By Alberto Zezza and Luca Tasciottia
Agricultural Development Economics Division,
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Available online 14 May 2010.

Abstract

Urban agriculture may have a role to play in addressing urban food insecurity problems, which are bound to become increasingly important with the secular trend towards the urbanization of poverty and of population in developing regions. Our understanding of the importance, nature and food security implications of urban agriculture is however plagued by a lack of good quality, reliable data. While studies based on survey data do exist for several major cities, much of the evidence is still qualitative if not anecdotal. Using a recently created dataset bringing together comparable, nationally representative household survey data for 15 developing or transition countries, this paper analyzes in a comparative international perspective the importance of urban agriculture for the urban poor and food insecure.

Some clear hints do come from our analysis. On the one hand, the potential for urban agriculture to play a substantial role in urban poverty and food insecurity reduction should not be overemphasised, as its share in income and overall agricultural production is often quite limited. On the other hand, though, its role should also not be too easily dismissed, particularly in much of Africa and in all those countries in which agriculture provides a substantial share of income for the urban poor, and for those groups of households to which it constitutes an important source of livelihoods. We also find fairly consistent evidence of a positive statistical association between engagement in urban agriculture and dietary adequacy indicators.

Introduction
The importance and role of urban agriculture: facts and artefacts. A brief review of the literature
Characterising urban agriculture
Urban agriculture and food security
Data and definitions
Opening the urban agriculture black box: what the data say
Urban agriculture and food security
Concluding remarks
Acknowledgements
Appendix A
References

Science Direct – Price: US $ 31.50 Link here.

Or see this:

Does Urban Agriculture Enhance Dietary Diversity?
Empirical Evidence from a Sample of Developing Countries
Alberto Zezza and Luca Tasciotti1
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
March 2008
Draft. Not for quotation

Free here.

GreenMarket, UAE

The GreenMarket utilizes BrightFarm Systems pioneering rooftop and facade mounted, sustainable greenhouse designs, to integrate hydroponic food production into civic buildings. The layers of vegetation encased in the walls of the building provide shade for the building interior.

The interior of the building structure is designed to serve as marketplaces, recreation centers, meeting halls, or any function that can benefit from enclosed, naturally lit, shaded, conditioned or semi-conditioned space. In the Abu Dhabi climate, these spaces will be extremely appealing in the summer, but should also be very comfortable at all times of year.

Hydroponic food production offers compelling advantages in the United Arab Emirates, where a rising demand for quality food exists in a context of poor soils, diminishing natural water resources, and abundant sunshine. Fresh, perishable vegetables are currently air freighted into the region from distances of up to 5,000km.

Whole Foods Market, USA

BrightFarm Systems was commissioned to design and install a demonstration scale, sustainable urban greenhouse for a new Whole Foods Market store in Millburn, New Jersey.

The demonstration scale greenhouse system was designed to allow for on site production of high quality, fresh herbs for use in Whole Foods prepared food services as well as for general sale.

Central to the BrightFarm Systems design was the application of modern, water efficient, recirculating hydroponics. In this instance, lines of vertical growing towers were deployed along the window frontage, to make best use of the available light.

More BrightFarm Projects

Arup/Brightfarm Research Greenhouse, USA

Manhattan School For Children, USA

Eleanor Roosevelt School, USA

The Co-op, UK

The Science Barge, USA

See BrightFarm projects here.

Already 13 gardens, 665 persons with direct benefit, 2,660 persons with indirect benefit, 48 professional training courses taught.

São Paulo, a superlative metropolis, boasting impressive numbers revealing of its grandeur, riches, and differences too. A city that together with other 38 municipalities forms the so-called Greater São Paulo, awarding it the title of the world’s fourth largest conurbation, with 19 million inhabitants, while São Paulo city alone is home to eleven million people.

It is within this human context that we lead our daily lives, embedded in a landscape of contrasts, where wealth and poverty coexist. This is the reality and the divide that Organization Cities Without Hunger, through its Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens Project, struggles to overcome by endeavoring to reduce the food and nutritional insecurity of socially vulnerable communities.

Reducing hunger and joblessness by means of urban agriculture and fruit and vegetable gardens is an important contribution to the future of our cities’ sustainability. Such is the mission we set out on, and your participation and engagement play a critical role in this compelling story of responsibility and citizenship.

