Urban Farming

Agricultural Design Studio Working To Build A Food-Sovereign Detroit

November 14, 2024 Samya Overall, Next City. Create! Agriculture, Detroit, Food Security, Food Sovereignty, Urban Farming

Driving down Monterey Street on Detroit’s westside, there are more abandoned and vacant houses than occupied ones. Sidewalks are overgrown with grass, and stretches of land as long as football fields separate the homes that remain. About midway down the block, between Wildemere and Lawton streets, is Fennigan’s Farms. You can’t miss it from the tall towers of bright yellow sunflowers waving in the wind. As you walk up, there’s a table with tomatoes and a sign that reads “Free Produce.” Amanda Brezzell is the co-founder and creative director at Fennigan’s Farms. Brezzell says the farm and design firm’s mission is to be a resource to the community, helping Detroiters achieve food sovereignty by providing fresh, accessible food, some at no cost.

Raising Chickens, Ducks, And Bees Allowed In Detroit

November 13, 2024 Steve Neavling, Detroit Metro Times. Create! Detroit, Food and Agriculture, Livestock, Michigan, Urban Farming

Detroiters will soon be able to keep chickens, ducks, and honeybees in their backyards under a new ordinance passed by the Detroit City Council on Tuesday. The council voted 5-3 in favor of the measure, which goes into effect in January 2025, marking a shift in urban agriculture regulations and allowing residents to raise certain animals for fresh food production, including eggs and honey, within city limits. Advocates see the new ordinance as a way to combat food insecurity and improve access to healthy, local food. Urban agriculture can also raise property values and encourage homeownership in surrounding areas, they say.

These Urban Food Forests Do Double Duty

February 9, 2024 Max Graham, Next City. Create! Environment, Food and Agriculture, food forests, heat islands, Trees, Urban Farming

Below the red-tile roofs of the Catalina Foothills, an affluent area on the north end of Tucson, Arizona, lies a blanket of desert green: spiky cacti, sword-shaped yucca leaves, and the spindly limbs of palo verde and mesquite trees. Head south into the city, and the vegetation thins. Trees are especially scarce on the south side of town, where shops and schools and housing complexes sprawl across a land encrusted in concrete. On hot summer days, you don’t just see but feel the difference. Tucson’s shadeless neighborhoods, which are predominantly low-income and Latino, soak up the heat.

Fighting Food Insecurity Through Urban Farming

September 18, 2022 Richard Bednarski, The New Lede. Create! Food and Agriculture, Food Insecurity, Nevada, Urban Farming

Reno, Nevada - On a recent sunny morning in Reno, Nevada, volunteers worked diligently to harvest fresh vegetables from plots of rich soil, collecting tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers while a few farm goats bleated behind them. The freshly harvested produce would be washed, sorted, and stored in a solar-powered refrigerator until ending up on the dinner plates of local families. But this is no typical farm. The five-acre plot of land is situated in the middle of a busy suburban neighborhood, juxtaposed near a Reno intersection where cars almost constantly whiz by. Dubbed the “Park Farm,” the operation is run by the non-profit Reno Food Systems (RFS) as a demonstration farm to train others in organic farming practices and as a means to provide local restaurants and community groups with fresh organic produce.

The Food Shortage Solution In Your Own Backyard

June 9, 2022 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. Create! Food and Agriculture, Organic Farming, Urban Farming

A confluence of crises—lockdowns and business closures, mandates and worker shortages, supply chain disruptions and inflation, sanctions and war—have compounded to trigger food shortages; and we have been warned that they may last longer than the food stored in our pantries. What to do? Jim Gale, founder of Food Forest Abundance, pointed out in a recent interview with Del Bigtree that in the United States there are 40 million acres of lawn. Lawns are the most destructive monoculture on the planet, absorbing more resources and pesticides than any other crop, without providing any yield. If we were to turn 30% of that lawn into permaculture-based food gardens, says Gale, we could be food self-sufficient without relying on imports or chemicals.

Reclaiming A Neighborhood In West Baltimore

February 19, 2020 Staff, Afsc.org Create! Baltimore, Urban Farming

Community farms and gardens play a vital role in building more just economies, improving community well-being, and addressing climate change. AFSC has a long history of supporting communities impacted by oppression gain more control over their own food system. That includes working with community members in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore...

Cuba’s Urban Farming Shows Way To Avoid Hunger

November 14, 2019 Paul Brown, Climatenewsnetwork.net Create! Climate Change, Cuba, Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming

LONDON, 11 November, 2019 − When countries run short of food, they need to find solutions fast, and one answer can be urban farming. That was the remedy Cuba seized with both hands 30 years ago when it was confronted with the dilemma of an end to its vital food imports. And what worked then for Cuba could have lessons today for the wider world, as it faces growing hunger in the face of the climate crisis. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, most of Cuba’s food supplies went with it.

