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-One of the first cities to adopt a green roof bylaw, Port Coquitlam, has now rescinded it.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.

Urban agriculture gets the National Inquirer treatment + $200 green wall

This is probably the first GILA article I have ever read which somehow manages to incorporate violent crime and takes a turn towards the truly sensationalistic.

-Check out this living wall in Jakarta, which reportedly costs only $200. How is that possible?

-Whenever Nevin Cohen publishes something new, we would be wise to listen. His recent paper shows that race and class based disparities, in addition to resource needs, still remain in the urban agriculture system. For any municipal official, this would be a handy tool.

-Toronto's own Foodshare shares some more information about their tremendously successful and productive School Grown initiative plus details about their Eastdale Collegiate Institute's Rooftop garden.

-I don't know if this job exists, if not, it could be a great opportunity for someone. The other day I spied this article about urban agriculture in China. No doubt, there is much more going on there than we ever hear about, simply because it is not written in English. Perhaps there is someone who can splash some cash to pay people to translate relevant articles about their subject of interest to leap the linguistic barriers.

-The world's second largest green wall was just completed in Colombia, feast your eyes: