Health benefits of ‘grow your own’ food in urban areas: implications for con...

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Health benefits of ‘grow your own’ food in urban areas: implications for contaminated land risk assessment and risk management?

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/30/10

Implications for contaminated land risk assessment and risk management?

By Jonathan R Leake 1 , Andrew Adam-Bradford 2 and Janette E Rigby 3
1 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2 Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
3 National Centre for Geocomputation, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
Environmental Health
Published: 21 December 2009

Excerpts:

Abstract

Compelling evidence of major health benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and outdoor interaction with 'greenspace' have emerged in the past decade – all of which combine to give major potential health benefits from 'grow-your-own' (GYO) in urban areas. However, neither current risk assessment models nor risk management strategies for GYO in allotments and gardens give any consideration to these health benefits, despite their potential often to more than fully compensate the risks. Although urban environments are more contaminated by heavy metals, arsenic, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins than most rural agricultural areas, evidence is lacking for adverse health outcomes of GYO in UK urban areas.

Rarely do pollutants in GYO food exceed statutory limits set for commercial food, and few people obtain the majority of their food from GYO. In the UK, soil contamination thresholds triggering closure or remediation of allotment and garden sites are based on precautionary principles, generating 'scares' that may negatively impact public health disproportionately to the actual health risks of exposure to toxins through own-grown food. By contrast, the health benefits of GYO are a direct counterpoint to the escalating public health crisis of 'obesity and sloth' caused by eating an excess of saturated fats, inadequate consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables combined with a lack of exercise.

These are now amongst the most important preventable causes of illness and death. The health and wider societal benefits of 'grow-your-own' thus reveal a major limitation in current risk assessment methodologies which, in only considering risks, are unable to predict whether GYO on particular sites will, overall, have positive, negative, or no net effects on human health. This highlights a more general need for a new generation of risk assessment tools that also predict overall consequences for health to more effectively guide risk management in our increasingly risk-averse culture.

Conclusion

Growing your own food in urban areas has many potential health benefits which may positively improve the physical and psychological health of participants, and these health benefits may significantly offset or compensate for the apparently minor risks that follow from the higher loads of environmental pollutants in urban as compared to rural environments. The health benefits of GYO- which directly addresses some of the key national problems with diet and lifestyle- are likely to more than fully compensate risks at most sites that exceed current soil guideline values. This reveals a serious limitation in current risk assessment methodologies which, in only considering risks, are unable to assess to overall net effect of GYO on human health, and therefore may result in closure of sites that are providing significant overall health benefits to the GYO practitioners. This highlights the need to develop more sophisticated risk assessment tools that predict overall consequences for health from assessment of risk and benefits to health using a common metric and which can be built onto existing risk assessment tools such as CLEA. This will enable the individual and overall risks to health to be established to fully inform risk management decisions.

The complete paper can be read here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

City of Philadelphia offers sub-acre plots for urban farming

Sent to you via Google Reader

City of Philadelphia offers sub-acre plots for urban farming

Manatawna Farm Site

Philadelphia's Department of Parks and Recreation, Request for Information, to identify city farmers to manage small plot commercial, chemical–free farms at Manatawna Farm.

Excerpts:

The Program at Manatawna Farm offers emerging or established farmers the opportunity to explore the advantages of commercial, chemical-free urban farming by providing farmers more land than is traditionally available in the City for growing crops. The Program removes many of the start-up barriers farmers typically encounter, including, but not limited to, access to land, capital improvements, equipment and utilities, and isolation. The site is zoned and primed for agricultural use and will be prepared for commercial farming through identified grant funds. The site will be operated as a commercial farming venture and in turn support entrepreneurial farming initiatives.

The City of Philadelphia acting through its Department of Parks and Recreation (the "City") is issuing this Request For Information ("RFI") to gather indications of interest and experience in operating and managing sub-acre commercial, chemical-free farming plots on a City property called Manatawna Farm, located at 100 Spring Lane, Philadelphia.

Background

In 2008, Mayor Michael Nutter articulated his commitment to making Philadelphia The Greenest City in America and the City adopted sustainability as a fundamental approach for all of the City's operations. Fostering further growth of a regional food and urban agriculture system is a key component of achieving this goal and is supported by MAyor Nutter's food initiative, Philadelphia Food Charter, which calls for the use of City-owned spaces for urban agriculture, and Mayor Nutter's sustainability plan, Greenworks Philadelphia, which recommends 12 commercial agriculture projects be established in the City by 2015.

Download all the information from this page, "Request For Information on Farming". Four documents are in the folder.

