New Report on Promoting Urban Agriculture in Toronto
Here is a new report looking at ways of scaling up urban agriculture in Toronto. I wonder which ideas would work here in the Puget Sound region. Some of the recommendations include the following:
Short Term:
- rooftop food production
- development by the City of a strategy to specifically address increasing development of a hub for soil testing for urban agriculture
- construction of a City-staffed, multi-stakeholder steering body to govern foundations and the amount of money being invested in urban agriculture More…
Drafting Locally-Grown Food Laws
San Francisco Mayor Newsome is drafting local food laws, and other municipalities are sure to follow. Doing these correctly is important. The Public Health Law and Policy (PHLP) team, offers some advice on how to do this well.
Concerns about buying food from afar – whether it’s about the safety or quality of the food, environmental impact, or local economic loss – are prompting some states and cities to consider laws promoting the purchase of locally grown food. But because of constitutional restrictions on state and local laws that discriminate against products derived out-of-state, “locally grown food laws” should be drafted carefully. More…
Growings On at the Danny Woo Garden
Jonathan Chen
“We have a new flock of chickens and they are amazing at composting garden waste,” said gardener Jonathan Chen as he looked at the new coop at the Danny Woo community garden. ”The other day there was a grandmother here with her grandaughter. She picked some grass and showed the little one how to feed the birds. This garden is all about positive energy and elders teaching the next generation where food comes from and how to raise it.”
The Danny Woo International District Community Garden is the largest green space in the Chinatown/International District and is managed by InterIm CDA. The garden was named after a member of the Woo family that has leased the property to InterIm CDA since 1975. It is home to more than 100 community garden plots where elderly Asian gardeners tend to vegetables such as bok choy, bittermelon, daikon and watercress. Younger gardeners experiment with strawberries, squash and other fruits and veggies. More…
Cultivation, Cuisine and Climate Change: Tips on Reducing Food Waste
As mentioned in an earlier post, when food is wasted, so is energy. By making the best use of your foodstuffs, you could be reducing the more than 90 billion pounds of food tossed in the trash every year, which uses up to 4 percent of all U.S. oil and more than 25 percent of our fresh water to produce and transport to consumers.
Sometimes it’s hard to eat a fresh, “mostly plant“-based diet without wasting food along the way because, unlike burgers from fast food joints, real food spoils. So here are some tips to help you prevent perfectly good food from going bad:
- Draft a menu – Plan what your family will eat for the week. Focus first on ingredients you already have in the house that are getting close to their expiration dates, and buy the ingredients you need to turn it into dinner.
- Make a grocery list – Making a list while you’re at home will help ensure you don’t buy what you already have lurking in the back of the pantry. And sticking to a list ensures you won’t spend extra on impulse purchases that may not be on the menu that week. More…
Urban Foraging: A Look at the Deep Connections Between People and Ecosystems in Seattle
Do you fancy a little wild fennel? Pluck juicy berries from nearby shrubs? Gather fallen figs, apples, plums, walnuts and chestnuts? Harvest stinging nettles, dandelion, chickweed, watercress or other edible greens? Use Oregon grape or woodland fungi to dye textile fibers? If so, then you just might be an “urban forager.”
Foraging is a deeply interactive nature practice that links urban residents to the intricate web of urban ecology while improving overall health and well-being. Urban ecosystems yield a bounty of edible, medicinal and useful plants and organisms important to the diverse communities. Forested woodlands, parks, alleys, parking strips, vacant lots and other areas outside the garden provide habitat for well over 250 native and introduced species of plants and mushrooms in Seattle, some which are foraged year-round. Gathering vegetative material serves many purposes, including: providing food, medicine, and raw material, strengthening social ties, and maintaining cultural identity. More…
FoodCorps Program Goes Live
Last May we brought you information about planning for an exciting new program to place Americorps volunteers in schools to assist with improving the food system. Well, the planning is now done and they are ready to find host sites. Here’s information on how to get involved from Civil Eats.
FoodCorps is a national AmeriCorps program in development that focuses on improving school food systems in high obesity, limited access rural and urban communities around the country. Service members will build and tend school gardens, conduct nutrition education, and facilitate Farm to School programming that brings local food into schools. The program aims to at once serve vulnerable children, improving access to healthy, affordable school meals, while also serving its service members by training a cadre of leaders for careers in food and agriculture. The first troop of FoodCorps members are planned to hit the ground in fall 2011. More…
Making Chevre: From Goat to Plate
I always thought that making goat cheese was really difficult to do. It takes a bit of time but it’s actually awfully easy.
Urban Farm Hub’s First Sponsor: Kippen House Chicken Coops
Urban Farm Hub would like to announce and thank our very first sponsor: Kippen House! Kippen House chicken coops were designed with the urban farmer in mind. They are stylish, efficient and multi-functional.
Traci, founder and owner of Kippen House, started designing a chicken coop for her own family to use while she was living in Portland; but a few life events landed her in Seattle and building chicken coops for a living. Here’s the lowdown from Traci:
I was laid off from my architecture job in Portland. Shortly thereafter my husband’s job was relocated to Seattle. We packed up, shipped out, and I began my job search in one of the worst economic climates, particularly for architects. The unfulfilled desire to design and build was really starting to frustrate me. I desperately needed something to design or build to keep me feeling motivated as the rejection letters poured in. The chicken coop design we had started in Portland kept creeping into my thoughts. I received many compliments and suggestions from friends to build and sell them to the public. I decided to go for it! More…
Sustaining an Urban Fruit Gleaning Program
The question that gets raised over and over with programs aimed at getting food into people’s bellies is how to sustain these programs in an era when grants and charitable donations are vanishing. To keep these vital programs going, innovative strategies need to be developed, and our friends at City Fruit have come up with a good one.
One of the main reasons we started City Fruit was to develop ways to become more financially sustainable, rather than depend on an ever-shrinking pool of grant money for funding. More…
Improved Learning Results From Vegetable Consumption
Teachers in British Columbia have noticed a marked difference in their students’ behavior. No longer are children nodding off in the back row or picking fights with one another. Teachers report that children are more alert and have higher levels of concentration.
And the kids are showing up in droves to stand in line for… fresh vegetables! Teachers attribute the improved learning habits and better behavior to this strange new habit the children have developed. Ever since their school has started participating in the Farm to School program, children have been eating their veggies with gusto at lunch time, which is having a positive impact on their schoolwork. (Read more about Washington’s Farm to School program in this earlier UFH post.) More…
Current Sponsor:
Kippen House chicken coops are well-designed, modern chicken coops with a roof garden or vertical garden!
Categories
News Aggregator
- Criminal Division of FDA Joins Egg Recall Investigation September 2, 2010 noreply@blogger.com (Emily)
- Urban Farms Bring Green to the Rust Belt September 1, 2010 GOOD
- USDA/DOJ Livestock Hearings Were a Success. Now What? September 1, 2010 plovera
- Super Size is the New Normal August 31, 2010 Peter Smith
- McDonald's Hamburgers Don't Age August 27, 2010 Morgan Clendaniel
- Soda Conglomerates, Visualized August 27, 2010 Morgan Clendaniel
- Don't Put a Cafeteria in The Dorm August 27, 2010 Peter Smith
- Job: Nutrition Education Project Coordinator, Michigan August 27, 2010 Taylor
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