See Cities Without Hunger website here.

2nd July 1937: Children in the allotments of the London Children’s Gardens Fund at Clerkenwell take a break from gardening with their weekly bout of boxing. Larger image here.

Instruction would be based on intensive farming on small plots.

By Larry Pynn
The Vancouver Sun – 29 Nov 2008

A school of urban farming — a North American first — is finding fertile soil in Richmond BC Canada.

Richmond’s parks, recreation, and cultural services committee has unanimously endorsed the concept of an urban farm school and directed staff to investigate city land for such a project, either at Terra Nova park at the west end of Westminster Highway, or the south end of Gilbert Road.

Instruction would be based on intensive farming on small plots, a heavy dependence on physical labour, ecological sustainability and meeting local market demands, including the food needs of ethnic and immigrant communities.

“It’s human-scale agriculture, labour-intensive and production intensive,” said Kent Mullinix, a sustainable agriculture specialist at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture.

See the complete article here.

Also see: Kwantlen proposes new farm school

1944 Cartoon – Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries “Dig For Victory Leaflet No 7

Commentary – “Thanks Mr Middleton. Mr Middleton – Good Afternoon, we all expect vegetables to feed us but we’ve got to see that we feed them properly too. Suppose we get down to the root of the matter. Plants need food just as much as we do, and it must be in a form they can assimilated. This is where humas comes in. Humas is composed mainly of decayed vegetable matter.

By putting humas in the soil plus a few handfuls of chemical fertiliser you make sure that the plant has enough to eat. One of the best sources of humas is the compost heap. It really acts as a sort of canteen for the plants. Simple and cheap its mainly garden waste, its easy to make a compost heap and if you want it in time for next seasons crop now is a good time to start. PLANT – That’s right, now is a good time to start.”

Shot List: CARTOON – Vegetable growing and then thanking Mr Middleton. Shots of Mr Middleton talking to the screen. Shots of a plant and its roots. Shot of a Compost Heap. Plants underground taking Nitrogen potash phosphates to other plants. Feeding the plant. Compost Heap. Mr Middleton talking. Plant talking.

Making Compost in 1919

From the Victory Edition 1919 ‘War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables’

Compost is especially desirable when quick growth is wanted. Compost is thoroughly rotted manure or organic material. It is prepared from six to twelve months before being used, by putting the manure and other material in piles having perpendicular sides and flat tops. These piles are usually from 2 to 4 feet high and 6 to 8 feet long.

Besides the usual waste of garden rubbish, there is a large waste of leaves, weeds and the skins and other unused portions of fruits and vegetables. These should all be thrown on the compost pile to decay for use on the garden next spring.

Destroy all plants which are diseased. The compost pile should be built up in alternate layers of vegetable refuse a foot thick and earth an inch or more thick. The earth helps to rot the vegetable matter when mixed with it. The top of the pile should be left flat that the rain may enter and help in the process of decay.

If the pile can be forked over once a month when not frozen and the contents well mixed together, they will decay quite rapidly and be in good usable condition in the spring. The compost may be either spread over hte garden and plowed under or it may be scattered in the rows before the seed are sown. This is, of course, not as rich as stable manure, but it is a good substitute.

Compost is also used as a top dressing during the growing season for hastening growth.
  
In the cities and towns tons of leaves are burned every fall. This is a loss which ought to be prevented. These leaves properly composted with other vegetable waste and earth would be worth hundreds of dollars to the gardens next spring.

In planning a permanent garden, a space should be reserved near the hotbed or seed bed, and in this space should be piled, as soon as pulled, all plants which are free from diseases and insects. This applies to all vegetables and especially to peas and beans, as these belong to a group of plants which take nitrogen from the air, during growth, and and store it in their roots.

When these plants are decayed they will return to the soil not only much of the plant food taken from it during their growth but additional nitrogen as well. Nitrogen in the soil is necessary for satisfactory leaf growth. The material so composted should be allowed to decay throughout the winter, and when needed should be used according to the instructions given for using compost.

See complete 1919 War Gardening and Home Storage of Vegetables publication here.

Today (2008) on the Compost Hotline, we don’t advise adding soil to the compost pile unless we are trying to stop a fruit fly outbreak in which case we suggest capping the pile with an inch of soil. We layer our piles with leaves rather than soil. (Mike)

By Thomas Spencer
Oct 14, 2008

Using the White House grounds to produce food is not a new idea. Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden during World War 2 to encourage American to increase food production.

A day-in-the-life of The White House Organic (WHO) Farm Project’s cross-country tour.

See ‘The Who Farm – The White House Organic Farm Project’ website here.

See complete article from the Birmingham News here. (Slow download – large file!)

The RUAF Foundation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Development Research Centre, Urban Harvest (CGIAR), the Chinese Urban Agriculture Association and the Nanjing Agriculture and Forestry Bureau are organizing a networking event “Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture for Resilient Cities (Green, Productive and Socially Inclusive)” to take place on Wednesday, November 5th, 14.00-16.00 hours, in the Auditorium, at the World Urban Forum in Nanjing, China. There will also be a booth at the Exhibition and a tour to some urban and peri-urban agricultural sites.

See program flyer here.

The Urban Potato: It’s Time Has Come
By Jac Smit
October 29, 2008
From the Desk of Jac Smit

A few years ago I stood on the roof of a hospital in Port au Prince, Haiti. The surface was half straw and other half organic thrash and half potato foliage. A week later I visited a friend in Washington DC. He took me out to his porch and there was a bale of hay [wire bound] with potato foliage on three sides.

I soon learned that these two cases were examples of “Lazy Man Farming”. Lazy Man was invented in Germany in the 19th Century. Its most cited practice is roadside cultivation in Newfoundland Canada. There the farmers collect seaweed, off load it on the side of the road, and insert seedlings.

Potatoes, sweet and sour, do not need soil. Potatoes can be produced soil free on any flat surface: roofs, roadsides, off-season ski resort parking lots, and-so-forth. And its not just hay or seaweed; supermarket and restaurant waste work as well or better.

On a recent visit to Mexico City I discovered the “Potato Tree”. I learned that potatoes grow up and sideways, not down. Home owners and shopkeepers were planting potatoes in a waste filled discarded automobile tire; in a few weeks they added a second tire and within three months had a six-tire high “tree” full of potatoes. The ‘Potato Tree’ is also practiced in garbage cans, black plastic bags and in wooden boxes.

On a visit to a health care center in Nairobi, Kenya I learned of the many benefits of Sweet Potato production. Not only does the sweet potato have the benefits listed above but the foliage is edible and very healthy. The more you harvest the leaves the more the root is stimulated to expand. Sweet potato also lasts longer in storage than most regular potatoes.

A lot is happening in the arena of the potato. The United Nations declared 2008 to be “The Year of the Potato”. In China potato production was up 50% from 2005 to 2007. In India yields increased on demonstration farms from 4 tons to 8 tons per acre, when they bought better seeds. In Peru, where the ‘Potato Center’ research includes 200 varieties, yields were up 20% from 2007 to 2008.

I am sorry that none of these stats report on the Urban Potato. They do hint at what’s possible in the bag, the tire and on the roof.

A rural acre of potato delivers more protein than an acre of wheat in half the time. Urban potato technology produces ten to twenty times as much per square yard as the rural potato patch and it requires both less storage and less shipping.

Urban Potato References:

1. UNFAO, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Bambi Lotalado, Italy
2. CIP, International Potato Center, Pamela Anderson, Peru
3. McCain Food Ltd., David Caldiz, USA
4. AGRITECH, Bangalore, India
5. AVRDC, Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, Taiwan
6. Univ. Of Idaho, Potato Production Systems Program
7. www.ehow.com/how Grow-Potatoes-garbage-can
8. Mother Earth News: Grow Potatoes in Hay

See more of Jac Smit’s writing here.

The International Year of the Potato 2008 website here.

See ‘A History and Social Influence of the Potato’ by Redcliffe Salaman here.

Edible of the Month: Potato – National Gardening Association.

The Book of the Potato

By T. W. SANDERS

Early 1900′s book cover: The Book of the potato. A practical handbook dealing with the cultivation of the potato in allotment, garden and field; also the pests and diseases thereof; together with selections and descriptions of the most productive, best cooking, and disease-resisting varieties, etc.
By T. W. SANDERS, F.L.S., F.R.H.S. (Thomas William), 1855-1926
Editor of “Amateur Gardening” ; Author of “Allotment and Kitchen
Gardens,” “Vegetables and their Cultivation” etc.)
See flip book edition here.