See also: Farming in Philadelphia? A Proposal for a Sustainable Urban Farm Incubator

The urban farming explosion

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

The urban farming explosion

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/26/10

Photo by Tony Dornacher

More city dwellers are growing their own food. It's good business

By Peter Ladner
Vancouver Sun
March 24, 2010

Peter Ladner is a former city councillor who is a Fellow at the SFU Centre for Dialogue. He is writing a book entitled Planning Cities as if Food Matters.

Excerpt:

Will Allen, 60, is a 6-foot 7-inch former professional basketball player and sales executive for Procter and Gamble and KFC, who can't keep his hands out of the dirt.

"I'm a farmer first," he tells his weekend class of 80 people who are crammed into one of his 14 greenhouses in a working class neighbourhood of Milwaukee. They're paying $150 a day for a weekend course at the at the epicentre of the North American urban agriculture explosion. Biceps the size of tree trunks hanging out of his cut-off hoody, he strokes and pokes the moist black soil swarming with red wriggler worms as he repeats his lessons.

"Let's go over it again," he shouts. "What's the proper mix of nitrogen and carbon for healthy compost? They taught me at Procter and Gamble that you have to hear something five times before you remember it."

Will Allen is not easily forgettable. His 17-year-old Growing Power Community Food Center employs 39 people, engages 2,000 volunteers, and cranks out 2,000 trays of sprouts a week. He figures he's getting $30 for every square foot of sprouts. The centre has a 33,000-square-foot warehouse down the road that helps feed low-income people, with production boosted by a nearby farm and community gardens in Chicago. Between the low-income food boxes and the sales to local chefs, Growing Power produces enough food for 10,000 people a year.

His success in mixing local food production, low-income-job creation and business skills earned him a $500,000 MacArthur Genius award in 2008 and a $400,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation. In our January class, huddled around warm water in the tilapia fish tanks while the frigid Wisconsin winds chills the composting class outside, an executive from JP Morgan Chase watches over the fruits of his company's $150,000 donation to Growing Power.

Will Allen is the pivot for what he calls the "Good Food Revolution"– getting a reliable source of fresh local organic affordable fruits and vegetables to ill-fed low income people. He's determined to work from the ground up to reverse the way our current diet is, literally, killing us. In February he stood alongside First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House to kick off her campaign to end childhood obesity. The next week he was in Seattle launching the city's Year of Urban Agriculture.

See the rest of the article here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Inquirer Local and Regional News: Battle over development of community garde...

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Inquirer Local and Regional News: Battle over development of community garden in Tioga

via Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue aggregator on 3/27/10

For 19 years Warren Harrison grew potatoes, beans, corn, and tomatoes in the community garden across West Venango Street from his home.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue aggregator using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Urban farming touted as tool for neighborhood revival in Buffalo

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Urban farming touted as tool for neighborhood revival in Buffalo

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/24/10

Wilson Street Urban Farm

Improving Buffalo's distressed neighborhoods

By Brian Meyer
The Buffalo News
March 23, 2010

Community gardens and urban farms could be valuable tools to help improve Buffalo's distressed neighborhoods, speakers from several local groups told Common Council members this afternoon.

Advocates are prodding the city to take early but key steps aimed at making it easier for people to create community gardens and pursue urban agriculture. The measures would include setting up a "diggable database" to help aspiring gardeners and farmers pinpoint land that has been cleared for planting.

Other steps would involve creating a model lease based on agreements used in other cities that address a variety of unique issues. Supporters also want assurances that neighborhood gardens and urban farms are taken into account as long-delayed efforts move forward to overhaul Buffalo's antiquated zoning codes.

Among the speakers at a City Hall hearing today was Mark Stevens, whose family made headlines last year in a struggle to create an urban farm on Wilson Street, not far from the Broadway Market.

The farm is continuing to expand, Stevens reported today. He's convinced that urban agriculture and neighborhood gardens are assets that can help revive "dying communities."

"Hopefully, the vision for the City of Buffalo becomes pro-community gardens, and it also sees how urban farming fits into that at just a little bigger level," said Stevens.

A task force has been working for 20 months on a multipronged strategy for promoting gardens and urban farms. Many groups are involved, including Grassroots Gardens, a nonprofit organization that oversees about 70 community gardens.

Group president Kirk Laubenstein is a legislative staffer to Niagara Council Member David A. Rivera, who sponsored a resolution that was recently approved by lawmakers. The bill endorses efforts that would promote ornamental gardens, vegetable gardens and farms.

Council Majority Leader Richard A. Fontana agreed that gardens can make a positive difference in neighborhoods. But he warned that when they're neglected or abandoned, they can be ugly messes. Fontana dubbed them "gardens gone bad."

"I like them a lot, but they have to be done right," said Fontana.

Advocates concurred that oversight is an important element as efforts are stepped up to promote more gardens throughout the city.

