By Cassim Shepard
Urban Omnibus
February 1st, 2012

Excerpt:

It’s easy to list the reasons why we are supposed to love urban agriculture: the food it yields is fresh and local; the farming it requires is fun and social; the effect on neighborhoods is revitalizing and healthy. Critics point to its inability to replace existing production and distribution channels for produce, but what if its impact extended beyond the small farm or immediate community? What if it could solve other problems? One of New York’s greatest environmental challenges is its combined sewage overflow (CSO) problem. Our outdated sewer system is designed to collect stormwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe on its way to a sewage treatment plant.

When the rain is heavy, though, volume exceeds capacity and untreated wastewater flows right into our waterways. Green infrastructure is a term that refers to a wide range of technologies and systems to improve water quality through the capture and reuse of stormwater. But the policies that incentivize green infrastructure and those that govern urban agriculture are not coordinated. In some cases, urban agriculture is actively excluded from official definitions of green infrastructure. In an effort to support farming in the city and help scale it up, Tyler Caruso and Erik Facteau set out to prove scientifically the environmental benefits of rooftop and other urban farms, in particular their ability to manage stormwater, with their research project Seeing Green. In describing this project, Caruso and Facteau touch on issues that range from the effect of scientific research on public policy, the shift towards a definition of sustainability that includes performance alongside design, and the need to layer different registers of analysis in efforts to bring about a city that is more responsive to natural systems.

Read the complete article here.

Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

By Seth Borenstein
AP Science Writer
January 25, 2012

Excerpt:

It’s the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation’s 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.

It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn’t as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.

“People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime,” said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. “There’s a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn’t grow before.”

He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: “People don’t think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now.”

Read the complete article here.

Trial at five contaminated urban agriculture sites in Kampala City, Uganda

By G. Nabulo, C.R. Black, J. Craigon, S.D. Young
School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham
Online: 28 December 2011.
Environmental Pollution
Volume 162, March 2012, Pages 389-398

Abstract

Concentrations of potentially toxic elements were measured in soils and five contrasting tropical leafy vegetables grown in a replicated field trial at five contaminated urban agriculture sites in Kampala City, Uganda. Soil contamination at each site could be tentatively ascribed to known waste disposal practices. There was considerable variation in metal uptake between vegetable types. Washing leafy vegetables reduced chromium and lead concentrations but exogenous contamination of leaves also depended on vegetable type, withGynandropsis gynandraL. showing a marked tendency to accumulate Pb and Cr.

For the worst case scenario of children consuming unwashed vegetables, some metal ‘hazard quotient’ (HQ) limits (1.0) were violated at four of the five sites studied. For the 25 ‘site-vegetable’ combinations assessed, the HQ for Pb exceeded 1.0 in 36% of cases. A vegetable-specific site screening tool based on soil extraction with 0.01 M CaCl2and extrapolation to provide HQ values was assessed.Solubility of toxic metals in soils used for urban agriculture is highly variable. Washing leafy vegetables prior to cooking reduces consumption of Cr, Pb, As and Ni. Lead (Pb) presents the greatest hazard in produce from agriculture in Kampala City. Agriculture in East African cities can be practiced safely with the right choices. Soil screening to predict hazard to consumers may be useful in site surveys.

Purchase paper here.

Under no circumstances should a project proponent take any action that would put the health of urban farmers or the consumers of their produce at risk.

By Markus B. Niebanck
Brownfield Renewal
Markus B. Niebanck, PG is an environmental consultant and Brownfield practitioner working out of Oakland, California.

Excerpt:

Protective alternatives were considered and implemented, and included:

Excavation of shallow soil from property line to property line and the transportation of excavated material to an off-property facility (landfill) for disposal. This is the alternative often recommended by service providers or regulatory agencies that rely on the common residential-standard cookbook approach to site preparation. This approach is often prohibitively expensive.

Modification of “input parameters” for risk models, such that realistic means and durations of exposure are established. Often the simple rationalizing of the evaluative method brings substantial and demonstrably acceptable change to a contaminant’s risk profile.

