Victor and Rhonda Lavado tend to their garden at Szegda Farm in Columbia on Wednesday night. This is the second year they have planted vegetables in the community garden, which also features walking trails. Photo by John Woike, Hartford Courant

Come visit a place where a town has not only saved its land, but also its agricultural heritage as well. Columbia, CT.

By Peter Marteka
Hartford Courant
July 2, 2010

Excerpt:

Bravo, Columbia. You get it and you did it.

While dozens of open space parcels have been purchased across the state over the years, many sit unused with no parking areas or trails blazed through them. This is not the case with the 135-acre Szegda Farm in the heart of this northeast Connecticut town.

It has not one, but two large gravel parking areas. There is a community garden. An old-fashioned hand pump stands nearby — bringing back memories of a simpler time. There are two loop trails blazed by Eagle Scouts into the woodlands and across rock ledges, with plans for more in the future. A local farmer still cuts grass for hay in a nearby field.

[Read more →]

Photo by Hannah_Y_Juan
Plantings by displaced people in Bogotá’s main plaza.

Article from Latin American Press, April 10, 2008

“Usually when you think of agriculture, you think of a farm, of production per hectare and of profitability. But not in this case,” says Claudia Marcela Sánchez, the coordinator of Bogota mayoralty program that has trained over 40,000 of city’s residents in urban agriculture.

“You can’t compare it with traditional agriculture, which has the aim of generating income,” she says. “This program has goals of building social fabric, and of appreciating agricultural practices.”

“I don’t spend money on lettuce and other vegetables now, because I cultivate them on my terrace,” says Ariznalda Camallo, a resident of Mochuelo, on the southern fringes of Bogota, “Food is so expensive at the moment, so it saves me 80,000 Colombian pesos [US$40] a month.” The Urban Agriculture program estimates average monthly wage in Ciudad Bolivar, the largest and poorest district in the capital, at 200,000 Colombian pesos, or $110, less than half the minimum monthly wage of about $250.

[Read more →]