See the article here.

Wilson Street Urban Farm website here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Above the Pavement – the Farm! – forthcoming June 2010

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Above the Pavement – the Farm! – forthcoming June 2010

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/24/10

Above the Pavement—the Farm! Architecture & Agriculture at PF1

By Amale Andraos, Dan Wood
June 2010

Forty years after French protestors took to the streets with the rallying cry Sous les pavés, la plage! (Beneath the pavement, the beach!), a new form of radical expression took shape at MoMA's P.S.1 courtyard in Queens, New York. Above the Pavement—the Farm! reveals the groundbreaking efforts of architecture firm WORKac and their team of more than 150 collaborators—farmers, politicians, horticulturists, technicians, soil scientists, engineers, architecture students, and artists—to create a working urban farm, hoisted 30 feet high, using industrial cardboard tubes filled with more than 50 varieties of locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Called Public Farm 1 (P.F.1), this new breed of sustainable infrastructure, capable of generating its own power, recycling rainwater, cultivating crops, and encouraging leisure, demonstrated that even the most impossibly utopian visions of green city living are within our reach.

Above the Pavement—the Farm! presents a delectable range of ideas and issues situated at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, and food. Featuring a lively mélange of voices depicting the making of P.F.1—with contributions by artist and agricultural activist Fritz Haeg, architectural historian Meredith TenHoor, architect Winy Maas, and head chef Michael Anthony of New York City's Gramercy Tavern—this book introduces a new era of ecological thinking and urban sustenance.

Amale Andraos and Dan Wood are the founders of New York City–based WORK Architecture Company.

About book here.

Purchase book here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Detroit officials work to create zoning code for urban farming

Sent to you via Google Reader

Detroit officials work to create zoning code for urban farming

Image from A Greener Indiana.

Detroit officials work to create zoning code for urban farming

By Nancy Kaffer

Crain's Detroit Business

Mar. 23, 2010

With a growing number of urban gardens and farms across Detroit, city officials are working to incorporate zoning for such projects into the city's code.

A City Planning Commission draft report submitted to the Detroit City Council today suggests a number of policy changes that could legitimize urban farming in Detroit.

Detroit's city code doesn't address urban farming, according to the report, which means large- and small-scale projects are flying "under the radar," according to the report, but the lack of complaints regarding such gardens indicates that such plots have had a positive or neutral impact on neighborhoods.

A letter accompanying the report, signed by CPC Director Marcell Todd Jr., notes that the Urban Agriculture Work Group, comprising a wide range of stakeholders, intends "to craft both a draft policy and draft zoning code to allow for and facilitate urban agriculture in its many forms."

The letter also notes that the group intends to get additional input from an even broader range of community members before submitting a final draft.

Among the zoning and land use changes the group suggests:

• Small farming operations and community gardens should be sold city land at reduced rates, and taxed at a reduced rate.

• Large farming operations that want to purchase reduced-rate land and receive a lower tax rate "must commit to tangible and measurable benefits to the community and/or small farm operations."

• City-owned land sold for agricultural projects will revert back to the city if not used for agriculture.

• Soil testing and remediation standards should be set; policy should dictate what types of agricultural chemicals would be allowed.

• Ordinances should be developed that allow for farmers' markets and farm stands.

• Ordinance should allow the keeping of bees, rabbits, chickens and other farm animals under set conditions.

• Farming projects should have a sustainability plan.

The report notes that these policy suggestions are draft items only, and require greater definition of terms like "small farm operations" or "agricultural purposes" before any formal recommendations may be made.

The report says that six farmers markets operated during the 2009 growing season, and said the Grown In Detroit cooperative sold more than 23,000 pounds of local produce in 2009, earning more than $37,750, with 1,100 pounds donated to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and Spirit of Hope Church.

See arti...

San Francisco Mayor’s urban agriculture plan soon to bear fruit

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

San Francisco Mayor’s urban agriculture plan soon to bear fruit

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/23/10

Mayor Gavin Newsom helps plant edible garden at City Hall. Photo by Scott Chernis / Slow Food Nation

"Urban agriculture is about far more than growing vegetables on an empty lot" says Mayor

Heather Knight,
San Francisco Chronicle
March 23, 2010

Vegetable gardens will soon be sprouting in unlikely places throughout San Francisco including a building that produces steam to heat the Civic Center, Department of Public Works land in the Bayview, outside McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park and at the San Francisco Police Academy in Diamond Heights.

The public library has installed gardens outside its Mission and Noe Valley branches with plans for more and is leading classes for teens on how to cultivate them.

And the city may soon adopt proposals from private groups to install easy-to-assemble chicken coops in its gardens and send mobile vegetable markets to school pick-up zones and other busy destinations.