“As the global food crisis drags on, urban farmers are on the rise. NBC’s Dawna Friesen looks at cutting costs by growing your own dinner.” 6 minute video.

The camera travels to many of the stories you see on this web site (cityfarmer.info) including London backyards, balconies, historical wartime footage, city farmers in Cuba, Chicago gardeners selling to restaurants, greenhouses on NY roofs, vertical farms, Royal Park and White House food gardens, and the Edible Estates author. This video reaches a huge worldwide TV audience.

City of Fresno Wants to Destroy Garden to Make Way for Police Station

By Mike Rhodes,
Indybay, Oct 21, 2008

The City of Fresno is attempting to evict a group of Hmong gardeners from plots they have farmed for 13 years. The Hmong Community Garden, which sits on 4 acres of public land, provides food for 300 members of the Hmong community. Spokesperson Mai Summer Vue said that to the gardeners, the garden is “a way of life, a peace of mind, food for their family, exercise, therapy, stress relief, and it eases their mental health issues…caused by the Vietnam War.”

The city is planning to destroy the garden and build a police substation in its place, and city officials have sought to relocate the gardeners to a site one-eighth the size of the current garden. On Friday, Oct. 17, the city claimed that an agreement had been reached to relocate the gardeners. But the gardeners stated that they did not and will not agree to be relocated, and they accused the city of using wrongful translation to mislead and manipulate. Vue said, “As a community, we feel abused by city officials. They took our voice away, violated our civil rights, and disrespected our elders.”

The issue has galvanized the community, and the gardeners and their allies have mobilized to fight the eviction. On Tuesday, Oct. 21, over a dozen people, including a number of gardeners, spoke before the city council in support of the garden during time allocated for unscheduled communications. The issue will be included in the council’s agenda at its Tuesday, Oct. 28 meeting.

See complete article on Indybay here.

Hmong Speak Out About Community Garden – See 11 minute video here.

The Film

HOMEGROWN follows the Dervaes family who run a small organic farm in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. While “living off the grid”, they harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day. The film is an intimate human portrait of what it’s like to live like “Little House on the Prairie” in the 21st Century.

Director’s Statement – Robert McFalls

Many people are becoming aware of the environment. We may have gone to see “An Inconvenient Truth”, changed our light bulbs, or started to recycle more. But how many of us are really walking the walk? I know I’m not.

When I heard about the Dervaes family, I sensed that there was a human story behind the headlines about global warming or buying organic produce. I wanted to find out what it takes to live the life of an environmental pioneer. I don’t wish to simply glorify or romanticize their way of life, however. I want to show that along with the positive benefits there are also sacrifices. Truly living by your ideals can have costs. I believe that recognizing the hardships the Dervaes have faced makes their work all the more inspiring.

HOMEGROWN is ultimately a family story. It’s about what lead them to where they are today, what changed them and what keeps them together. Perhaps by learning of their journey to a sustainable life style, we might be inspired to take our own first steps.

Visit their website here.

Entrepreneurs set out to farm unused residential yards – and make money to boot

By Moira Dann
The Globe and Mail
October 20, 2008

VICTORIA — It all started in June for Deb Heighway with a call from her brother, Craig, proving that good ideas grow roots and flourish quickly. He had declared himself CPO – “chief pitchfork operator” – of an urban farming venture in Vancouver, and he urged her to give the concept a try.

“The timing was right, as I had just finished a contract,” said Ms. Heighway, who works helping people who have suffered brain injury. “And I said: ‘Why not?’ ”

Ms. Heighway, who is originally from London, Ont., started off by purchasing a set of manuals online about small-plot intensive – or SPIN – farming: “It was $85, approximately.” The guide was part of a series produced by the pioneers behind the SPIN farming movement in Saskatchewan, Wally Satzewich and Gail Vandersteen.

“So I started knocking on doors, just on my street,” said Ms. Heighway, with flyers offering to “turn your yard into a productive vegetable garden. We’ll do all the work and you get healthy, fresh and FREE vegetables.”

And so Donald Street Farms came into being.

SPIN farming is an urban agriculture phenomenon that is growing across Canada and the United States. It offers more productive land use in the city as well as food sustainability closer to end-users.

Read the complete Globe and Mail article here.

Visit Donald Street Farms here.

Visit SPIN Farming here.

Novella Carpenter is the author of the forthcoming book FarmCity: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin Press). “I studied under Michael Pollan at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for two years. My journalistic work reflects my interests–in farming, food, the environment, and culture. In a nutshell, I like to tell stories about people who follow unconventional paths.”

Novella blogs her life on her urban farm at ‘Ghost Town Farm’. Here is an early blog entry by the author.

Feb 16, 2007

I first started farming in the city of Seattle in 1998. At the time, I was a book editor at Sasquatch Books, and one of our favorite authors was Carla Emery. She wrote a book called the Encyclopedia of Country Living. One day I was flipping through the newsprint pages of the book (this is how editors procrastinate) and happened upon a section called How to Build a Chicken House.

By that time, I was gardening a little bit. I grew peas and some lettuces, but I hadn’t thought of actually growing animals. Carla inspired me, and soon we had three golden-laced wyanndotte chickens and a little hen house. In a strange coincidence, we later found an old Chinese billboard that read, “Hen”. We immediately hung in on our porch. I loved the eggs and the chickens.

Eventually I moved to California. Now I live and farm in Oakland, CA. I can see downtown O-Town from my back porch, BART seems to run straight across my living room, as does I-980. It’s really spiraled from those early years in Seattle: to bees, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, geese, and I hope, one day, goats or a pig. A mini-cow, maybe?

Her blog site ‘Ghost Town Farm’ can be found here.

See also:

The Urban Farmer – Do farm animals survive by dying?
Interview by Amy Standen – March, 2008
meatpaper.com

Diary of a turkey killer – Last year I decided to grow and slaughter my own Thanksgiving turkey. The six months I spent raising Harold were some of the best of my life — and so were the hours I spent eating him.
By Novella Carpenter – Salon.Com

MetroAg promises to bring support and recognition to growing urban agriculture movement

Article by Kristin Reynolds in ‘Urban Grown’ the Newsletter of the Kansas City Centre for Urban Agriculture. Link to all ‘Urban Grown’ issues here.

Excerpt:
In conjunction with the annual Community Food Security Coalition Conference, a newly-formed organization held its first official forum on urban agriculture at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Saturday, October 4th, 2008.

The forum was co-sponsored by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, with financial support through the Cedar Tree Foundation. MetroAg: the Alliance for Urban Agriculture is a network of urban agriculture advocates and practitioners from the Unites States and Canada.

MetroAg’s mission is to bring together a wide and culturally diverse range of stakeholders involved in urban agriculture (in and around cities) in North America, to share knowledge and best practices and to foster linkages externally, so as to give voice to its advocates and recognition and legitimacy to its activities.

Kristin’s complete article is the 8th article in the Newsletter. Read here.

Julian Cribb, author of ‘The Coming Famine’, said:

“This intensive urban vegie culture is an entirely new industry and will need a new professional – the urban farmer who can grow food on the roofs and sides of buildings, in intensive biocultures and by other novel methods to feed the megacities of 30 million-plus inhabitants.

“If we don’t, by 2050 we will have more than three-quarters of the human population – almost 8 billion people – living in places where they are totally without the means or the knowledge of how to feed themselves. Our giant cities will be gigantic death traps, at the mercy of even quite minor glitches in regional or global food supplies.”

Excerpts are from this article:

Future farms over our heads

By Heath Gilmore, Brisbane Times
October 11, 2008|

AUSTRALIAN cities must join a global network in which urban farmers grow produce on rooftops, a leading science commentator says.

Professor Julian Cribb, author of ‘The Coming Famine’, said the global food crisis was a forewarning of what could be expected as civilisation ran low on water, arable land and nutrients, and experienced soaring energy costs.

Professor Cribb said the urban farmers of the future – who would primarily grow vegetables – would play a much larger role in the global diet.

“We need new skills in designing this diet and developing the intensive vegetable culture needed to support it,” he said.

“This intensive urban vegie culture is an entirely new industry and will need a new professional – the urban farmer who can grow food on the roofs and sides of buildings, in intensive biocultures and by other novel methods to feed the megacities of 30 million-plus inhabitants.

“If we don’t, by 2050 we will have more than three-quarters of the human population – almost 8 billion people – living in places where they are totally without the means or the knowledge of how to feed themselves. Our giant cities will be gigantic death traps, at the mercy of even quite minor glitches in regional or global food supplies.”

