Category — United States

A Cabbage Patch for City Hall. Last year, Baltimore City Hall replaced its traditional flower gardens with vegetable beds to help serve a local soup kitchen. But not all went as planned. Anne Marie Chaker reports on lessons learned and plans for this year’s crop.

Attack of the Rotten Tomatoes

By Anne Marie Chaker
Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2010

Excerpt:

The city of Baltimore replaced its flower beds in front of city hall with vegetables last year. The goal, says designer Angela Treadwell-Palmer, was to show that vegetable gardens could be attractive and to grow harvests to donate to a local soup kitchen. But the local charity reported that some crops—particularly beets, kohlrabi and eggplant—weren’t appetizing to people.

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Goats from City Grazing trimmed the hillside behind Alemany Farm. Photo by Brian L. Frank

Fewer Farms to Feed ‘Local’ Appetite

By Justin Sheck
Wall Street Journal
San Francisco Bay Area
March 11, 2010

Excerpt:

Pocket-size farms have sprung up in cities around the Bay Area in recent years, part of a movement to bring consumers closer to the sources of food they buy.

But even as these small farms show up in urban neighborhoods, bringing with them a sense of a local agricultural revival, the continuing decline in the availability of farmland in the Bay Area’s traditional growing areas threatens to leave consumers further away than ever from where their food is cultivated.

In recent years, the region has lost large tracts of farmland to housing and commercial development.

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Roberta’s already grows about 20 percent of its needs, in a good week, in a small roof garden in back of the restaurant and in a backyard garden several blocks away.

Michelle Knapik
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
March 10, 2010

Excerpt:

Once inside the unassuming entrance of Roberta’s, if you can cast your gaze past the wood fired stove and pizza gurus, let your olfactory senses take in something beyond the sweet aroma of ricotta pancakes sopping up maple syrup, and put down your mason jar of local beer, you will see, hear and experience the backyard urban oasis – a farming oasis that is. But don’t look out, look up. There is where you will find the first of the rooftop greenhouses.

The hoop greenhouse is built on top of a shipping container that is fitted out as a radio station. The semi vacant lot next door is also being transformed into greenhouse space that will tie into a fledgling compost operation. Look closely as the construction of this greenhouse and you will find yourself peering into salvaged factory windows.

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A burned out house is demolished in Detroit on Feb. 12. After decades of decline that has gutted many once-vibrant neighborhoods, Detroit is preparing a radical renewal effort on a scale never attempted in this country: returning a large swath of the city to fields or farmland, much like it was in the middle of the 19th century. Photo by Carlos Osorio/AP

Detroit wants to save itself by shrinking

Associated Press
March. 8, 2010

DETROIT – Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

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GH_Peek in Progress from The Greenhorns on Vimeo.
13 minute trailer.

The Greenhorns

With help from Patrick Kiley.

“The Greenhorns” is a documentary film that explores the lives of America’s young farming community — its spirit, practices, and needs. It is the filmmakers’s hope that by broadcasting the stories and voices of these young farmers, we can build the case for those considering a career in agriculture — to embolden them, to entice them, and to recruit them into farming.

The film will be completed by June, with a release campaign across the country later this year and into 2011. A quarter to a third of the farmers in the film operate in an urban setting. Examples: Louella Hill (the Baltimore cheese maker) and Brooke Budner (San Francisco gardener) and Allemany Farm in California.

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Photo by Erika Schultz/ The Seattle Times
Becky Warner (center, with tiller), a former software engineer, works with Alleycat Acres volunteers at a plot of land the group is developing into a neighborhood-focused urban farm on Beacon Hill. Warner is pursuing a career change into agriculture.

Alleycat Acres, a new urban-farming collective that ultimately hopes to turn bits of unused land into food sources for needy Seattle residents, kicked off its efforts on a plot across from Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Golf Course.

By Marc Ramirez
Feb 28, 2010
Seattle Times

Excerpt:

The seeds were planted with enthusiasm, sweat and bright-eyed optimism. Task by task on a sunny springlike Sunday, volunteers stepped up on a plot of land across from Beacon Hill’s Jefferson Golf Course.

Someone to help build a retaining wall? Check. Someone to smooth over beds of composted soil? Check.

