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.

GILA word of the week: Zfarming

A couple of tasty tidbits for the week. A nice collective term, courtesy of the Germans, for vertical farming, rooftop farming and indoor farming: Zfarming. Here's a paper about perception and acceptance about the phenomenon.

What do you get when you mix tasteful architecture, aquaponics and leisure. Have a look:

São Paulo's green roof and wall incentive & agrihoods take off

If there's one thing I learned this week, all good things come from the NY Times.

While reading about São Paulo mayor, who is trying all sorts of things to reduce gridlock, I stumbled upon other initiatives he has enacted including the stipulation that companies must pay for "environmental conservation works" and can do so by installing green walls or green roofs, like the one above.

-Two weeks ago in Santa Clara a plan was selected for a 1.5 acre parcel. It includes 165 affordable senior rental units and much, much more. If you want a list of prominent agrihood/agriburbia developments across the nation, one was convenient posted last week.

That article is one of three I saw over the next 10 days detailing newish and future agrihoods.

-An interesting pairing has Back to the Roots teaming with Sodexo to supply 2,300 schools with garden tool kits, including aquaponics kits, mushroom mini-farms and their “garden-in-a-can”. There’s curriculum for the toolkits as well.

-Vancouver is now offering $10 trees to encourage home owners to build up their urban forest. Fruit trees are available too, including prunes!

-India is working on creating a green wall of their own, this one featuring palm trees to stop sea coast erosion.

Aquaponic and rooftop farming news from Egypt

This operation has been operational for a couple of years, but they rarely release updates. What they have accomplished in a few years is very impressive!
There was another article about Egyptian living infrastructure this week, the missive takes a look at the rooftop garden operations.

-Here's a very long and well-written article from Business Insider about America’s largest crop, the American lawn. The thirsty crop drinks Nine billion gallons of water A DAY and covers more than 3 times the amount of area corn does!
Several of those interviewed believe it will be harder to get people to quit watering their lawns because the lawn is a symbol of the American dream. Subconsciously, letting your lawn die may be akin to giving up on the American dream, conspicuous consumption, social contract and multi-billion dollar industry, combined. Look for lobbying groups to fight restrictions as they pop up around the USA and beyond. It has already begun...

-A recent study suggests there are 3 trillion trees worldwide! That’s incredible! On the bad side, that’s half of what was there a few hundred years ago and 10 billion per year are currently lost.

-In a very, very curious story, the Vancouver Aquarium has decided to start raising fish...for sale at local stores! Wow!

-In other aquaponics news we learned something amazing, by accident. It appears the US is creating a Hydroponic and Aquaponic Task Force. The press release states "aquaculture, aquaponics and hydroponics being the fastest growing sector in agriculture"!

When vertical farming goes bad - Vancouver edition

So it's a year and a half since Alterrus, a Vancouver rooftop farming operation with so much promise,
went bankrupt. Their assets were bought by a company called Affinor. Things have gone from bad to worse, as Affinor never did much of anything and the greenhouse and everything in it are now up on Craiglist. The whole shebang can be yours for $1.5 million dollars!
Oh yeah, the City of Vancouver is suing Affinor and Affinor is suing them right back. It is officially a mess!

There may be a lesson in there for some new urban agriculture/vertical farming ventures in Indianapolis and Jersey City. I'm not sure yet what that lesson is!

Agriburbia in Missouri

If you know foraging, you know Wildman Steve Brill. Rarely do we get background on his life, here's a little bit. And check out his old school website!

-Remember that urban farm in Vancouver which shut down and then was taken over by a company to possibly grow marijuana?  Business in Vancouver has an update on the situation

-Agriburbia hits Columbia, Missouri with the construction of a new housing development with an urban farm as it's focal point.

-If you're an urban farmer in Baltimore, rejoice, there's a new 90% property tax break for urban farmers!

-Sydney, Australia is getting an urban farm. The Daily Telegraph doesn't like that at all!

Small scale urban farming not possible?

Well, this is sure to spark some debate.

