5 Ways Urban Farming Benefits Utah's Cities And Residents

5 Ways Urban Farming Benefits Utah's Cities And Residents

Utah League of Cities and Towns

Published: March 3, 2017 11:40 a.m.

This story is sponsored by Utah League of Cities and Towns. Click to learn more about Utah League of Cities and Towns.

Urban farming may sound like your hipster cousin's latest hobby, but, in fact, it is transforming the way Utahns grow and buy their food. Over the past several years, the benefit of locally grown food is becoming more apparent.

According to a study by Envision Utah, only 2 percent of fruits and 3 percent of vegetables in Utah are produced locally, and these percentages could decline significantly as Utah's population and land development increases. This has led to a huge demand for urban farming solutions that support both growers and consumers in the community.

Whether you're a long-time "locavore" or a newcomer to the world of urban farming, there are plenty of reasons to jump on this produce wagon and get involved in your local urban farming programs.

1. Support the local economy

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of buying and eating local is the economic value. Spending money at your farmer's market or through membership in a Community Supported Agriculture organization puts those funds back into your community. A study by the research firm Civic Economics found that 48 percent of money spent at a local independent business is directly or indirectly recirculated into that community — compared with less than 14 percent of purchases at chain stores.

By supporting your local producers, you help protect their livelihoods and improve the health of the local economy. Good for you, good for business, good for the community.

2. Access fresher, healthier food

But urban farming isn't just about business and economics. There are wonderful health and quality benefits for the consumer, too. For instance, food often travels hundreds or even thousands of miles from the source to your plate. In order to transport produce over such great distances, much of it is harvested before it is ripened and is highly processed with preservatives. This leads to less nutritious and less tasty food by the time it reaches your table.

In contrast, local produce is often picked that day and avoids some of the harsher processing and handling methods that detract from the taste and quality of the food. Plus, you have the added benefit of buying directly from the grower, so you can ask them questions about how they grew and handled the produce before it reached you.

Programs like the Salt Lake County Urban Farming program were created in part to facilitate these benefits and interactions. Program Manager Supreet Gill explains, "Increasing the local food supply is one of the biggest things that’s needed, so we connect farmers with available land," which in turn connects the local community with fresher, healthier food options while supporting local family farms.

3. Improve the environment

Locally sourced food also has environmental benefits. One of the most obvious and oft-acclaimed advantages is transportation. Because local food is produced right in the area, it doesn't have to travel as far to get to the consumer as traditional, mass-produced food. With fewer miles to travel, locally grown food tends to create a smaller carbon footprint.

But that's not the only environmental effect. Supporting the growth and development of local farms has numerous benefits to the local ecosystem. Urban farming and gardening adds much-needed support to local bird and insect populations, particularly bees, which have been declining in numbers over the past decade. As people cultivate rich and diverse gardens, bees will have greater sources for pollination, which benefits the bees and the growers. Not a bad deal for the Beehive state.

4. Bring communities together

One of the most rewarding benefits of urban farming is the community impact. Through programs like Salt Lake County's Parks to Produce and Commercial Farming initiatives, people living in cities and towns across the state have the opportunity to connect more closely with their food, their land and their neighbors. From participating in a CSA, cultivating a plot in a community garden, or buying food at the local farmer's market, urban farming provides multiple ways for people to interact with fresh local food and each other.

5. Empower individuals and families

When communities prioritize local food production, they empower individuals and families to increase self-reliance and sustainability. Gill explains that one of the main obstacles in her county is the lack of available, farmable land. The demand for local food is high, yet local farmers often don't have the land resources to produce enough food to meet that demand. Fortunately, a lack of available farmland is not the case in many Utah communities. And as the community works together to provide those land resources to farmers, and other public spaces for community gardens, people will have greater opportunities to provide for themselves and their families, and make food choices that will benefit their lives and the community.

Urban farming has grown in popularity over the years and with so many benefits, it's no wonder why. If you're interested in getting involved in urban farming but aren't sure where to start, Gill recommends purchasing a share in your local CSA, shopping at your farmer's market, or, if you live in the Salt Lake valley, participating in one of the four county community gardens.

Read more from the Utah League of Cities and Towns on DeseretNews.com or visit their website at ulct.org.

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Can Urban Farming Combat Food Waste? Chatting With The Founders of Alma Backyard Farms

Can Urban Farming Combat Food Waste? Chatting With The Founders of Alma Backyard Farms

Raised garden beds at Alma Backyard Farms. (Rebecca Yee)

By Noelle CarterContact Reporter

On Monday, volunteers and farm members will be collecting unharvested colorful leaves of Lacinato kale, Redbor kale, Bright Lights Swiss chard and purple cabbage at the Alma Backyard Farms at a local church and school location in Compton. The “gleaning party” is just part of the preparation for the first Los Angeles Feeding the 5000 event later in the week on May 4, culminating in a free feast made entirely from fresh produce and meant to highlight the global issue of food waste.

Alma Backyard Farms was started in 2013 by Richard D. Garcia and Erika L. Cuellar as a small, urban farm project. Inspired by the ideas and desires shared by juvenile offenders and prisoners, Garcia and Cuellar founded the farm as a means for these folks to transform their lives through farming. Through nature, members learn how to nurture, provide and give back to their communities — all while becoming self-sufficient. Recently I spoke with Cuellar and Garcia by phone as they tended their Compton garden location.

Where do you find the land to farm? Do you really farm in backyards?

Erika Cuellar: We started in backyards, but we’ve grown. We have a partnership with a transitional home in South L.A., and that particular home houses predominantly “lifers” — men who have served life sentences. We’ve basically transformed the outside of this home that houses 16 guys into an urban farm with a garden, chickens and about 20 fruit trees. It’s really about taking underutilized land and making it productive. We don’t farm acres of land; everything is urban, and they are small farms.

Our newest place, which is where we’re going to glean from for the Feeding the 5000 event, is in partnership with a school and church. They had a piece of land that was not utilized, and we transformed the space to grow food for people who are hungry.

What exactly is “gleaning”?

It’s harvesting. It’s collecting unharvested produce from the field.

Our focus is on reconnecting people through their food and to each other. Waste stems from a lack of connectedness.

— Richard D. Garcia, executive director and co-founder, Alma Backyard Farms

Can you talk a little about food waste from the farm standpoint? When it comes to waste, we’re not just talking about the food itself, but everything that went into it — the water, energy, effort and land.

Richard Garcia: My answer would have to be partly philosophical. The way we grow food is based on relationships. You understand the relationship between not just the plant and the soil — but the relationship between the plant and its caretaker. We approach farming by way of understanding interdependence, how we all have to contribute to one another’s well-being. From that perspective, wastefulness is a result of disconnect. It’s unfortunate — waste happens because we’ve somehow given ourselves permission to be disconnected from each other. We don’t have a relationship, or even knowledge, of the soil, or even the effort it takes for someone to pick the fruit you see at the grocery store. We’re more interested in the product itself than the whole of the experience.