A New Generation Of Small Farmers Is Emerging In Atlanta

September 25, 2017 K. Rashid Nuri, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Atlanta, Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming

By K. Rashid Nuri for The Huffington Post - A political democracy is worthless without an economic democracy. What we have in America, with its 1-10 percent minority in control of 95 percent of the wealth, is closer to an economic monarchy. The fundamental necessities of food, clothing and shelter are largely controlled by business and government interests that are far removed from the people who depend upon them. A community that can’t feed itself is vulnerable to the whims of others. America’s large consumer economy was built at the expense of personal and community autonomy. Few of us can truly decide what we want for dinner, based on what nature offers and the work that we are willing to do to get it. Millions of Americans are learning that the convenience of letting someone else feed us has resulted in widespread side effects: dangerous chemicals in our food, poor nutrition, chronic diseases and damage to the environment. Urban agriculture can change the food landscape and put the power to choose back in the hands of the people. The solution is in the soil close to where people live. For most of human history, food was produced within walking distance of where it was consumed, allowing people to maintain a direct connection with the land and their food. America was 95 percent rural in 1900. Today, 81 percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas.

New York Could Launch An Urban Agriculture Plan, Zoning Overhaul

August 1, 2017 James Brasuell, www.planetizen.com Create! New Economy, New York (NY), Urban Farming

By James Brasuell for Planetizen - New York's ability to feed itself with locally grown urban agriculture is only being partially realized. Better planning, specific to urban agriculture, would help. "New York City has the largest urban agriculture system in the country, including community and rooftop gardens and greenhouses, as well as 'vertical farms,'" according to an article by Thomas MacMillan. "But a recent report by the Brooklyn Law School finds new growers are sometimes stymied by confusion over where they fit into city regulations." An ordinance under consideration by the New York City Council would address that confusion, however, with solid planning: "The measure, introduced Thursday by Councilman Rafael Espinal and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and assigned to the Land Use Committee, calls for a comprehensive urban agriculture plan with updated zoning and building codes and possibly an office of urban agriculture."

Urban Farming Is Revolutionizing Our Cities

August 29, 2016 David Suzuki, www.ecowatch.com Create! Urban Farming, Urban Farms

By David Suzuki for Eco Watch - Humans are fast becoming city dwellers. According to the United Nations, "The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014." Sixty-six percent of us will likely live in urban environments by 2050. The number of mega-cities (more than 10 million inhabitants) is also skyrocketing, from 10 in 1990 to 28 in 2014—home to more than 453 million people—and is expected to grow to 41 by 2030.

Vacants To Vegetables: Community Farms Spring Up In Baltimore

March 5, 2016 Rebekah Kirkman, www.citypaper.com Create! Baltimore, Urban Farming

By Rebekah Kirkman for City Paper - Leaning against his rusty red pickup truck, and clad head-to-toe in Real Tree and camouflage, Eric Kelly of Charm City Farms gets philosophical about the connection between humans and nature. "When we're on our deathbed, we're not gonna remember American Idol TV shows, our best video game score. But we'll remember things like fishing with our grandpa or helping a community member move out into a retirement home. . . We'll remember the disgusting thing we found buried in that field," he says, gesturing toward a currently empty lot in Johnston Square on the south side of Green Mount Cemetery.

Urban Farming Of Acta Non Verba Invests in the Future

October 27, 2015 Sarah Small, www.foodtank.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Oakland, Urban Farming

By Sarah Small for Food Tank - The Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project is investing in the health and future of their community. Educators use the farm as their classroom to engage the underserved parts of the Oakland, California, community with fresh produce and to provide low-income residents with the knowledge and skills to grow and sell their own organic food. Their programs provide the seeds to build healthy habits and sustainable lives starting at an early age. Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Amani Ali, Office Manager at Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project.

Occupy The Farm: Documentary Explores Activism In Urban Farming

August 6, 2015 Emily Nink, www.csmonitor.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming

By Emily Nink in CS Monitor - Approximately 15 percent of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Urban farmers are uniquely situated to deliver healthy food to residents of cities and reach low-income urban populations. But these farmers face unique challenges, including lack of access to water, contaminated soil, and competing uses for land. Occupy the Farm, a documentary film released in fall of 2014, focuses on the story of 200 urban farmers in California who took action to save a publicly-owned research farm from becoming developed for real estate. On April 22, 2012, hundreds of community members broke a lock on a fence to enter the Gill Tract and plant vegetable seedlings on 14 acres of land owned by the University of California, Berkeley.

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