A prominent musician, turned urban farmer in Vancouver says simply that you need to go monoculture or go home, if you're going to make a living cultivating yards in the urban environment.
The fact he said it so forcefully, will no doubt get some backs up. Take on that it was followed by a Salon article in which another farmer says small farming is basically impossible, means folks will be  writing for a long time.

-The FAO released a comprehensive introductory aquaponics paper designed to give anyone a fantastic foundation. Download it for free here.

-Will climate change mean we have to grow different strains of produce, perhaps even return to more ancient seeds? Debal Deb thinks so and has over 1,000 indigenous seeds in his rice bank which are more tolerant to stressors like salt.

-For those who love honey from the hive, but hate the labor part, there's a new product in development which will take honey from the hive to a tap.

, and offers some suggestions that can help ensure greening success.

Plant Preferences

Godman always recommends using plants native to the region – it’s their best chance of survival.

For example, the rece

- See more at: http://sourceable.net/cooling-planet-one-green-roof-time/#sthash.sKQKY9ol.dpuf

Green roofs are being recognised as a critical addition to our urban areas as more and more man-made structures are squeezed into cities to keep up with population demands.

The environmental benefits of green roofs are well documented: absorbing carbon, reducing energy consumption, helping with stormwater management and offering acoustic support. They also offer opportunity for bio-diversity and food production in urban areas.

Another key benefit to green roofs is that they mitigate the urban heat island effect. A chapter study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that green roofs were substantially cooler than their dark or white counterparts.

Comparing two roofs in Chicago, the study found that on a 32-degree day in August, the green roof temperature ranged from 33 to 48 degrees while an adjacent dark conventional roof dark temperature was 76 degrees.

“The near-surface air temperature above the green roof was about four degrees cooler than of the conventional roof,” the report read.

A similar study in Florida found that the average maximum surface temperature of a green roof was 30 degrees, while the adjacent light-coloured roof was 57 degrees.

Green roofs have also been shown to have healing properties. Humans love greenery and research demonstrates that the presence of plants can directly contribute to health and well-being. Healing gardens in healthcare spaces help patients to recover more rapidly, while office workers become more productive when working around living plants or enjoying a green view.

- See more at: http://sourceable.net/cooling-planet-one-green-roof-time/#sthash.sKQKY9ol.dpuf

Green roofs are being recognised as a critical addition to our urban areas as more and more man-made structures are squeezed into cities to keep up with population demands.

The environmental benefits of green roofs are well documented: absorbing carbon, reducing energy consumption, helping with stormwater management and offering acoustic support. They also offer opportunity for bio-diversity and food production in urban areas.

Another key benefit to green roofs is that they mitigate the urban heat island effect. A chapter study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that green roofs were substantially cooler than their dark or white counterparts.

Comparing two roofs in Chicago, the study found that on a 32-degree day in August, the green roof temperature ranged from 33 to 48 degrees while an adjacent dark conventional roof dark temperature was 76 degrees.

“The near-surface air temperature above the green roof was about four degrees cooler than of the conventional roof,” the report read.

A similar study in Florida found that the average maximum surface temperature of a green roof was 30 degrees, while the adjacent light-coloured roof was 57 degrees.

Green roofs have also been shown to have healing properties. Humans love greenery and research demonstrates that the presence of plants can directly contribute to health and well-being. Healing gardens in healthcare spaces help patients to recover more rapidly, while office workers become more productive when working around living plants or enjoying a green view.

- See more at: http://sourceable.net/cooling-planet-one-green-roof-time/#sthash.sKQKY9ol.dpuf

All about Agritopia!

Over the past two years I've seen a few studies about the effects of horticultural therapy, however there's been a definite uptick in articles over the last six months. In the Journal of Nursing Care, a rigorous study was just published expounding on the effects of ht "on the well-being and hope of women" in Korea.

-It's clear aquaponics and urban agriculture are gaining in popularity throughout the Caribbean and a few Pacific islands. Why not Hawaii as well? I had no idea over 80% of it's food is imported!