It's all the result of Mayor Gavin Newsom's executive directive eight months ago to reshape how San Franciscans think about food and choose what to eat.

"Urban agriculture is about far more than growing vegetables on an empty lot," Newsom told The Chronicle. "It's about revitalizing and transforming unused public spaces, connecting city residents with their neighborhoods in a new way and promoting healthier eating and living for everyone."

Newsom unveiled the unusual plan in July. His directive required that all city departments conduct an audit of unused land – including empty lots, windowsills, median strips and rooftops – that could be converted into gardens.

He also demanded that food vendors that contract with the city offer healthful food and that vending machines on city property do the same. He required that farmers' markets accept food stamps, though some already did. He also put a stop to doughnuts and other junk food at city meetings and conferences.

The plan was deemed silly by some who said it shouldn't be a priority for the cash-strapped city, but Newsom remains adamant there are long-term benefits to urban agriculture.

Read the rest of the story here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Inspiring South Bronx video about urban agriculture

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Inspiring South Bronx video about urban agriculture

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/23/10

Video from The Point, a TGC (The Growing Connection) site in South Bronx, New York!

See ThePoint website here.

See The Growing Connection website here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Best Victory Garden Video!! 1941 – Dig For Victory

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Best Victory Garden Video!! 1941 – Dig For Victory

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/20/10

Dig For Victory

Ministry of Agriculture
Britain 1941

"During the Second World War, getting the most from your little plot of land was crucial. This film, produced by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1941, explains how to prepare an area of ground for growing your veg, and shows why not having space is simply no excuse."

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Urban orchards

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Urban orchards

via Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space by Richard Layman on 3/20/10

I write about this subject from time to time, and USA Today reports on more projects, in "More urbanites have their pick of fresh fruit," including the Philadelphia Orchard Project. From the article:

That's the plan for some of the fruit in urban orchards in Philadelphia. Since 2007, a group called the Philadelphia Orchard Project has helped establish 17 urban orchards in the city, including four on school property and one at a public park. Other orchards are planted on land owned by non-profit groups. Orchard director Phil Forsyth said volunteers have planted about 200 trees.

"They are all over the city, generally in low-income neighborhoods," he said. "Community food security is part of our mission, so we partner with groups where the orchard will benefit people who would otherwise have limited access to fresh produce."

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

The Urban Farms of New York

Sent to you via Google Reader

The Urban Farms of New York

In the Bronx, Brooklyn, and even the Upper East Side, rooftop farming is making inroads. The City Greens profiles a handful of these urban pioneers.

read more

Food Forward – proposed TV show to explore alternatives to our current indus...

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Food Forward – proposed TV show to explore alternatives to our current industrial food system

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/18/10

We explore new themes like school lunch reform, aquaponics and urban gardening

Food Forward explores alternatives to our current industrial food system through the lives and passions of a vanguard of innovators; educators, scientists, farmers and chefs across America–food rebels who are fundamentally changing the way we eat.

We shot this self-funded pilot episode trailer on Biodynamics in the summer of 2009 at Cynthia Sandberg's Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, CA.

Now, Food Forward is reaching out to our extended networks, seeking to raise $5,000 by March 30, 2010 to help finish our show trailer – a powerful and polished overview of the entire series. This next strategic milestone will hopefully secure a green light from public television and a firm commitment from our sponsors to underwrite the full pilot episode and bring Food Forward to a national audience. The money will be used to fund additional production where we explore new themes like school lunch reform, aquaponics and urban gardening. We want to produce a series trailer that will really sell this project and help to bring on large sponsors who believe in our vision and want to make this show a reality. If you like our project, donate today and spread the word!

See project website here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Feeding the Hungry from the Backyard

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Feeding the Hungry from the Backyard

via Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network by Michael Dudley on 3/19/10

One solution to urban food security is surprisingly simple: gathering fruit from backyard trees.

read more

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Planetizen - Urban Planning, Design and Development Network using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Malls become greenhouses growing food

A plan for the Market East Gallery?

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Malls become greenhouses growing food

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/18/10

The secret mall gardens of Cleveland

By Lisa Selin Davis
Grist
17 March, 2010

The shopping mall is not dead. In Cleveland, in fact, it's growing green: cucumbers, lettuce, herbs and even flowers.

In the former Galleria at Erieview mall, a project called Gardens Under Glass is taking root, part of a grand plan to transform malls into greenhouses. It's just one of many Cleveland-based projects, suggesting that this rust belt city might have a few sustainabilty tricks to teach urban centers everywhere.

