Category — Education

Seeds @ City Urban Farm empowers young urban farmers and cultivates hope by training students at San Diego City College in sustainable, organic, local, community agriculture.

Urban-farming apprenticeship programs crop up across the country.

By Aleigh Acerni
Urban Farm Magazine
February 3, 2012

Excerpt:

Would-be farmers have a new way to hone their skills while helping to increase access to fresh produce in urban communities: urban-farming apprenticeship programs. They’ve been cropping up across the country with mounting frequency for the past few years, offering specialized, hands-on training in sustainable, urban-farming methods. And as the popular — and typically competitive — programs grow, they’re giving rise to a new contingent of professional urban farmers.

[Read more →]

Proposed project an entry in the Mahindra Spark the Rise Project Championship.

Project Implementation Examples

The idea of School Garden was conceptualized and set up at Loyola Composite Pre-University college with the help of one organization, that funded this project. An Eco-Club was formed, comprising of 16-18 students from 8th and 9th standards, to maintain the terrace garden and this was a huge success. These students have displayed initiative and enthusiasm in maintaining the garden on their own and are very involved that they reach out with questions and related problems they face. These students have been supported by their teachers and have been able to harvest 3 kilos of greens within 30 days of starting the project. Vegetables harvested from this project have been directly diverted to their mid-day meal preparation, which is an achievement in itself. This has fostered a green community within the school today.

[Read more →]

See Curtis and Luke discuss a potential piece of property for an urban farming business.

Curtis Stone wants to teach you how he makes $60,000/year in sales growing food on 3/4 of an acre.

Mission: To create a movement of urban farmers to build communities, resilient local food systems, and income to support their families.

Your Guides: Curtis Stone, owner and operator or Green City Acres, a 3/4 acre pedal-powered urban farm in Kelowna, BC ($60,000 sales in his second season) and Luke Miller Callahan, founder of GroAction, a hub for social entrepreneurs.

[Read more →]

Michigan State University

Welcome to a one of a kind learning experience! MetroAg MOOC (massive open online course) is a 6 week online course. MetroAg facilitates the discussion on how we integrate agriculture back into urban areas. The content will build awareness of how agriculture can play a vital role in cities, focusing on areas such as food production, recreation, waste, energy, water management, & health care.

[Read more →]

A view of the University of Massachusetts Amherst permaculture garden from the Franklin Dining Commons. The garden includes 1,000 edible plants that are being used to feed students. Photo By Keith Toffling.

UMass permaculture garden dedicated and praised

By Stephen Hewitt
The Massachusetts Daily
October 02, 2011

Excerpt:

The story of a group of University of Massachusetts students who set out to initiate the construction of the school’s first permaculture garden a year ago is a remarkable one, but it’s only the beginning of a worldwide movement.

That was one of several messages delivered last Thursday afternoon, as award-winning author and anti-hunger activist Frances Moore Lappé visited campus and joined University administrators to help dedicate the permaculture garden in an event at the Franklin Dining Commons.

“This beautiful garden is a perfect illustration of what can manifest and what also proves this eco-mind, this ecological understanding of life itself, and what I find so incredibly empowering,” said Lappé in her address.

[Read more →]

The average Californian farmer business owner is 58 years old. These entrepreneurs produce crops valued at $20 billion per year.

By Krie Nguyen
The Urban Farm
January 6, 2012

Excerpt:

The 22-week program, priced at $1,950, is designed for those with busy schedules, with courses offered in the evening and on weekends for a total of seven to 10 hours of class and training time per week. The cost includes printed materials, machinery, tools and supplies.

The coursework load will be substantial, with students graded on participation, extra reading assignments and tests. In addition, participants will work on two long-term projects, a business plan and independent study project. Both have as their goal to place students in a scenario of a real-life business.

[Read more →]

Ilana Labow of Fresh Roots. Fresh Roots provides produce for school cafeterias. Photo by Fresh Roots.

