Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sunday Gardening News! Oct. 9, 2011 Urban Farming

Sorry I missed posting last Sunday, the day kind of got away from me before I realized it.

Today, it might be nice to check out the Urban Farming movement that seems to have taken root around the country, and see how it's going. Doing a Google search for Urban Farming, this came up.
Urban Farming.
It looks like this quiet movement is really taking off doesn't it?
Here are a few selected links.
HuffingtonPost: Hipsters Didn't Invent Urban Farming in Detroit 
I especially like the one above. In the video, the young woman says that hipsters invented urban farming, or something to that effect, and you can hear the dislike in her voice. But the truth is, there had always been urban farming in towns and cities until recently. My grandmother raises chickens and had a kitchen garden at her home. She and grandpa lived in a city. With many people moving to the city for work during the depression, it is not surprising that these people from the farms, brought the farms with them. It was just the way things were done. It's where food came from. Most people back then provided a good portion of their own food. It wasn't until after the war that people began to move away from providing for themselves as much and began to depend on big Ag and the grocery stores for their food supply.
I think we are seeing a movement back to a better system.
Look how many towns and cities now are having to change laws to allow people to provide for themselves and their families and neighbors. In a way, if you lived in certain areas, it was illegal to do a simple thing like grow a bit of food. People began to view gardens and a chicken coop or rabbit hutch as something ugly and nasty and a sign of poverty. Funny isn't it?
This movement is one of the most positive things going on in this country today. Not only does it provide food for people but I think that the most important thing it does is expose children to the idea that food, is something living, and beautiful, and something that they can do for themselves.
Check out this especially exciting video from Detroit! It has 25,000 acres of vacant land in the city of Detroit, it now has over 800 urban gardens. Over 800! That's amazing!

Here are some more links showing, I hope, how this movement is moving!
SFGate: Oakland allows urban farmers to sell produce
Oakland -- You can now legally sell peas grown from your backyard in Oakland.
Springfield: Urban Farmers Want Changes to Jacksonville City Code
The animals also provide food for the couple.   The chickens lay about eight eggs each day.  The goats produce milk, which Amanda Searle also uses to make cheese.
The Searles are one of a number of families in the Springfield area of Jacksonville that have created their own urban oasis by running a small farm literally in their own backyard.
EastBayExpress: Urban Farming Is no Longer a Crime
Score one for backyard gardeners, urban homesteaders, and fans of super-local produce: On Tuesday, Oakland's City Council (finally) moved to update a long-standing city code that prohibited the sale of homegrown fruits and vegetables — a ban which, according to Matthai Kuruvila at the Chron, is a "relic of an era when cities wanted to distinguish themselves from rural areas."
CSMonitor: The rise of urban farming
Urban farming's trendy frugality is drawing converts in an age of economic uncertainty.
ToledoBlade: Urban farming no urban myth
Sometimes, when I want to shock friends from other places, I tell them this: The city of Toledo has cornfields in it.
I love that. I can’t quite get over it, but I love it.
By way of a simple comparison, most other major industrialized cities in this country do not have cornfields in them. It’s weird, I know, but true.
Even so, this trend of cornfield-free cities might eventually change. A scientist at Ohio State University suggests that cities would benefit greatly from growing much of their own food within the city limits.


Here are a couple links on container gardening to go along with your plans for your urban farm!
ContainerGardening: No yard, no soil = container gardening (Google / Your Houston News)
BigPictureAgriculture: Bucket Irrigation: The Easiest Way to Water Newly Planted Small Trees

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. For people living in urban areas, maybe this winter would be a good time to start planning your own urban farm! Talk with your neighbors and maybe work together on a garden come spring.
Have a great day everyone!

your friend,
pam

1 comment:

  1. Urban agriculture has given to charity, Atlantic Records, which will end world hunger by planting food in food deserts.

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