Friday, August 28, 2015
Fireflies on a green roof - in song
These are normally supposed to be the dog days of summer, but the season seems to barely have arrived! If you're lucky there are a few fireflies around where you are. Maybe one or two on your green roof? I serenade you, luminescent visitors with songs as beautiful as your glow!
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
A restaurant that serves plants fed gourmet sunlight
I did an April Fools post about verticiel selling "artisanal air", but here's something that sounds like an joke but is actually real. A conceptual artist/philosopher tried to start a restaurant for plants. Not just any restaurant for plants, one that serves gourmet sunlight! Wow! Perhaps I shouldn't be amazed, this comes from a man who tried to genetically engineer God.
Monday, August 24, 2015
You need 34 city lots to sustain an urban agriculture business
How would you like to have one of these on your block?
Here's a tree which grows 40 different kinds of fruit. Wouldn't it be great if city trees were grafted to produce fruit. And not via the Guerilla Grafters?
-No doubt the information is out there, however it's great to see the Michigan State University Extension post information illuminating the financial stress of farming. And for urban farmers this particular fact is sobering: "The single farmer would need to accumulate and manage approximately 34 city lots, to achieve scale that has the potential reach the poverty threshold." Wow!
-Of course all municipalities need money to operate. It's a bit sad when "user fees" are applied to accessing your local community garden. After reading this story I was naturally thinking about
the "paying for things" and we've seen many municipalities support growing vegetables and herbs on lawns, while others are not so keen. So when I read this headline I immediately thought "How disappointing is that, a woman is giving a citation for doing horticultural therapy?" But it's the good kind of citation.
-I love the alliteration of this new offering from an aquaponics operation: "salad subscription".
Here's a tree which grows 40 different kinds of fruit. Wouldn't it be great if city trees were grafted to produce fruit. And not via the Guerilla Grafters?
-No doubt the information is out there, however it's great to see the Michigan State University Extension post information illuminating the financial stress of farming. And for urban farmers this particular fact is sobering: "The single farmer would need to accumulate and manage approximately 34 city lots, to achieve scale that has the potential reach the poverty threshold." Wow!
-Of course all municipalities need money to operate. It's a bit sad when "user fees" are applied to accessing your local community garden. After reading this story I was naturally thinking about
the "paying for things" and we've seen many municipalities support growing vegetables and herbs on lawns, while others are not so keen. So when I read this headline I immediately thought "How disappointing is that, a woman is giving a citation for doing horticultural therapy?" But it's the good kind of citation.
-I love the alliteration of this new offering from an aquaponics operation: "salad subscription".
Friday, August 21, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
World Water Week - Starts August 24
-Just around the corner is World Water Week. Of course with droughts in California and elsewhere water security and scarcity, is now top of mind.
The UN FAO released a report examining the importance of water to global food security, it's definitely worth your time.
-Look at the bones for what will be a very interesting "green canopy", part roof, part wall in Texas.
Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has a wonderful new horticultural therapy program.
-Egypt has launched a green rooftop fund, the first roofs covered were the Education and Scientific Ministries. This is the second big piece of news from Egypt in the last year.
-Pittsburgh is supporting green roofs too, they are offering $250,000 to 17 projects for their green commitment.
-Here's a tremendous resource if you'd like to get create an educational food landscape at your school!
-So many South Koreans are leaving the cities to farm in the country there is a name for them: guinong. NPR delivers the audio goods once again.
-How do you record ever tree in a city? New York has recruited volunteers and they have mapped nearly 100,000 trees in 3 months!
-Okay, it's not the World's first farm to table community, as the article would suggest, but these Californians have dreamed big and deserve applause.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
GILA word of the week: Baira
The prevalent mode of thinking goes like this: Rich countries (and people) help poor countries (and people).
Bangladesh is flipping this on its head. Countries lack in resources must use ingenuity to battle climate change. And with much of Bangladesh just six feet above sea level, residents will have to come up with clever ideas to grow food.
One ingenious idea is the baira.
Check it out...
Bangladesh is flipping this on its head. Countries lack in resources must use ingenuity to battle climate change. And with much of Bangladesh just six feet above sea level, residents will have to come up with clever ideas to grow food.
One ingenious idea is the baira.
Check it out...
Monday, August 10, 2015
Extreme vertical farming - NASA grows veggies in space
Today crew members aboard the International Space Station will try space grown food for the first time from their experiment, Veg-01! This may be the biggest living architecture story of the year!
Thursday, August 6, 2015
GILA word of the week: Personal Food Computer
There's only one eco-village in Cameroon and it's called the
Ndanifor Permaculture Eco-village. Here's a little about their unique story.
-Urban foraging has come a long ways, from back in the day when it wasn't permitted because it just wasn't. And then officials let folks forage for decades because most residents weren't into it. Now in places like Toronto the tide has turned, with foodies and chefs on the prowl and overforaging, officials are hoping to stop foraging before it gets out of hand.
Look up, people, there are always tons of mulberries on city streets!
-Quezon City supports urban agriculture. How much? The vice-mayor advocates for it!
-Open-source farming....data-driven agriculture. The term most likely to catch on is "personal food computer". At least, that's what I think!