What surprises your members most about the farming experience?

Garcia: I think because we work primarily with people who have been incarcerated, we’re hoping to restore a sense of agency. For someone who’s been locked up for a long time, there’s a sense of powerlessness because you hold no keys. From a lengthy experience like that to a setting such as an urban farm, suddenly you’re the caretaker. You have custody of plant life, and that’s a shifting of the paradigm. And, in a sense, nothing goes to waste. When folks are able to give back to the communities that they’ve taken from, they’re contributing.

I think when we instill a sense of resourcefulness, you don’t want to be wasteful, even with your time. The thing about food waste is it’s only symptomatic of how wasteful we can be in the larger context. We want to drive home to our members that they are of value and have purpose. I know that may not sound like it has to do with food, but it’s all related.

Your website mentions that you teach families and children how to grow and cook meals. How important is the relationship between growing and cooking?

Cuellar: It goes right to the issue of waste and wasting time. Knowing how to grow, where your food is grown and doing that together is so important. We see farming and growing food as a means to unify families. Being able to do that is key with the individuals we work with, and we encourage their parents and children, even grandparents when available, to join in.

With our own team and members, we break bread together every day we work together. Sharing a meal is one of the better things we do during the day. We emphasize meals that are healthier and introduce a more nutritional aspect.

You make sure none of the food goes to waste. What restaurants or organizations do you partner with?

Cuellar: With restaurants, we work primarily with chefs who are interested in carrying out seasonal menus. Restaurants are one facet, along with organizations such as L.A. Kitchen, that transform the food into hot meals for people who are hungry. At the transitional home, the food benefits the residents as well as the surrounding community. At our Compton site, it directly impacts the community here: the schoolchildren, parishioners and church community.

Garcia: We’re also developing more and more of our own compost, so nothing ever really goes to waste. As we grow, I’d love to see us take up more food waste from restaurants and convert it to compost.

You’re looking at the whole food chain, from planting the seeds to decomposition and turning that back into nutritional soil after it has lived its life.

From life to death and life again.

Chefs and scientists will discuss solutions for tackling the global problem of food waste at the Los Angeles Times Food Bowl, beginning May 1. For a full schedule of events, click here.

noelle.carter@latimes.com

Hydroponic Farming Takes Root In CT

MAY 1, 2017 1  COMMENTS

Hydroponic Farming Takes Root In CT

PHOTO | STEVE JENSEN

Cheshire-based Maple Lane Farms II co-owners Allyn Brown (left) and Brant Smith inspect a foam float holding heads of hydroponically grown bibb lettuce nearly ready for market.

KAREN ALI
SPECIAL TO THE HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL

Connecticut produces a mere 1 percent or so of the fruits and vegetables eaten by its residents.

That's a statistic state agricultural experts and producers want to change.

One way they are hoping to move the needle is through a type of controlled environment agriculture, called hydroponic farming, which is an eco-friendly way of growing produce in a soilless medium, with nutrients and water.

Hydroponic farming is gaining popularity in the state and nationwide, particularly in response to consumers' shift toward healthy eating and locally grown produce, rising food prices and extreme weather conditions making it harder for traditional farming.

Joe Geremia, known as the go-to guy for hydroponics in the state, said because Connecticut has a small amount of farmable acres, it makes sense to turn to hydroponic farming.

"It's nearly impossible [for Connecticut] to feed itself," said Geremia, who is a partner in Four Season Farm LLC, which will develop 10 acres of land in Suffield as a startup hydroponic farm. The farm, which the state has invested $3 million in, is expected to generate 40 jobs over the next two years and produce millions of pounds of tomatoes.

"It's a perfect thing for Connecticut. We can do more per acre, if we can do it indoors," said Geremia, who runs seven acres of greenhouses in Wallingford.

Geremia and others say more Connecticut farmers and greenhouse operators are adopting controlled environment agriculture.

"More people are embracing indoor technology in farming," Geremia said. "The trend is upward."

Hydroponic farming industry revenues, which reached $821.1 million nationwide in 2016, have grown at an annual rate of about 4.5 percent since 2011, according to research from IBISWorld.

PHOTO | STEVE JENSEN

Examples of the bibb lettuce produced by Maple Lane Farms. The lettuce is sold to grocery stores, including Stop & Shop, as well as wholesalers.

And of the 2,347 hydroponic farm businesses that existed in 2016, 3.8 percent operated in Connecticut, according to IBISWorld.

Four Season Farm LLC, which is expected to break ground this spring, plans to produce 5.75 million pounds of tomatoes the first year and 7.5 million pounds by the third year. The farm plans to add cucumbers, peppers and micro-greens.

In a February publication put out by the state Department of Agriculture, Commissioner Steven Reviczky said the Suffield project could lead the way to transforming Connecticut's greenhouse industry.

"Hydroponic and other types of indoor farming are becoming increasingly effective alternatives to traditional growing methods in many parts of the world," Reviczky said. "Connecticut has a well-established greenhouse industry that I believe could make the transition to growing food 12 months a year, and has the customer base to support it."

Win-win

Hydroponic farmer Allyn Brown, who has been producing lettuce on his Cheshire farm for three years, and on his Preston farm for six years, said there is a resurgence of indoor agriculture.

"It's a growing business in the northeast," Brown said. "We run 52 weeks a year. On an acre, you produce more indoors than out."

It's seen as a win-win for both consumer and farmer, farmers say.

Consumers — who are increasingly pushing for fresh vegetables and fruits year-round — gain by getting locally sourced fresh produce whenever they want it.

Hydroponic farmers winbecause instead of growing crops only four or five months of the year, they can be year-round producers, leading to new and more revenue opportunities.

"The reality is, if we are going to provide more local food when people want it, we have to figure out how to do it off-season," said Henry Talmage, executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau, and a vice chairman of the Governor's Council for Agricultural Development.

The Governor's Council, which was created in 2011, is looking to create a strategic plan for Connecticut agriculture, including looking at ways to increase by 5 percent the amount of consumer dollars spent on Connecticut-grown farm products over the next few years through 2020.

Talmage says while there are disadvantages to hydroponic farming, like high labor, energy and transportation costs, Connecticut does have several things going for it.

For one, Connecticut has a very robust greenhouse industry, which means that facilities already exist for hydroponic farming.

Connecticut is also in a "high-market corridor," between Boston and New York and near Philadelphia and Washington.

When dealing with perishable items, it's good to be closer to the markets you are supplying, Talmage said. "It's crazy when our food travels 1,500 miles to get to us. Connecticut is in a position to do this better than other New England states."

Brown, who owns Maple Lane Farms in Preston and Maple Lane Farms II in Cheshire, agreed that Connecticut is in a good geographic position for hydroponic farming.

His two farms produce 1.5 million heads of hydroponically grown bibb lettuce annually.

