Green walls fighting poverty...and terrorism

I've profiled Africa's green wall spanning the edges of the Sahara to prevent rapid desertification.
It is wonderful that governments have banded together to tackle this, creating the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall. Of course it's benefit, ecologically, is undisputed, I hadn't considered how important it is to other parts of life. Naturally planting trees means having natural resources and mitigating poverty. Forbes further connects the dots by pointing out more natural resources decreases the need to literally fight over dwindling supplies by joining one surging industry, extremism.

-Here's the wonderfully curious case of Cleveland State University. They were all set, it seemed, to get rid of their $250,000 green roof over leaking concerns. And now? Another $100,000 to improve the roof! Talk about student power!

-On a sad note a high school in Hawaii had over 1000 fish stolen from their aquaponics tank! Hopefully they get back up and running soon!

July internet gleanings

Foraging has really picked up steam in the last couple of years; after all it's always fun to pick up tasty morsels during your journey. I find the same is true on the web. Sometimes I find some interesting tidbits along the way.

-The Guardian has churned out some pretty good GILA articles recently. Here they profile some projects from around the world, two of which are relatively underreported, one in Deu Horta Na Telha, Sao Paulo. And the other in Tokyo. Who wouldn't want tomatoes hanging from a ceiling in the staff meeting room?

-Similarly the Christian Science Monitor mentions urban agriculture in Cuba, which many people have heard all about, but also profiles Lima, Peru, which is the personification of under the radar. Did you know that two water treatment plants will treat one hundred percent of the city’s wastewater by the end of 2014? Lima can irrigate the green areas in and around the city including community gardens.

-Here's a fantastic study covering 250 urban farms across the US and Canada. What urban agriculture activities do they engage in, where are their operations set up, how are they funded and what is their budget plus much, much more.

-We can add asbestos to the list of contaminants found in the soil of community urban gardens.

-This urban WWOOFer has done great work in Denver. Juggling (forgot about signing up) over 20 clients) is quite a feat.

-Of course I am blogging about this document because of the urban agriculture component, but the whole thing is fantastic, especially if you are into forecasting the future of cities.

-The last story today is a small disagreement over a $250,000 green roof. At Cleveland State University the 7,000 square foot gift is being disassembled because...well...there are two versions to the story.

GILA (green infrastructure, living architecture) word of the week: bioadaptive façade

-Still stuck in the "looks good on paper phase", bioadaptive façade, building surfaces that could, say, produce heat harvested from the photosynthesis process of micro-algae, sound like a great idea.
The first building of its kind is scheduled to open in Germany next year.

-A new website debuted recently called The Growing Map. It's aim is to make a more interactive, comprehensive visual map of living architecture projects around the world. Of course they need your submissions and support to make it work.

-A couple of weeks ago I was at the School for Social Entrepreneurs - Ontario to chat about verticiel Inc. and its past, present and future.  There are a few folks working hard on living architecture initiatives, don't think I can publicize their ventures yet, but when the time is right I will definitely give them some space.

-Projects which analyze Urban Ecology, such as the ULTRA-Ex (Urban Long-Term Research Areas: Exploratory), are more important than ever as cities "launch efforts to slash carbon emissions, reduce water use and improve habitats". How will urban agriculture projects and programs affect the urban landscape as whole? One particular project in Cleveland is investigating the effects of building urban farms on unoccupied lots. Preliminary research has shown that the gardens develop ants and pest-killing microbes over time, meaning the gardens can start out and remain organic.

-Last one for today is a draft recommended for public review by the ASPE (American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association and American Society of Plumbing Engineers) Main Design Standards Committee. The goal is to develop a standard to assist stakeholders (builders, developers, engineers, designers, plumbers) in safely implementing a rainwater catchment system.
After having a look, you can have your say!

GILA word of the week: Biocellar

What do you do when your city has tons of crumbling homes and no apparent use for them?
Knock the top off, put on a glass roof, reinforce the basement and add crops. You've got yourself a place for season defying, urban agriculture.

 

The price tag, $120,000, is a little steep. Any ideas out there how to get it done cheaper???

Urban agriculture - come up edition

It's time for one of those "fell through the cracks" posts, where I elevate a few of the stories which are worthy of more attention, but somehow fell off the radar of other blogs and publications.

The first is a really new story and deserves a round of applause. The Rid-All Green Partnership has been a Cleveland success story. Buoyed by tremendous support from the local community, various for and non-profits and several hard working team members, they have become the centerpiece of a 23 acre Urban Agriculture Innovation zone.

-The St. Mary's Urban Farm in Harlem, NY should get a tip of the cap as well. In just a few months they have gone from 0 to harvesting over 700 pounds of food for their community. Okay, you say, there are lots of urban farms doing that. Well, how many of those farms have chosen to remediate their contaminated soil, instead of using raised beds, by utilizing Bokashi?

