May 2009
3 posts
Bracket: ISSUE #1: ON FARMING →
The typically architecturally-centric online magazine, Bracket, has turned towards the topic of urban agriculture, published at the end of Winter 2009. They followed the tide of change in the design cosmos towards more socially minded and environmentally conscious projects—no, this is not new, but man it certainly feels like it’s still a new turn in the way “we” approach...
April 2009
3 posts
Community Plotlines →
“The Series: We track the progress of Dino Kraniotis and his fellow gardeners at Glover Park Community Garden through the season.”
Urban agriculture is a hot topic on the tips of every-one’s tongues these days, both novices and erudites alike. It’s a way for urbanites to connect to the land, have access to cheaper food, improve health and well-being, and connect with one...
“The truth about gardening
A veggie plot at the White House will no doubt lead...”
– Food and Nutrition Service News Clips
Richard Dengrove CGA, HQ, Editor
Songs for Teaching: Dirt Made My Lunch
March 2009
7 posts
The Whitehouse Grows a Garden →
The South Lawn at the White House will see the greens and reds, and yellows and oranges, of the seasons soon enough! With the initiative instilled by Michelle Obama and a culinary task force interested in local food production and consumption, all of the President’s men (and women) will partake in tilling and eating their backyard, which is planning to have over 55 varieties of garden...
“Urban Gardening Talk Series 2009
Presented by the Historical Society...”
– DC Urban Gardeners and Garden Magazine
“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields,
not in towns...”
– Henry Thoreau
From the essay “Walking
Urban Food Enterprise →
Input Invited on Urban Food Enterprise Center
Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are seeking stakeholder comments on a new program created in the 2008 Farm Bill that is to be initiated this year, known as the Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development Center or HUFED. A total of $1 million per year for three years is available for the non-profit organization that wins the...
Farmland owners merging with Farmers: Deal/No... →
The Airlie Foundation, with the mission “To study, promote, encourage and foster knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the interrelationships which exist in the physical and social sciences…“ is hosting a project called “Hosting the Small Farm Dream,” which is attempting to connect farmers with the land by locating available resources, providing education and positioning...
“Hi all -
We are constantly being asked for locations of local community...”
– DC Urban Gardeners
REposting from DC Urban Gardeners →
DC ROOTING FORUM ROUND-UP: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/rooting- dc-forum- a-huge-success. html
ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS:
- March 7 free honeybee seminars at Behnkes: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/free- honeybee- seminars- at-behnkes. html
- March 14, free vegetable-growing seminars at Behnkes: http://www.dc- urban-gardener- news.com/ 2009/03/free-...
February 2009
1 post
NYC Oasis Maps - Mapping urban gardens in NYC →
This has got to be one of the most useful, and exciting, mapping sites for urban agriculture that I have found (especially if one is interested in food systems in NYC)!! The site offers a search engine for all of CENYC farms and gardens in NYC, inlcuding my beloved Red Hook Added Value farm in Brooklyn. Once the engine has produced a block and lot map with all of the Department of Planning’s...
January 2009
12 posts
The most eloquent and efficient urban farming blog... →
White House Farmer Elect →
DC Sharing Backyards for urban gardens →
Master Peace Farm is one awesome urban... →
The University of Maryland supports an urban farm project in the greater D.C. area; Riverdale, MD, to engage the community in localized production and consumption. This has been enabled through a partnership with the food stamp nutrition education program, now a bifurcated part of the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, with work efforts from students and volunteers with the...
WatchOXFAM
Face the Music
Growing a 21st Century Agricultural Revolution →
This is an agricultural conference held in my “backyard” hosted by Sustainable Food Laboratory (works to accelerate the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream), The Keystone Center (seeks to solve our society’s most challenging environmental, energy, and public health problems) and SAI Platform (an organization created by the food industry to communicate worldwide and to...
Capital Area Food Bank provides more than cans... →
After reading about gardening projects in Tucson (see below), I was curious about such projects in my neighborhood and was pleasantly surprised to find that the D.C. area’s Food Bank supports peri-urban farms as well! The Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) partners with the Clagett Farm in MD (15 miles from the Capital) and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to cultivate 20 acres of farmland.
...
Tucson Food Bank - learns to grow and grows to... →
Orion Magazine put out an article on backyard garden demonstrations held at the Tucson, AZ Food Bank. The Community Food Bank offers nutritional and educational support to those in need, demonstrating that food can grow in the harshest climates-both economically and ecologically. They are gathering educators and experienced farmers to give hands on knowledge to those seeking alternatives and self...
One in the Same: local agriculture and food... →
These are issues near and dear to me and are going through potentially confounding changes, along with our new Administration. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)-often my go-to source for agricultural politics-reported on some of these opportunities and their altercations. The Community Food Security Coalition (CCSA)-an immense food security and access resource-helps connect the...
“I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the corn...”
– Henry Thoreau, “Walking” (1862
December 2008
6 posts
Trekking around D.C. gardens-A starting point
I’ve been moving around a lot lately, and in doing so, I have been able to gain some small perspective on urban agriculture around some of the major cities in the U.S.-Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and now D.C. My latest relocation to the D.C. area has spurred an interest in what urban agriculture is, and looks like, out here in a place that appears to be more...
USDA Secretary Pick Tom Vilsack →
This matters. This matters a lot!