"It's got a great flavor," he said of the lettuce that is made without pesticides, is dirt free and stays fresh for a long period of time.

"Chefs really like to use the lettuce (which comes attached to the root ball) because it's so fresh and it is all usable," Brown said.

Maple Lane sells the product to grocery stores like Stop & Shop and LaBonne's as well as to wholesalers.

"They want it 12 months a year," Brown said, of the grocery stores.

The demand is a great thing for local farmers, and farmers hope the desire for local produce continues.

"You are supporting local agriculture as you purchase it," Brown said.

2018 Farm Bill Is Enormous Opportunity For Urban Agriculture

2018 Farm Bill Is Enormous Opportunity For Urban Agriculture

 APRIL 19, 2017BRIAN FILIPOWICH 2

By Brian Filipowich, Director of Public Policy at The Aquaponics Association

About every five years the Federal Government passes a massive, far-reaching “Farm Bill” with the main aim of providing an adequate national supply of food and nutrition. The Bill affects all facets of the U.S. food system including nutrition assistance, crop subsidies, crop insurance, research, and conservation. The 2014 Farm Bill directed the spending of about $450 billion.

Unfortunately, in recent decades, the Farm Bill has become a boondoggle for “corporate mega-farms”; multi-billion dollar operations that control vast acreage. The Farm Bill has failed to provide commensurate assistance to urban farmers. In effect, our government is using our tax dollars to give an advantage to corporate mega-farms over our small urban farms. Sad.

For example, the Farm Bill is the main reason high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap and loaded into 70% of food in the grocery store. In his book, Food Fight: The Citizens Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill, Daniel Imhoff writes: “Fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains – the foods most recommended by the USDA dietary guidelines – are largely ignored by Farm Bill policies.”

The Farm Bill has provided us a large, reliable quantity of food, but a food system racked with economic consolidation, environmental damage, and poor health outcomes.

The Urban Agriculture community has a great opportunity to shape the 2018 Farm Bill for two big reasons: 1) we offer benefits that appeal to politicians across the political spectrum, and 2) the public is already with us on this issue, ahead of the politicians.

Urban Agriculture boasts the following benefits that politicians love to hear:

• Year-round controlled-environment jobs and local economic growth;
• More fresh food to improve our diets and lower healthcare costs;
• Less waste from food spoilage and food transport; and
• Better food security.

The American consumers’ spending habits show that they are ahead of the politicians on this issue: Consumer Reports found an average price premium of 47% on a sample of 100 USDA Organic products. If folks are willing to pay 47% more for organic, then they are also willing to call their representative’s office, attend a town hall meeting, and show up at the ballot box. The energy to make the change already exists, we just need to channel it.

We have already seen the first step to shifting the Farm Bill toward our direction: Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, recently introduced the Urban Agriculture Act of 2016. The goal for the Act is to be eventually included as its own Title of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Here are some provisions of the Act:

• expands USDA authority to support urban farm cooperatives;
• makes it easier for urban farms to apply for USDA farm programs;
• explores market opportunities and technologies for lowering energy and water use;
• expands USDA loan programs to cover urban farm activities;
• provides an affordable risk management tool for urban farms to protect against crop losses;
• creates a new urban agriculture office to provide technical assistance; and
• expands resources to research, test, and remediate contaminated urban soils.

In Washington, DC, change is sometimes painfully slow. Positive changes for Urban Agriculture are by no means a foregone conclusion, especially in our unpredictable political environment. Politicians need to see that this issue will move votes.

So let’s stress our message and get the word out now, the politicians are ready to listen. Urban Agriculture offers jobs; fresh food and better health; less waste; and better food security. The legislative soil is fertile my agricultural amigos, now it’s our job to plant the seeds of an urban-friendly Farm Bill!

One way to stay involved is to sign up for the Aquaponics Association’s 2018 Farm Bill Coalition. Or there are many other groups that will be getting involved, including a few listed below.

Here’s some related resources to learn more:

• National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Farm Bill Primer
• Haas Institute: The U.S. Farm Bill; Corporate Power and Structural Racialization in the United States
• Food Tank, the Think Tank for Food
• Association for Vertical Farming
• Congressional Research Service 2014 Farm Bill: Summary and Side-by-Side
• Congressional Research Service The Role of Local Food System in U.S. Farm Policy
• The Atlantic: Overhauling the Farm Bill; the Real Beneficiaries of Subsidies

Brian Filipowich
Director of Public Policy
The Aquaponics Association

Related

Number of U.S. Indoor Warehouse Farms On The Rise

Number of U.S. Indoor Warehouse Farms On The Rise

The number of urban, indoor and warehouse agricultural operations in the U.S. has grown significantly over the last two years. According to a new white paper that was presented on the first day of the 5th Indoor Ag-Con in Las Vegas this Wednesday, there are currently 56 warehouse farms, plant factories and rooftop greenhouses across the US, compared to only 15 in a previous report of March 2015. 

This growth was also reflected in the atmosphere of the first day of the 5th annual Indoor Ag-Con that is being held this week on Wednesday and Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. While not very crowded, the event has grown this year and brings together the industry's best suppliers, researchers, growers, investors and other professionals from the food industry. 

And while it remains a cliché to say that this industry is still young, it is growing up fast and is clearly looking more at the overall business management side of growing indoors. Therefore the first day of the event covered a number of business related topics such as real estate development, planning, management and funding. As well as this, several expert speakers shared their vision on how automation and crop selection can increase the efficiency of indoor farming and make businesses profitable. 

While the first day also covered a few technical topics, the speaker program on the second day will provide more emphasis into technical aspects of indoor growing. 

We will be back with more reports on the event and the presentations over the coming days. On Monday we will publish a complete photo report of the conference and exhibition. 

The white paper will be available for download shortly. 

Publication date: 5/4/2017
Author: Boy de Nijs
Copyright: www.hortidaily.com

Opportunities For Growth Abound

Opportunities For Growth Abound
 

Rice University students learn science basics by contributing to a startup urban farm

Video produced by Brandon Martin/Rice University

HOUSTON – (May 2, 2017) – Freshmen in two Rice University classrooms teamed up this spring to make a joyful contribution to Recipe for Success' Hope Farms in Houston and learn basic scientific method along the way.

Learning literally from the ground up, the students developed their analysis of soil from fields at the urban farm, which was founded to bring nutrition to a food desert in the south part of the city.

At the start of the semester, lecturers Sandra Bishnoi and Michelle Gilbertson, both part of Rice's Wiess School of Natural Sciences, brought students to collect samples from the farm a few miles south of campus. Back then, the 7-acre site and former location of a Houston high school was still bare.

The students were pleased to return in April to see nearly an acre bursting with lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and other produce, some ready for harvest. The fruits -- and vegetables -- of their studies will help as the farm plows and plants new fields in the coming seasons.