Harlem is filled with social innovators. See the Corbin Hill Farm's CSA. Pay only a week in advance, put your share on hold and any form of payment accepted including food stamps!

-Underreported urban agriculture story number four, and the last one for today: Behold the work done by City Growers in Pittsburgh.

A $35 million dollar green roof for Chicago?

It never fails, I blog that things are quiet...and then tons of stuff hits the web.

-A very, very, VERY big green roof is being planned in Chicago. As the article explains, the northeast section of Grant Park is built on top of a parking garage.

One question, if you're spending $35 million dollars to re-do it, how much more would it cost to save the gigantic trees? Hmm...that gives me an idea...

-Well, none of my picks for North America's top public places made Planetizen's list. But then again, I didn't really rally support for my choices. But it looks like plenty of folks did rally behind their favorite places!!!

-On Vancouver Island urban farming seems to be a huge factor in local politics, so much so some think it could be an election issue next year if a by-law allowing the commercial sale of produce from one's land is overturned.

-The latest edition of Gastronomica explores the interest and rise in urban farming. This gives us all an opportunity to stop by our local bookstores, as the issue is not available online.

-In Cleveland, the first Unitarian Church (off Shaker Blvd, if you're in the area) opened a 5,400 square foot permaculture garden last week. That's an eighth of an acre...that's pretty darn big. In theory, you could raise about 4.5 tons of produce or enough to feed a person for a whole year! And if they can devote some space to going vertical as planned??? Who knows! Kudos to them!

"With so many native Clevelanders struggling, why help foreigners" with urban agriculture?

The APA recently listed their top 10 public spaces in the US . Let's see how many from this list make it on to the top 100 public spaces in the U.S. and Canada list.

-A cool feature from Cleveland as a local farmer talks about working on the Refugee Empowerment Agricultural Program. Look for his deft answer of the question "With so many native Clevelanders struggling, why help foreigners?"

-Miami's compost mobile recently got a grant to help support it's operations. Why didn't I think of that?

-In the past year we have seen a bunch of articles where residents have had to take on their local governments to grow what they want, be it food or indigenous plants. A company in Houston is bucking the trend by planting indigenous grasses and trees. Hopefully this can become a trend on new urban properties as well.

Local food plus + urban agriculture =

What do you get when you mix a concept like Local Food Plus with urban agriculture? Majora Carter's latest endeavor.

-Great stats about urban agriculture in Cleveland. Cleveland has over 50 or 60 acres of land (depending on who you talk to) dedicated to urban agriculture and a recent study claims they could produce almost all of their food!

-Singapore seems to be showing great interest in food security, having hosted the first International Conference on Asian Food Security last month and with a clear strategy for "finding a more stable global food system in the face of volatile food prices and supplies."

-Looks like Fresno, California could be the next city to try its hand at integrating small-scale agriculture and development.

New York City law makes green roofs, urban gardens and greenhouses easier, other cities make it harder

Big news this week out of New York City, as City Council passed giving access to more land for urban gardens and to make it easier to build rooftop greenhouses.

Is New York now in the lead for greenest city in North America? We know they take their green seriously, they take it even more seriously in Uganda. How about a fine or imprisonment if you don't report how many animals you own?

Detroit's first commercial farm is finally getting started! It's 1/1000 of the size they wanted, but it's a start. The law needs to be changed to allow more farming in Detroit, Philly and elsewhere. And this article outlines some of the challenges.

Toronto is the newest city to try to squash a garden

-I couldn't resist that title. A homeowner in Toronto was told by Traffic Planning that her edible, urban garden was encroaching on city property.

-Here's the outline for the Food Secure Canada Assembly in about a month. If you're in Montreal, it's definitely worth dropping in.

-P.S. 216 in Brooklyn has an edible school yard project, including an outdoor garden, kitchen to eat what's grown and greenhouse.

More urban agriculture projects are coming online in Cleveland, this one 6 acres, while in Arizona a permaculture project is looking for help to create a 100 acre permaculture and art community.

First green roofs on a bus shelter were tried...now, green roofs on a bus. How about green roofs on people? When I first thought of that, I was joking. But on second thought...maybe I should head to the patent office.

Will Cleveland do a "full Detroit"?

Looks like we've got ourselves a good ol' fashioned arms race. Longwood Gardens now has the largest green wall in North America, who's aim for the title next?

-Take an unused mall and combine it with urban agriculture, what do you get? Gardens under glass. On their website they say "nowhere in cleveland is there a project of this nature or magnitude." I don't think there's another city IN NORTH AMERICA with anything like this. So Cleveland is leading the way with this project, will Cleveland do a "full Detroit" ? I think I just coined that phrase. Umm...maybe??? If Cleveland gets a GOP task force, like Detroit did, to champion urban agriculture then...yes. It's official, everyone is pulling for a Detroit recovery now!
But once the gardens are up and running will they be self-sufficient and sustainable???

-And for the truly cutting edge, how about using Foursquare to plot urban foraging stashes throughout your city.