Urban agriculture growing and dying

It's always good to check in with the folks at the permaculture podcast. Last week we heard what could be done with 1/6 of an acre in a temperate climate.

-Check out this app, it ranks neighbourhoods by environmental criteria like green roofs, community gardens, farmers markets, parks and public transit. It's a great way to help select your next home.

-A children's hospital in San Antonio is building a massive 2 acre garden to teach the community about the relationship between food and health.

-After 360 years a South African community garden will sprout again. Boston is similarly celebrating urban agriculture with their first Urban Agriculture Day.
Unfortunately in Bangalore things are going in the opposite direction. The city, which was a burgeoning urban agriculture oasis, will probably see urban agriculture wither because of development pressures.

-The USA's first urban agriculture kids camp kicked off a couple of weeks ago. I'll add this to my end of the year predictions...I think you'll be seeing a lot more of these in the future.

New Jersey Adopts Horticultural Therapy Resolution + World's Largest Vertical Farm

If you're in St. Louis or Washington State there are a couple of ways to make your voices heard to support living architecture/green infrastructure in your cities.

Write to your legislators to support Bill 228 (in St. Louis, to incentivize urban agriculture) and call (1-800-562-6000) in Washington State to support a much bigger measure, $100 million in general obligation bonds. The latter seems to be, at least partially, inspired by Seattle's green infrastructure successes.
One more piece of legislation to consider supporting. Texas House Bill 1306 would reduce the amount of property tax a homeowner would have to pay if they engaged in urban agriculture.

-Speaking of legislation, one already adopted is the most comprehensive Horticultural Therapy Resolution (by New Jersey) to date. What does it mean? I am not sure, but perhaps a funding stream for horticultural therapy projects? We can only hope!

-The biggest news of the week (in my book) is the first Canadian school (and, I think, North American...correct me if I am wrong) to get an working urban farm! In a unique partnership between the school board and local not for profit, the kids have a place to learn about farming and get some fresh food!

-In the winter I passed through Chicago's O'Hare airport and had no idea something so cool was growing there. A demonstration vertical farm, almost 1000 square feet of aeroponics, provides herbs and vegetables for three airport restaurants.
Chicago also will boast the world's largest vertical farm...for now. 90,000 square feet on Chicago's South Side!

-What do you get when "The Plant" meets "Plantagon"? A lovely vertical farming facility where Manchurians are treated to a venture that educates communities about sustainable food production. 

Your GILA (green infrastructure, urban agriculture) word of the week :Urban Agripuncture

Thanks Huff Post for adding this one to our dictionary!

-I didn’t see many inspiring permaculture stories in the back half of May, but there were a couple great ones last week.  El Paso is going to have their very own urban food forest. At 10,000 square feet in a town where it rarely drops below freezing, this provides the opportunity for a few families to feast all year long. 

-In Portland, Oregon neighbors are banding together to save an 11,000 square foot permaculture food forest. The only difference from the El Paso startup? This one is 35 years old!!! 

-Okay, can we officially call aquaponics red hot? A German company, in 2013, will be constructing a 7,000 square meter (75,350 square feet) aquaponics facility! I haven't seen one yet, but I feel somewhere there's a columnist drafting an urban agriculture column pitting aquaponics versus hydroponics. 

A couple of things

-Two green roof studies have been recently referenced on The Earth’s Institute website. It will cost you a bit to get your hands on the studies, but well worth the price.

-Near and far innovative food security efforts continue to assist those in need. Of particular interest is a permaculture project in Malawi which has trained hundreds of teachers and planted thousands of trees.

Growth is a ponzi scheme?

Wow, I've got a ton to comment on starting with an article from the New Urban Network. I've never heard
growth referred to as a ponzi scheme, but the more numbers he crunches...the more ponzi like it seems. If our government officials are aware of this and haven't sought to remedy the problem (more taxes or doing things VERY differently), I don't know what to say. If they are not aware of the facts, that is probably just as bad.

-On the positive side, there are a couple of great stories about urban agriculture in
Hong Kong and, closer to home Philadelphia, where refugees are planting crops from back home.

-A little further south, if you're in DC "Wildman" Steve Brillis in town to drop some foraging knowledge.

-More urban agriculture news. There are rooftop garden classes in
New York City and Toronto this week. Speaking of Toronto, it looks like a buy local food bill is in trouble as council is under pressure to cut costs and go with the cheapest produce.

-On the climate change front, the Guardian has a great article about how El Paso, Texas, is beating the worst drought in a generation. Hopefully others in Texas and abroad are paying attention to their conservation efforts and start listening to Paul Epstein as well. Who's Paul Epstein? Glad you asked.

So busy!

Between starting gardens at home (both horizontal and vertical), ongoing projects (which hopefully we'll post some pictures of soon) and designing green roof and green wall projects, it's been tough to blog the last few weeks.
But, here's the latest interesting living architecture news:

-A couple of reports have hit the internet recently about the effects of green roofs. First is a study by Mary Jo Kirisitspublished in the journal Water Research which examines the effects of conventional and alternative roofing materials on the quality of harvested rainwater . Haven't read it yet, but will have to soon as Dr. Kirisits seems to be the real deal.
The second from Columbia University says that green roofs do a fantastic job at retaining water. 20 TIMES BETTER than the City of New York stated in PlaNYC.

-Mayor Rahm looks to take Chicago to the next level. I love this 55 promises list. Not just because it's not a round number or due to all of the content (we can't agree with everything...right?), but the elimination of food deserts slides in at #17, higher than street safety! Wow!

-Oh yeah, there's an urban farming internship available at Kingsborough Community College. So for those of you who procrastinated...because it always pays off, you are right once again!

-By the way, the picture above is a bag full of fun...which hopefully will yield some oyster mushrooms in the near future!

Of urban farms, dreams, and redtape

Anyone who has been following the urban agriculture movement knows the work of Sweet Water Organics, disciples of Will Allen. Looks like they are in line to expand provided with a loan from the City of Milwaukee.10 employees by 2012, 21 in 2013 and more to come. If Milwaukee is the worldwide hub for urban agriculture, the Bayview Compass might have found their niche too as they've been busy churning out urban ag articles recently. Milwaukee is fast becoming what Detroit wants to be.

-A common theme among urban agriculture proponents is the redtape in their local municipality. You can add Montreal's urban pioneers to that list.

-A 2-acre urban farm urban farm will be built in Dallas on a little used college football field. Eventually, the college wants to open its own grocery store!!! Hopefully if that happens, the store will follow a Portland CSAs lead and accept food stamps as payment.

With yesterday's election, we can't forget about Canadians trying something new.