Vicky Poole, who heads up marketing for the Galleria, conceived this project after looking at a photograph of plants growing in a cafe window. Hmmm, she thought, imagining a retooled version of the food court. The mall was already scrambling to find innovative uses for itself in a flagging economy, primarily as a wedding hall, but also as a farmers market. A greenhouse, she discovered, could thrive in the building's climate controlled environment under the tremendous glassed-in atrium that runs like a spine down its emtpy center.

Poole and her partner-in-green Jack Hamilton (who manages Artist Review Today magazine and gallery, located in the Galleria) won a $30,000 grant to set up the greenhouse project. The money came from Cleveland's Civic Innovation Lab, which funds ideas for growing the local economy (other projects include a recycled glassware company and a renewable energy group).

In February, spinach, tomatoes, and strawberries were started in a composted soil system produced by a local company. This week, a hydroponic system was delivered that will exponentially increase output. They also added artificial light to supplement the daylight streaming through the glass ceiling.

See the rest of the article here.

See Gardens Under Glass website here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Motown to Growtown – Home Farming on the Ellen Degeneres Show

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Motown to Growtown – Home Farming on the Ellen Degeneres Show

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/17/10

Taja Sevelle of Urban Farming shows Ellen how to plant a food garden

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" is in its seventh season. Since its inception in 2003, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has earned an impressive 29 Daytime Emmy Awards. The show continues to prove itself a leader in the daytime talk show genre by blending genuine warmth, humor and unparalleled celebrity interviews.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has received acclaim for spotlighting the host's compassion and humanitarian efforts. "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has raised over $10 million to improve the lives of New Orleans residents, and partnered with Brad Pitt's "Make it Right" foundation to help rebuild in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and raised over one million dollars to help build eight homes. The show has also dedicated a special episode to Breast Cancer Awareness Month and DeGeneres has served as spokesperson for General Mills' breast cancer awareness initiative, "Pink for the Cure." The show's annual "Toys for Tots" drive has raised significant funds and awareness of the cause over the past six seasons. Ellen has also hosted "American Idol's" very successful "Idol Gives Back" special that raised money for children in extreme poverty in America and Africa.

About Urban Farming

Urban Farming's mission is to create an abundance of food for people in need by planting gardens on unused land and space while increasing diversity, educating youth, adults and seniors and providing an environmentally sustainable system to uplift communities.

Taja Sevelle, Executive Director & Founder of Urban Farming, is a music recording artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota[1] who began her music career in 1987 when she was signed to the Paisley Park Records label by Prince In the same week she was accepted into the Berklee College of Music in Boston, she was offered a deal from Prince.

Taja Sevelle's first 1987 single, "Love Is Contagious", became her signature song. She recorded Fountains Free (1991) on Warner/reprise/Paisley and Toys of Vanity (1997) on Sony, and has written songs with Burt Bacharach, Thom Bell, Prince and Nile Rodgers among others. She has song catalogs with Warner Chappell Music Publishing and North Star Music as well as her own publishing company, OW Music.

She has also written a 270-page novel "Rain On A River" and is working on her next novel, "The Joke." Additionally, Taja Sevelle invented a kitchen appliance and is partnered with Larry King of CNN and his wife who is a singer, Shawn King on the invention. In the late 1990s, she founded the Matrix Music record label.

See more at Urban Farming here.

See more about Triscuits and Home Farming here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong

Sent to you via Google Reader

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong

Kadoorie Farm

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) spreads over 148 hectares of land and is located on the northern slopes and foothills of Hong Kong's highest mountain – Tai Mo Shan.

Vegetables are produced on a one hectare hillside area at KFBG and there are over 60 varieties of vegetables and herbs grown in our farmland. We have 17 hectares of terraced orchards producing over 25 different varieties of fruit crops, herbs and tea, as well as honey. Our eco-garden displays organic farming practices compatible to urban settings for visitors to learn how to grow their own food.

Eating local food in season is an important part of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Do you know what kind of produce is in season in Hong Kong and in nearby areas? Supermarkets may not be able to provide you these details as they import food from all over the world. This also adds a large amount of carbon and ecological footprint to the food.

See seasonal vegetables grown at the farm here.

See the Kadoorie Farm website here.

See "growFOOD@home course" at the farm.

See "Near Urban Hong Kong, a Taste of the Farm" New York Times March 15, 2010.

The World in a Garden – one of 55 community gardens in Vancouver

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

The World in a Garden – one of 55 community gardens in Vancouver

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/15/10

The World in a Garden is an Urban Agriculture Project that connects youth and community to the culture, nutrition and production of growing organic food.

"Children working in our garden are getting to experience nutrition instead of just being taught it. Green foods take on a whole new meaning and the children actually enjoy eating their vegetables because they are growing and cultivating them. And, by donating food to the food bank, children are giving back to their community and making a difference in the world," said Tricia Sedgwick, the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA) community garden coordinator and nutritionist. "There are many interactive opportunities for students to partake in, from growing and preparing food for harvest celebrations to fundraising and donating."

