Green Communities

General map of the project consortium. Suggested test site cities are marked red. (Map by Ralf Wieland, Geography Department, Ruhr-University Bochum, 2012) The plan is to conduct small crop-growing experiments, to interview growers, sellers and government officials as well as to teach local farmers about new techniques they can adopt By Olivia Solon Wired UK May 8, 2013 Excerpt: “For a long time, scientists were so concerned with the hinterland, thereby neglecting the issue of urban food production — which is efficient, but still offers far greater possibilities for increased yields. We must tap this potential too, if we are to keep abreast of population increases”, explains Bürkert. Africa already has a billion people living in it, and is predicted to almost double by 2050. The German team are partnering with 14 African institutes to develop ways to increase food production in urban areas and understand how this sort of farming can help generate economic growth. Initial research will take place in Burkina Faso and Ghana, before extending to other West African cities including Camaroon, Mali and Nigeria. The plan is to conduct small crop-growing experiments, to interview growers, sellers and government officials as well as to teach local farmers about new techniques they can adopt, such as using charcoal as a water filter and organic fertiliser. There will be a range of project groups that will focus on different elements of food production. This includes a group looking into animal husbandry and the accumulation of dung for fertiliser; one group looking at the role of natural fertilisers and product hygiene and one looking at the possible politico-economical benefits from the suggested improvements. Read the complete article here. See Urban Food Plus here.

August 8-11 2013, Seattle, Washington Four days of workshops and tours showcase exciting developments in the world of community gardening and urban agriculture. Early Bird Registration: open now to June 15, 2013. Scholarship are also available and due date for scholarship application is June 1, 2013. Urban Agriculture Tours: Seattle has a vibrant urban agriculture community that includes continued cultivation of land that once embodied the livelihood of local farmers. Join us to take a look at the old lands still under cultivation in new ways, some of the innovative market gardens that have sprung up across the city and their venues for selling their produce and a peek at a learning garden that specializes in empowering people to grow their own! High Point P-Patch Market Garden (SW Juneau & 32nd Ave. SW) Marra Farm (9026 4th Ave. S) Alleycat Acres Site Clean Greens Farm Stand City Grown Farm and Farm Stand Seattle Tilth Learning Garden at Good Shepherd Center Seattle Youth Garden Works and University of Washington Farm Art, Design and Culture in the Edible City: Imagine a city designed around ecological systems and edible landscapes where arts and culture play a key role in the designing innovative urban spaces, reimagining our food lifestyles, and connecting with neighbors. Visit 4 community gardens that each demonstrate sustainability, creative repurposing, and vibrant community culture: UpGarden P-Patch (300 Mercer St.) Have lunch on the grass at this first large-scale public community garden in the U.S.that shows adaptive reuse of an old parking garage and vehicles. Belltown P-Patch (Elliott Ave. & Vine St.) Belltown offers an artistic vision for greener streets and stormwater with its legacy of public art contributions, a former arts residency, and the Vine Street Steps. Bradner Gardens Park and P-Patch (1750 S Bradner Pl. & 29th Ave. S) Check out the windmill and cistern, an array of public art, and a focus on community and self-expression. Oxbow Park and P-Patch (6400 Corson Ave.) At this home of the iconic Hat n’Boots, we’ll talk about Seattle’s river, the rise of a neighborhood arts scene and historic preservation. See more at Conference website here.

“I don’t like the goal of self-sufficiency, I think it’s a fool’s errand to chase that goal.” Filmed by Johnny Sanphillippo FairCompanies.com May 20, 2013 (Must See. Mike.) Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne have been farming their yard in Los Angeles for over a decade. In addition to a mini orchard and extensive veggie garden, they have all the instruments of an urban homestead: chickens, bees, rainwater capture, DIY greywater, solar fruit preserver, humanure toilet, rocket stove, adobe oven. But they don’t like to talk about sustainability of self-sufficiency, instead they prefer the term self-reliance. “I don’t like the goal of self-sufficiency, I think it’s a fool’s errand to chase that goal,” explains Knutzen. “I think we live in communities, human beings are meant to live, and trade and work together. I think self-reliance is okay, in other words, knowing how to do things.” Knutzen and Coyne share their tinkering, DIY and small scale urban agriculture experiments on their blog Root Simple and in their books “The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City” and “Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post Consumer World”. They believe in the value of shop classes and old-school home economics (back when you learned how to make things, not shop for things). For the couple, their true goal with all of this self-reliance is freedom to live as they please. By growing their own and canning, pickling, preserving, freezing and baking their own breads and beans, they live frugally. They also only own one car (plus a cargo bike), one cellphone and no tv. “I think a lot of it has to do with our overdriving ambition to be free,” explains Coyne, “makes being cheap fun, because it means you can be free”. Link here.