"I'm a pre-med student and I came into this class expecting to do research, but not on this subject," Raymond Tjhia said while visiting the farm in April. "It's a really neat experience. At Rice, you can get your hands dirty and do something that helps the community while also gaining skills that will help you in any field."

"We really lucked out in finding a connection with Rice," said Hope Farms manager Amy Scott, who met Bishnoi and Gilbertson through Caroline Masiello, a Rice professor of Earth science and chemistry. "We discovered we had a lot of common purposes, that the professors were looking for opportunities for their students to have a real-life application of their skills and we were looking to learn a lot about our soil, since it is a wild card in a lot of ways."

Scott said the students' most surprising discovery revealed differences in soil acidity from field to field. "I wasn't that aware of how much the pHwas fluctuating in our fields," she said. "We ended up having a pretty broad range. That, I found out, could have been affected by our well water, which is much more acidic than we realized."

Acidity was only one aspect of the study. Gilbertson's chemistry class also analyzed the soil's salinity, conductivity, ion exchange and asphalt contamination, noting at a presentation for farm officials that material left over from razed structures had not hurt the soil. "But where the school building sat on the soil, we're finding low carbon mass," she said. "That's because nothing has grown on it and died and put carbon back into the soil."

Bishnoi's biology class tested for acidity and also designed experiments to study soil microbiology, phosphorus deficiency and water retention. "We have teams using an organism called Daphnia magna, a model of toxicity for effluents in water being drained off an area," she said. "Another team is looking at good and bad microbes in the soil to see how can we modify the microbiology to improve cultivation."

The students planted seeds in soil samples from the farm alongside seeds in potting soil. "They compared the yield from spinach and green beans, crops we knew would grow quickly," Bishnoi said. "We've gotten some nice leaf growth and germination." However, they discovered that soil from raised beds at the farm only allowed seeds to germinate and not grow into edibles.

"The clay is holding onto all of the minerals and not releasing them to the plant," she said. "The plant is having to work too hard, so there has to be some kind of soil amendment to allow better permeation."

While many laboratory courses begin with a prescribed set of experiments that lead to a foregone result, the Rice freshmen were given problems and told to design their own protocols.

"I really appreciate that you get to try to figure it out on your own," said Michelle Nguyen, the only student to take both classes. "It's been a lot of trial and error, and the method that you come up with initially doesn't necessarily work out. But it's a whole learning process."

Hope Farms' chief agricultural officer Justin Myers said the focus of its parent foundation, Recipe for Success, has been education, and it has worked extensively in Houston schools to teach children about nutrition. When the chance to establish an actual farm appeared, the organization wasted no time: It bought the former Carnegie Vanguard High School site and began preparing it for planting.                                                                         

"It gave the neighbors comfort to know we were buying the land, not just leasing it until developers came in and started building," Myers said.

Hope Farms hosted its first farmers market on Earth Day, April 22. The first produce traveled mere yards from farm to farm stand, where people from the community lined up to get fresh vegetables.

Scott said she is already considering what tests she'd like Rice students to run in the future. "We appreciated their enthusiasm and dedication to finding out what's going on, coming up with really interesting experiments and making sure every step along the way that it was something that was going to benefit us," she said.

-30-

Visit the Hope Farms website at http://recipe4success.org/programs/hope-farms.html

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2017/05/02/opportunities-for-growth-abound/

ollow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: http://natsci.rice.edu

Recipe for Success: http://recipe4success.org/about-us/

Rice University student and teaching assistant Leila Wahab pulls a core sample from the ground at Hope Farms during a recent visit. Rice chemistry and biology students analyzed soil samples for the new farm on the site of a former public school on the south side of Houston. Standing from left: Jessy Feng, Shweta Sridah, Hania Nagy, Michelle Nguyen and Raymond Tjhia. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/05/0508_HOPE-1-WEB-1qcpcg4.jpg

Core samples taken from Hope Farms by Rice University students revealed how well-suited the land is for cultivation. Freshmen in two classes participated in a semester-long project to analyze soil from various places around the 7-acre farm. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/05/0508_HOPE-2-WEB-25hic22.jpg

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/05/0508_HOPE-3-WEB-1zo6f9w.jpg

Crops grow in raised beds at Recipe for Success' Hope Farms in Houston in April. The farm's first harvest is helping to alleviate conditions in a food desert south of downtown. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/05/0508_HOPE-4-WEB-29mhb1o.jpg

Rice University student Raymond Tjhia explains the science behind results from his team's analysis of soil conditions at Hope Farms. Listening are, from left, farm manager Amy Scott, chief agricultural officer Justin Myers and Rice lecturer Sandra Bishnoi. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Rice University chemistry lecturer Michelle Gilbertson introduces students who presented the results of their semesterlong effort to analyze soil conditions for cultivation at Houston's Hope Farms. The nonprofit farm opened this year to provide a food desert in the south part of the city with fresh produce. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.

Urban Farming Flourishes In New York

01:06 PM, May 02, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 01:37 PM, May 02, 2017

Urban Farming Flourishes In New York

Tobias Peggs, CEO of Square Roots Urban Growers, speaks about urban farming outside one of the Square Roots containers on April 25, 2017 in New York. The urban farm craze is finding fertile ground in New York, where 10 young entrepreneurs are learning to grow greens and herbs without soil, bathed in an indoor, psychedelic light. Photo: Don Emmert/ AFP

AFP Relaxnews

The urban farm craze is finding fertile ground in New York, where 10 young entrepreneurs are learning to grow greens and herbs without soil, bathed in an indoor, psychedelic light.

In a "hothouse" of invention in a Brooklyn car park, each farms a container, growing plants and vying for local clients in the heady atmosphere of a start-up, fighting against industrially grown food, shipped over thousands of miles.

Meet the farmer-entrepreneurs at Square Roots, a young company with a sharp eye for the kind of marketing that helps make Brooklyn a center of innovation well-equipped to ride the wave of new trends.

"It is not just another Brooklyn hipster thing. There is no doubt the local real food movement is a mega-trend," says Tobias Peggs, one of the co-founders, a 45-year-old from Britain who previously worked in software.

"If you are 20 today, food is bigger than the internet was 20 years ago when we got on it," he adds. "Consumers want trust, they want to know their farmers."

He set up Square Roots with Kimbal Musk, brother of Tesla Motors billionaire Elon, and they have been training 10 recruits since November.

Already well-established in parts of Europe -- the Netherlands in particular -- the technology is still being pioneered in the United States.

The greens are reared in an entirely closed and artificial environment that can be completely controlled, grown vertically and irrigated by a hydroponic system that feeds them water mixed with minerals and nutrients.

Wylie Goodman, a graduate student finishing a dissertation on urban farming at Cornell University, says the US financial capital was a captive market for the innovations.

"It makes total sense," she said. "You've got a well-educated and wealthy population willing to pay a lot for good local food" -- in this case $7 per single pack of fresh greens delivered to your door.

