Category — United States

Urbandale Farm Project

By Emily Fox
mlive.com
June 07, 2010

Laura DeLind from Michigan State University’s Department of Anthropology and retired MSU teacher-education professor Linda Anderson, are reaching out to a community on the east side of Lansing through urban farming.

DeLind and Anderson recently started the Urbandale Farm Project. One of the hopes for the project is to create access to healthy food in the community. The neighborhood where the farm is located is called a “food desert.”

“A food desert is primarily in a neighborhood where people have limited incomes, there’s no easy access to places to buy healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables, unless you have transportation and many low income families don’t have easy transportation. Therefore their sources of food are often fast food restaurants, liquor stores, corner grocery stores—not a lot of fresh produce,” Anderson says.

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The Breaking Through Concrete bus on the way to Oregon. Photo by Michael Hanson.

The Breaking Through Concrete team

The Breaking Through Concrete team — David Hanson, Michael Hanson, Charles Hoxie, and Edwin Marty — is taking a 21st century road trip to document the American urban farm movement. Driving across the country and back in a biodiesel-fueled, Internet-enabled short bus they’ve nicknamed Lewis Lewis, they’ll visit 14 diverse projects that are, in distinct ways, transforming our built environments and creating jobs, training opportunities, local economies, and healthy food in our nation’s biggest cities. Along the way, David will post stories for Grist (and for one of the team’s sponsors, WHYHunger), illustrated by his and Michael’s stunning images — material that will ultimately be collected into a book — and Charles’ short video snippets.

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Granata Farms

By Dorothée and Mark
Organic Nation TV
June 4, 2010

Excerpt:

While producing a video about SAME Café, the pay-what-you-can restaurant on Denver’s Northwest Side, co-owner Libby Birky suggested that we check out Granata Farms, which provides a lot of the fresh, organic vegetables served at SAME Café. So while we were in Denver, we met up with Elaine Granata at her one-acre plot on Clarkson Street.

Elaine told us that she started the urban farm, which is made up of three city plots in different locations, after she lost her own farm in the country. Remarkably, she runs the farm by herself, growing a diverse mix of greens, herbs, tomatoes, beans and squash. She sells her produce to multiple restaurants in Denver as well as her fourteen-member CSA.

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Photo by People’s Grocery.

A Growing Concern

By Sena Christian
Earth Island Journal
Summer 2010

Excerpt:

Sean Hagan shoves a digging fork into the soil and pries out a bunch of carrots. He ties the bunch together, then stops and looks across the crops to another farmer calling for his attention. She holds a gnarly root in her hand.

“Do we have something against large turnips around here?” asks Sonya Ciavola.

“I have something against turnips in general,” Hagan says. He’s not fond of their taste.

On a gloomy February morning, the blond, 29-year-old Hagan trudges through muddy row crops growing on six acres of agricultural land operated by Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture and Education Project, a nonprofit farm in Sacramento, California. Soil Born has two other acres for pasture and plans to plant a three-acre fruit tree orchard this fall.

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On Day 2, Richmond High School was equally blessed with the construction of 6 wooden planter beds, the planting of six fruit trees, and the raising of a native plant garden. Each wooden bed spans 32 feet in length, 4 feet across, and nearly 2 feet deep!

Job Opportunity, teacher – Environmental Science II: Urban Agriculture and Food Systems

Kennedy High School (KHS) in Richmond, California is looking for a Biology (or possibly Chemistry) teacher who will also teach 1 section of Environmental Science II: Urban Agriculture and Food Systems. Candidates need a teaching credential in biology or chemistry. This is an exciting opportunity for an energetic teacher to help build a cutting-edge urban agriculture program.

The Urban Ag and Food Systems class is a new course developed and supported by a local non-profit—Urban Tilth. Urban Tilth helped Kennedy High students and staff put in a 4,000 square foot market garden and a 1,500 square foot edible forest.

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Collie Graddick. Consultant at MN Dept of Agriculture, Board Member at Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Board Member at Preventing Harm Minnesota.

Food advocate urges Blacks to form Twin Cities farm cooperative

By Charles Hallman
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
5/26/2010

Excerpt:

Collie Graddick says the time is now for neighborhoods all over the Twin Cities to set up urban farms. “A community food system, in my opinion, is a way to hopefully bring economic opportunities to inner-city communities,” explains Graddick, a Minnesota Department of Agriculture consultant, of his “neighborhood-level sustainable food system.”

