The Great Green Wall gets creative

 

Africa's Great Green Wall has thankfully received more attention as of late. Branding is always helpful for selling products and programs, it's wonderful to see what these students created, like the poster above, to publicize the campaign.

-As many of you know, China is attempting their own green wall, affectionately called "the Green Wall of China", to hold back desertification. And they've done a lot, 66 billion trees planted since 1978. The problem? Fast-growing and thirsty, non-native species were planted making things worse! And they were all cuttings, meaning they are all dying at the same time. Encroaching deserts threaten 400 million people in total with poor agricultural land, water shortages and air pollution from giant sandstorms. Officials are even worried about civil unrest. If you have a chance, read the story.

-Aquaponics and marijuana are two of the hottest trends in agriculture. What happens when you combine the two? I'm predicting really big things for this Hamilton, Ontario outfit.

-Building owners in Geelong, an hour long drive south from Melbourne, Australia, have a chance to win $10,000 for their green roof. If you live there, throw your hat in the ring!

-A design competition in Italy has yielded some fantastic renderings and further interest from local cities to make a combination pre-school/urban farm.

-Two weeks ago France banned supermarket waste, this means companies must find other ways to dispose of their food. Hopefully they won't dispose of it, but it becomes another revenue stream if they sell it to supermarkets, which exist in Denmark, which only sell second hand food.

The week of big urban agriculture hits!

It's the week of big hits!


I'm sure many folks have heard about Serenbe in Georgia. But here's one of the first news stories about the development, 2 hours south of Atlanta, which gives you a feel for the houses surrounding the urban farm and the farm itself.




-Right on cue is another article about how food one of the hot trends in real estate is...can you guess?...food!


-What's happening in the Vancouver urban agriculture scene? What are the guidelines, standards and policies? What is being farmed, how is pest management handled? Which farms have staff and volunteers? Everything you want to know is here.


-We've seen lots of urban agriculture farms made out of shipping containers. The next step in the evolution is having a farm shipped, IKEA flatpack style, in a shipping container and ready for assembly.

-In Guyana a bold new collaboration has sprung between universities in Chile, the United Kingdom and Guyana to pioneer aquaponics education in the Caribbean.


-North American researchers have said to beware of the soil in urban settings, heavy metals may be present. It seems that the same could be true in Spain.


-Finally the biggest news of all, Gotham Greens opened the world's largest urban greenhouse facility in Chicago.

The USA's food waste reduction plan

Upon completion in 2017 this is how the Memorial Children’s Hospital should look. Lush walls will make this a landmark building in the southwestern Michigan/northern Indiana area.

 -You had the pizza farm...farmers cutting out the middle people and serving their produce on their farm. An innovative chef will try his own spin on this. Of course other culinary experts have had small plots of land or the odd planter to supplement their offerings, but an entire urban farm? This is a first and seems to be a different spin on the totally controlled culinary experience.

-The biggest news last week was the American government joining forces with several organizations to outline and launch a (food) waste reduction strategy. And concerted effort to reduce the 133 billion pounds (!) of lost food is a very, very good thing.

-Farmers are turning to very precise methods to keep an eye on their produce and farms. One program can tell them the exact point on a field where a planter has missed a seed! A huge question remains...who does this data belong to? The farmer or the software company?

-The UK's underground farm is humming alone, 18 hour days of sunlight means plants can be harvested between in 28 days, sometimes in as few as 6.

Ball parks going green

Baseball season is underway and a new rooftop garden in Boston (planted with high school student's help!) has generated a lot of publicity.

But there are plenty of other ballparks embracing the latest in green technology. A new team in Tennessee has its own green roof and LEED certification to boot. And an IKEA in Copenhagen is getting in on the fun as well with it's green roof serving as a multi-purpose sport field

Of all the sports, soccer seems to be the trendsetter, as teams have adopted green roofing prominently in 2010 and 2012.

GILA conferences galore, India and Australia

Fair folks, make sure you check out the International Green Conference - 2012, this year organized by the Indian Green Infrastructure Network. It starts tomorrow and concludes on November 28. And the day that one closes, another conference opens up. Melbourne, Australia hosts the Greening Cities Conference 2012.

If you're still in the conference mood, catch up on the events at the World Green Roof Congress in September. 

Enjoy your International Onion Day!

Plans for the first climate adapted neighborhood + a free e-book on seed saving

Last week plans for Copenhagen's first climate adapted neighborhood (and I think that means they get the world title as well) were released. Green roofs play a crucial role, looks like it should be done in 2016. I decided to ignore my self-imposed ban on posting conceptual drawings because this is way too cool!

-Join the Fortnight for Seed Freedom. Starting October 2 Vandana Shiva is calling for a two weeks of civil disobedience against unjust seed laws. While gearing up, you can download the free e-book,
A Guide to Seed Saving, Stewardship and Sovereignty .

-If you are in the saving mood, read more about how the NRDC says we can help reduce food waste and losses in the US food supply. Forty percent of food in America is currently lost!