New York and its environs have seen constant innovation in urban agriculture from rooftop gardens to the huge AeroFarm complex in neighboring Newark and Gotham Greens, which grows greens and herbs in ultra-modern rooftop greenhouses that can be harvested before breakfast and on a New York plate for lunch.

Glowing Environment

Halfway through his year-long apprenticeship, Peggs says the 10 young entrepreneurs have already learned how to grow food customers want to buy.

The next stage will begin within a year, he says, with the creation of "campuses" capable of producing greens -- similar to the one in Brooklyn -- in other large US cities before the initiative rolls out "everywhere."

His enthusiasm is contagious. Around 100 people who took part in a guided tour of the farm this week, were for the most part not only willing to shop the greens but also appeared to be mulling over setting up something similar.

But there are downsides to the business model.

If indoor farms can be adapted to grow strawberries and blueberries, "no one with a background in agriculture" thinks they will replace traditional, soil-based farms, Goodman says.

Moreover, products with a denser biomass, such as cereals or beets, are out of reach for the moment. "If I grew beets, I would have to sell it for $50 a head," Peggs joked.

The working conditions are also an issue.

"Do you really want to work in an enclosed, glowing environment?" Goodman asks.

Besides, the lighting is too expensive and cultivation spaces at reasonable cost too few, at least for now.

Those questions are already being addressed by some apprentice entrepreneur-farmers at Square Roots.

Electra Jarvis, 27, joined program after earning a masters degree in environmental sustainability despite having "never grown a plant before."

In just a few months, she mastered the process and already has 20 clients for her bags of salad leaves, tagged "Grown with love by Electra Jarvis."

But if she's happy to learn how to turn "dead space" into "a productive green space," she's not sure it's really for her.

"I miss the nature," she said. "I prefer to be able to grow outdoors."

AeroFarms: The Farm of the Future

AeroFarms: The Farm of the Future

02 May 2017

Deborah Smith, Executive Editor

“Doesn’t it feel like we’re walking into the first scene of a sci-fi thriller?” I whispered to the woman in the white lab coat and hairnet (the same getup I was required to wear) as we approached the glowing towers in the distance. I made sure that one chick was way out in front, see her? It’s the same tactic I use in the ocean. Farthest one out gets devoured and gives you time to swim to shore. Take notes, kids.

Anyway, thankfully we weren’t headed into any crazy, sci-fi danger. (Sorry to put you out there, chick in the front.) We were actually taking part in a tour of AeroFarms’ temporary facility located in an abandoned indoor paintball arena in Newark. They left behind the really cool wall art which made the whole experience feel like the weirdest party I’d ever been to.

The aforementioned glowing towers were actually the vertical LED illuminated stacks of baby leafy greens thriving under perfect conditions, getting ready to be harvested and sent off to local grocery stores.

AeroFarms’ noble and awe-inspiring mission is to combat our global food crisis and bring farming and fresh, nutritious, leafy greens into our world’s food deserts. I’m pretty sure we can all get behind that.

The facility we toured was soon to be shut down and all growing moved to their new facility which is an abandoned steel mill on Rome Street in Newark, where their estimated annual output will be up to 2 million pounds. Currently, the Newark location employs a staff of 126, 60% from the surrounding area, 40% from Newark. Growing food and jobs: well played my friends. Well played.

AeroFarms has projects in development on four continents, with plans to open sustainable vertical farms all over the world in the coming years. The Garden State got lucky when the company chose New Jersey as the site for its beta farms in 2004.

The company claims to use “95% less water than field-farmed food, with yields of 130 times higher per square foot annually.” Those are some pretty impressive stats. And they take out the middle distribution man by growing right where the population for consumption is. It’s crazy clever.

The latest development under the AeroFarms brand is the new line of fresh greens “Dream Greens,” for retail. We were lucky enough to enjoy a brief chew-through of the varying taste profiles of a few of the more than 250 varieties of baby greens and herbs. On the menu for the day was their baby kale, baby arugula, baby ruby streaks (which had a surprising baked potato flavor), baby watercress, and baby bok choy.

Our guide for the day, Alina Zolotareva, explained the flavors we were discovering and talked about how AeroFarms greens are bred to be more flavorful and more nutritious than your typical fresh greens at the supermarket, which are raised with one goal in mind: shelf life.

With the AeroFarms model, pests are not an issue. Climate is not an issue. Lack of water is not an issue. The seeds are sewn on clothes made out of recycled plastic bottles and are used over and over again for germinating seeds. Plants grow faster in this environment which means the farm can yield more harvests per year than the traditional farm. I told you, it’s the farm of the future. There’s so much more I could go into, but it’s all on the website for if you’re looking for a deeper dive.

If you are looking to buy Dream Greens, which I highly recommend, check out the store locator here. AeroFarms currently supplies the NY-Metro area via brick-and-mortar retail partners including Whole Foods and ShopRite, as well as via FreshDirect to Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

I plan on keeping a close eye on this company and the company’s progress. Rumor alert: Next stop, Camden!

North Carolina: The City of Asheville Has Launched The ‘Asheville Edibles Program’

North Carolina: The City of Asheville Has Launched The ‘Asheville Edibles Program’

Linked by Michael Levenston

The purpose of this program is to provide an opportunity for community members to grow food and pollinator plants on publicly-owned land – Adopt-A-Spot – Community Gardens – Urban Agriculture Leases

City of Asheville

Adopt-A-Spot
The City has teamed up with Asheville GreenWorks to provide oversight of the new Adopt-A-Spot program. Businesses, organizations, or individuals can apply to adopt a City-owned piece of property. Once an application is approved, the responsibility of the adopter will be to maintain either an edible or pollinator garden in the location. Adopters will be recognized with a sign at the adopted spot. This program aims to make a positive impact on Asheville by promoting stewardship of publicly owned places.

Community Gardens
Asheville’s Community Gardens Program provides residents with an opportunity to organize community gardens on designated City-owned land. For successful applicants, there is no cost to lease the land, and each garden location has room for several plots. This is a great way to bring a neighborhood and/or organization together to grow local, fresh, and healthy produce to create a stronger, more resilient community.

Urban Agriculture Leases
The Urban Agriculture Leases Program has parcels of City-owned land prepared to be leased at fair market value. The terms of the leases are 3 years with an option to renew. This program is designed to support urban agriculture development to increase local food production and community food security. The City encourages applications from qualified individuals, businesses, and/or nonprofit organizations to apply for a lease agreement. This is a great opportunity for those who want to grow food on a larger scale, but do not have the property to do so.

Build An Apartment Building. Save A farm. This Program’s Doing Both

The historic Reise Farm, at the intersection of Military Road and the Orting Highway. It will be kept as a farm because of the transfer of development rights to the new Stadium Apartments. Peter Haley phaley@thenewstribune.com

MATT DRISCOLL

MAY 01, 2017 1:43 PM

Matt Driscoll: Build An Apartment Building. Save A farm. This Program’s Doing Both

BY MATT DRISCOLL

mdriscoll@thenewstribune.com

On a recent rainy Wednesday afternoon, Amy Moreno-Sills and I are in one of the greenhouses on her 126-acre farm near Orting.

“I’m going to check for some aphids while we’re at it,” she tells me, inspecting rows of upstart tomato plants.

The fledgling tomatoes, and some peppers next to them, will soon make their way to the fields that Moreno-Sills and her husband, Agustin Moreno, have farmed since last year. The organic vegetables they produce here will eventually find their way to places like the Orting Farmers Market, or will be wholesaled to local outfits like Marlene’s Market, Valley Farms, Terra Organics and Charlie’s Produce.

The couple met on a farm, and doing this work, Moreno-Sills tells me, is “a labor of love.”

“It’s part of my identity,” she says. “I’m not happy when I’m not doing it.”

IT’S PART OF MY IDENTITY. I’M NOT HAPPY WHEN I’M NOT DOING IT.

Amy Moreno-Sills, talking about farming

That was the case in 2015, when, despite their best efforts, the couple couldn’t find farmland in Pierce County to call their own. Over the decades, farmland in Pierce County has been disappearing. And much of what remains — thanks to extreme development pressure for housing and warehouse space — is too expensive for new farmers to get their hands on.

“There was nothing available, really at any price. You have to move on,” Moreno-Sill recalls of 2015.

She calls access to farmland “the number one problem” for folks like her.

But this farm is different. Dating back more than 100 years, Moreno-Sills and her husband work the land of the historic Reise Farm, producing organic produce and you-pick blueberries on the first farm in Pierce County protected through the transfer of development rights. It’s called TDR.

Admittedly, the process through which the Reise Farm has been protected — in this case, largely through the work of PCC Farmland Trust, which now owns the Reise Farm and leases it to Moreno-Sills and her husband — can sound a bit wonky. But Nicholas Bratton, a policy director at the regional sustainability nonprofit Forterra described it, in layman’s terms, as “a market-driven approach” to protecting farmland throughout the county.

“Before TDR, landowners had two real estate options: keep farming or sell their land outright - often for development,” Bratton said. “This creates a third choice: farmers can now realize some of the value of their property while retaining ownership and continuing to farm. It’s a win for everyone.”

One of the reasons farmland has become so expensive, and thus difficult to acquire, is because of the development rights that are typically attached to it. These rights allow the land’s owner, or a potential developer, to build homes or warehouses where working farms once stood. This drives up the price and sometimes tempts land owners to cash in on the ballooning value of their fields, trading a farm’s agricultural future for a sizable check.

Through a partnership between the county, the city of Tacoma, and based on the policy work of Forterra, what Pierce County’s TDR program utilizes is the sale of just the development rights attached to working farms, preserving the land’s agricultural use. The development rights are purchased, at market rate, removing the possibility that a valuable farm will one day become tract housing, while a conservation easement protects a farm’s future as a farm.

This process allows landowners to profit from the sale of the development rights, while the farmland is permanently protected, and the future price of the land is lowered — making it accessible to farmers like Moreno-Sills.

She calls the program “the only reason we can farm here.”

RELATED STORIES FROM THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Transfer deal preserves farm, allows Stadium apartment building to grow

It didn’t take long for Tony Carino, a member of the family of developers behind the planned Stadium Apartments, near Stadium Thriftway and across the street from the new Rhein Haus Tacoma German restaurant, to see the appeal of the city’s TDR program.

“When I was 20 years old, I had a backpack, and … we were backpacking around Europe,” Carino recalled. “What I was most surprised by … is how you could get on a bus or train in a city that’s hundreds of years old, and you just get a few minutes outside town and it’s still all farm land, compared to us — it’s all this sprawl.”

“That was 34 year ago, and it still stuck,” he said.

Having grown up in the area, Carino understands the importance of preserving local farmland. But, as a developer, he was also in a position to benefit from Tacoma’s TDR program.

On the county level, the sale of development rights is incentivized, allowing developers — like Carino — to purchase them and then trade them in for increases in height or floor area ratio in their projects here in Tacoma. To make it easier on developers, Pierce County — which has a TDR agreement with the city of Tacoma — operates a “bank” where development rights are purchased and stockpiled, creating a one-stop shopping experience for developers. (King and Snohomish counties have similar TDR programs.)

At its most basic, Tacoma and Pierce County’s TDR program, according to Tacoma planner Ian Munce, accomplishes two worthy goals: It preserves farmland in key agricultural areas, ensuring that working farms forever remain working farms, while simultaneously promoting density in the urban core.

Though Tacoma and Pierce County’s efforts to establish a TDR program date back years, to the Great Recession, Carino became the first developer to actually take advantage of it, purchasing the development rights on about 20 acres of the Reise Farm, and trading that in for permission to build taller at his Stadium District project. The transaction allowed for 21 additional units at Carino’s project.

FOR THE SIZE OF THE PROJECT, IT REALLY HELPED THE BUILDING PENCIL OUT MUCH EASIER.

Tacoma developer Tony Carino

“For the size of the project, it really helped the building pencil out much easier,” Carino told me. “Two or three other developers had (considered building on) the property before us, and they couldn’t make it pencil. (The TDR program) gave us an edge over them.”

“Developers are very risk averse, they don’t want to try something new,” Carino said. “But it was very simple. The city and the county did 90 percent of the legwork.”

While Carino may have been the first Tacoma developer to take advantage of the city’s TDR program, he won’t be the last. A Koz Development project at South 17th and Market streets is also using it for extra density.

“We’ve had conversations with three or four projects that are pretty far along that are interested in doing the same thing,” Munce said.

So far, according to Forterra Conservation Director Jordan Rash, five farms, nearly 500 acres of farmland, have been protected using the county’s TDR program.

“As long as we’re seeing more mixed-use, multi-family buildings, we’re going to see more interest in TDRs,” Munce said. “We’re looking at a 20-year initiative, talking hundreds if not thousands of TDRs, if we can get this program off the ground.”

Back on the fertile land Moreno-Sills farms, the impact of Pierce County’s TDR program is not lost on her.

Gazing out over her 120 acres, hoping for a break in the rain and looking forward to this season’s crops, she’s thankful for the opportunity to be here, thankful for the security the TDR program has provided, and thankful to again be doing what she loves.

“As long as we’re good farmers and good business owners, it’s secure. That’s one of the main reasons we’re able to so heavily invest in startup costs,” she tells me as we walk past a row of peas. “Because we know we have long-term access to this land.”

“I mean, it’s a big deal,” she says.

