Category — Video

Nat Turner is the founder of Our School at Blair Grocery, a youth education center in the Katrina-ravaged 9th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Meet Nat Turner, who drove a school bus to New Orleans with a dream of healing the Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. He gained national attention for transforming an abandoned grocery store into a community youth education center, Our School Blair Grocery, where he teaches kids to sell vegetables instead of crack. Most of his students come from within the Ninth Ward, and for some it’s is not just a classroom; it’s a sanctuary.

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Garden Pool from Dark Rye on Vimeo.

A sustainable oasis in the suburban desert – Phoenix, Arizona

By Dark Rye magazine
Roots No. 3
The video from Dark Rye was produced by Angus Cann and Ira Chute and edited by Andy Pickard.
(Must see. Mike)

Excerpt:

When the McClungs purchased their first home, it came with a run-down old swimming pool. Rather than spend thousands of dollars fixing it up with chlorine and spanish tile (like everybody else), Dennis saw an opportunity. He designed and built a nearly self-sufficient suburban farm in one of the most unlikely locations imaginable. Now, instead of sitting inside in front of the TV, Dennis’ kids are out in the Garden Pool turning the interplay of chicken droppings, algae sludge, tilapia fish, miniature goats, and clay pellets into a damned fine feast—with 50-70% less money, 90% less water, and about 400% more freshness.

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Pete sings “Turn, Turn, Turn”

Video shot by John Rokosny and Andriette Redmon.
Produced by WingFlix.Com
Published on May 2, 2013

Happy 94th Birthday to Pete Seeger at the New York City Community Garden Coalition’s “Stand for the Land” Forum, April 27, 2013 at the Great Hall at Cooper Union. Pete is presented the Hammer of Justice by Haja Worley.

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SEED, SHOOT, GROW! Kids from the BTU Green Dragons program show off the stages of one of their warmup stretches. Check out the beautiful sugar snap peas they grew in the background!

The Green Dragons program teaches about mental, physical and agricultural benefits in a combined program.

By Steve Annear
Boston Daily
May 8, 2013

Excerpt:

Here’s how it works: the Green Dragon approach starts with students growing their own seedlings that eventually get transplanted for full harvest either in an outdoor raised bed or garden, or in indoor greenhouses in Boston. The group has five agricultural sites around the city, including their largest one located at the South West Boston Community Garden in Roslindale.

According to Mike Cermak, one of the co-founders of Green Dragons, some of the earliest weapons used in martial arts were developed from modified farming tools, as a means of defense, something the program highlights when connecting the “common roots” of their teachings.

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Link to video here.

See this news video about Stephen Ritz

A whirlwind of energy and ideas, Stephen Ritz is a teacher in New York’s tough South Bronx, where he and his kids grow lush gardens for food, greenery — and jobs. Just try to keep up with this New York treasure as he spins through the many, many ways there are to grow hope in a neighborhood many have written off, or in your own.

Link to video here.

Link to Stephen’s TED talk here.

‘A Year in the Garden’ in Los Angeles

By Brad Hiebert
April 2013

My family was just about to start our first full season in our local community garden when I decided it would be fun to document our growing attempts. Our motivation was simple… grow organic, healthy food… spend time together, teach my daughter where food really comes from, cut our grocery bill. Plus, as I found out, digging in the dirt is very therapeutic. And when it comes to picky kids … If they grow it, they will eat it!

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From “Feeding Cities: Food Security in a Rapidly Urbanizing World,” March 2013

Feeding Cities conference breakout session moderated by Laura Lawason, Professor of Urban Planning at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Ms. Olufunke Cofie (IWMI-Ghana, West Africa) from RUAF.

Nevin Cohen, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at The New School, New York.

Domenic Vitiello, Assistant Professor, Department of City & Regional Planning, UPenn School of Design.

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7 goats on their property in the Cully neighborhood of Portland

By Rebecca Gerendasy
Cooking Up a Story
Food.Farmer.Earth.
March 27, 2013

Excerpt:

Ed Arcement and his wife Nancy love cheese. Indeed, their mutual enthusiasm for this processed food is why, in 2005, they chose to attend a national goat show in Spokane, Washington. They found themselves suddenly bidding on a particular goat, and as Ed explains during the interview, the bidding kept going up, and Nancy kept matching it. Before they knew it, they had won the bid at (about) $1100. “Variety” their first goat, was theirs!