-In D.C. the Children's National Medical Center is raising money to make a rooftop healing garden. They are about 1/3 the way there, only $3.8 million dollars to go!

-Vancouver is leading the way with recently adopted community guidelines which includes soil testing for contaminants, forbidding GMO seeds and requirements for accessibility.

-A politician from Philadelphia has proposed to double their green roof tax credit, with a cap of $100,000 per applicant!

-Fascinating article from Nextcity which details how trees can make people happy and vice-versa.

-Agritopia. This is planning!!!! A new development in Phoenix featuring 450 residential lots and space for agricultural development, in addition to 74 independent and assisted living apartments and 48 memory care apartment homes. One teeny, tiny question. How sustainable is agriculture in the desert? I know, I know...I have to be "that guy!"

In a study published this quarter in Journal of Nursing Care, Min and colleagues describe a beneficial impact of HT on hope and well-being in women participating in a 12-week HT program compared with a control group of women who did not participate in HT. This study is notable for its inclusion of a control group, standardized methods of measuring emotional health, and sound statistical methods. - See more at: http://ahta.org/news/beneficial-impact-ht-emotional-health-demonstrated#sthash.mypSTjfu.dpuf

Australian children's hospital goes green wall crazy + "rain vortex" in Singapore airport

-Lady Cilento Children's Hopsital in South Brisbane, Australia spared no expense in designing and building their bring new children's hospital. Look at these incredible green walls and rooftop gardens!

-Have a gander at this Singapore airport, which is in the works, the picture below shows their 40 m rain vortex in the middle of the building!

-Soil research is helping us learn more about contamination at individual urban gardens and also giving us clues to look for overall. Here's an important take away: "Urban gardeners should consider Kentucky bluegrass the 'canary in the mine shaft' for foods grown in the city, especially near busy roads and transportation corridors."

-Here’s a new app which helps urban farmers know where they can go and what the rules are. Urb.ag, “hones in on the location of where someone might want to start a farm and then applies the exact codes and what is required of the new law.” This app could save a potential farmer a lot of time and hassle.

-Could San Francisco's New Bay Bridge turn into the next iconic green infrastructure project. Dare I say it...highlinesque?

-Montreal, in two years time will have something iconic of its own down at the Old Port.

-For you green roof geeks, here's an interesting study about the carbon sequesteration potential of using sewage sludge in green roofs in China.

-Most people remark how cities are becoming less and less green, some parts of New York City have become more green over the years and that’s even before their Million Trees NYC campaign. Here are the photographs to prove it.

-Among everyone's favorites, like sweet corn, potatoes and tomatoes and lesser known treats (crambe...cuphea...luffa gourds?), the USDA has now recommended aquaponics as a viable crop for diversification.

Urban farming under gun fire

Urban farming for refugees in Syria is a risky, but necessary part of daily life. Two facts from the article really stand out to me, first that farming on rooftops is often done under the threat of snipers (!) and secondly that some refugees picked up farming techniques from youtube.

-Washington State is making people who want to keep small livestock take a certification class, I think they're the first state to do this. Smart. Urban agriculture is likely to cost the city extra money for animal control services (rounding up loose or abandoned animals), so this makes a lot of sense. 

-On the east coast a $1.5 million dollar federal grant awarded to Virginia State University will go to refurbish an old building and turn it into an urban agriculture hub featuring both aquaponic and hydroponic systems. 

-Here's a school aquaponics facility which hopes to add snails to its offerings.

-When Land8 talks about urban agriculture it seems to happen in spurts. Two weeks ago they published a helpful 10 principle article for creating food-producing landscapes and then a follow up article which delves into the challenges of urban agriculture.

-As practitioners know permaculture can mean many things. Here's how one group makes it synonymous with activism.

-A rise in community activism and pressure on governments to scale back and save money in the face of declining revenues has led to more do-it-yourself groups. The trend is taking off in San Francisco and Vancouver as residents help build mini-public parks using their own tools and ultimately time and money.