Urban farmers hope to grow in school district

By Naoibh O’Connor
Vancouver Courier
January 4, 2012

Exceprt:

Fresh Roots, a project co-founded by Ilana Labow and Gray Oron in a backyard garden three years ago, now develops school-based market gardens to help teachers meet curriculum goals through experiential learning, while providing produce for school cafeterias and culinary arts programs.

The group has worked with Queen Alexandra for one full growing season.

[Read more →]

John Jeavons has been the Director of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE Mini-Farming program for Ecology Action since 1972. He is the author of How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine. Photo by Amy Melious.

John Jeavons to give 3-Day Workshop in NYC, January 6-8, 2012

Bu Cindy Conner
Homeplace Earth
Nov 1, 2011

Excerpt:

When I was learning to garden back in the 70’s, I had read John’s book How to Grow More Vegetables (HTGMV) along with all the other organic gardening information available at the time. I gained skills and knowledge over the years, first growing food to keep my family healthy, then expanding as a market gardener, growing food for my community. Since I was the only organic grower most people knew, I would get a lot of questions. In fact, the cooperative extension office used to refer people to me.

[Read more →]

Scott Terry helps 4-H student Laurentina Quintana plant broccoli seedlings on his urban farm in Hayward.

“I like to play farmer, and the rent from the two units on the property covers my costs. And I get to give food to people who need it.”

By Joe Eaton, Ron Sullivan
The San Francisco Chronicle
December 21, 2011

Excerpts:

Financial planner Scott Terry’s “hobby” in Hayward could be the fifth act of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.” His property there was once part of pioneer farmer William Meek’s Cherryland estate, covered with orchards, before it was subdivided for housing. Terry is bringing back the fruit trees, as well as tomatoes, squashes, corn and greens, and a local 4-H club is helping plant and harvest. The proceeds go back to the community, by way of the Davis Street Family Resource Center in nearby San Leandro.

[Read more →]

“We had some shiitake mushrooms,” says Shields. “And my momma made sloppy joes with it.”

By Tracie Mcmillan
Grist
16 Dec 2011

Excerpt:

Gilligan, co-director of New Orleans’ Grow Dat Youth Farm, traipses up the mound, which terminates at a deck of sorts and more containers, crowded with architectural students from Tulane University and local urban farm experts. Beyond the deck sits a bayou, lined with trees weeping Spanish moss into the water; the I-610 freeway buzzes along in the background. “I can’t believe how much is done! My office is going to be in a treehouse!”

[Read more →]

Students mixing new soil with old in front of P.S. 20. Photo by Rebecca Sesny.

“We have all sort of lost touch with where our food is coming from.”

By Rebecca Sesny
CUNY J-School
Dec 14, 2011

Excerpt:

The administration agreed in the fall of 2010 to create a new program with initial funding coming from the PTA. Local farmer Zachary Pickens and Madiba Restaurant, which has its own rooftop garden, agreed to partner with the school to create this class. Mr. Pickens began the program in the spring of 2011, teaching third grade classes about composting and worm growing. The children grew their own lettuce and the chef at Madiba Restaurant came in to teach them how to make salads with their vegetables.

[Read more →]

Digging In – urban agriculture grows vegetables – and community

By Kris Gallagher
DePaul Magazine
Getting Green
Winter 2012

Founded in 1898, DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the nation and the largest private institution in Chicago, serving over 25000 students.

Excerpt:

DePaul is ideally positioned to lead such an initiative, Rosing says, based on a survey his students conducted on how North American universities support urban agriculture. DePaul already offers nearly all the necessary core disciplines. He ticks them off:

[Read more →]

Support an Urban High School Farm Project!

EcoStation:NY, Boswyck Farms, and the Bushwick Campus and its students are in the process of building an incredible greenhouse on the Bushwick Campus, and we’re raising $15,000 through Kickstarter to do it! We want to expand the greenhouse infrastructure and education programs, install both hydroponic and aquaponic systems, pay teachers, and create more opportunities to learn about food justice and community food production in the Bushwick area.

