| I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, I came down here to London England for a short vacation unfortunately i was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports with me. I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until i settle the bills,I'm freaked out at the moment.Got nothing left with me..i was mugged off all i got,can you please help me out with some cash?So freaked out here |
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Advocates say urban farming feeds the poor, provides jobs – Duluth, Minnesota
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via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 5/17/10
Emily Kniskern (left) and Michael Latsch, with the program Seeds for Success, prepare a new garden plot on a vacant lot in Duluth last week by digging up the ground and removing roots and rhizomes of the ubiquitous quack grass. Photo by Bob King.
Duluth could soon be awash in home-grown vegetables if two new programs taking seed this spring sprout as organizers hope.
By John Myers,
Duluth News Tribune
May 17 2010
Duluth could soon be awash in home-grown vegetables if two new programs taking seed this spring sprout as organizers hope.
One program, Seeds of Success, sponsored by Community Action Duluth, is turning vacant lots into urban vegetable farms where seasonal workers will grow produce to sell to local restaurants.
The workers might earn a little money for their efforts, and Duluthians will see more home-grown vegetables in the local market. The city and other groups already have donated use of seven vacant lots to be turned into gardens.
"From what we hear, stores and restaurants just can't get enough locally grown, organic produce,'' said Angie Miller, executive director of Community Action Duluth. The group has hired both a community sustainable agriculture expert and a food marketing expert to help the program succeed.
Participants in the city's Youth Employment Service work program, 18- to 21-year-olds, will be trained to garden and grow vegetables. The goal is for them to be able to keep some vegetables and sell the rest.
Seeds of Success is modeled after a program called Growing Power in Milwau kee that helps low-income urban residents grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner — meaning low impact on the environment with few if any chemicals and reduced use of fossil fuels.
"It's starting as a green jobs program to put a few people to work in a garden,'' said Michael Latsch, coordinator of the Seeds of Success program. "We hope it can become nearly self-
sustaining, so there are enough sales of produce to pay for the program, or at least get close.''
No garden? No problem
In another effort, the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank has received 20 free container garden sets that include nearly everything someone needs to start a vegetable garden on their deck, driveway, patio or yard. The kits — seeds, containers, directions and more — were donated by Sydney's Green Garden, a new Duluth-based company trying to preach the gospel of locally grown, sustainable agriculture.
All participants do is add is dirt, water and elbow grease.
Each of the container gardens can grow up to 15 varieties of vegetables that will offer low-income families who use the food shelf a chance to grow their own fresh, nutritious foods that are often out of economic reach at retail stores.
"If your money is limited, fresh vegetables often are too expensive to purchase,'' said Shaye Morris, executive director of the food bank. "For the right family, this is a great opportunity to supplement their food needs and do it in such a positive way.''
Most of the produce Northlanders buy at retail groceries come from far away — California, Florida or Latin America. That shipping requires a lot of fuel and creates a lot of carbon emissions. Moreover, large commercial vegetable operations use large amounts of chemicals and fossil fuels for fertilizer, pesticides and field work. Some have been criticized for poor worker health and safety.
Local options are available, such as buying shares in the Food Farm or similar cooperatives and buying from farmers markets or retail stores like Whole Foods Co-op. But those outlets can't supply an entire region.
Scott Vesterstein, founder of Sydney's Green Garden — named after his daughter — usually sells his vegetable container sets for $89. The 12 containers in the system take up only 16 square feet and grow 15 varieties of vegetables. The system will fit almost anywhere there's a little sunshine.
"You'd be amazed how much you can grow in such a little space,'' said Vesterstein, noting he has a wealth of fresh vegetables from mid-June into September, including carrots, lettuce, peas, spinach, cucumbers, beets, beans and more. "This is a legitimate way to grow pesticide-free, organic food — and lots of it — right outside your window. It's not that hard.''
Little gardens save big oil
Vesterstein, owner of the Fitgers Brewery Complex in Duluth, started container gardening on his driveway in 2003 and has been expanding his interest and efforts ever since. That includes selecting seeds specific to the Northland environment. He's even become certified in designing space for new homes to fit vegetable garden space into the design, and now he's donating kits to local third-grade classes and developing kits for Third World communities.
