Bhutan celebrates a Prince's birth with 108,000 trees

What a wonderful welcome!

-Next week is Horticultural Therapy week in New Jersey. I think this is the tenth annual celebration!

-I'll finish up with a video, but first a few thoughts. Visually this growing pod is stunning. And how much food each unit would produce I guess is up for debate, however I desperately hope that people don't decide to get closer to nature "by bringing their laptops inside", as the inventor suggested.

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!

One less green roof bylaw + the world's largest vertical farm breaks ground

 It looks like construction started long ago, but last week was the official ground breaking for the largest vertical farm in the world. Politicians galore stopped by for the photo-op, here's hoping they can deliver on 80 jobs for the citizens of Newark, New Jersey!

Are you involved in urban farming? Then a Dutch grad student wants your help in filling out a survey to find out what role innovation has on urban agriculture.

China has big, big plans. Earlier this week was a story about their mega city, Jing Jin Ji, which would join several big cities to make a GIGANTIC one, as big as all of New England and with over 130 MILLION PEOPLE! Several of these cities have begun installing porous bricks and bio-swales, I hope the entire region gets the green infrastructure!

-Barbados becomes the latest island nation to embrace aquaponics.

-Jakarta has added 66 urban farming spots in the last year. It has been reported they are "modest" plots. Regardless of the size, that's a big commitment.

-If you have an environmental business based in Canada, ECO Canada just announced their internship program. With almost a $1 million dollars in wage subsidies for over 100 jobs, it's a great way to introduce a young person into your green field.

-One of the first cities to adopt a green roof bylaw, Port Coquitlam, has now rescinded it. This is big news for the green roof industry. There are only about 20 bylaws in North America. It seems their City Council how to decide which program to greenhouse gas program to support, so they went with something more general which targets an increase in building insulation and overall energy efficiency.
We'll keep watching to see if this is a one-off for the industry or a trend.

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!

GILA word of the week: Agrihood & NJ gets the world's largest vertical farm

It's Horticultural Therapy Week and there's no regular proponent for HT greater than the state of NJ. You have, Mycentraljersey.com, which constantly churns out articles include 10 ways you can celebrate the week. And let's not forget the New Jersey Senate officially recognizing the week.

-Speaking of NJ, the picture above is of a $30 million dollar vertical farm which should be ready to roll by the end of the year. With backers like Goldman Sachs and Prudential, this AeroFarms venture has the potential to be very, very big.

-Agrihood, it's what you get when you mix the best place for a subdivision and a farm...a mutually symbiotic relationship demonstrated in northern Virginia on 2,000 acres of land.

-This article both excites and saddens me. A Philadelphian is excited about schoolyards becoming the "next set of great public spaces". And I am all for multi-use facilities, but, we should look at deeper causes as to why Philly schoolyards are "...in deplorable condition, with pockmarked pavement, aging play equipment and few amenities". The schoolyards shouldn't need to be viewed as "curb appeal" for the surrounding homes, the schools should be good enough (and it's facilities) to encourage parents to move and send their kids there.

-Here's a way for airports to use their undeveloped spaces, put a few beehives in. Question, has anyone studied how loud noises affect bees?

Public parks with private poppy

As you know New York's Highline was the catalyst behind big changes on the westside of Manhattan. More changes are coming down the pike with a new park. But is that a good thing? Sponsored by private money, what is private wealth's role in remaking public spaces?

-This fall was the first time MillionTreesNYC free tree giveaway featured exclusively edible fruit trees, in total 4,500 were claimed!

-Since the spring residents of a retirement facility, just outside of Chicago, have grown vegetables on their rooftop hydroponic facility for use in their kitchen and others kitchens across the city. This is the first of it's kind, I believe.

-If you'd like to peer into the life of one horticultural therapist practicing in New Jersey, check out this blog. I've linked to the latest posting in the past, she periodically updates it with interesting anecdotes.

-An Emory College student has launced a vineyard to study the American starvine, a threatened native plant which may have tremendous medicinal benefits.

-Earlier in the year I wrote about Brightfarms opening a urban farm in DC, it will be one of the biggest in the USA. Make that, it would have been. The site is so contaminated, they make walk away from the project and $700,000 already invested. A recent paper highlighted the problem in Buffalo and New York City.

A profitable aquaponics business?

Lots of big stories from the past week...

-A cool and potentially huge story is developing in Tampa. One man's vision to create an Urban Food Park now has the backing of an entire community. The hope is for a national model showcasing exhibits ranging from a commercial urban vegetable farm and food museum to an aquaponic farm and food cooperative. Definitely one to keep track of!

-Systematic urban agriculture changes might be on tap for Rotterdam as well, by utilizing a former “tropical swim paradise” as the project hub.

-The latest successful warm weather aquaponics project to receive buzz belongs to American Samoa, however this aquaponics business in Chicago seems to take the cake. They've stayed afloat for three years and now have raised $300,000 for expansion.

-You can't blame these folks for trying. A couple in New Jersey set up a crowdfunding campaign to add a green roof to their primary residence.