The JFSA runs a community garden in Kerrisdale at West 57th and East Boulevard. It is one of 55 community gardens in Vancouver run by a variety of community organizations. The JFSA began work on the garden in the spring of 2007 after receiving the 24 X 9 metre lot (80 x 30 feet) and $3000 in start up fees from the City of Vancouver. The JFSA leases the land from the City for $1 a year.

Potato Fusion Workshop. See larger image here.

World in a Garden website here.

Other local community gardens listed here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Are there $$$ to be made in urban agriculture?

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Are there $$$ to be made in urban agriculture?

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/13/10

Urban Farm Hub tries to answer the question

Urban Farm Hub is launching a series of articles addressing the long-term economic viability of urban agriculture. We know commercial agriculture enterprises pencil in shrinking midwest cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but what about thriving metropolitan areas such as Seattle where there's a shortage of developable land?

We'll be interviewing small business owners, design professionals, urban farm entrepreneurs, and commercial developers in rapidly growing metropolitan areas to see what they have to say about reaping the green from urban agriculture.

Last week we highlighted the work of Little City Gardens, a micro market garden based in San Francisco. This week we talk to the founder of Seattle Urban Farm Company, one of Seattle's most successful edible landscaping businesses and award winning designer of the Crops For Clunkers exhibit at the 2010 Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

Seattle Urban Farm Company

What's one of the most interesting projects your company has worked on?

Bastille Rooftop Garden

The Bastille rooftop garden is really interesting. The owners bought a historic building and retrofitted it with extra trusses to support the garden, which was pretty expensive. We have it set up for high-volume production, much more like traditional farming. We're trying to produce as much food per square foot as possible. Last year we did all salad greens and this year we're bringing 40-50 tomato plants up there and a few beehives from Ballard Bee Company to provide honey for desserts.

It's such a shame to see all of these new buildings going up without rooftop gardens. The best time to put one in is definitely at the time of construction. Retrofits later down the road can be pretty cost prohibitive.

See the complete story here.

Little City Gardens

What is Little City Gardens' revenue model?

Caitlyn: Our marketing strategy is to create a value added product so we can achieve the greatest monetary value with the smallest amount of space. In 2009 we marketed an artisanal salad mix with 30 different ingredients. We were selling to one restaurant weekly and 4-5 caterers sporadically. We also had an email list with 50-60 people on it. If we had extra produce we'd send out an email and host an informal farmers' market.

This coming year we hope to start a CSA and be selling to four restaurants. The restaurants are definitely the most profitable. It's easier for them to spend more on produce because they have such a higher profit margin. There's also way less administration involved. The informal farmers' market took way more time and coordination, but we realized other benefits. We've now built an alternative structure of support.

See the complete story here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

New York City’s Queens County Farm Museum

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

New York City’s Queens County Farm Museum

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/13/10

Photo by Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Urban farming: A growing field

By V.L. Hendrickson
am New York
March 7, 2010

The Queens County Farm Museum's history dates back to 1697; it occupies New York City's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland and is the only working historical farm in the City. The farm encompasses a 47-acre parcel that is the longest continuously farmed site in New York State. The site includes historic farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles and implements, planting fields, an orchard and herb garden.

Early morning livestock feedings and cultivating the herb garden aren't on the daily list of duties for most New Yorkers, but for Leah Retherford, they're business as usual. As farm manager of Queens County Farm Museum, she oversees 47-acres.

"I wanted to keep farming when I moved to the city a year ago," said Retherford, who had been working at a smaller operation in Detroit. "This as the perfect opportunity: I'm living in the city and working with animals among fruit trees."

All in a day's work

As farm manager, Retherford, 30, is responsible for maintaining the health of the farm's sheep, pigs, dairy cows and other animals, as well as day-to-day chores such as feeding and keeping them and their environment clean. The farm also grows vegetables (sold at the farm and at the Union Square Greenmarket). Retherford oversees planting and harvesting and makes sure the farm is using sustainable methods.

A gig for outdoor lovers

Retherford said many people start out as volunteers and become apprentices. You have to love being outdoors and manual labor to enjoy the farming life, Retherford said. "I like to think of farming as applied science, where you are observing a natural system, and trying to make management decisions that will support healthy plants and animals," she said.

Retherford came to the Queens Farm Museum as an apprentice last year. She had experience working with vegetable farming, but not livestock.

Many city farmers bring their produce to Greenmarkets. These farms need hands to man the stands, especially during the busy summer and early fall seasons. Pay is generally $10-15 per hour.

See the rest of the article here.