Grading of shallowest soil and construction of an on-property feature for containment. The soil stored in the features would be disposed of at a later date when the property is redeveloped for its next use. The graded area is filled with crushed rock or decomposed granite to prevent contact by users with underlying material (a raised-bed planting scenario).

Amendment of shallow soil for stabilization of contaminants. Viable for only certain contaminants, the appropriateness of this approach is sometimes more difficult to effectively communicate to neighbors and site users, as the contaminant is not actually removed from the property (or secured in a site feature).

Read the complete article here.

Breaking New Ground

By Nevin Cohen And Kubi Ackerman
New York Times (Mark Bittman)
November 21,

Excerpts:

New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently funded three new urban agriculture projects: a rooftop garden at a settlement house, a vegetable garden near the Gowanus Canal and a commercial rooftop farm atop a Brooklyn Navy Yard building. These projects are part of an innovative green infrastructure program to turn impervious roofs, vacant lots and streets into spaces that soak up the rain and prevent water pollution. Supporting urban farms and gardens as a means of keeping our waterways clean is an excellent idea, and should be dramatically scaled up.

DEP’s green infrastructure program represents a unique opportunity for New York City to substantially expand its already robust network of urban farms and community gardens while simultaneously tackling the CSO problem. There are nearly 2,000 acres of vacant land in the areas contributing to sewage overflows, mostly impervious surfaces. There are also thousands of buildings that could support rooftop farms. Interest in growing food locally is at an all-time high, and gardeners, farmers, entrepreneurs, and farming organizations would jump at the chance to have access to additional space to farm. In locales such as the Bronx River watershed, in which CSO problems coincide with limited food access, the benefits to the environment and to public health would be substantial.

Read the complete article here.

See New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection here.

Urban farms could put a substantial amount of fresh produce on our tables without the long journeys.

By Fabian Schmidt
DW-World.De
14.11.2011

Excerpt:

Volkmar Keuter of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology in the German town of Oberhausen says cities are full of unused potential to grow food.

“You might have some kind of production going on underneath a roof. Certain industrial installations that produce heat could be used as a greenhouse in winter,” he told Deutsche Welle.

“Or you might have office buildings. Offices often have large server rooms that produce heat as they cool the computers. That heat could be used as well.”

Keuter is an advocate for urban farming. Especially when it comes to using the spaces – and outputs – that we frequently consider ‘waste.’

Take sewage. Treated properly, this could be used to fertilize rooftop farming operations.

Read the complete article here.

Hazardous substances, including lead, were found by investigators.

By thehortchannel.tv
September 28, 2011

An allotments Newport (Wales) where lead was found in the soil could be closed for good from December.

Shaftesbury Park Allotment holders were told by Newport council last month it would close the site after hazardous substances, including lead, were found by investigators.

After tenants protested that they were given little notice of the closure, officers allowed them to remain at the site while a further probe was completed. But yesterday Newport council confirmed that the site has now been classified as contaminated land and officers have three months to find a solution or prevent further public access.

Officers have advised nothing else is grown there and existing crops should not be eaten.

The council is now exploring ways of cleaning the site, such as replacing the old soil, and officers have to report back by December 13. It is also investigating whether other areas of public space in Shaftesbury could be used as a suitable allotment site.

A council spokesman said: “Site holders have also been offered other alternative allotment sites around Newport, either collectively or as individuals should they wish to relocate.”.

Cliff Couch, a tenant who has used the allotments for four decades, said the news which was given to tenants at a meeting with the council, was devastating. “It’s been a long time I’ve been over there. I thought I would see my days out on the allotments, but it’s not to be.”

Link here.

Interim Guidelines for Safe Gardening Practices

United States Environmental Protection Agency
Summer 2011
22 pages

This report presents a process and set of recommendations for developing agricultural reuse projects on sites with an environmental history. Potential gardeners, state environmental agencies and regulators can use this process to determine how to address the risks inherent to redeveloping brownfields for agricultural reuses while being protective of human health.

This document can be used as an interim guideline until research can provide more definitive standards and policies for agricultural reuse on these e was developed in the Midwest, it may be used to benefit tribes and communities throughout the country wishing to utilize urban agriculture on brownfield sites and vacant properties.

