Can Urban Agriculture Feed a Hungry World?

[Wombaticus Rex]

Got this from a non-RI but RI-reading pal just now and wanted to share:

"Re:yuppie crusades i disagree - encourage that kind of demographic, it is easy and profitable but valuable because they raise the loudest stink vote democrat and actually donate too. as these new systems like CSAs and farmers markets become widespread they're more subversive than they look. you want yuppie crusaders in your tent."

I stand corrected.

[Perelandra]

Got this from a non-RI but RI-reading pal just now and wanted to share:

"Re:yuppie crusades i disagree - encourage that kind of demographic, it is easy and profitable but valuable because they raise the loudest stink vote democrat and actually donate too. as these new systems like CSAs and farmers markets become widespread they're more subversive than they look. you want yuppie crusaders in your tent."

I stand corrected.

The yuppies' value to the local/organic movement is solely in their disposable income, as I see it. Voting for democrats brought us Vilsack and his cronies.

CSAs and markets are not new systems, they're just more noticeable now. They can be subversive and sources of education, though I'm also interested in more radical ideas. There's still a lot of work to do.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for reaching a point where $30 billion of the U.S.'s $750 billion in yearly grocery store sales are certified organic (consumers are also buying another $51 billion worth of so-called "natural" foods and products); before we congratulate ourselves on the fact that there are thousands of well-stocked health food stores and co-ops across the country, as well as 6,132 farmers markets (up 350% since 1994), and 13,000 local CSA (community supported agriculture) buying clubs with a total of 400,000 members, let's put our organic movement's accomplishments in perspective. The overwhelming majority of Americans are still eating non-organic, pesticide-laden, genetically engineered, overly processed, junk foods on a regular basis, spending half of their food dollars on super-sized industrial chow in restaurants, cafeterias, and fast-food outlets. Skyrocketing rates of obesity, cancer, heart disease, and other diet-related diseases, and a devastated rural landscape of factory farms, monoculture crops, lifeless soil, polluted waterways, and depleted aquifers are a testimony to the monumental challenge that still lies ahead.
- Ronnie Cummins, OCA

[Wombaticus Rex]

Voting for democrats brought us Vilsack and his cronies.

Zing! Touche.

PROCURING AND SECURING SEEDS

First of all, Jere Gettle is doing a remarkable job of cornering the market here in the USA. He's built a whole (slightly weird, for sure) community around throwback living and heirloom gardening, called Bakersville, and the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog is a lush and educational full-color production. They do great on customer service, too -- check them out:

http://www.rareseeds.com

Another fixture is the Seed Savers Exchange, who have been doing important work for decades now.
http://www.seedsavers.org/

They also run a Seed Savers forum:
http://forums.seedsavers.org/

From Modern Homestead, here's their recommended list of seed vendors (based on intensive and long experience):
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/articl ... lants.html

Other heirloom-heavy retail sources:
http://www.synergyseeds.com/
http://www.seedsofchange.com/

Another reliable source for seeds is Freedom seeds from the Dervaes family .
http://www.freedomseeds.org/

[wallflower]

Wombaticus Rex:

Got this from a non-RI but RI-reading pal just now and wanted to share:

"Re:yuppie crusades i disagree - encourage that kind of demographic, it is easy and profitable but valuable because they raise the loudest stink vote democrat and actually donate too. as these new systems like CSAs and farmers markets become widespread they're more subversive than they look. you want yuppie crusaders in your tent."

I stand corrected.

I love the part "they're more subversive than they look."

I'm an incompetent gardener and not the least of the reasons for my incompetence is I'm awfully lazy. But I keep at it for lots of reasons, the main one being that it's fun. Reading Stan Cox's contrarian view was actually somewhat gratifying in favor of a perspective that gardening is worthwhile and fun.

John Micheal Greer a couple of his weekly essay's ago wrote about resilience:

The problem with “resilience,” though, is that it also has a perfectly clear meaning. Once people figure out what that is, it’s a safe bet that they’ll be hunting for another buzzword in short order, because resilience can be defined very precisely: it’s the opposite of efficiency.

Greer obviously thinks efficiency is a good thing and it is, but he makes a good case that resilience can go a long way to helping us get by in the difficult times gathering around us.

Even though I am incompetent at gardening, over time I have accumulated plants in my garden which survive my neglect, some of them useful plants. It's useful to have the plant stock and useful to have that somewhat localized knowledge. More people gardening increases availability of plant stock and knowledge.

Stan Cox makes a great point:

Industrial or commercial output can be increased by building more capacity, stepping up the consumption of inputs, taking on more workers, and pushing workers harder and for longer hours. Farming, by contrast, is inevitably bound by the calendar -- by month-to-month variation in the capacity of soil and sunlight to support the growth of plants. It depends fundamentally on the productivity and the habits of non-human biological organisms over which humans can exert control only up to a point.

Partly I'm not a good gardener because I'm not very good at thinking about and accounting for the capacity of soil and sunlight to support growth. But in this my garden failures aren't abject failures because at least the failures give me a clue to what I'm not paying attention to and ought to be. Gardeners no matter how incompetent do learn to think about the our relationships to sunlight energy, water and soil. And such knowledge seems advantageous if widely shared.

I would add J.L. Hudson Seedsman to your seed list http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/

Even if you don't plan a garden it's worth the buck to get a copy of the printed catalog for occasional reading.

Years ago I got some Austrian pumpkin seed from Hudson. I've grown it out for seeds for many years. Unfortunately this year I don't have a single plant. I'm hoping I still have some seeds saved somewhere, because I haven't seen it offered in catalogs since. The seeds of the pumpkin don't have a hull. One of the hardest parts of a vegetarian diet is getting enough fat for nutrition. And these pumpkins are a good source of vegetable oil, not necessarily as a source to express oil, but rather just as a source of fat without processing.

I'm not at all systematic about it, but I do collect seeds from the garden. I don't think I'm unusual here, gardening seems to lead to a low-grade kleptomania. When gardeners visit each others gardens I notice they go to the fruit, they're curious what the seed looks like. And if the seed is ripe gardeners often pocket it. So acorns, buckeyes, milkweed pods and the like tend to be found in the homes of gardeners without any willful intention. Likewise gardeners almost always have a few packets of seeds they didn't get around to planting. The value of this is akin to the coins that might be found under the sofa cushion: not very much but not nothing either.

It isn't so much that urban agriculture can feed a hungry world as it is that in order for the world to be fed more people must have more knowledge about what's involved. Even habits of thought that accommodate the variables of the amount of sunlight and condition of the soil are important because they relate to an understanding of how life is actually lived. Gardening is the most direct way to gain this sort of knowledge, important because these conditions are quite local.

The older I get the wiser "Think globally, act locally" seems. Cox is quite right that we can't understand what it means to feed a hungry world without a global view. Likewise he's right to promote gardening. Efficiency and resilience may be opposites, but not necessarily antagonistic trends. Producing food for food sake is good and helpful around the edges. And like Wombaticus Rex's friend observes: more subversive than it seems.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Got this from a non-RI but RI-reading pal just now and wanted to share:

"Re:yuppie crusades i disagree - encourage that kind of demographic, it is easy and profitable but valuable because they raise the loudest stink vote democrat and actually donate too. as these new systems like CSAs and farmers markets become widespread they're more subversive than they look. you want yuppie crusaders in your tent."

I stand corrected.

That a very good point. Plus yuppie crusaders .. its not just easy and profitable. You can them to be "ethical consumers" which sounds stupid on the face of it but is actually a potential doorway for getting them to actually question their own consumption or at least limit it a little, and you can even talk them round to spending more money on local and fair trade(ish) stuff.

If you do this right you can actually use it as a form of market (literal "market" - as in a local market - based, if it happens right, way to redistribute wealth. Local produce markets (food, art and craft) can save communities (and make good money laundries).

One of the best examples of this sort of thing is the Channon Market in this part of the world. These days round here there are Saturday farmers markets all over the joint, and at least often 2 craft markets every weekend round here. There are 4 major Sunday craft markets each one going once a month the four starters, inspired by the Channon one, plus other markets that are now competing, at least 3 farmers markets on a Saturday.

[Elvis]

More "suburban" than urban, perhaps, this greenhouse I helped my girlfriend build has been producing food, while she learns which plants grows well in it and so on. She's very conscious and careful about what she eats (much more than I am), and she really wants to be independent of the corporate food stranglehold.

Total cost was about $2K. One could do it for less, but she rightly insisted on using proper materials such as treated lumber and hardware etc. The specially-designed covering material came mail-order from a company in Oregon. The "temporary" structure requires no building permit, since its foundation is three heavy railroad ties basically just resting on the ground.

Its situation makes it like an additional room of the house, a pleasant one at that. Anyway, I want to share these pics, they might elicit ideas for others considering a greenhouse.

---

Two amateur carpenters construct a greenhouse abutting a patio door.

