New Stories From ‘Urban Agriculture Notes’

By BINA VENKATARAMAN
New York Times
Published: July 15, 2008

“The idea just caught the eye of another big city dreamer: Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.

“When Mr. Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a “food farm” addition to the New York City skyline. “Obviously we don’t have vast amounts of vacant land,” he said in a phone interview. “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan.” Mr. Stringer’s office is “sketching out what it would take to pilot a vertical farm,” and plans to pitch a feasibility study to the mayor’s office within the next couple of months, he said.

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IDRC Photo: by Frederick Ibanda (follow link). “Kampala residents have set up several flower and tree nurseries along the roads leading to residential districts; there they use polythene bags that once carried milk, fruit drinks and groceries as containers for seedlings. Also many residents now eat vegetables grown in re-used polythene bags.”

BBC’s OnePlanet: Farming in the City
By Andrew Luck-Baker
17 July 2008

“Andrew Luck-Baker goes in search of farmers growing crops and rearing livestock amid concrete and traffic, in this edition of One Planet.

“The world’s city dwellers now outnumber its rural folk, so it may become necessary to farm in cities in order to feed everyone. Andrew investigates how green urban agriculture is and whether it is safe.

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Image from “Old Macdonald Had An Apartment House” by Judi Barrett (Author), Ron Barrett (Illustrator).

Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, also known as ‘Bicyclemark’, has made four podcasts about urban farming.

Vertical Farming and the New Agricultural Revolution

There is more to urban farming than just growing crops on empty lots in cities. In fact, there is a type of urban farming that involves growing a lot more food in tall buildings, making use of the latest innovations of crop growing and energy usage. My guest, Professor Dickson Despommier of Columbia Universty explains what vertical farming is and why it is so important for the future of human existance.

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Once a year we get to taste the exotic Saskatoon Berry, which is mainly grown in the Prairies. The Saskatoon Berries have a wilder flavour than Blueberries and we have to be quick to harvest them before the birds. Julia shows us the right way to pick them - have a bowl of ice cream with you at the bush.

Photo of “Slumpy” in Brush Park, Detroit by KelBell.

By Matthew Wells
BBC News, Detroit
10 July 2008

But the idea of permanent social change, away from the old industrial core, is something that Detroit sorely needs, according to the editorial page editor of the Detroit News, Nolan Finley. “Today’s reality is that we have a lot of vacant space, and not much economic opportunity,” he said.

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Sheryl shows us how we can put all that mint growing in our Demonstration Garden to good use. This traditional Cuban highball should probably be made after work, not at ten in the morning when we put it together.

A lengthly interview with two of City Farmer’s founders by Richard Whittaker, publisher of “Works and Conversation” magazine.

Bob Woodsworth:  “I did my Master’s in environmental economics in 1970. Dan Phelps, a physicist, and I did this huge study of energy movement through the city and nobody was doing an energy analysis of everything. Is it worthwhile getting into your car and recycling your glass bottles at a depot that’s ten miles away? Is that energy efficient? So energy was really foremost in my mind. I just thought food was an obvious example. If you could grow it, and recompost it, it would undercut a massive amount of energy transport. So it was an obvious one to study.”

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Article by Tara Duggan, Chronicle Staff Writer
June 23, 2008

“Last month, Vollen, 44, and her husband, Gary Vollen, 45, turned to MyFarm, a new San Francisco business that took the family’s local and organic diet to a new level: by designing and planting an organic vegetable garden in their Marina district backyard. The Vollens pay MyFarm a weekly fee to maintain and harvest the vegetables that have just started to mature. They can gaze at their garden and dig into just-picked lettuce without so much as touching dirt.

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Click on this link to see videos. They are well produced and over 9 minutes each.

Glover Park Community Garden in Northwest Washington.

Mixing articles, photos and videos has caught on with the mainstream print media. This excellent series began April 17 and has reached Episode Three. (I just object to the ads at the beginning of the videos.)

And here are the articles:

Following a Growing Drama, With Many Plots
By Adrian Higgins
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Harvesting Food And Knowledge
By Adrian Higgins
Thursday, June 26, 2008

2007 Photo # 2 submission by Paule Hjertaas - Regina, SK

“This is a photo of part of a one day harvest from my home garden and my 2 community garden plots (1800 ft2) to reflect the diversity of crops. I am chemically sensitive and pesticides trigger severe reactions. I must eat organic food. I have also surrounded my home, a pond and a moist area with Saskatchewan native species. Many butterflies are now occurring, including home-raised Monarchs this year! Over the twenty years of my illness, working in my vegetable and native wildflowers garden provided me with a lot of healing. Leaves are composted on site in low-maintenance flower beds. I dig weeds, use corn gluten and fertilize with manure, home-grown compost, alfalfa and seaweed emulsion. Row covers exclude pests from my vegetables, and I hand-pick slugs.”

2008 “David Suzuki Digs My Garden–Photo Contest” details here.