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Hadley Farmship from Joseph Redwood-Martinez on Vimeo.

Excerpt from “Promises of Urban Agriculture” documentary – Hadley Farmship

In an excerpt from the upcoming feature-length documentary, “Promises of Urban Agriculture,” Charles Calbom speaks about how the extensive lawn irrigation system in Phoenix could be used to grow vegetables instead of grass lawns and ultimately offer “a way for regular people to be able to feed themselves regularly.”

See Facebook page about the film.

Part 3 of 3. See all video here part way down the page.

60 minutes of footage in Spanish with French subtitles

Semences – Les Racines du Nouveau Monde
Agriculture Urbaine, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba
By Nicolas van Caloen and Juan Pablo Lepore
Collectif Documentaire Semences
Uploaded on Dec 12, 2011
(Must see. Mike)

En 1959 c’est la révolution à Cuba. Les États-Unis, mécontent de ce pied de nez révolutionnaire, décide d’imposer un embargo international contre Cuba qui sera ainsi forcé de se tourner vers l’URSS afin de maintenir ses exportations et importations. En 1989, c’est la chute de l’URSS, Cuba se retrouve dans une situation économique très précaire créant un problème de sécurité alimentaire. Pour solutionner ce problème, Cuba choisit de développer l’agriculture urbaine et écologique. 20 ans plus tard, Cuba est un leader mondial en la matière. Dans ce documentaire, avec l’aide de l’INIFAT (Instituto de Investigaciones Fundamentales en la Agricultura Tropical), nous montrons l’ampleur, la diversité et l’ingéniosité des projets d’agriculture urbaine dans la région de La Habana. Une nouvelle révolution verte est en cours!

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In this clip, Jay Rosenberg speaks about Hayes Valley Farm demonstrating urban agriculture as a strategy for interim land use in San Francisco.

Upcoming feature-length documentary:- forthcoming 2014

Promises of Urban Agriculture is a feature-length documentary on urban agriculture across the world. Looking at the historic, cultural, and economic significance of urban agriculture in a number of major cities, the video examines a wide range of approaches and asks: is this a movement that will dramatically reshape our cities and way of life?

Spanning from Quito, New York, Milwaukee, Albany, Detroit, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Amherst, Brussels, and elsewhere, this research project draws from the diverse narratives of a range of groups and individuals involved with urban agriculture–activists, historians, entrepreneurs, traditional farmers, futurists, food foresters, urban homesteaders, policy makers, and closet gardeners.

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Meet Seann Dory from Sole Food Farms in this 10th short film in the ‘Meet your Urban Farmer’ series.

By Vita Mavronicolas, Digital Storyteller
Shaun Mavronicolas
Fire and Light Media Group
2013

From Fire And Light’s description:

Seann J Dory is the Co-Director of Sole Food Farms. Before starting Sole Food, Seann was a project manager at United We Can a social enterprise creating employment opportunity for inner city residents through environmental enterprises. Seann is a founding member of the Young Agrarians, an initiative to recruit, promote and support young farmers in Canada.

Seann speaks regularly about food, sustainability and inner city development and has presented at the EAT Vancouver Festival and the Projecting Change Film Festival. Seann is a graduate of the Sustainable Community Development program at Simon Fraser University and a member of the National Farmers Union.

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Bicycle powered urban farming based in High Park and Juction Triangle neighbourhoods of Toronto, Canada.

A film by Sasha Thomas
2013

For some the concept of “urban farming” is a contradiction in terms. But not for Erica Lemieux. The founder of Toronto’s City Seed Farms shows us that growing food in the city is the way of the future.

I connected with founder Erica Lemieux and she generously invited us to film on one of her farms. It was an enjoyable challenge:

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This film explores how community gardens benefit public health and was commissioned by NHS (National Health Service) Midlands and East. Find out why Community Gardens are good for us by watching this video.

‘Gardens Where People Grow’ – film made for the National Health Service

Director: John Hill-Daniel
Camera: Carl Jorden, Peter Austin
(Must see. Mike)

NHS Midlands and East commissioned Martineau Gardens to report how the community garden is a model for improving public health and resilience in Birmingham, with particular focus on the impact of the garden and gardening on the mental health and well being of the people of Birmingham. The film documents the activities of Martineau Gardens (and other urban growing projects) with evidence from staff, volunteers and visitors who use the Gardens.