The plan:



Prepared bed of sand topped with pea gravel, and three cleaned-up and shellacked railroad ties for the foundation:




All stainless steel hardware; the creosote in the railroad ties would eventually corrode anything else:








Piece of treated 2x10 forms a door sill and ties the foundation together:






2x4s are fastened to the house for attaching the structure. Front stud wall ready to raise into position. All fastened with exterior screws---no nails:








Roof beams: saber saw shapes the rounded ends, over which the plastic covering will fit smoothly:






Connected to the house & back wall, with various roof bracketry obtained at Home Depot (I think we spent more time at Lowe's and Home Depot than at the building site):






Side wall studs are measured and fastened into place:



Amazingly, everything is remarkably level and square for our level of carpentry skills!


Horizontal cross beams are 2x2s, to minimize light blockage, except for the 2x4s supporting the side windows:




We'll figure out the door later...




The back wall of the house leans in a bit, so this angle adjustment was made at the first side wall studs:






It might look like we did this in a day -- but it took weeks, working on it when we had time.


The translucent covering material (has better light distribution than clear) comes on a large roll and is secured with cap screws:










Making the doors & windows was a small project in itself. These photos were taken months later, after it'd become a functional greenhouse:










A view from inside the house:


(The piece of machinery at left is a 100-year-old working platen press, on which she still does 'boutique' printing jobs.)




You like eggplant?






The gravel allows good drainage...


View through a side window:


Something is causing yellow spotting on the leaves here -- can't figure out what/why, but otherwise the plant is fine:





Here are some pics of her other garden efforts:

Grapes!


Beans! Veggies!




Deer cross through her yard a lot, the fencing around the garden keeps them from snacking on it.
Dangling CD discs, flashing reflected daylight, supposedly discourage crows looking for snacks.







Blueberries!




An apple tree is nice to have as well:


I didn't get shots (limited by power cord) of more berry bushes, and the hazelnut and pear trees, all of which she planted.

For much of the year, she grows most all of the food she eats. Which is pretty awesome.


Myself, I live in an old (1895) apartment building with a flat roof, I want to make a vegetable garden up there. The landlord said 'okay' but I'd have to install a secure access stairway, etc., so it won't happen very soon. But it's definitely something I want to do.

[slimmouse]

Good on your buddy Elvis , . Meanwhile for us 'shoppers' out there, This sounds like a pretty cool concept....


Utopian 'Harvest Your Own' Groceries Coming Up

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Places like Wal-mart brag that they eliminate the middle man; but they haven't seen the likes of The Farmery.

What if your food was grown at your store - and it's not even picked yet until you come by to cut the plants. You're not a shopper, you're a harvester. Better yet, what if Farmeries come to urban neighborhoods - both high and low end?

Meet the Willy Wonka of agriculture...


Farmery Vimeo from Gary Breece on Vimeo.

Founder Ben Greene (for real?) wanted to "tighten the gap" more than any retailer and farmer with an all-in-one 'stop, shop and grow.' A greenhouse shop made from shipping containers where shoppers can talk to the people who grew and learn like they never have before. Be assured of the absolute highest quality and fresh factor available. The plants are grown with 50/50 aquaponics/hydroponics technology.

Ben has the needed life's experience, even with unsuccessful past farming, and the vision and innovation to manifest this plan - still in action already for 5 years. It just didn't make sense to he and his team to have all these different stops - farm, distribution, retailer.


Imagine the ambiance of greens, strawberries, dwarf chili peppers, and herbs, and mushrooms when you walk in. As well as fare from local growers. Ben said:

The wonderful thing about agriculture is you don’t have to try very hard to make function look pretty. I just concentrate on making the growing system as efficient as the space will allow.

Maybe you could check out one of the two in-progress farmeries in North Carolina. One is being built in downtown Dunham, next to the Burt's Bees headquarters.

Source:
http://modernfarmer.com/2013/07/the-sup ... n-produce/

Heather Callaghan is a natural health blogger and food freedom activist. You can see her work at NaturalBlaze.com and ActivistPost.com. Like at Facebook.

Link, which includes video ; http://www.activistpost.com/2013/08/uto ... eries.html

I love the proposal that this will also act as an instructional marketlplace, which if true, makes the concept much more than simply about profit.

[Elvis]

What if your food was grown at your store - and it's not even picked yet until you come by to cut the plants. You're not a shopper, you're a harvester. Better yet, what if Farmeries come to urban neighborhoods - both high and low end?

That IS brilliant! Also, as a commenter points out, there's no packaging (bring a bag).

We have a weekend farmer's market just a few blocks from me, not the same, but it's a social as well as shopping place, with musicians and other performers...puts a little life into grocery buying.