Gila words of the week: Urban Fruit Trail & Underground Rooftop Garden

Ahhh...I know I have your attention now! We're going to end the week on a very, very high note.

-What is an underground rooftop garden you ask? Have a look...

Art students from Savannah, Georgia are exploring what it is like to live in a micro house. Their choice of pop-up locations with all of the amenities...the campus parking garage. Have a look.
Their ephemeral pad even includes container gardens.

-There's a bit of flexing underway in Vancouver as Canadian Pacific Railways is looking to once again use railway lines last touched 13 years ago. This could mean the destruction of 10% of Vancouver's urban gardens, many surround the formerly defunct line. The City of Vancouver is pushing back...just a touch. And of course community gardeners are not that pleased. This could take a while to play out, let's see what happens.

-Historically why have landscape architects resisted designing productive landscapes? One blogger  believes it has to do with Management, Liability and Aesthetics. Hey, wait a second, that would spell MLA...the acronym for Master of Landscape Architecture. Weird!!!

-A scaled down, more structured artistic spin of a food forest is being planned in Los Angeles. They have coined it the urban fruit trail.

-Rooftop gardens have been part of the New York landscape since the early 1880s. Take a trip back in time to find out why they became all the rage.

-Charleston, South Carolina and Waltham, Massachusetts are planning huge eco-districts. Waltham is setting aside $20 million dollars for a 58 acre agriculture and community farming hub. Charleston is designating 865 acres (!) as an eco-district, unfortunately what that means is unclear. Eco measures, including green roofs, seem to be "voluntary". Let's hope for the best!

-And last but not least for the week. Plants can hear, according to researchers from the University of Missouri. Yes, you heard that right.

New York City schools launch campaign to create a green roof curriculum

Launched about a month ago, three NYC schools are collaborating on a campaign to create a green roof curriculum guide for K-12 schools. Help them out if you can.

-Speaking of curriculum, there's terrific news for Milwaukee Public Schools’ Urban Schools Aquaponics initiative. A two year contribution that includes $98,000 to develop curriculum and instructional content that educators can use to build similar programs nationwide.

-Will Allen is a busy man, as he has inspired Milwaukee to create an urban food systems institute,  The Institute for Urban Agriculture and Nutrition.

-Talk about a criticism! No love lost for Alterrus, who went bankrupt a few weeks ago, from the National Post. Taken to task are Vancouver officials and well-compensated Alterrus staff members, but I get the feeling the author is just not a fan of Vancouver's current party in power. Why do I suspect that? He labelled some of their efforts as "goofy green initiatives".

-I find it quite interesting that Vincent Callebaut was given some space to talk about his Dragonfly vertical farm vision in an Abu Dhabi newspaper. If there's one place which likes to go big and would give it a try, it's Abu Dhabi. Think "The Landmark" and "Sky Tower".

-The Department of Crop Science at the Agricultural University of Athens has been quite proficient recently in publicizing their findings from the experiments with native Mediterranean plants best suited for green roofs. They're back with more plants which should proliferate in the Mediterranean region.

That's all for now. Look for a brand new verticiel website very, very soon!

Schools start the New Year with urban agriculture announcements

Late December normally brings cold, snow and a slow GILA newscycle. 2013 was no different, but there were a some interesting discoveries over the last couple of weeks. And kids in three cities will be very happy when they come back after the winter break.

-To start things off, the Toronto Star covered the massive, urban agriculture rooftop at Eastdale Collegiate. You heard about it first here on Living Architecture Daily because we were part of the team! Hopefully the story takes Toronto by storm in the spring, a write-up on Christmas feels like the story could be buried a bit...but it's so incredible I am sure that it will resonate across Canada, and the world, for decades to come.

-Not to be outdone a school in New York will have a $1.2 million hydroponic garden on its roof this year. 

-Everyone one of the 31 schools in the Delta school district will have an urban agriculture installation by the end of the year, reports the Vancouver Sun. Wow!!!