This is a good fit with the growing “sustainability” movement, which Graddick, an educator and food justice advocate, believes more Blacks should understand and appreciate. He defines sustainability as simply ensuring provision of the basics needed to live.

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Short news clip from KTXL Fox 40 News in Sacramento, California about a farm company teaching people how to maintain crops and create their own food in an urban environment.

Past, Present, and Future of the group

Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture Project started in 2000 as a small urban organic farm located in Sacramento, California. Our story began with two young and inexperienced organic farmers who had a dream and lots of ambition. Wanting to reconnect urban dwellers with healthy food and where it comes from, Marco and I put a hand written note in the mailbox of a local Sacramento resident asking if we could grow on her land in exchange for produce. The next day a deal was struck, and Soil Born Farms was born. Seven seasons later, filled with hard work and lessons learned, Soil Born has grown and matured beyond expectations.

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Work crews clear out an empty lot in Detroit. Photo by Carlos Osorio.

Farming invades Detroit – Triscuit and nonprofit group combine efforts

Associated Press
May 22, 2010

Excerpt:

A nonprofit that puts vacant urban land to use for growing food will kick off work next week on one of several new community gardens it’s planning for the Detroit area under a nationwide partnership with Kraft Foods Inc.’s Triscuit brand.

In Detroit, residents increasingly are working to transform vacant, often-blighted land into gardens and small farms. Urban Farming has been part of that push since 2005, when it put its first gardens in the ground.

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Emily Kniskern (left) and Michael Latsch, with the program Seeds for Success, prepare a new garden plot on a vacant lot in Duluth last week by digging up the ground and removing roots and rhizomes of the ubiquitous quack grass. Photo by Bob King.

Duluth could soon be awash in home-grown vegetables if two new programs taking seed this spring sprout as organizers hope.

By John Myers,
Duluth News Tribune
May 17 2010

Duluth could soon be awash in home-grown vegetables if two new programs taking seed this spring sprout as organizers hope.

One program, Seeds of Success, sponsored by Community Action Duluth, is turning vacant lots into urban vegetable farms where seasonal workers will grow produce to sell to local restaurants.

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Truck Farm! a wicked delicate film and food project

The Farm

When Fayette Plumb gave his grandson the keys to the old pickup, he wasn’t expecting the half-ton to drive back home––as a farm. But last spring, using green-roof technology, lightweight soil and heirloom seeds, filmmakers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis transformed granddad’s ’86 Dodge into a traveling 20-member CSA. They planted between the wheel wells with arugula and tomatoes, parked the truck on a Brooklyn street, and waited for sun and rain to work their charms. When the first sprouts came up, Truck Farm was born. Subscribers received deliveries of produce, arriving via the mobile farm itself.

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Illustration by Thomas Pitilli

What happens when idealists, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats all latch onto the same trend?

by Isaiah Thompson
Philadelphia City Paper
Apr 28, 2010

Excerpt:

A few weeks ago, at a community meeting in North Philadelphia, I witnessed a scene that seemed somehow symbolic, prophetic, even. The meeting — an energized rally by the Eastern North Philadelphia Coalition, a group trying to acquire vacant land for a neighborhood-managed land trust — had just ended, and community members were filing out.

At the door was a young, bearded white guy, passing out seeds.

“Free seeds!” he shouted jubilantly. “Take them home, plant them, have better food, save money!”

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Blending the tromboncino squash on the bike blender.

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

By Anais
May 4, 2010
From Path to Freedom

Excerpt:

A few months back, we got a call out of the blue from the Food Network – they wanted to drop off two chefs on the urban homestead to make a meal from what was growing out in our “back forty (feet)” and prepare the vittles (no possums were harmed) without all the modern new fangled gizmos and gadgets. Instead harvesting what they needed and using the limited and home canned ingredients we had in the kitchen and preparing and cooking using little or no appliances, hybrid solar oven, bike blender and more.

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Zucchini and Okra on the 50-Yard Line

By Julie Tam
NBCDFW.com
May 5, 2010

From football to cucumbers and okra, Paul Quinn College in southern Dallas has turned its former gridiron into an urban farm.

Just months after losing and then regaining its accreditation because of financial problems, Paul Quinn College is planting new seeds. The college is giving its students sustainable skills, teaching the basics of farming and the complexities of running a business that sells produce.

