I decide to illegally grow a vegetable garden on a neglected patch of land in Brooklyn.

By Todd Bieber
(Found via BoingBoing.Net)

In May 2011 I decide to illegally grow a vegetable garden on a neglected patch of land in Brooklyn. The garden is located on 8th Ave and 5th Street in Brooklyn, New York. Feel free to stop by and water it if you’re in the area. I encountered a thief, a dirty old man, and GOD.

Part 1.

25 minute video! Bees, Goats, Chickens, Tilth

CityStream
10/6/2011
(Must see. Mike)

Urban farming flourishes in Seattle! Honeybee colonies are under attack. Find out how you can support local bee hives and make your garden grow. Plus, raising goats and chickens in the City isn’t as hard as you may think and the rewards are plentiful. Join host Penny LeGate for these stories and more from Seattle Tilth for this urban farming special.

City Stream at Seattle Channel.

Science In Action This Week
October 4, 2011

San Franciscans are getting their hands dirty! Farms are popping up all over our fair city.

From the TV Series – Gene Simmons Family Jewels

The episode follows Shannon as she tries to turn the family into ‘organic’ eaters.

From the episode: “Till Death Do Us Part”
After Gene is rushed to the hospital with a medical scare, a shaken Shannon decides that the family must get healthier. While Shannon is busy purging the house of toxins and starting to plan the wedding, Gene decides he must plan for the afterlife.

See the video clip here. Drag the time slider to marker 15:21 here.

Episode 73: Greg and Olivia from Detroit Dirt

By David Klein
The Perennial Plate

There’s a lot going on in Detroit. After years of decay, excitement is growing around urban gardens. Previously abandoned lots are being turned into food producing centers. In this video, we follow Greg and Olivia from Detroit Dirt and Brother Nature Produce.

They have an acre of empty-lot-land that they’ve turned into a small farm. On top of that they’re developing a compost center in the city for easy access to urban farmers to use. Enjoy and get excited!

See Perennial Plate here.

See more about the video production here.

A short documentary about the role urban farming has played in the boosting of West Oakland’s communal spirit.

Directed by Jasmine Ehrhardt & Zoe Salnave. Made in partnership with City Slicker Farms. 6 minutes.

About the making of the video:

“My name is Jason Jakaitis – I run an after-school filmmaking program in Oakland, California called The Factory. Every summer the young filmmakers in my program partner up with East Bay nonprofits and produce a documentary for/about the org to use for their recruiting, fundraising, and visibility.

This year one of these ‘Community Filmmaking Partnerships’ was West Oakland’s City Slicker Farms. Three of our youth made a documentary about the role City Slicker Farms has played in “boosting community” in West Oakland.”

Home Grown was a photographic exploration of local food production and sustainable farming in Vancouver and the surrounding region

Video by Fire and Light Media Group
25 minutes. 2011

Brian Harris: I was born in Barrie, Ontario, in 1951. At the age of twenty-one I began my lifelong pursuit and interest in photographing traditional cultures when I traveled to Mount Athos in Greece and then to Jerusalem. Subsequent Asian trips have taken me to Tibet on three occasions, Thailand, China, Korea, Sikkim, Nepal and four trips to India.

The Tibetan Voices Project, India Eye to Eye Exhibition and the Himalayan Visions multimedia show arose from my desire to benefit the people and traditions that are the source of my images and spiritual inspiration. My latest Beauty & Transformation multimedia show, along with the previously mentioned projects, raised funds for Seva Canada’s sight projects in Asia and Africa.

See more of Brian’s work here.

“The average age of a farmer in the United States is 57. We need a new generation to replace those who are retiring.”

By Bob Fischbach
World-Herald
Sept. 3, 2011

Excerpt:

Susman secured fellowships and grants to cover filming costs, and the two set out in early May on an urban-gardening pilgrimage that began in Denver. They saw beekeeping community gardens in a Latino section of Los Angeles, then toured a 100-year-old suburban farm in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Next came the lively urban farming scenes of Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Seattle.

“We filmed some really cool projects in Chicago and Detroit — one of the most happening places in urban farming right now,” Monbouquette said.

In Boston, they visited the country’s oldest running victory garden. They saw a full-acre rooftop garden in Queens, N.Y., and toured a barge greenhouse on the Hudson River. Then they headed south through Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New Orleans and Austin, Texas.

Read the complete article here.

The Seed Savers’ Network

Bit by bit we have produced 350 video clips and uploaded them to Seed Savers’ Youtube channel. We were inspired by our visits to farmers and gardeners around the world and by Seed Savers’ garden of 1000 food species in Byron Bay, Australia. We show you how we save seeds, grow and process our food; people and produce on markets in several countries and food we glean on our travels.

