, 2011

Excerpt:

In an effort to ramp up support for the consumption and production of local food, the City Council passed a package of bills on Thursday to facilitate the building of rooftop greenhouses and free up land for urban gardens.

Under the legislation, a building’s rooftop greenhouse would not be considered an additional story by the Department of Buildings, and would be exempt from height limits, if it occupies less than one-third of the rooftop. The city would also begin compiling a database of property that it owns or leases so that it can better identify unused spaces to be turned into urban gardens.

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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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June 1942 – House and Garden.

Britain need not be nine meals away from anarchy

Edward Platt
New Statesman
27 June 2011

Excerpt:

London is not the only city in the UK to invest in urban agriculture. For the past few years, Middlesbrough has been running an urban farming and community growing project, which has led to the creation of almost 20 community allotments. Last year, the scheme involved two-thirds of the town’s schools, dozens of community groups and approximately 4,000 people.

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Osbert Lam examines a long bean plant on his rooftop farm ‘Eco-Mama” on June 16. The farm is one of an estimated 300 urban farming projects that now populate the city.

Hong Kongers themselves have historically been resistant to the idea of farming as a suitable pastime. “It is the lowest of our traditional caste system. In traditional Chinese culture, if you’re good at nothing else, you work on the farm.”

By Benjamin Gottlie
CNN
June 29, 2011

Excerpt:

Lam’s farm — a humble 2,000 square feet — is one of an estimated 300 urban farming projects that now occupy Hong Kong’s high-rises, joining the broader, global movement of food sustainability projects in densely populated urban settings.

“Twenty years ago, locals thought that the soil here was dirty,” said Simon Chau, founder of the Produce Green Foundation, which manages Hong Kong’s first urban farm in Tsuen Wan. “Now, after 20 years, people have started to realize that it is rewarding and meaningful to grow something themselves and to eat it.”

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A quiet and distinctly non-violent revolution is underway, especially among our nation’s youth: The resurgence of small farms, local food movements and community gardens all across this land of ours are grass-roots attempts to reclaim some measure of control over the most essential things in our lives—food, health and community. I am now convinced that urban agriculture, in all its forms, is a vital player in this cause.

By Keith Stewart,
The Valley Table, Number 54
The Horticultural Society of New York
June 10, 2011

Excerpt:

IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR, I was invited to be a speaker and panelist at an Urban Agriculture Conference hosted by the Horticultural Society of New York. At first, I was hesitant to accept the invitation because I know very little about urban farming, and, to be honest, have never given it much thought. I’ve always thought of farming as something that goes on in the open fields and pastureland of the countryside, not in backyards behind Manhattan brownstones or on vacant lots in the Bronx.

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Historic postcard of sheep grazing in Franklin Park, via Union Park Press – Dorchester Historical Society

Will urban food production ruin our economy, change our climate, and make our world a more miserable place to live?

By Meg Muckenhoupt
Union Park Press
June 21, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s been days since Edward Glaeser published his urban farm-bashing piece in the Boston Globe, but I’m still annoyed. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University and director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, managed to argue against farms in a way that could extend to urban parks, gardens, zoos, swimming pools, and most sidewalks. He also ignored some intriguing trends in making urban farming more efficient, a.k.a. the Vertical Farm.

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Andrea Bellamy tends to her wheat crop in Vancouver. Photo by John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail.

Mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton calls the lawns-to-wheat-field project “goofy” and cites it as evidence of a council that pays more attention to chicken coops and wheat fields than city basics.

By Wendy Stueck
Globe and Mail
Jun. 25, 2011

Excerpt:

In terms of land use, turning lawns to wheat fields is a poor way to boost local food production and reduce land, fuel and other resources required to feed a city, says William Rees, the University of British Columbia professor who coined the “ecological footprint” term to describe how much productive land it takes to support a given population.

“The last thing you want to use what precious little land we have in the city for is grain production,” he said.

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Radio conversation: The future of urban agriculture initiatives in Detroit and Michigan

By Russ White
Mlive.com
June 16, 2011

From MSU Today on News/Talk 760 WJR: Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon and MSU Athletic Director Mark Hollis talk with Michael Hamm – the C. S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at MSU and head of the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU.

They discuss the state and future of urban agriculture initiatives in Detroit and Michigan. Hamm says transforming vacant lots into urban farms and community gardens could supply Detroit residents with the majority of their fruits and vegetables. And he says MSU is at the forefront of the urban agriculture movement.

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The Boston Globe staff illustration.

The locavore’s dilemma: Urban farms mean less people per acre which in turn means longer drives and more gasoline consumption.

By Edward L. Glaeser
OP-ED
Boston Globe
June 16, 2011|

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

Excerpt:

But the most important environmental cost of metropolitan agriculture is that lower density levels mean more driving. Today, about 250 million Americans live on the 60 million acres of this country that are urban — which is about four people per acre. By contrast, America uses 442 million acres for cropland and 587 million acres for pastureland, which is about 1.4 and 1.9 acres per person respectively. If we allocated just 7.2 percent of this agricultural land into metropolitan area, we would halve metropolitan area densities.

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The Environmental Youth Alliance Society has 30 homeowners willing to uproot their turf to plant small-scale wheat fields. The group aims to educate schools about the origin and history of grain. Illustration Vancouver Sun.

Group seeks funding for ‘ Lawns to Loaves’ pilot project

By Jeff Lee
The Vancouver Sun
15 Jun 2011

Excerpt:

From chicken coops in backyards and vegetable plots at city hall, Vancouver is branching out into experimental wheat plots in place of lawns.

The idea of replacing turf with a waving patch of yellow grain is among a list of ideas the Vision Vancouver-led council is considering for this year’s Greenest City Neighbourhood grants allocations.

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The penitentiary at Leavenworth has its own garden that inmates maintain. Last year 4,597 families benefited from the fresh produce. Garlic grows outside the prison gate.

$96,856.57 – Estimated grocery store value of the produce given to the needy

By James A. Fussell
The Kansas City Star
June 7, 2011

Excerpt:

Prison food has never enjoyed a great reputation. But the quarter million pounds of produce grown annually by inmates at the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth just might change that. It’s fresh, free, feeds the less fortunate and even has helped inmates get good jobs after being released — all without costing taxpayers a nickel.

Wait. A prison farm?

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Photo via Blogging Farmer.

The non-farm public does not understand the science behind operating a farm.

By Jo Ann Hustis
Morris Daily Herald
May 28, 2011

Excerpt:

Research has shown that non-farm consumers in the United States admit they do not know much about agriculture, and that their actual experience with farmers and farming is limited.

“Farmers in general are finding out it’s more important than ever to tell what’s happening on our farms. City people have different ideas of what we’re doing,” she said of the FOOD research program initiated by a coalition of farm leaders who represent the five largest Illinois farm groups.

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