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A blend of over 25 varieties of lettuces, brassicas, fava greens, herbs, wild greens and edible flowers

Chloe Roth
San Francisco Chronicle
April 29, 2010

Excerpt:

Can two people earn a living wage growing and selling produce within the city of San Francisco? This is the question that Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway set out to answer when they launched Little City Gardens in the Mission District of San Francisco. Armed with a commitment to urban gardening, a business plan and high hopes, but free of any pretensions that the answer to their question would be a resounding “yes,” Budner and Galloway are taking Little City Gardens to the next level. That is, with a little help from the global community.
“…How does your garden grow?”

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From LarryJamesUrbanDaily.

Paul Quinn College no longer has a football team

By President Sorrell (Paul Quinn College)

“If you would like to see a football field truly become a field of dreams, stop by Paul Quinn College(PQC) and witness the transformation of our football field into an urban farm. By mid-summer, our near two-acre plot will be producing more wins for the PQC/Highland Hills community than the football field ever did. If you really want to lift someone out of poverty- plant a garden, not a sports field. It’s great if you can have both. But, if you can’t, it’s always better to choose sustainability over fleeting glory. Hunger pains have a way of staying with you long after the crowd leaves and the cheering ceases. At that point, it’s simply you and the cold darkness of an empty cavern. No child deserves that feeling – ever.”

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Melinda Stone tending to the hard apple cider that is fermenting in her San Francisco basement. Photo by Craig Lee NYTimes.

Urban homesteaders are raising their own food in their backyards

By Jamime Gross
New York Times
Published: April 23, 2010

Excerpt:

Having already pointed out the fermented tea kombucha “living” on top of the fridge, and the kefir milk fermenting in the pantry, and the homemade sourdough crackers browning in the oven, Melinda Stone led a visitor down to the basement of the Victorian house she shares with three other creative 40-somethings in the Duboce Triangle neighborhood of San Francisco. “There’s a lot of stuff bubbling down here,” she said enthusiastically, sliding open a door. “I think it’s beautiful.”

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Kate Cramer-Herbst cleans out a vegetable box in Detroit. Detroit, which revolutionized manufacturing with its auto assembly lines, could once again be a model for the world as residents transform vacant, often-blighted land into a source of fresh food. No city seems to have as much potential for urban farming as Detroit, where land is cheap, empty lots are plentiful, and residents are desperate for jobs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Detroit has an estimated 40 square miles — more than 25,000 acres — of vacant property

By David Runk
Associated Press
April 23, 2010

DETROIT — Detroit, which revolutionized manufacturing with its auto assembly lines, could once again be a model for the world as residents transform vacant, often-blighted land into a source of fresh food.

With growing interest in locally raised food, cities including New York, Los Angeles and Seattle are looking at ways to foster and manage urban agriculture. San Francisco’s mayor has proposed creating community gardens on vacant public land citywide.

But no city seems to have as much potential for urban farming as Detroit, where land is cheap, empty lots are plentiful, and residents are desperate for jobs. The number of community gardens has been growing each year, and bigger, commercial agriculture could be coming as city planners draw up land use rules for farming.

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OBSESSIVES: Urban Farmer – on CHOW.com from CHOW.com on Vimeo.

13 minute video portrait of the author

Novella Carpenter started small, with some plants in an empty lot next to her house in Oakland. A couple of years later, she was tending to a full-blown farm, with goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and a robust garden. Her book, Farm City, details her experiences. As does this video, which tackles questions of neighborliness (which is more offensive: police sirens or roosters crowing?), environmental poisons (raised beds are key), and the all-important slaughter question. The answer: Yes, she does (and yes, there is some bloody footage).

Vicki Cook works on a new community garden at Luther Memorial Church. Photo by Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

Year of Urban Agriculture in Seattle

By Lisa Stiffler
Seattle PI
April 21, 2010

Excerpt:

Seattle is so smitten with city farming that it even has its own online garden dating service.

“Seeking vegetable love,” says the post of an unrequited green thumb.

“Cinderella: Huge sloping corner lot longs to meet Prince Gardening,” pines another.

“Large, sunny backyard north of Green Lake NEEDS a garden to feel complete,” posts a third.

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CSA farm feeds 100 families.

By Amanda Congdon
Sometimes Daily

Erin’s family has farmed and ranched in Texas for six generations and Skip’s boyhood was spent on a magnificent farm in Pennsylvania that got its start in the 1700s. 

These family ties, and our work in public health, is what led us to create Green Gate Farms.  While Skip wrote speeches and materials for Centers for Disease Control, Erin directed communications at the American Cancer Society.  Through this work we became keenly aware that America’s factory food system is at the heart of a myriad of health and environmental issues.

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