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BK Farmyards: Developing a 1-Acre Youth Farm – achieves funding goal

NEW YORK
Associated Press
February 28, 2010

NEW YORK – Students at one Brooklyn high school won’t learn about farming from textbooks in the near future. They’ll learn directly from the soil. Students at the High School for Public Service in East Flatbush plan to break ground in April on a 10,000-square-foot vegetable farm on their campus’ front lawn. The first crop of vegetables could be harvested in June.

Principal Ben Shuldiner says the goal is to teach the skills and science behind farming. Fresh produce will also be offered to the community. Senior Elliot Bowman says it’s difficult to find fresh produce in the neighborhood.

Urban farming collective BK Farmyards will design and operate the farm, which is expected to cover the school’s entire 1-acre yard in four years.

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Photo by Don Kohlbauer. See complete series of beautiful photos – and audio here.

Meet the pioneers planting crops in the shadow of downtown skyscrapers

By Erin Glass,
San Diego News Network
March 18, 2009

About a year ago, Karon Klipple, a mathematics professor at San Diego City College, took a long, hard look at the campus lawn.

With all the talk about global warming, the benefits of eating local and organic food, not to mention San Diego’s drought worries, it seemed the land and resources might be put to better use. So Klipple, who is chair of City College’s Environmental Stewardship Committee, founded Seeds at City, a thriving sub-acre farm smack dab on the downtown campus.

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Farm interns share stories of dirt, bugs, and trips to Starbucks.

By Carrie Golus
Photography by Dan Dry
The Core, College Magazine of the University of Chicago
Winter 2010

To her family in North Carolina, “a farm in a city doesn’t make any sense,” says third-year Emily Howe. “Even my friends here don’t understand. They think I work indoors or on a rooftop.”

“I’ve worked on a big pumpkin farm before,” says fourth-year Elspeth McGarvey, who grew up in Arcola, Illinois, population 2,700. “The weirdest part for me isn’t the dirt, or the grossness. It’s being right next to Western Avenue.”

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Photos by Jami Scholl

Urban farming on the rise

By Carrol Krause
Herald-Times Homes
February 13, 2010

Excerpt:

Jami Scholl is a local garden designer who uses permaculture principles to create beautiful, edible landscapes that taste as good as they look. Jami is now taking her passion for “foodscaping” one step further; she has begun working with city government council members and planners in order to clarify the elements of urban agriculture that will be acceptable throughout Bloomington.

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Urban farming at Braddock Farms (Photo courtesy Susanna Meyer)

Training for local growers starts next month

By Denise Ellsworth
Special to the Beacon Journal
Feb 20, 2010

Excerpt:

Thanks to enthusiasm and support from partners in the Summit Food Policy Coalition, a group started last year to address food access in Summit County, Akron is jumping on the urban farming band wagon. The Summit Urban Farming Initiative (SUFI), a seven-week training program, will begin in March at the Akron General Wellness Center in Bath Township.

The pilot program, co-sponsored by OSU Extension of Summit County, Akron’s Department of Planning and Urban Development and the Summit Food Policy Coalition, will be offered on Thursday evenings through April.

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FoodNYC – A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer
February 2010

GOAL: Establish urban food production as a priority in New York City for personal, community, or commercial use by the year 2030

Recommendations:

1. Assess Land Availability and Suitability for Urban Agriculture:

The New York City Council should pass legislation mandating that City agencies conduct an annual assessment of City-owned property and nominate suitable sites for urban agriculture. This effort is similar to the “Diggable City” project in Portland, Oregon that integrated urban agriculture into planning and policymaking. Based on a preliminary analysis of data provided by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in 2008, there are 454 total vacant lots above 110th Street in Manhattan. Of those, over 100 are owned by the City and many have no development plans. In 2008, the Manhattan Borough President’s office also identified significant amounts of open land on New York City Housing Authority properties which should be evaluated as possible garden sites. Where appropriate and following a public review process,
City and State parkland should also be considered for urban agriculture.