From Showpiece to Sustainable Crops, a Farm Shifts

By ANNALIESE GRIFFIN
New York Times
March 3, 2009

FOR a glimpse of agriculture in a land of high-rise apartment buildings, busloads of New York City schoolchildren have come for years to the Queens County Farm Museum. There they have petted Daisy the cow, walked through the cornfield maze, ridden the hay wagon and examined pens and fields that seemed just like those of a real farm.

But over the past year, the museum has become a real farm.

Since Michael Grady Robertson was hired as its director of agriculture a year ago, it has been raising more crops and animals, using sustainable methods, and plans to expand.

For the first time, the farm is running a stand at the Union Square Greenmarket. Every Monday since November, the farm has been selling greenhouse produce — more than 15 pounds of salad greens each week — eggs, honey, frozen heirloom tomatoes from last summer's abundance, and pork from pasture-raised pigs.

See the rest of the article here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Urban agriculture: multi-dimensional tools for social development in poor neighbourghoods

Sent to you via Google Reader

Urban agriculture: multi-dimensional tools for social development in poor neighbourghoods

E. Duchemin, F. Wegmuller, and A.-M. Legault

Institut des sciences de l'environnement, Université du Québec à Montréal, Succ. Centre-Ville, C.P. 8888, Montréal, Québec, Canada

2009

Abstract.

For over 30 years, different urban agriculture (UA) experiments have been undertaken in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). The Community Gardening Program, managed by the City, and 6 collective gardens, managed by community organizations, are discussed in this article. These experiments have different objectives, including food security, socialization and education. Although these have changed over time, they have also differed depending on geographic location (neighbourhood).

The UA initiatives in Montreal have resulted in the development of a centre with a signi?cant vegetable production and a socialization and education environment that fosters individual and collective social development in districts with a signi?cant economically disadvantaged population. The various approaches attain the established objectives and these are multi-dimensional tools used for the social development of disadvantaged populations.

Conclusions

Although there is less surface area of agricultural land available in the city, and although it would be difficult to feed the entire population of a city like Montreal with the available land, a multi-approach implementation of gardening in urban environments, such as land agriculture, container gardening on balconies and roofs and a vertical integration of elements, would certainly contribute to the social development of disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Although not exclusive, the data presented here reveal that the initiatives are socially inclusive, that is, they encourage diversity in the gardens and therefore avoid excluding or stigmatizing certain groups of people. Moreover, this diversity fosters social support.

Studies done on UA, which have mainly been carried out in developing countries, generally examine the issue of economic integration through a segment of the urban population (often women) whereas in this study, we also examined socialization and educational issues that were certainly present in these projects. Here, only one garden (La Croisée) takes action on issues of economic integration. It does so through professional training and through the sale of baskets of organic vegetables. However, in various North American cities such as Toronto and New York, the sale of vegetables and processed products (canned foods, jams, etc.) becomes a tool for the economic development of vulnerable populations.

In conclusion, it appears that a cross-analysis of initiatives taken in industrialized and developing countries would greatly bene?t both, but especially industrializ...

Urban Direction: Urban Agriculture Workshops

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Urban Direction: Urban Agriculture Workshops

via Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue aggregator on 3/10/10

On the topic of urban agriculture, here is an upcoming program that looks promising!

Income Opportunities in Urban Agriculture Workshops

read more

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Plan Philly: Engaging in Urban Dialogue aggregator using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Zoning for Urban Agriculture

Was someone writing about zoning for urban Ag?

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Zoning for Urban Agriculture

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/9/10

Urban Agriculture issue of Zoning Practice

by Nina Mukherji and Alfonso Morales
Zoning Practice – American Planning Association
March 2010
Nina Mukherji received her master's degree in conservation biology and sustainable development from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Alfonso Morales is assistant professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

As sustainability moves up the municipal agenda, cities have begun to take an interest in urban agriculture as a way to promote health, to support economic and community development, and to improve the urban environment. This article places urban agriculture in a historical context, examines regulatory approaches, and makes recommendations for planning and zoning practice.

Excerpt:

Zoning for Urban Agriculture

As sustainability has moved up the municipal agenda, cities have begun to take interest in urban agriculture as a way to promote health, to support economic and community development, and to improve the urban environment. Urban agriculture can include a number of food production and distribution-related activities, which for our purposes include food production through plant cultivation or animal husbandry as well as some nonindustrial processing and distribution of that food.

Urban agriculture can include temporary uses or more permanent responses to local food deserts, consumer demand, economic inequality, and mobility-constrained populations. When properly sited, urban agriculture projects provide neighborhood amenities and can contribute to a positive community image. Because of the diversity of its forms and benefits, urban agriculture can be seen as a powerful tool in a planner's repertoire.