-Edmonds Community College is the first college in North America to offer an urban agriculture degree (plus six certificates) focused on learning to grow, develop and manage urban agriculture systems and businesses for local markets and clients. The first quarter starts today!

-The last few years have been dominated by aquaponics. Before that hydroponics was the biggest "ponic" and once upon a time there aeroponics inspired the imagination. Could it be back?

Could green infrastructure solve problems...and create some too?

Wow, the last couple of weeks has served up some really tasty articles from the GILA world.
A few of the articles are of the “now that you mention it, that makes sense” variety.

A piece from Grist summarizes some interesting research, the bottom line being those who live in poor neighbourhoods are more likely to experience the phenomenon known as “heat islands”.
And because people of colour are disproportionally poor, there is a racial component as well. Green infrastructure/living architecture could help alleviate this, of course, but if municipalities aren’t investing in GILA, it may be up to individuals to lead the charge of cooling their neighbourhoods, one home at a time.

But we shouldn’t just assume having a ton of trees, green roofs or any green infrastructure will fix the problem...they could actually make more! I had no idea how virulent some soil borne fungal diseases can be. This leads me to think soil scientists should be more involved in designing soil mixes for any urban soil installation!

-If you’ve been watching the web, no doubt you have seen that some cities (spearheaded by individual residents and city officials) are moving forward with and strongly supporting urban agriculture. For instance, Indianapolis (yes, Indianapolis) an urban agriculture store opens soon. And Denver has a developer offering urban gardens when you purchase a unit.  Some cities, like LA, seem to be a bit more inconsistent. What is absolutely clear is that even cities, like New York and Vancouver, with progressive urban agriculture agendas passed by city councils, if money and land are the bottom lines, there will be a tug of war. 

-The last story for sharing today features the San Francisco Giants turning some concrete at the ballpark into an organic vegetable garden. One minor quibble. The article calls the project “ambitious”. I don’t have all the figures, but I tend to think if you have a payroll of over $136 million dollars, you have money to burn and it won’t be that hard to get done.

A closer look at vertical and rooftop farming leaders

Even if you're new to the vertical and rooftop farming industry you know the major players spend their time heads-down trying to produce food, not on the radio, TV or in the papers touting what they do. That's why it's nice to see, over the last 6 weeks or so, some longer articles and audio on some of the pioneers, Lufa Farms, Alterrus and FarmedHere.

-In general I believe the more green the better. But when it comes to a place like Abu Dhabi, I would love to see this proposed lush 19,000 square foot green roof become something more climate relevant, like a xerogarden. With deck chairs and umbrellas too, perhaps?

-In Uganda one enthusiast is trying the simplest materials possible to make an aquaponics system, included in his list of components are an old fridge, water and perfume bottles.

-Another innovator in Canada, this one 16 years old, has invented his own green wall system and turned it into a educational opportunity for children.

-Kwantlen Polytechnic University has been involved in some inspiring projects over the years, recently they've been involved in developing a curriculum to accompany the farm based at a suburban Vancouver school.

28 activities and 18 benefits to urban agriculture

Do your friends want to know why they should support urban agriculture? Here's a fantastic metrics framework from the Design Trust for Public Space detailing 18 benefits and 28 activities. 

-Stat of the day: according to one calculation Beijing has 93 million square metres (23,000 acres) of green roof ready rooftops. Particle pollution could be reduced by as much as 880,000 kilograms every year, (equal to removing 730,000 cars from the road) and a reduction of 3.5 million cubic metres of stormwater.

-Back in July I first talked about the Bayview Compass' coverage of Sweet Water Organics, the Milwaukee based aquaponics organization. That article was perhaps the best one of the year, in the living architecture world. This follow-up one is not that bad either, SWO defaulted on a loan which could be renegotiated. For the life of me I don't know why SWO has such a spotlight on them, it seems organizations run into trouble all the time. Perhaps when you garner as much positive attention as they have, when something goes wrong, you get as much negative attention.

-Coming soon to Vancouver, a 1,000 tree urban agriculture orchard.