How climate change is affecting some environmental sectors

In particular I wanted to take a look at foraging, sod and aquaponics.

Utne Magazine has a fantastic story about foraging, the joys and tensions. Could increased competition be only one of the reasons for smaller mushroom hauls?

-One of the huge benefits for aquaponics has been the fact that it uses very little water. It was already the hottest thing in urban agriculture, I think with water shortages in California and awareness of the drought problem across the continent, you will see a boom in aquaponics very soon!

-These farmers in India have turned to grass manufacturing and are making money hand over fist. But for how long?

How much are birds worth?

 This question was asked about trees last year and researchers delivered an answer. However something about this seems categorically wrong. Despite how well intentioned this might be, is this the world we want to live in where we now have to quantify all of nature to justify treating it with care? And if Americans value birds the way Seattle (population 650,000) at $120 million, does that mean birds are worth $58 billion to all Americans when you adjust for population? And what price tag do you put on the nearly 1 billion birds killed every year by buildings? Or the 3.7-20 billion birds killed by cats?

What does this mean to our urban landscape, particularly green roofs? Should we install more green roofs to protect "our investment"? Or can we just say birds are priceless and we should do whatever we can to ensure their survival.

$46 million for 1,800 urban farms in Seoul

Lots to talk about over the last week, municipalities across the world are doing some incredible things revolving around urban agriculture and green roofs:

-The government of the city of Seoul will inject about $46 million dollars into urban agriculture to hopefully build 1,800 gardens in parks, schools and rooftops, all of which will be within a ten-minute walk!

-Staying abroad, a small aquaponics project has been funded in Trinidad, it's great another island nation is jumping on board. But I wanted to discuss semantics. What do you think looks better, $.5 million or $500,000? Intuitively I know it's the same, but there's something about seeing the decimal which makes me think it's smaller than if we saw all those zeros.

Stateside the biggest news of the last week comes from Houston...let me repeat, Houston!...has given the go ahead and favorable terms, for an aquaponics operation in an abandoned building. The company agrees to apply almost $5 million dollars into the project.

-Living architecture has reached new heights when towns like Traverse, the tart cherry capital of the world with 15,000 people, is considering green roof credits!

-In California's Napa Valley one of the country's most eco-friendly developments just got the green light.  They are calling it a "housing experiment", Napa Creek Village promises greener design (LEED platinum complete with green walls) and a path to home ownership via a rent-to-own mechanism!
 
-Oregon's state legislature is considering property tax credits for those who start urban agriculture operations.

-Up the coast a bit Vancouver will convert some of the caretaker houses for their parks system into food hubs, to plant gardens, share ideas on producing, preserving and preparing food and more. It seems they have been also used for art over the years, hopefully that continues as well.

-And this last story comes from a college. Cornell University now has a college level course, from which you get credits AND a permaculture certificate once you are done!

Permaculture refresher

It's spring time and if you need a refresher on permaculture, guru Larry Santoyo has your primer!

The beauty of blooming!

When do plants bloom in your neck (of the American) woods? The US Forest Service has the very pretty answer.

What can you grow on 1/4 acre of land?

Take a tour to find out what's agriculturally possible on 1/4 acre

$2.1 million dollars for aquaponics research

Lethbridge College in Alberta has been at the forefront of aquaponics research for over a decade, really it's the place to go in North America. So the fact that they got over $2 million dollars makes a lot of sense, they deserve it and I can't wait to see what comes from their efforts!

-How something is labelled makes a huge difference. So I often find it interesting to hear the phrases of English speakers outside of the UK or USA. In this article this Vietnamese woman calls the produce she collects from her rooftop garden "clean" food, because it's organic. How would things change elsewhere, if organic produces co-opted the phrase "clean" for their produce?

-Installing a green roof, with the help of a couple of professionals, can be a fantastic community event. And it's tremendously satisfying to put the plants in and stand back as you water the plants to help them settle in. But I have never heard of what these folks in Buffalo are trying to do, getting people to also GROW the plants at home, take care of them and bring them to the installation.

-Following up on last week's email, if you want to see pictures of Patrick Blanc's home, and not just a video, check this out.

-I don't think people took the California drought as something to be worried about until the mandatory cuts came last week. What will this mean for landscapers? A switch to more permaculture based gardens as people look to grow more of their own food? More xeroscaping? More painted grass?
The mayor, seemingly, has taken this crisis to heart and wants to weave sustainability into every city department and proposes things like allowing food stamps to be used at farmer's markets. Which would be great, especially because in 20 years the number of farmer's markets has quadrupled across the USA!

-Please indulge me for a second; I have a little pet peeve. I'd like to have a definition for "vertical farming", because I realize it's not something everyone agrees on. And I think you'll see that, as time goes on, there will need to be standardization of the language because the technologies required for growing plants 2 stories high versus in a plastic drum half the height of an average human, are vastly different.

-Here's a KickStarter campaign everyone can benefit from. If these entrepreneurs get their funding, they will create the first DIY program to turn anyone into a mushroom farmer.

Patrick Blanc's green wall palace

Apparently this has been online for a while! Check out Patrick Blancs' place, or better yet palace, green walls galore!

What does California's drought mean for the green roof industry?

Some would argue it's long overdue, others think it doesn't go far enough, but the fact that California has it's first water restrictions ever is a game changer. The state has entered a different era and with a mega-drought possible for the state and multiple regions, what California does now may end up being a template for many parts of the American Southwest and Plains.

The living architecture industry is still burgeoning in North America. In a sense, that's great. The industry still has room for growth and innovation. I predict a few things will happen:

-In the green roof industry we'll see more options developed as system providers and developers react appropriately to a new normal. We will probably see more research into drought tolerant plants and maybe even development of "green roofs which aren't green", beige roofs, if you will. I'm thinking xeriscaping on rooftops, with sand being the medium of choice, for the semi-arid regions especially.

-The green wall industry will go through some changes as well. Plants from tropical regions are favored in the industry. With water becoming a more valued resource, I think we'll see green walls featuring a wider array of plants and maybe even more green walls incorporating preserved plants and bryophytes.

The next few years will definitely be interesting!

Aquaponics operation buys an aquaculture company

Demand for fish is on the rise and there are less fish in the sea. According to Lux Research, the aquaculture industry has nearly tripled in 12 years to $144 billion. With aquaponics being tremendously hot, does that mean we could see aquaculture companies purchasing or starting their own aquaponics ventures? And vice versa to make even more money? It might have already begun last week!

Plant for free on the devil's strip

What do you call that piece of land between the sidewalk and street?

I had no idea. It appears it's often called the "road verge". And it goes my many other names, tree belt, utility strip, out lawn. Well whatever you call it in Los Angeles it's city owned and you can now plant on it for free. Question...do you want to, if it's in a high traffic area? Maybe that's why it goes by another name: the devil's strip.

-San Jose, California seems very serious about offering tax breaks to owners of undeveloped land. The purpose? Agree to a 5 year lease for urban agriculture. 

-Want to bulid your own multi-story worm hotel but not pay a dime? These munificent souls have posted some open source design. Download the blueprints and tweak to your satisfaction.

-Chulalongkorn University has invested about $180,000 USD in a 17,000 square foot green roof on a nearby mall. This is the biggest green roof I know of in Thailand and they got very good bang for their buck!

-It's always great to have more scientific evidence detailing the efficiency of green roofs. Here's a study of some green roofs in Italy which has determined "incoming heat into the building through the roof is 60% lower than the incoming heat without vegetation."

-Two professors point out something which seems obvious in retrospect, holding 20% of the Earth's fresh water, how climate change affects the coastlines of the Great Lakes is something we should pay attention to!