America's parks, not sponsored by Starbucks

America's national parks will not be "sponsored by Starbucks", to the fear of many, but they will recognize donors and need to adapt even further due to global warming.


It's refreshing to see articles on outlets like Vox are now expanding the urban farming debate, there's been a shift from the mantra that "urban farming can feed cities" to "urban farming won't solely feed cities, but that doesn't matter".
If you need ways to figure out how to acquire land for your Urban Agriculture program your prayers have been answered.

Here's a little eye candy to wrap up your week, the United Arab Emirates' best green walls. For a review of weekly green infrastructure news from Latin America, head over to NRDC.org.

GILA word of the week: Pinkhouse

Good stuff from the last week. 

-There are sooooo many people working on vertical farming techniques and solutions and it's great when folks with good ideas come to the surface to share what they've been working on for decades.
Like this "pink house" idea, which the researcher proposes would best fit in the suburbs. 

-Here's a fantastic hotel in Dubai:

With over 27,000 plants spread across six floors, this is probably the biggest living wall in the United Arab Emirates.

- If you're involved in the rainwater catchment industry, here's your chance to give a little bit of information to help fill out the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association. ARCSA is conducting their first survey (which is due May 31) in over 20 years!

Canadian student farm movement expands + the world's largest aquaponics operation

Often known for being ahead of the green curve it appears several Canadian institutions are taking the lead in exploring our interest in urban agriculture and giving students the skills they need to continue in the field.

-Municipally (I think that's the first time I have ever used that word), big green things continue to happen in Boston, Dorchester seems to be the next part of the city slated to get an urban farm.

-Part of the beauty of aquaponics is how scalable it is. One person can raise their own food or it can be done for thousands. A particularly thoughtful youtuber put together over 2 hours of videos on do-it-yourself aquaponic systems, which, until her/his foresight, meant lots of missed sleep as you trolled around youtube looking for the good stuff.
What's this you say? I mentioned An aquaponic system that could support thousands of people? I know, many people have talked about creating such a thing and some plans are in the works in various places around the world, but it looks like a company in the United Arab Emirates is the first to achieve the feat. And it's truly a global collaboration. The lead investigator is from the Virgin Islands, fish from Holland and seeds from the U.S.A.

The details:

-Food could hit the market as soon as March 2012.
-50,000 fish are on their way to kick things off.
-At full capacity they could produce 200 tons of fish and 300,000 heads of lettuce per year.
-8000 square meters of green house space will be needed.
-And there's no website for Zayed Higher Agricultural Centre for Rehabilitation and Development, at least as far as I can see!

Talk about a stealth operation! I'll dig to see if I can find out more.