Whether intentional or not, municipal policy affects urban agricultural activities. Some cities actively promote urban agriculture through funding, land donations, or protective zoning. Unfortunately, local policies can also present barriers to urban agriculture, particularly when restrictive zoning makes urban agriculture difficult.

Urban agriculture has been considered in a number of recent comprehensive plans and neighborhood plans. In Seattle, the 2005 comprehensive plan requires at least one community garden for every 2,500 households in an urban village or neighborhood (Seattle Comprehensive Plan, Urban Village Appendix B). In response to public pressure, Vancouver, British Columbia, created a multidisciplinary taskforce representing various government offices and tasked it with developing recommendations for urban agriculture throughout the city (City of Vancouver, Community Services Group memo, January, 2009). Similarly, Milwaukee has urban agriculture advocates on almost every committee for its comprehensive plan revision process.

In addition to land-use planning, some cities have developed sustainability plans that address food issues, including urban agriculture. The Office of Environmental Quality in Kansas City, Missouri, included a detailed set of recommendations to promote urban agriculture in its Climate Protection Plan. The 2009 Baltimore Sustainability Plan addresses both production and distribution of local food, with specific provisions about urban agriculture. There is, for instance, a recommendation to "identify the predicted demand for urban farmed food and recommend location and distribution of urban agricultural institutions" (Baltimore Sustainability Plan, Greening Chapter). Finally, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco declared food system planning the responsibility of city government (Executive Directive, July 2009).

Unlike comprehensive planning and programs used to promote urban agriculture, zoning is typically a restrictive, regulatory mechanism. However, planners interested in urban agriculture can do valuable work by reviewing and redesigning ordinances related to urban agriculture.

In zoning, urban agriculture can be treated either as a district or as a use category. It is common for local zoning regulations to permit a wide range of agricultural activities, including raising crops and animals, in designated agricultural districts in rural areas or on the urban fringe. This approach is being extended to urban agriculture in some cities, including Cleveland and Boston. Another approach is to treat urban agriculture as a use or set of uses that are permitted, conditional, or forbidden, depending on the district, as illustrated by cities such as Portland, Oregon, and Milwaukee. Both approaches have merit, and as we will see, they are not mutually exclusive.

It may be helpful for planners to think of agriculture in four categories based on two dimensions: the extent or dispersal of agricultural practices and the intensity of urban agricultural activities. The first category, extensive/intensive agriculture, includes rural and periurban farming and associated activities. The second category, less extensive/intensive urban agriculture, describes urban farms and farmers markets. The third category, extensive/less intensive urban agriculture, applies to backyard and community gardens. The fourth category implies little urban agricultural activity. This less extensive/less intensive urban agriculture was the situation in most cities until fairly recently, mostly due to the diminished interest in these activities in the middle 20th century. Here, home gardening is contingent on personal interest but is neither encouraged nor discouraged; community gardens exist, but irregularly and often outside regulatory regimes.

When considering policy changes, it may be helpful for planners to consider the following questions:

What are the possible urban agriculture activities for our city?
What can be allowed in a widespread way with little controversy?
What can be allowed, but controlled?
What can be allowed, but only in some places?
Are there some places where specific activities should be particularly encouraged?
Who are the likely participants and how can positive relationships be fostered?

The complete article (8 pages special issue of Urban as a PDF) can be purchased for $10 here.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Revitalizing New Mexico’s community agriculture, combating food insecurity

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Revitalizing New Mexico’s community agriculture, combating food insecurity

via Nutrition News and Research by on 3/9/10

The number of hungry people in the United States is higher now than it has been at any other time in recent history. Communities, including those in Taos County, New Mexico, are turning to sustainable agriculture to increase food security.

Over the past year alone, residents in the county purchasing items with food stamps rose by 40 percent.

read more

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Nutrition News and Research using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Artist imagines food garden at New York’s City Hall

 

 

Sent to you by Robin via Google Reader:

 

 

Artist imagines food garden at New York’s City Hall

via City Farmer News by Michael Levenston on 3/5/10

Rendering by Amy Seek of Flatbush Farmshare

Petition to the Mayor of New York

By People's Garden NYC

To Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

We, the undersigned people of New York City, respectfully request that a vegetable garden be planted in front of City Hall.

This garden will represent New Yorkers' commitment to education, public service, healthy eating, and environmental stewardship. This garden will be tended by NYC public school students, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and our region's talented gardeners and farmers. The harvest will be donated to a nearby food pantry to feed the hungry.

City Hall today with no garden.

This garden will represent the vision of a more sustainable, livable City for all New Yorkers, and will contribute to achieving the intents of PLANYC by 2030.

Sign the petition and learn more here.

Students support the City Hall Garden

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to City Farmer News using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites