Wired Magazine: Clive Thompson on Why Urban Farming Isn’t Just for Foodies

Illustration: Carin Goldberg in Wired magazine.

(You know urban agriculture has gone mainstream when it is written about in the premier high-tech magazine. Mike)

By Clive Thompson
Wired Magazine 08.18.08

But what I love most here is the potential for cultural transformation. Growing our own food again would reconnect us to this country’s languishing frontier spirit.

Once you realize how easy it is to make the concrete jungle bloom, it changes the way you see the world. Urban environments suddenly appear weirdly dead and wasteful. When I walk around New York City now, I see the usual empty lots and balconies and I think, Wait a minute. Why aren’t we growing food here? And here? And here?

In fact, that’s precisely what occurred to me when I came home and looked at the window of my apartment. So now it holds three pots balanced on the ledge: One with herbs, one with lettuce, one with tomatoes.

Read the story in ‘Wired’ here.

Link to Carol Nissen’s web site. Her garden is mentioned at the start of the article.