-Urban foraging has come a long ways, from back in the day when it wasn't permitted because it just wasn't. And then officials let folks forage for decades because most residents weren't into it. Now in places like Toronto the tide has turned, with foodies and chefs on the prowl and overforaging, officials are hoping to stop foraging before it gets out of hand.
Look up, people, there are always tons of mulberries on city streets!
-Quezon City supports urban agriculture. How much? The vice-mayor advocates for it!
-Open-source farming....data-driven agriculture. The term most likely to catch on is "personal food computer". At least, that's what I think!
through
her campaign “The Joy of Urban Planning” which started in 2010 --
advocates the development of green thumbs among city dwellers.
Right in the Quezon Memorial Circle are rows and rows of vegetables planted in a 1,500 square-meter area.
“Quezon City is lucky that places, especially in Fairview and Novaliches, still have a province-like ambiance. We have organic piggeries and chicken farms. As long as you’re not near streets, even if you’re at the slumps, you can grow organic produce,” said Ms. Belmonte.
She credits Mayor Herbert Bautista because “he started it in 2010 [with a program] called Halamanan sa Bakuran (Backyard Gardening), I only continued and grew it. This is the most well-funded in all of my projects because I really believe in it.”
HOW VIABLE IS URBAN FARMING?
“When I started the program, the problem was the mind-set that farming isn’t compatible in the city. It’s all in the mind-set. You can do vertical garden or start with small containers,” said Ms. Belmonte.
She said residents, like senior citizens who find it therapeutic, are interested in organic farming. “They write us a letter, we check if they are sincere and check their space. We give them farming materials, the soil they need, and unlimited seminars. We assign an agriculturalist and a provide greenhouse,” she said.
The city currently has 68 farms of various sizes found in barangays, public elementary schools, daycare centers, parishes, and nongovernment organizations. The city works with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, which provide financial grants.
But even if city farmers fail to bring their items to market, urban farming is still a win-win situation.
“If they don’t produce [enough] for selling, as long as they can eat their products to decrease the issue of malnutrition, it’s already a triumph,” said Ms. Belmonte.
Urban farming can also be a matter of self-suffiency, especially when calamity strikes. “We still rely on the provinces to deliver our food. [The produce is delivered by] carbon-emitting vehicles that only add to climate change.”
- See more at: http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=112163#sthash.twQAEZOT.
Right in the Quezon Memorial Circle are rows and rows of vegetables planted in a 1,500 square-meter area.
“Quezon City is lucky that places, especially in Fairview and Novaliches, still have a province-like ambiance. We have organic piggeries and chicken farms. As long as you’re not near streets, even if you’re at the slumps, you can grow organic produce,” said Ms. Belmonte.
She credits Mayor Herbert Bautista because “he started it in 2010 [with a program] called Halamanan sa Bakuran (Backyard Gardening), I only continued and grew it. This is the most well-funded in all of my projects because I really believe in it.”
HOW VIABLE IS URBAN FARMING?
“When I started the program, the problem was the mind-set that farming isn’t compatible in the city. It’s all in the mind-set. You can do vertical garden or start with small containers,” said Ms. Belmonte.
She said residents, like senior citizens who find it therapeutic, are interested in organic farming. “They write us a letter, we check if they are sincere and check their space. We give them farming materials, the soil they need, and unlimited seminars. We assign an agriculturalist and a provide greenhouse,” she said.
The city currently has 68 farms of various sizes found in barangays, public elementary schools, daycare centers, parishes, and nongovernment organizations. The city works with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture, which provide financial grants.
But even if city farmers fail to bring their items to market, urban farming is still a win-win situation.
“If they don’t produce [enough] for selling, as long as they can eat their products to decrease the issue of malnutrition, it’s already a triumph,” said Ms. Belmonte.
Urban farming can also be a matter of self-suffiency, especially when calamity strikes. “We still rely on the provinces to deliver our food. [The produce is delivered by] carbon-emitting vehicles that only add to climate change.”
- See more at: http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=112163#sthash.twQAEZOT.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
When vertical farming goes bad - Vancouver edition
So it's a year and a half since Alterrus, a Vancouver rooftop farming operation with so much promise,
went bankrupt. Their assets were bought by a company called Affinor. Things have gone from bad to worse, as Affinor never did much of anything and the greenhouse and everything in it are now up on Craiglist. The whole shebang can be yours for $1.5 million dollars!
Oh yeah, the City of Vancouver is suing Affinor and Affinor is suing them right back. It is officially a mess!
There may be a lesson in there for some new urban agriculture/vertical farming ventures in Indianapolis and Jersey City. I'm not sure yet what that lesson is!
went bankrupt. Their assets were bought by a company called Affinor. Things have gone from bad to worse, as Affinor never did much of anything and the greenhouse and everything in it are now up on Craiglist. The whole shebang can be yours for $1.5 million dollars!
Oh yeah, the City of Vancouver is suing Affinor and Affinor is suing them right back. It is officially a mess!
There may be a lesson in there for some new urban agriculture/vertical farming ventures in Indianapolis and Jersey City. I'm not sure yet what that lesson is!
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