The City of Sydney council has commissioned a report to look at ways to encourage the greening of rooftops. Deputy Lord Mayor Marcelle Hoff said a group of environmental experts was working on a report – due before Christmas – on retrofitting green roofs to multi-storey apartment buildings.

The council was adding six community gardens and employing a dedicated staff member to co-ordinate them. The council owns two community gardens and supports another eight.

“Green roofs would create more open space and enhance bio-diversity,” Ms Hoff said. “They will also reduce energy consumption by insulating buildings, reduce stormwater run-off, reduce greenhouse gases and could be practical, too, by growing fruit and vegetables.”

Green Roofs Australia executive Jim Osborne, a landscape architect, said councils and governments needed to provide incentives such as greater planning and monetary support for rooftop gardens.

The benefits of these gardens had been established overseas but more scientific research examining Australian conditions was needed.

Brisbane Times article here.

The Coming Famine
By Dr. Julian Cribb
Read full text here at this link.

Julian Cribb & Associates at Science Alert here.

Landscape architect Owen Dell has a vision: transforming suburban neighborhoods into shared “foodsheds” with food-bearing and native plants, and even chickens. Neighbors can start by finding edible plants already growing in their yards, maybe remove fences, plant what works best in each location.

Best of all, share the resulting food abundance with one another (”Hey, it’s lemon time. Come and get ‘em!”) and build the social network with shared food potlucks. Tour Owen’s own edible landscape yard, including a rooftop container garden complete with visiting cat.

Peak Moment TV website here.

For over 35 years, award winning landscape architect and contractor Owen Dell of County Landscape and Design has been designing and building beautiful, sustainable and soul-satisfying residential and commercial landscapes. His web site is here.

Mesa Exchange: Join a Santa Barbara Food Share Group. Become inspired to grow your own food, join a neighbourhood food share group. Web site here.

“All users have to do is click their location on the website map and choose their veggies. Once a person has started a garden, he or she can add a small carrot representing that garden to the World Map of Small Food Gardens. This map is configured to let browsers find ideas or connections with other gardeners for sharing tips, seeds, recipes, and whatever else they need to know or swap in quest of the perfect small vegetable garden.”

World Food Garden (.org) Launches New Website

The gardener’s social network and the answer to economic, environmental, food and oil crises

According to World Food Garden, during WWI and WWII, 40 percent of produce was grown in small gardens at home, and it’s time to bring that figure back.

World Food Garden has launched ‘http://www.Worldfoodgarden.org’ for gardeners and small farmers to promote a modern Victory Garden movement throughout the world by encouraging anyone with a little land, a rooftop, a balcony or terrace to start a vegetable garden. Eve Sibley, founder of World Food Garden, said, “It is time to begin cultivating lifestyles that are not vulnerable to downturns in the economy. Our aim is to provide a gathering place for those who garden and those who wish to learn to work the earth to grow their own food.”

Sibley suggests that when considering Worldfoodgarden.org, people think of it as a Facebook to save the planet. “Food costs are soaring as the costs of production climb higher and higher with the price of oil,” stated Sibley. “Our planet is in peril and our food supply is at risk because of the recklessly wasteful methods of large industrial farming. Petroleum-based fertilizers which endanger our water supply and ultimately strip nutrients from the soil are poured onto the large farms to beef up production. Then, food is shipped thousands of miles on gas- guzzling trucks, compounding our pollution and global-warming problems.

Eve Sibley talks about her project — WorldFoodGarden.org

“Worldfoodgarden.org seeks to teach you how to become independent of this harmful system: by building a healthier world right in your own backyard or even on your balcony. With your own small garden, you can help save the world, improve your health, save money and enjoy the best-tasting food you have ever eaten.”

World Food Garden is devoted to bringing back the spirit of the Victory Garden to America and to spread it throughout the world. “We want to teach everyone how to garden.”

The “Garden Calculator” available at the site provides site-specific advice about soil make-up and plants appropriate to each area. All users have to do is click their location on the Web site map and choose their veggies. Once a garden is started, gardeners can add a small carrot representing that garden to the World Map of Small Food Gardens. This map is configured to let browsers find ideas or connect with other gardeners for sharing tips, seeds, recipes, and whatever else they need to know or swap in quest of the perfect small vegetable garden.