Welcome to The Seed Savers’ Network of Australia

The Seed Savers’ Network is an Australian-based organisation established in 1986 to preserve local varieties of useful plants. There are more than eighty Local Seed Networks for local gardeners around Australia. We are also active in forty countries so far. See About Us where you will find an overview of our activities, the countries in which we have worked, our story so far with archives of our work and how you can get involved. See also an overview of our Permaculture roots.

Founders, Jude and Michel Fanton, have authored and published three books, best seller “The Seed Savers’ Handbook”with 32000 copies sold with some free text available on www.seedsavers.net, “Local Seed Network Manual” and “Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools” and produced a one hour documentary, “Our Seeds” – purchase our publications or film. Our new documentary “Our Roots” that we filmed in Vanuatu for CIRAD the French research institute will be out soon. Please use the resources we offer at no cost to you and without sponsored links.

Film clips from our seed travels. We have filmed and produced hundreds of clips and uploaded them to Seedsavers Youtube channel. Topics include home seed production, unusual varieties of food plants on markets, food production and distribution systems.

See the short clips here.

Urban Leaves: community farms in Mumbai

Urban Leaves Documentary
Reap what you sow, Eat what you grow,
Film made by Suma Josson.
(Must see! Mike)

Dedication by the filmmaker Suma Josson:
August 28th was my mother’s birthday. It is 2 months since she passed away. Daughter of a farmer she was a kitchen gardener growing her own vegetables and fruits wherever she moved. She carried the garden within her and the garden contained her energy. I know up there she is tending and watering a garden filled with the light of regeneration and hope. Let’s turn more earth organic in 2011.

Articles from the India Times celebrating Kitchen Garden Day

Mumbai goes green on the terrace

By Anahita Mukherji
India Times
Aug 28, 2011

Excerpt:

MUMBAI: Planning to turn farmer? There’s no need to leave the city. Join the growing tribe of urban farmers, who grow their own food in every nook and cranny available to them in space-starved cities.

“If everyone took to terrace farming, Mumbai would have acres of farmland, enough to make the city partially self-sustainable,” says Preeti Patil, one of the founders of Urban Leaves, an organisation whose philosophy is “Reap what you sow, eat what you grow”.

Patil certainly knows a thing or two about terrace farming. A catering officer, in charge of the Mumbai Port Trust departmental canteen, Patil and her team helped convert the port trust terrace, once a dump yard for broken equipment, into a lush green farm. Now, everything from rice and coconuts to papaya and brinjal grow there in abundance. Patil also grows vegetables in her balcony.

Read the complete article here.

Grow your own greens at home

By Nirmala Govindarajan
Times of India
Aug 27, 2011

Excerpt:

And the joy of kitchen gardening is far reaching – software professionals too, are kicked about getting their hands dirty to eat healthy. “I grow veggies on my terrace,” confirms software professional Laxminarayan S, adding, “It is important for people in urban areas to do so – it helps increase the green cover too. In fact, we used to grow veggies in our backyard when we were young. Now, because we have the money, we want someone else to grow our food for us.”

Jyothi too, grows her own veggies. “Right now, my kitchen garden has lady finger, tomatoes, onions, mint and greens,” she says.

And writer Vinita Suryanarayan too is particular about feeding her 5-year-old daughter chemical free food. “I stock up organically grown toor dal, raagi and vegetables from NGOs that grow these foods. And I don’t believe there’s any excuse for people to say they can’t find the time to look for organically grown food,” says Vinita.

Read the complete article here.

Also see Urban Leaves here.

London, Chicago, Osaka, New York

Monocle’s favourite cities combine small-scale neighbourhoods with green spaces, but not all cities were built with the right foundations for future growth and sustainability. We champion four urban innovators who see potential in derelict spaces and find creative approaches to make some of the world’s more challenging neighbourhoods bloom into richer and more pleasant places to stay.

Video link here.

Produced by Friends of the Earth Adelaide, Australia

Tracing the history of food gathering and production on the Adelaide Plains, from the Kaurna Aboriginal nation to present day backyard gardens, An Urban Orchard is a celebration of growing and sharing good food.

In the inner southern suburbs of the city of Adelaide, South Australia, local residents meet to share the bounty of their backyards.

Part 2

Around the table of the ‘Urban Orchard’ produce exchange, people from diverse backgrounds share their knowledge of food production and preparation. While deceptively simple, the exchange is a rich opportunity for building community, reducing waste and powerful element in emerging local food systems, where the talk is more often of ‘food metres’ than ‘food miles’.

Focussing on the emergence of homegrown fruit and vegetable exchanges, the film follows the journeys of local gardeners involved in the exchange and offers inspiration for other communities to build more just, sustainable and local food systems in their neighbourhoods.

Part 3

See Friends of the Earth Adelaide here.