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Sample Indicators from the map:

Local Foods

# Farms with direct sales
% Farms with direct sales
% Farm sales $ direct to consumer
$ Direct farm sales
$ Direct farm sales per capita
# Farmers’ markets
Farmers’ markets/1,000 pop
# Vegetable acres harvested
Vegetable acres harvested/1,000 pop
Farm to school program

Excerpt from the USDA Food Blog
Feb 12, 2010

USDA’s Your Food Environment Atlas is an online mapping tool that compares the food environment of U.S. counties—the mix of factors that together influence food choices, diet quality, and general fitness among residents.  The Atlas contains 90 food environment indicators—most at the county level—allowing Atlas users to visualize and compare on a map how counties fare on each of the indicators. This new online tool is designed to stimulate research and inform policymakers as they address the nexus between diet and public health.

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Tiffany Tarpley
FOX Toledo News weekend anchor
Updated: Tuesday, 16 Feb 2010

TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) — Urban agriculture is growing across the area.

In fact when Toledo Grows began 12 years ago there were about a handful of the small community gardens. Now there are more than 80 and the goal is to create at least 100 by next year.

The urban gardens are a way to turn empty fields into beautiful additions to neighborhoods.

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Robbie McClam and his wife Sue show off seedlings in the City Roots greenhouse.

Urban Entrants Changing Face of Agriculture

By Eve Moore
Columbia’s Free Times
02/01/2010

Excerpt:

Robbie McClam of City Roots is also a man of many trades. An architect and builder, McClam once headed the Columbia Development Corporation. Now he’s turned his attention to farming.

All the municipal government and planning experience has come in handy. When he wanted to start City Roots, he discovered the city’s industrial zoning classification didn’t allow farms, so he worked with the city’s planning department and City Council to change the zoning ordinance. Future urban farmers of Columbia: Thank Robbie McClam.

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By ProjectHDesign

Release Date: September 2010
Cintia Cabib Video Productions

See the trailer here.

An outdoor classroom, an oasis of peace in an inner-city neighborhood, a link to an immigrant’s homeland: the roles of seven Washington, D.C. community gardens are as varied as the gardeners themselves. Meet them and visit their plots in “A Community of Gardeners,” a new documentary currently in production.

Throughout Washington, D.C., people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities are gardening side by side, growing vegetables, fruits and flowers in community gardens. Some are looking for basic sustenance, others for a way to remember their homelands, still others for a place to find a respite from their troubles.

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To be published April 2010

by Manny Howard
Scribner (April 27 2010)

“With My Empire of Dirt, Manny Howard has created a new job category, gonzo agriculturalist. The squeamish and the vegan-hearted shall enter at their own risk, for this is no gentle Farmer’s Almanac. It’s more like war reportage—on one side, angry rabbits, crazed chickens, and a patch of backyard clay so dry it makes concrete seem loamy; on the other, a Brooklyn-raised City Boy, who won’t take crop failure for an answer. Howard takes living off the land to an urban extreme that will make people think even harder about where their food comes from. Ultimately, though, as tornadoes come and fig trees nearly go, he discovers a marriage that needs tending to, proving that when it comes to love, at least, you shall definitely reap what you sow.”
—Robert Sullivan, author of Rats and Cross Country

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Reach and teach more kids about healthy food on and off our urban farm. Urban Roots, a program of YouthLaunch

Urban Roots is looking to expand our reach beyond our farm interns to more students in the Austin. We will hire youth outreach specialists to work with Urban Roots staff to create and facilitate educational activities in schools and for after-school field trips to our farm. We will train these youth to lead interactive activities on the farm that teach students about healthy living.

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Farming on Film: Mitra Sticklen documents life on the urban farm

Film by Mitra Sticklen and Christine Nielsen
Article Written by: Robin Peterson
Chicago Weekly, June 4, 2009

“It’s not hard to make this stuff look good,” says filmmaker Mitra Sticklen, pausing in between shots of the bright green kale and collards on display on a stand at the 61st Street Farmers Market. “It’s beautiful stuff—beautiful footage.” The stand belongs to Windy City Harvest, an urban agriculture job training program of the Chicago Botanic Garden and West Side Technical Institute, whose participants Sticklen has been filming since last fall. With the working title “Growing Change,” the film was originally meant to be a ten-minute short documenting one season of the program.

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