Urban Agriculture

A Farmer Speaks

The new wave of urban farming (and fresh food from small spaces!) 1
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago In Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, author R. J. Ruppenthal makes sense of this seemingly counter-intuitive idea -- that farming has to be done outside, with a red barn and rolling fields of wheat. Because, it doesn't! It is possible to grow your own food indoors, in cramped spaces, and without access to land.
Grow your farmer ...

USDA to unveil “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative 2
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
As I prepare for five days of announcements next week, when USDA plans to unveil its new "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative, the buzz across my desk is about the potential for urban agriculture.
Urban gardening as survival mechanism

Growing hope and fighting hunger on the Gaza Strip 2
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
This is the time of year when gardeners start to reap their rewards--fruits and vegetables that make for a healthy feast. But for the people of Gaza, gardens produce a serving of self-sufficiency, too.
Do you carrot all about local food?

Tell USDA to add urban farming to the Ag Census! Deadline is Friday. 5
Posted 3 months ago
If you care about eating healthy food, you are probably already hard at work to build a better food supply for yourself. You already know that raising food in our cities will be increasingly important. Yet getting political support for this requires making a convincing case, and this means having compelling numbers. How can you encourage the government to collect more data that will help the cause?
Don't mess with him

Badass mayor builds bridges between working class and enviros 3
Posted 3 months ago
John Fetterman might look like a steelworker, but he's actually the 40-year-old, Harvard-educated mayor of Braddock, Pa., trying to revitalize his town with green jobs and an urban farm.
Urban Ag Revolution

Will Allen talks about growing the ‘Good Food’ movement 3
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
This weekend I caught up with Will Allen who was keynoting the always excellent Northeast Organic Farming Association's Annual Conference in Amherst, MA. He's founder and CEO of Growing Power, and also a MacArthur Genius Award Winner and former pro-basketball player.
HAVEN'T GONE COUNTRY

Farm City author cuts the foodie-elite snobbery from urban farming 4
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Food writer and urban farmer Novella Carpenter is everything the elitist, foodie stereotype is not: she squat-farms near downtown Oakland, Cali., dumpster-dives to feed her rabbits, and offers to show anyone who still thinks otherwise exactly "what urban farming smells like." See what else she spilled during her visit to the Grist office.
Urban Gardens 0
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
Jolly green giant

Must-read: urban farmer Will Allen in the NYT Magazine 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Anyone who wants to understand the paradoxes and promise of urban agriculture must read the luminous profile of Growing Power's Will Allen by Elizabeth Royte, online now and forthcoming in Sunday's New York Times Magazine.