Matt Driscoll: 253-597-8657, mdriscoll@thenewstribune.com, @mattsdriscoll

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/matt-driscoll/article147934764.html#storylink=cpy

Local Farm Grows Mushrooms Indoors

Local Farm Grows Mushrooms Indoors

Southern Tier Mushrooms sells to stores, restaurants

By RYAN MULLER - APRIL 30, 2017

Finding its own place in the growing Binghamton area food scene, Southern Tier Mushrooms is sprouting fresh, gourmet mushrooms to be sold and served in local stores and restaurants.

“The main goal of Southern Tier Mushrooms is to produce gourmet mushrooms locally to the Southern Tier region,” said Director of Operations Eddie Compagnone, ‘15. “When people are looking for a fresh-quality mushroom, they definitely would find us attractive.”

Located in a house on the South Side of the city of Binghamton called The Genome Collective, Southern Tier Mushrooms grows its crop in a basement-turned-mushroom farm. The Genome Collective house looks like an ordinary house at the surface, with a living room, kitchen and even a house dog — but in the basement is a laboratory setup with dozens of mushrooms stacked on shelves.

Compagnone, a member of The Genome Collective, described the house as a community with the common goal of food justice, and a commitment to the idea that communities should assert their right to eat fresh, healthy food. The owner of Southern Tier Mushrooms, Bill Sica, rented the basement of The Genome Collective for growing space, and Compagnone and fellow resident, Louis Vassar Semanchik, were drawn to the project.

“[Louis] and I started helping Bill as we were residing here, because we saw potential in his business,” Compagnone said.

The mushroom growing process begins on a microscopic level inside of a petri dish. The mushrooms start out in the early stages of a fungi as a mycelium and grow on sugars inside of the dish. After the mycelium has grown enough, oats commonly used as horse feed are added to provide nutrients to the mycelium and allow it to grow. The matured mycelium is then mixed in a bag with sawdust, to which the mycelium attaches itself, and begins to grow into mushrooms. The mushrooms grow in a closed-off room in the basement called the fruiting chamber. Outside of that room, there is an adjoining space that houses a machine called a pond fogger to create artificial humidity. This replicates the ideal natural conditions needed for the mushrooms to grow.

At their indoor farm, Southern Tier Mushrooms mainly grows oyster mushrooms, but it is also experimenting with other types, like lion’s mane and reishi. The gourmet mushrooms produced by the farm are popular not only for their taste, but also for their health benefits. Compagnone explained that oyster mushrooms can lower cholesterol and lion’s mane mushrooms can restore the myelin sheath in the brain, improving memory.

The farm is currently selling its mushrooms to local businesses like health food store Old Barn Hollow and Citrea Restaurant and Bar, both in Downtown Binghamton. Southern Tier Mushrooms aims to produce fresh mushrooms for businesses in New York, and Compagnone said they are working with five more businesses on possible partnerships. In the future, Southern Tier Mushrooms plans to expand into a warehouse to grow on a larger scale and distribute to as many people as possible.

To Compagnone, sourcing local food allows distributors to provide benefits of health, taste and quality in ways that nationwide distributors cannot, primarily due to the time it takes to transport them and the preservatives needed. According to him, indoor farming is part of a growing trend, thanks to a renewed interest in do-it-yourself food production and concerns about unstable environmental conditions.

“This is what the future of farming looks like,” Compagnone said.

GrowNYC Throwing Open House For New Community Center Project Farmhouse

GrowNYC has an official home — and you’re invited inside.

GrowNYC Throwing Open House For New Community Center Project Farmhouse

By Meredith Deliso   meredith.deliso@amny.com April 23, 2017

The organization, which runs greenmarkets and gardens throughout the city and hosts programs on environmental issues like recycling, will celebrate the opening of its new sustainability and education center with an open house on April 29.

Project Farmhouse opened its doors late last year, hosting private events and school programming. At the open house, visitors can get a sense of what kinds of public programming will be on offer down the line, with tours of the space and cooking demos by Peter Hoffman, Gaggenau’s Eric Morales and a chef from Brooklyn’s Olmsted, as well as composting demos, nutrition workshops, recycling games, take-home DIY planters and more.

“We really built this space to be a community center for people to come together around sustainability and healthy eating and all of the programs that GrowNYC is already involved in, in the community,” said Laura McDonald, events director at Project Farmhouse.

Much of GrowNYC’s existing programming focuses on teacher training and student education. The organization anticipates hosting 500 teachers and 2,000 children each academic year at Project Farmhouse. Hands-on programs for students include GrowNYC’s Healthy Food Healthy Bodies series, which features field trips to greenmarkets and discussions with chefs on nutrition and health, as well as programs on renewable energy and farming.

The state-of-the-art space is a lesson in sustainability itself, from a farm-inspired entry archway made using repurposed wood beams to sun tunnels to let in natural light and a kinetic hydroponic wall. A centerpiece is its induction kitchen, donated by kitchen design company Boffi Soho, for cooking demos.

McDonald looks to ramp up public events in the summer, with potential programming like lectures, movie nights and demos from cookbook authors. Having the Union Square Greenmarket just steps from Project Farmhouse is also an advantage.

“There are lots of tie-ins with the market,” McDonald said. “We’re trying to get the farmers in here, doing some demos or talking about what their lives are like. It’s awesome that it’s just a couple blocks away.”

IF YOU GO

Project Farmhouse will host an open house April 29 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. | 76 E. 13th St., projectfarmhouse.org | FREE 

At TED This Week, Two Speakers Got To The Root Of Things

At TED This Week, Two Speakers Got To The Root Of Things

by Nina Gregory NPR | April 28, 2017 12:46 p.m.

Interdisciplinary artist and TED Fellow, Damon Davis.

Getty Images, Maarten de Boer

At the TED Conference in Vancouver this week two TED Fellows talked about putting ideas to work to invigorate marginalized communities from within, while harnessing the collective power, creativity, and good will of residents who want to live in thriving, healthy and safe neighborhoods.

Devita Davison, executive director of FoodLab Detroit, offered a different means of taking action: “transformation and hope: through food.” She began by reminding the audience of Detroit’s apex in the 1950s, when the city’s name itself represented the strength of America’s manufacturing capabilities and ingenuity. “Now, today, just a half a century later, Detroit is the poster child for urban decay.”

Between a shrinking population and decades of disinvestment, Davison pointed to the persistent problem of scarcity for its mostly African-American population. “There is a scarcity in Detroit. There is a scarcity of retail. More specifically: fresh food retail. Resulting in a city,” she said, “where 70 percent of Detroiters are obese and overweight. And they struggle… to access nutritious food.”

Emphasizing the proliferation of fast food and convenience stores — and the shortage of supermarkets and fresh produce — Davison said, “this is not good news about the city of Detroit. But this is… the story Detroiters intend to change. No… this is the story that Detroiters ARE changing. Through urban agriculture and food entrepreneurship.”