According to the Organic Consumers Association, every American uses about 400 gallons of oil each year just through the food they eat. Some 17 percent of our nation's energy use goes to agriculture, from tractors working the fields to packaging to trucks to store shelves. The groceries Americans buy have traveled an average of 1,500 miles from field to table.
Vesterstein says that, if every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week of organically and locally raised produce and meats, the nation could cut oil use by 57 million barrels each year. Even more would be saved if the veggies came from right outside each home's own kitchen.
"Maybe the beginning of becoming a less energy-dependent nation starts one garden at a time,'' Vesterstein said.
Anyone interested in obtaining one of the food bank's free container kits should call Amy Hildre at (218) 727-5653.
For more information on purchasing container kits from Sydney's Green Gardens, go to www.sydneysgreengarden.com.
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Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development proposes changing codes to ...
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via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 5/17/10
From the highest spot in the lovely community garden in Seattle's Chinatown. Photo by Megan Driscoll.
Urban Agriculture Seattle
Specifically, the Department of Planning and Development (DPD)_is proposing the following code changes to support and encourage urban agriculture:
1. Add and/or clarify definitions for the following key terms: horticulture, aquaculture, animal husbandry, community gardens (including P-Patch community gardens), and urban farms. These refined definitions have additional recommendations (below) for regulation by zone.
2. Allow community gardens (including P-Patch community gardens) as permitted uses in all zones, with some limitations in industrial zones.
3. Allow urban farms in all zones as follows:
Commercial: Allow urban farms as a principal or accessory use. Horticulture uses are currently limited to 10,000 sq. ft. in NC1 zones and 25,000 sq. ft. in NC2 zones; there are no size of use restrictions in NC3 or C zones. In commercial zones, urban farms and horticulture uses are measured by planting area and floor area of a structure.
Industrial: Allow urban farms as an accessory or principal use outside of designated MICs, and on tops and sides of buildings in all industrial zones. Currently, horticulture uses are not allowed in industrial zones, and DPD proposes no change to this provision as based on the new definition of a horticulture use.
Residential: Allow urban farms as an accessory use up to 4,000 sq. ft. of planting area and as a principal use greater than 4,000 sq. ft. of planting area, subject to an administrative conditional use permit process. Currently, agriculture uses are not allowed in residential zones.
4. Allow rooftop greenhouses a 15 foot exception to height limits as a rooftop feature, if the greenhouse is dedicated to food production in MF/C/I/SM/Downtown zones.
5. Add farmers' markets to the definition of multipurpose uses.
6. Increase the number of chickens allowed on residential property from three to eight, and regulated by lot rather than by dwelling unit or business. DPD also proposes to add that roosters are not allowed in any zone.
7. Allow existing urban horse farms greater than ten acres to operate as a permitted use in all zones. Current regulations allow farm animals based on lot size. Allowing horse farms greater than 10 acres to be a permitted use would allow for building accessory structures that are not permitted to be built under existing regulations for nonconforming uses.
Urban agriculture in Seattle
Urban agriculture is a type of infill development that fits into growth strategy for Seattle and the region, by adding a missing element of livable communities and stimulating small-scale economic development. There is a tremendous opportunity to develop local sources of healthy food by turning existing lawn and garden space into productive agricultural plots. Small-scale urban agriculture can help create livable, walkable and sustainable communities, and implement City goals of sustainability and economic development.
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Friday, May 7, 2010
Urban Agriculture Takes Root in Rochester
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via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 5/7/10
Gardeners and Food Bank Planting Seeds for Urban Farming
Rachel Ward
WXXI Centre for Public Affairs
2010-05-06
Audio story: Listen here.
WXXI's Rachel Ward reports on a coalition of urban agriculture advocates hoping to find a new way to deal with hunger in Rochester neighborhoods.
Excerpt:
ROCHESTER, NY (WXXI) – At first glance, the farm does not look promising. It's overgrown with tall grasses and weeds. There's a high brick wall surrounding it, which casts deep shadows over the cluster of apple trees. And there are kids running around everywhere.
But there's also a warm, sunny greenhouse full of long tables of seedlings – a sign that some serious farming is going on here, according to coordinator Jan McDonald. She says the tiny farmers here at Franklin Montessori are growing 90 different varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers in the courtyard of their school.