We operate our commercial aquaponics farm in Hawaii, and teach you how to feed yourself by building and operating your own aquaponics systems When: Sunday May 26, 830 am – 530 pm Where: the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street How much: $40-100, no one turned away. contact: gavin@plantingjustice.org for more info. “Friendly Aquaponics has trained thousands of people at their certified organic commercial aquaponics farm in Hawaii, and now they’re coming to Oakland to share their tried and true practices of growing an incredible amount of food in small spaces with 90% less water than conventional agriculture. Perfect for paved lots and urban agriculture where soils are nonexistent or too toxic! Hope to see you there.” From their website: Build four different sizes of stable, durable, and productive indoor aquaponics systems that can be operated indoors OR outdoors, or even MOVED between indoors and outdoors, depending on the season. These affordable systems range from a counter top 3.5 square foot system which costs $85 for materials to one with 48 square feet in grow bed area that costs $460 for materials. Most materials are available locally; some items may need to come from suppliers whose contact information is given in the materials lists. In addition to the four standard sizes of systems in the manual we show you how to build small custom-designed aquaponics systems out of Igloo coolers, discarded refrigerators and freezers, plastic garbage cans and barrels, concrete mixing tubs, and other easily-procured items. Most importantly, we show you in complete detail how to OPERATE them successfully! This complete plans package is only $49.95! Their website here.

Better than a mower: Friesian sheep cutting grass Here’s the thing about buying a farm property with 20 acres of pasture: the grass grows whether you want it to or not. As spring arrived, we were in a race against mother nature. What to do about all that grass? I knew we didn’t want to purchase a mower. What’s the point of building a “sustainable” grass livestock operation if you’re running over the fields with a gas hog spewing CO2? But it would be months, if not years, before we had all our animals in place to graze those pastures. First, we needed a perimeter fence to keep our livestock in and predators out. Then we needed to start buying animals. While still living in D.C., I called the extension service for Washington County and talked about installing some sheep on the property. The agent in charge of livestock first wanted to take soil samples. So I met him on the property. The test results came back positive: the pH level was close enough to neutral (around 6.2) that we didn’t need to lime the fields. The soil is a bit low in phosphorous. But I told the agent we weren’t interested in amending the pastures, we wanted the livestock to build the soil and bring it more into balance naturally. The agent put a request for ewes on a listserv that goes out to sheep and goat farmers around the region. Sheep are docile and fairly undemanding. I figured a dozen ewes or so would be a good start. We’d already ordered five Dorper lambs–that’s a breed of hair sheep, meaning they shed rather than make wool–to be picked up in spring 2014. While our request was broadcast over the internet, I continued to make inquiries locally and came across a sheep farming couple who’s well known for their flock of Friesian sheep and the cheese they produce. Friesians are especially prized for their milk production. A German breed, they are wool sheep, meaning they will have to be shorn some months down the road. I was hoping to avoid all that with hair sheep. But now I was beginning to think it might not be such a bad thing to have two different kinds of sheep. Who knows? We might like making sheep’s cheese. The wife was incredibly helpful when I visited their farm: she asked to see an aerial view of our property, and proceeded to draw a plan for paddocks and fencing. Then she showed me six yearling ewes that, for one reason or another, had run afoul of the lambing and milking schedule. Either their lambs had been stillborn, or the lambs had died, or they weren’t producing enough milk. All six were destined for the slaughterhouse. The price I’d pay was “meat value.” In addition, there were two old ewes on the property–one 11, the other 14–that the owner offered to throw into the bargain as a moderating influence on the younger sheep. We sealed the deal right there. By now, my grass was starting to get tall. I needed a mowing team fast. Our fence contractor, who was busy installing posts for the electric perimeter fence, quickly shifted gears and built a permanent paddock with woven wire fencing somewhat more than 10,000 square feet in size. That will be the area where we can house the sheep in winter if we need to, deal with lambing or veterinary issues, or gather sheep for transport. Expert landscapers, no fossil fuels required Yesterday, our new landscaping crew arrived in a trailer. The truck backed up to the gate, we opened the door, and the sheep trotted out into their new quarters and immediately set to work. Chomp, chomp, chomp. These guys eat grass practically all day long, rain or shine. As soon as they’ve trimmed one area, we’ll use portable electric fencing to move them to another. Their poop and pee enriches the soil, encouraging all kinds of microbes and tiny critters that nourish the grass and discourage weeds. It’s exactly the kind of virtuous cycle we want to establish on our farm, so that diversity

Eat The Yard co-founder James Jeffers (left) and a group of volunteers recently planted a rooftop garden on at Mecca Design. Watermelon seedlings, spinach and cucumbers were planted in repurposed buckets. Photo by Mona Reeder. The work ethic instilled by the military makes vets a good fit for farming, advocates say. By Marc Ramirez Dallas News May 19, 2013 An assemblage of soil-filled plastic buckets stood at the ready, and Operation Rooftop was officially underway. For former soldiers Steve Smith and James Jeffers, it was just another mission in their quest to change Dallas’ eating habits through an urban farming enterprise they call Eat The Yard. With the aid of a winch, a scissor lift and a half-dozen volunteers, they hoisted buckets of soil 30 feet up through an opening in the ceiling of a West Dallas design studio. There, on the roof, the buckets would be dotted with the starts of watermelons, lemon cucumbers and Malabar climbing spinach. “Part of why I love this after being in the military is there’s a lot of problem-solving,” said Jeffers, who deals with the lingering effects of traumatic brain injury suffered after a car bomb blast in Baghdad. “It’s given me meaning and drive.” Eat The Yard is among a growing number of farming programs started by or for veterans around the country. Besides offering ample job opportunity and the benefits of working outdoors, advocates say the work can be therapeutic. “You’d be surprised at the things you get off your chest,” said Smith, who, like Jeffers, did two tours of duty in the Middle East. “You may not want to talk to a psychiatrist, but out here you’re weeding and pulling strawberries and the next thing you know, you’ve just gotten a bunch of stuff off your chest. We’re doing group therapy in the dirt.” Buried issues According to a 2008 Rand Corp. study, nearly 20 percent of military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression. “I don’t think anybody who goes over there doesn’t come back a little stressed out,” Smith said. “You come back different, that’s for sure.” Traumatic experiences buried deep are hard to unearth in a counselor’s office. Farming and gardening can offer comfort unavailable elsewhere, even for those who insist they don’t need help. “You get a bunch of vets together, and it’s a way to sneak in a little therapy without hurting any egos,” Smith said. “All they really need to do is talk about it. Like our grandfathers did.” Smith and Jeffers met in the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division but lost touch when Jeffers was deployed for his first tour in Iraq. They randomly reconnected in Kuwait several years later. Both served two tours in the Middle East, but it was Jeffers who suffered the most damage: He’s got memory issues, the result of his brain injury and concussions suffered in a series of other close calls. He had come back to Dallas, not doing much of anything and frustrated to be on disability. Smith had already been growing vegetables in his yard and talking with others about the idea of for-profit urban farming but couldn’t find anyone willing to do it. “James was just sitting around collecting disability checks,” Smith said. “He said, ‘I need to do something.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it, then.’ I wanted to help him out, and I wanted a buddy I could trust. It just worked out.” With help from the Farmer Veteran Coalition, a Davis, Calif.-based group offering resources and education to veterans pursuing farming careers, they bought a tractor, then found grocers like Oak Cliff’s Urban Acres willing to buy their goods. Next they found local property owners willing to offer land in exchange for produce, and since then, Eat The Yard has blossomed from a two-lawn operation to half a dozen Oak Cliff yards covering about an acre in all. A Preston Hollow resident has offered land for an orchard, and several other businesses are considering rooftop gardens too. Smith and Jeffers strive to be green,

Donovan Eason, 11, of Brightmoor asks if his plant is root bound while planting tomatoes at the Brightmoor Youth garden in Detroit. The garden is a part of the Brightmoor Farmway, a neighborhood development project that encourages neighbors to turn vacant land into food-bearing gardens. The youth garden has a stand at the Northwest Detroit Farmer’s Market. Photo by Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press. “A sense of accomplishment in a community that has seen so much divestment.” By Megha Detroit Free Press May 20, 2013 Excerpt: n front yards, backyards and on vacant land where nothing but weeds and debris used to be, an urban farm belt is forming, bringing neighbors back to the earth where just a few years ago, no one would come outside. “In 2006, there was nobody on these streets. Some people had lived here for 30 years and were utterly discouraged,” said Riet Schumack, the woman at the center of the farmway taking over the area near Fenkell and Eliza Howell Park. In seven years, that section of Brightmoor has transformed and been organized under the moniker Neighbors Building Brightmoor. Students tend two youth gardens and sell the food at local farmers markets. Adults grow everything from food to flowers in gardens called Ladybug Lane and Rabbit Run. Houses begging to be torn down are painted brightly, with inspiring prose. And young adults from elsewhere have moved in to start small commercial farms, gardens and parks on two-and three-lot stretches where the houses are long gone and the land was left barren. It is Brightmoor’s farmway effort, said Detroit City Councilman James Tate, that helped push the city’s urban farming ordinance through. It was evidence, he said, that urban farming could work as a community builder in Detroit long before urban farming became a social justice buzzword. Read the complete article here.

Farm Succession Planning: Recent Article in USA Today Christopher Doering, writing for USA Today, reported on the challenges of farm succession planning in this article published on May 19. The article includes the stories of several farm families and the way in which they’re planning (or not planning) to pass on their farm. The average [...]

Needed: a vehicle to negotiate our hillside pastures Many readers responded to our hand-wringing over a tractor purchase and the vote was unanimous: Buy the tractor! My sister Diane, who owned a small farm in northern Illinois with her husband years ago, was emphatic: “We used our tractor ALL the time, and we only had 5.5 acres.” Vermont farmer and author Ben Hewitt was equally blunt: “Buy the tractor, Ed,” Ben wrote after I left a comment on his blog. “Get a horse, too, but definitely buy the tractor.” Fellow sustainable food blogger Rob Frost, addressing our concerns about polluting with a diesel tractor, allayed our fears with his usual command of agricultural factoids. “Even if you stick to dino diesel, don’t fret the carbon guilt. -Every pound of beef (conventional) is good for ~40# of CO2– your pastured raised beef will offset a bunch of diesel, and don’t forget the sequestering of the soil building aspects of your pasture raised beefies,” Rob wrote. He made a brilliant suggesting for fueling the tractor environmentally. We could, Rob suggested, “grow your own Sunflower oil (75 gallons/acre) and form a co-op to buy the press.” “If you want to be purer run sunflowers in alley crops between rows of hybrid poplar / willow grown for fuel/hugelkultur; 1-2 acres would net you 3-6 tons of carbon/year. Have a game plan for when the SHTF, but in the mean time ‘put the mask on your own face first.’ ” For a moment, we had toyed with the idea of purchasing draft horses instead of a tractor. Wouldn’t it be romantic to farm by hand, without fuel-guzzling machine? We could become paragons of sustainability, we thought wistfully. Our friend and realtor Gini, who’s been farming a small homestead here for years and owned draft horses with her partner at one time, quickly quashed that idea. “Don’t go there,” Gini wrote. “Even with a background in horses it is back-breaking and you have to be committed (in more ways than one) to living with and taking care of them.” We had calculated that buying horses would be much cheaper than getting a tractor. Agricultural equipment can be very expensive. But Gini noted that she and her partner were laying out $300 a month to feed their horses. Plus, she warned, draft horses are really big and can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. “They would never intentionally hurt anyone, but if they step on you or squeeze you against a wall, you can get hurt.” Gini said her partner had been dragged by their horses “on more than one occasion.” Echoing that sentiment, a recent New York Times article linked by one of our readers described how a farmer’s wife had both her legs broken when their team of draft horses got spooked, broke into a run and slammed her into a fence. At our age, we probably don’t have time to train ourselves on draft horses, nor can we afford a serious injury. So thanks, readers, for setting us straight. It looks like there’s a tractor in our future. And guess what? We already have one in mind.

Pete sings “Turn, Turn, Turn” Video shot by John Rokosny and Andriette Redmon. Produced by WingFlix.Com Published on May 2, 2013 Happy 94th Birthday to Pete Seeger at the New York City Community Garden Coalition’s “Stand for the Land” Forum, April 27, 2013 at the Great Hall at Cooper Union. Pete is presented the Hammer of Justice by Haja Worley. Pete sings “Turn, Turn, Turn”, “Quite Early Morning” and “If I had a Hammer” with Morley, Stephan Said, and Pierce Turner with Sylvain Leroux on flute and the whole crowd. Then Pete teaches a little history lesson, past and future. See New York City Community Garden Coalition here.