Songs about flies

Where would we be without them. The source of plagues and, oddly some cheeses, I'm thankful for their roles as decomposes and pollinators. A tribute to you...

Venus Flytrap and Bug - Stevie Wonder
The Black Fly Song - Wade Hemsworth

Permaculture in Zimbabwe

Take a trip around a permaculture farm in Zimbabwe and see how things are done there!

Latin America & Africa pave the way for 21st century urban agriculture

Although many of us have been involved in urban agriculture for some time, once upon a time everyone was new to it. Remembering that, it’s awesome to stumble upon an article which summarizes so many of the key issues and big projects for newbies. Here is a great one.

-We all know how much surplus and less than perfect food goes to waste. An ex-President of Trader Joe’s has decide to do something about it by opening a second hand grocery store, so to speak. Do we ever need this!!!! It’s a non-profit to boot!

-Here’s your next Highlinesaque project. It’s called the “Lowline” and features, maybe, growing vegetables in a park underground. Three years ago they garnered over $150,000 on Kickstarter, and they are hoping to finish negotiations with New York City by 2017 for a 2018 launch.

-Wednesday was the World Day to Combat Desertification. It’s a good start for sure, but we need to think about this and act on it every day.

-Preliminary findings from a green roof project based at the University of Toronto indicate a few things, including that indigenous plants may attract more native pollinators. Speaking of findings another study which shows just 40 seconds of viewing a green roof can improve your attention span.

-In the next 85 years, how can we make greener cities capable of producing food to achieve zero hunger? The FAO has an exhaustive report about what is currently being done in countries around the world.

App for Philly residents calculates green roof water savings

Every, and I mean every, city, town and village should have one of these apps. If you're in Philly you can use it to calculate, after installing green infrastructure like green roofs and rain gardens, how much less you'll have to pay in stormwater fees!

Brown (aka dead green) walls make us all grumpy

No one likes a dead living wall...and this one village councillor's expression is representative of the entire village's feelings!

-How much mulch is good for a green roof and how much do they effect water quality? And is organic farming really better than conventional? Three long running studies (one 30 years long) have your answers.

-One community run, city agency has gone from administering a few hundred to nearly 90,000 empty lots in Detroit in a few years. Is that a good thing or bad?

-Lastly Utne reader has a couple of previews to whet your appetite with two excerpts from upcoming books on the history of herbal medicine and educational benefits of school gardens.

 

East Coast grasslands on a green roof

Later in the year I'll be visiting Long Island, New York. Long Island once had a sprawling grasslands, over 40,000 acres which has been reduced to less than 60. On one of the last remaining parcels is a new educational center, complete with a native grasslands green roof. I'll make sure to take pictures when I visit and compare them to the rendering as the years go on.

Farming with soil at sea

Hot of the presses is the latest Urban Agriculture Magazine. This month's edition is about "City Region Food Systems".


-For those new to or interested in urban homesteading there's a web series for you, check out "The Urban Homesteader"

-This to me seems pie in the sky, a concept I wouldn't normally comment on. Farming on huge rafts at sea? Seems too risky. But when you consider how quickly urban land is disappearing or being rapidly degraded, what's stopping someone in an overcrowded, seaside country from making a low-tech version of this and floating it off the coast so they can then have fresh vegetables?

-For the first time is a book which attempts to encapsulate all of the local and state laws applicable to community based urban agriculture.

Vertical farming in Japan

You may remember my pronouncement a while back how I wouldn't comment on concepts because they are simply artwork until someone puts numbers behind how to make it reality.
Covering Toronto's Gardiner Expressway with a green roof to resemble New York's Highline, was one of those fanciful ideas which got people talking, but seemed far from realistic. And it still is. Especially when you consider the first part of the equation, fixing the Gardiner has gone from $500 million to $950 million in four years.
Now a top bureaucrat is agreeing with some people who think the Gardiner should be torn down. If nothing else, I think we can all agree the Gardiner will never be topped with a green roof.

-Next door the City of Mississauga will add a storm water discharge fee to the bills of building owners to help rebuild their infrastructure.

-Back to Toronto, for a second, how cool would it be if they had a provision, like they do in Seoul, that if you get rebates, public funds to subsidize your green roof or wall, that it must be publicly accessible? Seoul has spent over $57 million in public funds greening their city and has a really big project up their sleeves, look out for their Seoul Skygarden in 2017. It's supposed to be like...wait for it...the Highline!

-In terms of ideas, here are a couple I really like. A team of Chicago entrepreneurs are hoping to lease rooftops to grow veggies. Let's see if they are able to do it, because no one has done it successfully yet. Of greater promise, I think, is leasing parking lot space for these pop-up farms. Maybe even stacking them a several stories high to maximize the space.

-In Japan this semi-conductor company has entered the vertical farming race and found a niche market for their lettuces, growing low potassium lettuces for those with kidney problems. That's a smaller version of their system up above.

-I'll round out with the best news of the week. France now has a ban on supermarket food waste. All surplus food must be donated to charities or used for animal feed!

Self-guided living architecture tour of Toronto

A green minded philosopher in Toronto has compiled a list of living architecture in Toronto and mapped it so that you can give yourself a self-guided tour of the publicly accessible green beauty.

President Obama releases comprehensive plan to save American bees

Kibera, Kenya has one of the largest slums in the world. To combat food insecurity the National Youth Service (NYS), a government agency that promotes youth affairs through the ministry of devolution and planning, has begun distributing a series of sacks that are filled with manure, soil and small stones to create simple, and cheap, urban gardens.

-New Jersey has signed into law that the third week in March is now, statewide, know as “Horticultural Therapy Week”.

-D.C. wants more green roofs to ameliorate their overburdened stormwater system and now, they will certainly get more! Speaking of D.C., on the federal side, President Obama has created the first "National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators". As everyone is aware by now, this is definitely needed!

-Historically farmers turned to agricultural colleges, usually in rural areas because that's where the farms are, for assistance on questions like "What crops can I plant (and how) to diversify?" and "Where can I have my soil tested?" With the rise in urban agriculture, perhaps urban operations need similar, expert help...which is local?
The Sustainable Cities Collective is trying to chip in by offering a free webinar on how to start and run a sustainable urban agriculture company.  They were incredibly thorough!

-Costa Rica is now the most recent nation to give aquaponics a whirl.

-And lastly for today is NPR tackling food forests. Look at all the comments!