Introduction:

This document is a condensation of the input of 60 experts from academia, state and local government, and the nonprofit sector who gathered in Chicago on October 21 and 22, 2010 to outline the range of issues which need to be addressed in order to safely grow food on former brownfield sites. A list of the participants in this workshop is available in Appendix A.

In short, there are three major issues:

1. Before deciding whether to garden on a site, it is important to research its history, because a site may have a range of contaminants depending on its past uses;

2. Once the past uses have been determined, there are options for testing, cleanup or exposure- management approaches which prospective urban farmers can utilize in order to garden safely; and

3. Although a wealth of experience has been gained through brownfields cleanup over the last 15 years, the cleanup standards in existence are designed to protect people on the site from ingestion and inhalation of contaminants in the soil, water and air, but do not address consumption of food grown on the site. Over time, we expect that standards will be updated to address this gap. In the interim, existing residential cleanup standards can be used as a benchmark for safe gardening.

Read the complete report here.

Lead Affecting East Bay Urban Gardens

Elizabeth Cook reports.

More and more people are turning their backyards into gardens. But in some East Bay neighborhoods, lead in the soil is becoming a concern.

Much like eating greens provides essential nutrients, so does seeing and being around green

By Frances E. (Ming) Kuo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Landscape and Human Health Laboratory University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2010

Excerpt from the Executive Summary

This monograph presents an overview of what scientists have discovered about the relationship between nature and human health, focusing on the most compelling findings. It focuses on three classic indicators of health drawn from animal research. Studies of laboratory and zoo animals, as well as animals in the wild living in degraded and fragmented habitat tells us that organisms living in unfit habitats undergo social, psychological, and physical breakdown. The scientific study of what Richard Louv has coined “nature deficit disorder” in people mirrors the animal research on unfit habitats. When we compare people with more versus less ready access to parks and other green environments, we find that they exhibit differences in well-being and functioning in each of the three trademark domains: social, psychological, and physical health.

Just as rats and other laboratory animals housed in unfit environments undergo systematic break- downs in healthy, positive patterns of social functioning, so too do people. In greener settings—rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, and larger areas with more vegetation, we find that people are more generous and more desirous of connections with others; we find stronger neighborhood social ties and greater sense of community, more mutual trust and willingness to help others; and we find evidence of healthier social functioning in neighborhood common spaces—more (positive) social interaction in those spaces, greater shared use of spaces by adults and children. In less green environments, we find higher rates of aggression, violence, violent crime, and property crime— even after controlling for income and other differences. We also find more evidence of loneliness and more individuals reporting inadequate social support.

Access to nature, whether it is in the form of bona fide natural areas or in bits or views of nature, impacts psychological, as well as social functioning. Greater access to green views and green environments yields better cognitive functioning; more proactive, more effective patterns of life functioning; more self-discipline and more impulse control; greater mental health overall; and greater resilience in response to stressful life events. Less access to nature is linked to exacerbated attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, more sadness and higher rates of clinical depression. People with less access to nature are more prone to stress and anxiety, as reflected not only individuals’ self-report but also measures of pulse rate, blood pressure, and stress-related patterns of nervous system and endocrine system anxiety, as well as physician-diagnosed anxiety disorders.

The impacts of parks and green environments on human health extend beyond social and psychological health outcomes to include physical health outcomes. Greener environments enhance recovery from surgery, enable and support higher levels of physical activity, improve immune system functioning, help diabetics achieve healthier blood glucose levels, and improve functional health status and independent living skills among older adults. By contrast, environments with less green are associated with greater rates of childhood obesity; higher rates of 15 out of 24 categories of physician-diagnosed diseases, including cardiovascular diseases; and higher rates of mortality in younger and older adults. Most important, all of these studies take into account the role that income might play in an apparent link between access to nature and physical health outcomes. While it is true that richer people tend to have both greater access to nature and better physical health outcomes, the comparisons here show that people of the same socio-economic status who have greater access to nature have better physical health outcomes.