[Read more →]

Seeds@City Urban Farm: “Shoots” Greenhouse

Excerpt from their Kickstarter food project appeal:

Seeds was formed in June 2008 through a partnership between San Diego City College and San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project. Since its inception, Seeds@City––an approximately 1-acre farm on the City College campus––has offered apprenticeships three times yearly, and the student demand has consistently been beyond our capacity. The farm provides students with hands-on experiences necessary for learning the skills of urban farming and is the first of its kind at an institution of higher education in San Diego County.

[Read more →]

It is a passion for this city-girl-turned-farmer, whose farm is making a mark on the plates of Oklahoma school children

By Doris Wedge
The Norman Transcript
Dec 12, 2011

Excerpt:

Her 330 acres near Stratford are producing tons of vegetables, with some being harvested throughout the year. There are more than 20 vegetables, from lettuce mix to green onions — available to her wholesale clients today — plus five culinary herbs, all of them grown without chemicals.

She was told that she couldn’t do it by folks who supposedly were in the know, she said.

[Read more →]

Save A University Farm from Development

The University of Nevada’s University Farm, a working farm used to teach college students about farming and agriculture, is under attack. The University’s Board of Regents recently voted to have part of the farm rezoned to a light industrial/commercial site. Unless the City Council or University Regents reverse this decision, the 112-year-old farm could be destroyed by commercial development.

The University of Nevada’s College of Agriculture is one of the few colleges in America where students can learn at a working farm on campus. With local, sustainable, urban farms just starting to crop up in cities across America, the country desperately needs collegiate agricultural programs like that which could be offered by University Farm.

[Read more →]

From the Field to the Cellar, to the Table

Trent Alumni Magazine
Spring 2011

Excerpt:

The construction, which will take 4-6 weeks, is just the first example of the opportunities for community building which the cellar will make possible.

The cellar will be constructed using sustainable building practices. The foundation and the walls will be made from compressed bags of earth and it will be built with a green roof. The green roof will offer insulation to the vegetables below and opportunities for educational programming.

[Read more →]

“The amount of opportunities to get involved in small scale and urban scale farming surprised me.”

Multnomah County, Oregon
Multco.us
11/16/11

Aspiring urban farmers, listen up: Multnomah County, in partnership with Oregon State University Extension Service, is offering classroom training and hands-on, in-field apprenticeships with local farmers during an eight-month program in 2012.

The application period for the Beginning Urban Farmer Apprenticeship (BUFA), which is in its second year, opened on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The program provides season-long training for the next generation of beginning farmers who want to participate in small-scale, urban farming. Apprenticeships start April 4, 2012.

[Read more →]

Seed to Plate: A Cultivate Wine’s Competition from Jones Valley Urban Farm on Vimeo.

In the last 10 years, Jones Valley Urban Farm has successfully transformed over 3 acres of vacant downtown property into an organic teaching farm.

Jones Valley Urban Farm is partnering with Phillips Academy–a K-8 public school in downtown Birmingham, Alabama–to educate over 700 students through our Seed to Plate program. This powerful experience teaches kids the joy of planting and growing food, as well as how great fresh food taste and how fun they are to prepare. Little minds are engaged. Energies are spent productively outdoors. And young taste buds begin to crave “healthy.”

[Read more →]

“The main difficulty in our American mode of life now is that we are tending to obliterate the distinction between work and play, by crowding work into hours which ought to be devoted to perfect relaxation of mind and body.”

Scientific American Magazine
April 6, 1878

Excerpt:

As a rule school hours are intelligently adjusted with a view of taxing the young brain to a safe limit; and to put any more upon it, by compelling children, voluntarily or involuntarily, to absorb more knowledge of the kind which should be, if it is not, taught in school, and this during their play hours, is simply continuing work. Besides play that is of any value as play has its very essence freedom.

[Read more →]