New Jersey says "yes" to green roof incentives; Sydney says "maybe"

Some great green roof news in the last few days. We can now add New Jersey to the list of North American cities (soon to be) offering incentives for green roof installations. 

Sydney, Australia is also considering adopting various green roof and green wall incentives. Fun fact of the day, although just a city, Sydney has a population 1/2 the size of New Jersey in 1/900th of the space!

-In other green infrastructure news, Pittsburgh will be making a deep investment in their tree canopy. Hurray!!! 

-Last year I wondered what the hold up in Detroit was for the Hantz urban agriculture project. After years of waiting Hantz may finally get approval from the city, but this article describes some of the reasons for opposition to the farm. Does this seem familiar, Fort Lauderdale?

Green roofs at the Biosphere

-Way back when (over 10 years ago) I had an internship at Biosphere 2. It was a fantastic experience that influenced my career path and ambitions more than anything to date. So imagine my delight to learn about their current green roof research. In the industry, there is a dearth of information concerning appropriate materials and assemblies in arid green roof environments and Arizona is the perfect place to do research!

-What will be eating in 2050? If I were a betting man, I would double down on "micro-farming". Relatively low tech and inexpensive as well, I hope Western taste buds will be up for the challenge?

-Seton Hall University has started it's own permaculture design certificate program.. The first in New Jersey and the first, as far as I am aware, in the tri-state region. But you don't have to be enrolled at Seton Hall to join the movement. The National Student Food Center
is looking for more students to voice their opinions and assist in developing the national student food movement.

Urban agriculture jobs, move fast! + GreenBuild lands in Toronto

A couple of jobs have been posted recently. The University of Alberta is seeking a chair in food security and sovereignty. This part sounds especially tasty "The Chair will be given considerable latitude to propose and develop a cohesive program of social science research that brings critical perspectives to issues of food safety and sovereignty!"
For those who want to get their hands dirtier, Isles, Inc. in Trenton, New Jersey wants an Urban Agriculture manager . Looks just as daunting!

-Surely everyone knows by now that Greenbuild is in Toronto this week, lots of cool stuff going on, especially green roof related. Greenbuild's presence dovetails nicely with the news that Toronto's green roof bylaw has created 125 full-time jobs and 1.2 million square feet of green space.

-500 students at the University of Massachusetts'- Amherst took a quarter-acre and turned it into a permaculture demonstration garden.

-Every once in a while it's good to check in with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to see what is happening with their selected key program(me)s, including investing in agriculture and the initiative (to lower, I presume) soaring food prices. Also not to miss is the explanation of why more attention is needed to maximize benefits of urban forests.

Three cheers for Agroecology

-Are agricultural productivity and biodiversity mutually exclusive? Bioscience has your answer.

-I've seen a few photos of a new green wall in New Zealand, but have mostly ignored it because it has been billed as "the biggest in New Zealand". Now, with a population of 4 million and not too many green walls built to date, it was unclear what that title meant. Well, it looks like it should be billed not just as the biggest in NZ, but an incredible one.

-Looks like urban agriculture is starting to gain traction in New Jersey.

Lastly, if you're a writer and into food justice/security Stuffed and Starved is being updated over the summer and they would like some help. Here's what they are looking for:

"someone who:

* knows the subject area around the global food system (and has likely skimmed, if not read, Stuffed and Starved)
* is exceptionally well organized,
* can keep track of references in Endnote
* works very well independently,
* writes lucidly
* can commit to 2-3 months full time this summer

It'd also help if they know their way around the IMF, World Bank, FAO and USDA databases, and are a dab hand with tracking references down online, though this isn't a requirement. It doesn't take long to pick up."

If that's you, let them know pronto, it closes right now. Later in the year there will also be a bigger project on Agricultural Utopias if that interests you as well.

New contender for biggest green wall + 365 Days of Green in...

...Jersey City?. Believe it. Energy audits for 25 municipal buildings and creating two hydroponic greenhouses which will provide job-training and educational opportunities and more.

-There's a new contender for biggest green wall, some say the biggest in Asia, some reports say the biggest in the world. I've looked far and wide for pictures, none have surfaced yet. When I track some down, I'll be sure to post them!

In the midwest, urban farmers in in Michigan have won the USDA's small farmers of the year and Minneapolis has expanded its urban farming regulations.

New Jersey next on the green roof leg. list? + Wikileaks clears up peak oil picture

More on the LEED AP lawsuit.

-Score one for those who say that oil reserves are overstated, Wikileaks confirms that and leaves me wondering what else is in those wikileaks. Oh yeah, and, what else is in those cables?

-Food czars, responsible for addressing obesity, hunger and food deserts, can now be found in five American cities. Am I the only one uncomfortable with the word "czar"?

The latest Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development will be out soon. "This issue’s papers offer a smorgasbord of views on food production in a wide range of urban environments" including features on cities including Detroit, Flint, Toronto, Vancouver, Havana and Lima!

-Meanwhile in Brazil, we've got kids leading the way in developing green technologies, including green roofs and rainwater harvesting.

-Last but not least, New Jersey's assembly Environment committee approved green and blue roof legislation. It has not yet been introduced in the Senate yet, but tap of the cap goes to NJ.