Rarely do the scientific findings on any question align so clearly. While for scientists the search for greater understanding of how and why and when contact with nature impacts health continues, for society as a whole the findings are clear. Parks and other green environments are an essential component of a healthy human habitat. While street trees, parks, and public green spaces are often regarded as mere amenities—ways to beautify our communities and make life a little more pleasant, the science tells us that they play a central role in human health and healthy human functioning. Much like eating greens provides essential nutrients, so does seeing and being around green. To promote a healthier, kinder, smarter, more effective, more resilient, more vital populace, communities should be designed to provide every individual with regular, diverse sources of “Vitamin G.”

Chapter 3

Psychological Functioning and Breakdown

Alleviating Stress and Anxiety

Easing Depression

Promoting Optimal Functioning

Reducing Attention Deficit Symptoms

Promoting Overall Mental Health

The Hidden Common Thread: The Role of Green Experiences in Resilience

See the complete report here.

“We need to ask more questions of our food supply, both urban and rural.”

By Eli Zigas
Grist
13 Sept 2011

Excerpt:

As someone who works on urban agricultural policy, I’m often asked, “Is city-grown food safe?” The question comes from aspiring urban gardeners and concerned eaters alike. And it seems to stem from both a fear of the known and a fear of the unknown.

First, the fear of the known: Common urban contaminants include lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals leaked into soil from old paint, leaded gasoline, modern car exhaust, and industrial land-use.

These metals are responsible for a whole host of maladies. Heavy exposure to lead, for example, can harm the nervous system and result in other developmental disabilities, especially in children.

In San Francisco, where I work, a recent study of garden soils confirmed the presence of residual lead in many parts of the city. Similar studies have taken place or are in the works in Minnesota, Chicago, and Indianapolis. They all show considerable evidence of lead in urban soil.

Read the complete article here.

In Kathmandu Valley, there are more than 500 brick kilns

By Sushil Thapa
Kathmandu, Nepal
ag.sushilthapa@gmail.com
Aug 22, 2011

The urban and peri-urban agriculture in Nepal covers a wide range of activities resulting in production, processing, preservation, marketing and consumption of food. It also provides livelihood opportunities for the urban population. It has been estimated that this sector contributes around 23 per cent of the supply of fresh vegetables in Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal. Despite this fact, in the recent years, the number of brick kilns has been increased hampering the urban food production and deficiently polluting the environment. In Kathmandu Valley, there are more than 500 brick kilns occupying thousands of hectares of cultivable land.

Brick making is one of the traditional crafts in Kathmandu Valley. With increasing urbanization and the demand of construction materials in recent years, number of brick kilns has increased dramatically. Most of them operate from the month of December till May each year. Farmers use to grow rainy/ main season rice, harvest it in October/ November and lend the land to the brick kilns. Study shows that a brick kiln removes on an average of 1500 MT of soil per ropani (0.05 ha) per year.

Burning soil decreases the soil pH making it acidic, increases sand and decrease the clay content. It has serious impacts on soil physical, biological and chemical properties resulting sharp declination in soil fertility and productivity. Moreover, it removes organic matters and makes the soil unfit for crop cultivation. Local farmers already experienced the problems of drying water sources, low water holding capacity on soil, poor crop stability, landslides and reduced crop productivity in the areas that has been used for brick factory. Due to the lack of essential soil nutrients, crops are reported to be prone to many pests and diseases as well. Once the soil is exhausted for brick production it takes hundreds of years to recover the damage due the loss of fertile and top soil. To recover the production, farmers have been applying heavy dose of chemical fertilizers which has other harmful consequences.

In addition, brick kilns produce Sulphur Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxides, Flouride Compounds and Carbon Monoxide which are very dangerous to the health and environment. Ambient air pollution due to the brick kilns in the capital city is a real problem. Hence, the government should make proper policies for the operation of industries far away from the residential areas ensuring that cultivable land in urban and peri-urban areas will not be damaged. Measures like shutting down illegal kilns, introduction of fixed chimney kilns, and replacement of traditional kilns with modern kilns will definitely help to reduce the pollution.

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.

They toil under the summer sun – not always efficiently – at a co-operative farm called Little Donkey on the outskirts of Beijing. It has about 700 fee-paying members.

It is one of dozens of farms which have cropped up across the country catering for China’s middle classes, which are increasingly concerned about food safety.