The students are part of Rochester Roots. They tend the plants and then take the harvest home, or sell it. But the program isn't just about farming – it's also about sustainability and nutrition. And soon, Rochester Roots will join forces with the area's biggest food bank, Foodlink, to teach legions of people how to grow their own food, right inside the city of Rochester.
"Bigger than just agriculture"
Tom Ferraro is the founder and president of Foodlink, something of a local food bank empire.
"We really see this as part and parcel of how we correct some of the ills that are making that people are hungry. There's just a lack of wealth and a lack of jobs."
So Foodlink has stepped up its efforts, to make itself more sustainable, in the hopes of transferring that knowledge to the community. It has a farm where it grows produce to give away, and to sell. It's cutting its delivery costs by brewing waste food into ethanol. And the food bank is hoping that soon it will be able to sell the leftover gunk from ethanol production to gardeners, as nutrient-rich soil, according to Ferraro.
"This is much bigger than just urban agriculture, I think as we begin to as a society be able to turn our waste stream into energy and do a variety of other things, the world as we know it is going to change rather quickly and dramatically."
Read the rest of the story and listen to the audio story here.
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Friday, April 30, 2010
Will Allen and term ‘Urban Farm’ make Time Magazine’s list of TOP 100 in 2010
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via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 4/30/10
Photo by Jimmy Fishbein, Time
In our annual TIME 100 issue we name the people who most affect our world
By Van Jones
Time Magazine
Apr. 29, 2010
At one time, the term urban farm sounded like an oxymoron. No longer. (My red ink. Mike) A new movement is sprouting up in America's low-income neighborhoods. Some urban residents, sick of fast food and the scarcity of grocery stores, have decided to grow good food for themselves.
One of the movement's (literally) towering icons is Will Allen, 62, of Milwaukee's Growing Power Inc. His main 2-acre Community Food Center is no larger than a small supermarket. But it houses 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, plus chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits and bees.
People come from around the world to marvel — and to learn. Says Allen: "Everybody, regardless of their economic means, should have access to the same healthy, safe, affordable food that is grown naturally."
The movement's aim is not just healthier people but a healthier planet. Food grown in cities is trucked shorter distances. Translation: more greenhouses in the 'hood equals less greenhouse gas in the air.
Just as important, farm projects grow communities and nourish hope. The best ones will produce more leaders like Allen, with his credo "Grow. Bloom. Thrive."
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Researchers Work to Ensure Safety of Urban Gardens
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via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 4/29/10
K-State's National 'Brownfields' Research Funded by EPA
By Staff of Kansas City infoZine
April 29, 2010
Excerpt:
Manhattan, KS – infoZine – Spring is in the air and urban gardens are sprouting up all over the country.
"Increasingly, urban agriculture is being done on a community basis, rather than an individual basis," said Kansas State University assistant professor of agronomy, Ganga Hettiarachchi. "There are now more than 18,000 community gardens in the U.S. and Canada," she said, citing American Community Gardening Association data.
Some of those gardens are on once-vacant lots and land where buildings once sat. Such locations are convenient for city-dwellers and make productive use of land that otherwise might be weedy, trash-strewn lots. There is a potential downside, however.
The problem in using properties – typically called brownfields – that may have been the site of anything from auto body shops to manufacturing facilities to gas stations, is that the soil on some of those properties can pose health risks if it is contaminated with heavy metals, metalloids or organic compounds, Hettiarachchi said.
She and a team of K-State researchers are working in several states around the country to ensure that growing crops in some urban locales are safe for gardeners and consumers. Other scientists involved include Sabine Martin, brownfields coordinator and Blasé Leven, associate director, both with the Center for Hazardous Substance Research; Larry Erickson, professor in chemical engineering; Gary Pierzynski, professor and DeAnn Presley, assistant professor, both in agronomy; and Rhonda Janke, associate professor of horticulture. Pierzynski is currently serving as K-State interim dean of the College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension.
The five-year project began in January, 2009 with guaranteed funding from the Environmental Protection Agency of $750,000 and a possibility of up to $900,000.
Brownfield sites are defined by the EPA as vacant, abandoned property, the reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance or contaminant, Hettiarachchi said. Examples include vacant residential lots, including those adjacent to industrial facilities and abandoned gas stations.
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Growing organic: integrating natural systems education at the land-grant level
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via Regenerative Farming News and Research by on 4/29/10
Learning opportunities expand for organic agriculture at many universities.
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