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‘Farm-City State’ explores the idea of what if an entire city could feed itself with healthy, local, organic food.

David Barrow and team have teamed up to document Austin’s progress into the nation’s popular local food movement. ‘What if an entire city could feed itself?’

The Austin food landscape has changed. Over the past 6 years, more than a dozen farmers markets have opened, restaurants started sourcing locally, the public is purchasing and seeking out local food, and the legislature has taken notice – how do we create a good local economy?

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Gail, Mia, and Mickey, living in the Oakland and San Francisco’s Bayview district

Documentary short by Melinda James
2012

“16 Seeds” (documentary short) examines the roles that people of color play in the struggle for food justice, from a community organizer’s journey of increasing the visibility of black farmers to the groundwork of an elder seeking to preserve family traditions.

Focused on three individuals – Gail, Mia, and Mickey, living in Oakland and San Francisco’s Bayview district, this film positions them at the forefront of the movement in their communities to reclaim food and our connections to it.

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Click on the YouTube icon above to go to the larger version of the video.

‘Love For All Living Things’ by Ric Buckman Coe

“So we started with a plot in a neighbour’s yard
With a couple of friends and a bottle of wine,
You know it wasn’t to hard
You don’t know how good it feels,
To eat your own tomatoes and string beans”

‘Love For All Living Things’
Official music video
Directed by Rosalee Yagihara
Filmed in urban gardens around Vancouver, BC. (Note City Farmer’s ‘Compost Demonstration Garden’ can be seen in the video.)

Release date Monday December 3rd, 2012
From the sleeve of the new e.p. ‘Crow’s Nest’

“I came across an article about the Permaculture Punks of Mexico City a number of years ago and their ecological and social movement really prepared the ground for this song. One of the most revolutionary things we can do is take back control of our food. In coming years this will become even more necessary as we deal with rising oil prices & transportation costs, GMO’s and the threat to bio-diversity, global warming and regional and international food insecurity. Our communities and our health will be strengthened the more we can eat from our bio-regions, the more we break away from the corporate food industry, and the more we follow a plant-based diet. In this way, the simple act of growing our own food becomes an expression of personal and community power, and an act of Love and Harmony with the Earth.” Ric Buckman Coe

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Paddy Madden show us how to make a scarecrow for the school garden. See all of Paddy school garden videos here or here.

School garden a class act

By Fionnuala Fallon
The Irish Times
September 29, 2012

Excerpt:

It’s a theme dear to the heart of Paddy Madden, the hugely respected, award-winning environmentalist and educator with 31 years’ experience as a primary teacher, during which time he designed and developed the country’s first wildlife/organic school garden at Scoil Treasa Naofa in Dublin. Since 2003, he has worked as a lecturer at the Marino Institute of Education, training future primary teachers. He’s also the author of many books and papers on school gardens, including the recently revised Go Wild At School, an informative manual on how to create an educational school garden.

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Less Field, More Yield | William Mann from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

“Focus Forward is an unprecedented new series of 30 three-minute stories about innovative people who are reshaping the world through act or invention.”

Less Field, More Yield by William Mann

At a time when it is necessary to think differently about crop production, due to climate change, depleted natural resources, population growth and availability of land, the VertiCrop has been developed as a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture, utilizing advanced hydroponic technologies in controlled environments.

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Montreal author Adam Gollner, left, and Yung Chang present their findings at Jean Talon Market. Photograph by Allen McInnis, Montreal Gazette.

Documentary is based on Montrealer Adam Gollner’s book

By T’cha Dunlevy
Montreal Gazette Film Critic
November 23, 2012

Excerpt:

“I had (Gollner’s book) with me on my travels on the festival circuit for Up the Yangtze,” Chang said. “I went to Brazil and Tel Aviv, and places with different kinds of fruit, and I used the book as a guide to find them. I felt like I was on an adventure.”

Chang’s film brought him to Hawaii, Bali, Borneo and the Amazon in pursuit of rare fruits, the stories behind them and the people fighting to preserve them. Like Richard Campbell and Noris Ledesma, curators at Florida’s Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Or Isabella Dalla Ragione, an Italian agronomist who traces the background of fig varieties through Renaissance paintings.

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