Jiang Yan Shi says 600 of his melons “exploded” – a quarter of his crop.

According to state media, the number of consumer complaints over the issue is rising.

Read the complete article here.

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.

“So many backyards have lead paint in it, because lead paint was prevalent everywhere,” said executive director Barbara Finnin. “So we’re figuring out instead of digging out all the soil, how can we do that safely here?” In a two-foot-tall raised bed over an impenetrable root barrier, the risk of plant contamination is virtually eliminated, she said. Mulch as thick as six inches elsewhere in the yard helps protect children and animals from direct soil contact.

It’s a simple solution supported by urban farming celebrity Novella Carpenter, who runs Ghost Town Farms on a vacant lot in West Oakland. In her backyard, which is adjacent to a gas station, she tested and found high levels of lead. So she topped the soil with landscape fabric and mulch to protect her animals, which can bio-accumulate lead just like humans and pass them along through their meat, milk, and eggs. Yet she won’t grow any produce there. The majority of her front-yard beds are built directly atop a concrete patio that’s covered with a few inches of dirt. “It’s actually a nice thing to build on concrete,” she said — the danger of contamination is always nil.

Read the complete article here.

That is a gift the garden gives to all who pass it, even if they never set foot inside its gates.

By Sarah Goodyear
Grist
19 July, 2011

Excerpt:

I emerged from the subway at 125th St. and Lexington Ave. into the most oppressive kind of urban summer scene. Heat billowed off the asphalt and concrete. Exhaust fumes stung my eyes and throat. Car engines roared. Horns blared. The sun beat down on the thronged sidewalk. It felt like I was being pressed into the pavement.

Three blocks and a few minutes later, I was listening to the wind rustle in the leaves of tall trees and watching butterflies sport among squash blossoms in a carefully tended bed of vegetables. A breeze ruffled a blackberry bush. The temperature was easily 10 degrees cooler than it was where I had gotten out of the subway. On the other side of the fence, cars inched toward the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge on-ramp, but I was barely aware of them.

Such is the power of a community garden. It has an almost magical power to transform the urban landscape.

Read the complete article here.

Vriksha Nursery Blog
July 10, 2011

Excerpt:

Looking outside the windows of outbound trains in Mumbai have always been disturbing hoards of slum dwellers all along the track mooning you, open gutters heaps of garbage, swines, rats … and nestled among all this are the farms that produce roughly 40% of Mumbai’s spinach, fenugreek, coriander and other local greens. Plants like radishes, bananas, paddy are also cultivated on these farms.

The railway officials, though, have a reply. V M Malegaonkar, chief public relations officer of Central Railway, said, “We hand over the land for cultivation to prevent encroachment. However, we do not keep a check on quality or the kind of water being used for cultivation. Our primary goal is to ensure that these vacant pieces of land belonging to railway are not encroached upon.” It has been decided to allow growing vegetables along the tracks to save it from encroachers. Though the scheme for availing the land for growing vegetables is open to all, we prefer railway employees avail the offer,” a senior Western Railway official said.

This cant be happening, how can these guys be foolish enough to allow these farms to exist. All outbound trains run on diesel engines, the emissions of which have loads of harmful chemicals … ever notice a waxy layer on the spinach leaves you buy from your local bhaji wala … harmful chemicals.

Read the complete article here.

At City Farmer’s Compost Demonstration Garden 2150 Maple Street, Vancouver BC.

2011 Classes
Instructor: Maria Keating, City Farmer’s own Bug Lady

Adults:
Learn how to safely deal with insects in your backyard. This two-hour garden seminar includes; insect identification and lifecycles, attracting native pollinators, predators and butterflies to your garden, hands-on pest control methods and how to make, use and take home handy tools of the insect trade. Turn over a new leaf and see what the macro world is doing in the city and in your own backyard!

Adult Classes: $20 per person
Friday June 17 – 1pm – 3pm or Saturday July 23 – 10am -12pm
(space is limited to 10 people per class – please contact the Compost Hotline (604) 736-2250 for availability)

Kids:
Let’s go on a Bug Safari at the City Farmer Demonstration Garden! Children aged 5-12 (accompanied by a parent only) can come and explore the garden with City Farmer. We will discover the relationships between insects, plants and the food we eat. Learn to identify and attract our urban insects and win buggy prizes!