Green philanthropists can use WorldFoodGarden.org to find other ecologically minded philanthropists in World Food Garden’s data bank, joining forces in promoting the distribution of open-pollinated, non-GMO seeds to needy individuals and communities. Added Sibley, “As Worldfoodgarden.org gains in popularity, our Web site will serve as a major clearinghouse for all sorts of NGOs with an interest in supporting the growing local food movement and worldwide, non-industrial farm systems. A small packet of seeds, combined with improved knowledge and resources, can make the difference for the survival of a family in the poorest parts of the world.”

Those already growing a food garden can encourage others to do the same by adding their garden to the World Food Garden Map. Worldfoodgarden.org can be used to create networks that assist less fortunate
people to grow gardens, and watch as small efforts continue to spread exponentially on their own.

WorldFoodGarden.org offers:

. A world map (like Google Earth) where individuals, classrooms and small farms growing local food gardens, suppliers of non-GMO, open-pollinated seeds, and researchers, travelers and philanthropists can create profiles, network, and trace the impact of their efforts.

. Great visibility for non-GMO open pollinated seed suppliers

. A way to promote a diversity of seeds and non-GMO seeds

. Great visibility for garden organizations

. Source of information on plants and seeds

. Great visibility for existing Garden Forums

. Great way to connect with others who are similarly inclined to take care of Mother Earth

. An easy tool for activists and philanthropists to create networks that make positive effects, socially and environmentally

. Easy networking between classroom gardens

. A way to keep track of anyone’s effect on the world

In the works:

. Networking for gardeners to share tips, pictures and recipes

. A place to keep track of planting, fertilizing, other garden activities

. Tutorials for how to sustainably prepare soil, plant, maintain and harvest food plants

. A full database of all non-GMO, open-pollinated seed varieties in the U.S.

. A clickable climate map, detailing which plants grow well in which places and the dates they should be planted for indoor and outdoor growing

. A “Garden Calculator” making advanced gardening techniques easy for new gardeners to use to help plan their first garden

. Full garden profiles including personal blogs, planting calendars, comments and messaging

. A lunar phase calendar that makes suggestions for biodynamic growing

Link to World Food Garden here.

Blogger Durgan’s web page on processing horseradish root here.

How to harvest horseradish here.

How to plant horseradish here.

from Makerere University Press, 250 pages
Editors: Donald Cole, Diana Lee-Smith and George Nasinyama (Will be going to press in the next few weeks.)

“In an era of global urban food crises and rapid, unplanned
city growth, how can urban agriculture be transformed from a
potential source of health risks into a vehicle for healthier
urban households and local environments?”

• A novel guide to integrating agriculture and public health into urban policy
• “Policy dialogue” to engage researchers and policy makers in support of agriculture-based livelihoods of low income urban families
• A science-based approach to dealing with public health and food safety concerns
• Essential reading for professionals and academics involved in agriculture and the environment, public health, and urban planning and management

Increasing concentrations of low-income families in urban settlements with limited employment opportunities have placed greater emphasis on securing household food security and income supplements through local agricultural production. Fears that urban food production can provide multiple pathways for introducing urban contaminants into the food chain have often resulted in a negative policy environment for urban agriculture. Yet policy makers have had little or no hard evidence either about the risks, or about the potential nutritional and other health benefits of local food production.

This publication presents research results on potential health risks from exposure of crops to urban contaminants and from livestock production as well as the nutritional and food security benefits of urban farming. These results are embedded in the specific policy context of the city of Kampala, Uganda, but the lessons about the links between research results and policy have relevance for cities in other parts of Africa and beyond. The book contains contributions by leading research specialists in the fields of urban agriculture and public health from Uganda and the broader science community.

After deconstructing the multiple perspectives on health risks from food production, the book presents the Kampala research in sections that focus on the analysis of food and nutrition security benefits, risk exposure through horticulture and the risks and benefits from livestock. Finally, the publication demonstrates how these aspects were re-integrated in a public policy debate in Kampala, and develops an urban governance approach to managing agriculture and health. By placing food, public health and urban policy in Kampala in a broader historical context, this book suggests how research may help achieve agreements among scientists and policy-makers on supporting low income
urban populations through safe and sustainable agriculture.

Complete book online here.