The new USDA Secretary has a lot on his plate-pun intended. There is the farm bill to remedy, the reality of depleting crop yields unable to meet the rising food demands to address, and the political piracy of agriculture that has placed growing power in a few top producers on large parcels of land and monopolizing chemical suppliers to deal with. And then there...
Back to the Vertical Farm Project. If you...
USDA National Agricultural Library →
The USDA is a great reference site, full of helpful information and advice on urban agriculture. This site lists articles on how the UDSA supports community and agriculture, as well as other sources of knowledge, like the irrefutable City Farmer in Canada. Check out FAO’s Urban/Peri-urban Agriculture site and learn about available resources to all types of small farmers interested in...
Civil Eats-The Next Generation of Farmers →
“There’s a vanguard of young people taking it upon themselves to find or create careers in agriculture, but it’s mostly idealistic college graduates. Those are the mad young farmers-to-be who gather at San Francisco seed swaps and raise their fists in solidarity when they hear Obama say “farms to save.” (I’m one of them.) As a group, we hope that we’re paving the way for other young people,...
November 2008
9 posts
Obama Gives Thoughts on Michael Pollan’s Times... →
It is a good thing when president elect Barack Obama references Michael Pollan, and even better when he notices the connections between the agricultural crisis and current social woes-such as obesity, diabetes and poverty-that Pollan was elaborating on n his New York Times article, http://michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=97. I am looking forward to Obama engaging the USDA and...
Japanese agriculture propaganda video to inspire... →
The best propaganda video I have ever seen! The U.S. and particular food producing states need to jump on this bandwagon to promote its agriculture and the value of eating locally.
City urged to offer land for farms →
“Mini-farms could start sprouting on vacant lots throughout Cincinnati.
Vice Mayor David Crowley wants the city administration to publish a list of all the city-owned, otherwise unusable plots of land and offer them cheap to people willing to plant on them and keep them blight-free.
“With the price of food going up and everything else, we thought it might be appropriate,” he...
A New Direction for Farm and Food Policy →
Rock on Farm Bill!
It has been a long road to passing the 2008 Farm Bill, officially known as the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Los Angeles Times Article, Behind the Scenes at... →
Slow Food Nation is gaining precedence, especially now that we have a new administration that has demonstrated an interest in “sustainability.” What this tentatively means is that we may see active-rather than the passive semantics heard from the previous administration-support for environmental and social programs backed by policy geared towards reshaping the way American’s...
Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in... →
The Quiet Revolution of Urban Agriculture in the United States
“There is a quiet revolution stirring in our food system. It is not happening so much on the distant farms that still provide us with the majority of our food; it is happening in cities, neighborhoods, and towns. It has evolved out of the basic need that every person has to know their food, and to have some sense of control over its...
October 2008
5 posts
THE FOOD ISSUE: Farmer in Chief. By Michael Pollan... →
Why we need to plea with our new government-to-be to address the national food issue:
“After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one...
Los Angeles does urban ag on a small scale →
Thes smaller, more sporadic, urban endeavors are eaqually integral to the urban fabric as the larger urban farms in more counter-culture cities like Brooklyn or Oakland.
This small flower “farm” is local and organic. They sell to farmers markets, contribute to the local economy, green the landscape in sparse blocks and connect the consumer with producer-who is a small business owner....
Brooklyn wineries.... →
Brooklyn’s urban agricultural culture is proliferating
“Citified wine-making is hardly a newfangled idea — a barrel of sauce was fermenting in the basement of nearly every Carroll Gardens household in the early 1900s.
But in recent years, several winemakers have brought their commercial operations to the Big Apple — Brooklyn has two others, Brooklyn Oenology in Greenpoint and Bridge...
Heifer International's Urban Agriculture How-To,... →
Heifer International is a leader in urban agricultural research and entrepreneurial support. They offer financial and educational resources to promote healthful living and eating in undeserved and underprivileged areas around the world.
I tapped into this network of information for my graduate thesis and found it very helpful. I would love to document a community or individual who uses this...
Oakland's urban agriculture is prevalent →
The City Slicker Farms is comparable to Red Hook’s Added Value Farm in Brooklyn, NY. There is community organizing, farming for the people by the people, as well as introducing nature as a means to meet nutritional needs in an under-served area.
September 2008
9 posts
America's Garden →
A lil history on urban agriculture in America told in the “School House Rock” style.
Sustainable Agriculture Coalition →
“House Ag Committee Marks up Bill on 10-acre Payment Prohibition: On Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee marked up and passed H.R. 6849 by voice vote. The bill deals with USDA’s implementation of a 2008 Farm Bill prohibition on crop subsidy payments to farms of 10 acres or less, unless the farm is owned by a socially disadvantaged or limited resource farmer. Despite farm bill...
Added Value Farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn is having...
Announcing the 4th Annual Red Hook Harvest Festival… Saturday October 18th, 2008 10:30am - 5:00pm At the Red Hook Community Farm Food, Music/Performances, Kids’ Activities, Pumpkin Patch, Contests, Farm Animals, Info Booths, Vendors, Farm Tours, and more! Last year’s event was an incredible success, with over 2,000 people in attendance, delicious foods, and incredible...
Farming in Los Angeles "As recently as the 1960s,... →
My latest conversations on urban agriculture always go back to land use and availability. The automatic response to farming in the city, a place where people and development are continually vying for land, is that there is no land left to farm. And, if there is land “left” then it would, or should, be used for affordable housing or community services (both of which go back to urban...