Kids Bug Shops: $20 per child
Monday June 20 – 1pm – 3pm or Saturday July 23 – 1pm -3pm
(space is limited to 10 kids per class – please contact the Compost Hotline (604) 736-2250 for availability)

A Horticulture Project at Cornell University

Our goals are:

To document the roles of community gardens in providing healthy food, green space, and environmental education, in order to build support for community gardening in urban policy and planning.

To develop environmentally friendly vegetable gardening practices like cover cropping, with and for urban gardeners.

To enhance educational programs in urban gardening by incorporating collaborative, discovery-based learning methods that increases gardeners’ understanding of ecology.

2010 Accomplishments:

Garden Interviews:
1) As a result of what we learned from gardener interviews, we expanded our research to target key insect pests in NYC gardens. In the past year I’ve spoken with about 80 gardeners, and while gardeners shared many challenges to growing food, insect pests and soil fertility stood out as priorities.

Garden Mapping:
2) Our garden mapping activities will allow us to identify garden plantings that attract beneficial insects (insects that eat pests) and reduce crop damage. In 2010 we measured areas in various plantings (for example, vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, and ornamental trees and shrubs) in about 20 gardens.

Insect Monitoring:
3) Our insect monitoring showed that whiteflies on collards and spider mites on tomatoes harm crop yield in most gardens. We also found flea beetles, aphids, and squash bugs in some gardens. In 2011, we will continue to monitor insects, and learn how gardeners can manage them in environmentally friendly ways.

Soil fertility tests:
4) Soil fertility tests showed that urban garden soils are very different from farm soils. In 2011 we will test gardening techniques, such as cover crops, that can help maintain fertile urban garden soils.

Preliminary cover crop trials:
5) Preliminary cover crop trials are in progress! In Fall 2010, we gave workshops in several gardens on planting a winter cover crop. Gardeners are now testing cover crop combinations (see photo below). We hope to get enough reports back to learn which cover crops and practices might be good matches for urban gardens. We’ll keep you updated!

See their website here:

The problem for Fukushima’s fishermen and farmers – and indeed, for many more people both inside and outside Japan – is that little is known what these contamination levels mean for food safety.

By Krista Mahr
Time Magazine blog
Apr 22, 2011

Excerpts:

By a road leading out of Iwaki, two elderly women sit on the ground in a verdant vegetable garden, eating dried fruit and enjoying one of the first warm days of spring. Behind them, a row of cherry trees is in bloom; in front of them, well-groomed rows of leafy napa cabbage and daikon soak up the sun. “We’re throwing everything away. We don’t even eat it ourselves.” says one of the women, a farmer wearing a green bonnet who declines to give her name but gamely admits she clocks in somewhere over 70.

She has not planted her rice paddies either, which she normally sells to the local farming cooperative after the harvest in September. When asked if she is worried about what’s happening at the nuclear power plant, she laughs loudly. “I don’t matter. I’m old…We’ll find some other job, maybe in a store.” Her friend, sitting next to her, is a little blasé. “If only it was just the earthquake, none of this would have happened,” she laments. She glances back over her shoulder at the row of pink blooms behind her. “I feel sorry for the cherry trees. No one’s looking at them.”

Read the complete article here.

Ms. Silk, a retired police officer grows her own tobacco and dries the leaves in her basement.

By Manny Fernandez
New York Times
February 24, 2011

Excerpt:

The cigarettes Audrey Silk used to smoke — Parliament Lights — are made at a factory in Richmond, Va. The cigarettes she smokes these days are made and grown in Brooklyn, at her house.

Ms. Silk’s backyard is home to raspberry and rose bushes, geraniums, impatiens and 100 tobacco plants in gardening buckets near her wooden deck. Inside her house, around the corner from Flatbush Avenue, in Marine Park, she has to be careful stepping into her basement — one wrong move could ruin her cigarettes. Dozens of tobacco leaves hang there, drying on wires she has strung across the room, where they turn a crisp light brown as they age above a stack of her old Springsteen records.

Read the complete article here.