Despite — or perhaps because of — deindustrialization and a rapidly shrinking population, Detroit has, what she calls, “unique assets.” Specifically, the city has some 40 square miles of vacant lots. It is close to water, the soil is fertile and there are a lot of people willing to work, people who also want fresh fruits and vegetables. And what’s happening, Davison said, is, “a people-powered grass roots movement… transforming this city to what was the capital of American industry into an agrarian paradise.”

As the audience applauded, Davison continued, “For those of us who are working in urban agriculture in Detroit, Michigan today, our vision for the future of the city is very clear. We’re working to make sure Detroit is the most sustainable, most food secure city on planet earth! And we’re just getting started.”

She detailed some of the grassroots progress underway: more than 1,500 urban farms and gardens where more than just produce is being grown. Community is also being cultivated on these plots of land as people grow food together. Davison invites the audience along, “Come walk with me, I want to take you to a few Detroit neighborhoods, and I want you to see what it looks like… folks who are moving the needle in low-income communities and people of color.”

She showed a photo of Oakland Avenue Farms, in Detroit’s North End neighborhood. It looks like a small city park, except for the abundant plants pouring out of tidy planters and growing in large, green bushes from the ground. Davison described the five acres as, “art, architecture, sustainable ecologies and new market practices. In the truest sense of the word, this is what agriCULTURE looks like in the city of Detroit.”

A $500,000 grant will allow the farm to do everything from designing an irrigation system to rehabbing a vacant house and building a store produce to sell. They’ll host culinary events where guests will not just tour the farm and meet the grower, but have chefs prepare farm-to-table dinners with produce at peak season. “We want to change people’s relationship to food. We want them to know exactly where their food comes from that is grown on that farm that’s on the plate.”

Davison’s tour traverses the city to the Brightmoor neighborhood on the west side of Detroit, a lower income community with about 13,000 residents. In this community, Davison explains, they’re taking a block-by-block approach to addressing the lack of access to healthy food. “You’ll find a 21-block ‘micro-neighborhood’ called Brightmoor Farmway. Now what was a notorious, unsafe, underserved community has transformed into a welcoming, beautiful, safe farmway, lush with parks and gardens and farms and greenhouses.” She showed images of a blossoming youth garden, an abandoned house that’s been painted into a giant blackboard where people draw bright messages for each other and a building the community bought out of foreclosure that’s been transformed into a community kitchen and cafe.

Her final example is a nonprofit organization, Keep Growing Detroit, whose aim is to have most of the city’s produce grown locally. To that end, the organization has distributed 70,000 seeds which helped lead to some 550,000 pounds of produce being grown in the Motor City.

“In a city like Detroit where far too many African-Americans are dying as a result of diet-related diseases,” she acknowledges the progress being made on the food scene there, pointing to Detroit Vegan Soul, a restaurant that grew from delivery to catering to two restaurants that serve plant-based food. “Detroiters are hungry for culturally appropriate, fresh, delicious food.”
Davison ended her time on the TED stage by describing the work of her organization, Food Lab Detroit. They help local food entrepreneurs build their businesses with everything from incubation, to workshops to access to experts and mentors so that they can, “grow and scale.” While acknowledging that Detroit’s problems are deep and systemic, Davison offers some hope: those small businesses, run by people traditionally excluded from the business world, last year provided 252 jobs and generated more than $7.5 million in revenue. Not mention lots of delicious, nutritious meals grown from the ground of what’s for too long been seeded with despair and decay.

Before interdisciplinary artist and TED Fellow, Damon Davis, took to the stage on Monday, an excerpt from his film, “Whose Streets,” was shown. The documentary, about the unrest in Ferguson in 2014, premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and will open in theaters on August 11.

Davis began his talk by acknowledging his fear while standing onstage. “But what happens when, even in the face of… fear, you do what you gotta do. That’s called courage. And just like fear, courage is contagious.”

From East St. Louis, Illinois, Damon said that when Michael Brown, Jr., was gunned down by police, he thought, “He ain’t the first, and he won’t be the last young kid to lose his life to law enforcement. But see,” he continued, “his death was different. When Mike was killed, I remember the powers that be trying to use fear as a weapon. The police response to a community in mourning was to use force to impose fear. Fear of militarized police, imprisonment, fines. The media even tried to make us afraid of each other by the way that they spun the story… this time was different.”

A musician and an artist whose work is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, Davis’ work tells the story of contemporary African-Americans. After the protests had gone on for a few days, he felt compelled to go see what was going on. “When I got out there, I found something surprising. I found anger… but what I found more of was love — people with love for themselves, love for their community, and it was beautiful. Until them police showed up. Then a new emotion was interjected into the conversation: fear.”

Then, he said, that fear turned to action: yelling, screaming, protesting. Davis went home and started “making things specific to the protest… things that would give people voice and things that would fortify them for the road ahead.”

He took photographs of the hands of the people there, portraits of protest. He posted them on boarded-up buildings and hoped it would boost the community’s morale. Those photos are now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

But he and his filmmaking partner, Sabaah Folayan, wanted to do more. So they started making their documentary, “Whose Streets.”

“I kinda became a conduit for all of this courage that was given to me. And I think that’s part of our job as artists. I think we should be conveyors of courage in the work that we do. We are the wall between the normal folks and the people that use their power to spread fear and hate, especially in times like these.”

As the TED audience, which includes powerful leaders from corporate and cultural institutions, sat rapt, in silence, he turned to them, “I’m going to ask you, y’all the movers and shakers, y’know,” he whispered, “the ‘thought leaders.’ What are you going to do with the gifts that you’ve been given to break us from the fear that binds us every day? Because, see, I’m afraid every day. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t… but once I figured out how to use that fear, I found my power.”

Autogrow Announces Its Support Of A Global Indoor Agriculture Hub In Kennett Township, Pennsylvania

Autogrow Announces Its Support Of A Global Indoor Agriculture Hub In Kennett Township, Pennsylvania

AUCKLAND, NZ – Today Autogrow, a major supplier of automated control systems for indoor agriculture facilities, announced its support for a major public-private initiative to develop a global indoor agriculture production, research, training, and service hub on the US East Coast, to be located in Kennett Township, Pennsylvania. 

According to Darryn Keiller, CEO of Autogrow, “Kennett is already the center of the US mushroom industry, producing about 1.5M lbs. of fresh product every day, all grown indoors and delivered within 48 hours of picking to markets across North America via Kennett’s extensive ‘cold-chain’ infrastructure of refrigerated packing, storage, and shipping facilities. Over the coming years, that unique infrastructure is likely to attract many new facilities growing other indoor crops, such as leafy greens. This alone makes Kennett a huge potential market for our control systems.” 

“But that’s just the beginning of our interest in Kennett’s very innovative initiative,” continued Keiller. “Kennett is also working with a several of the region’s world-class agriculture, engineering and business schools to develop a joint indoor agriculture research, training, and innovation incubator center in Kennett, the first of its kind in a major indoor ag production area. This center will be a major asset to our rapidly evolving industry, and Autogrow very much wants to be a part of its development.” 

Michael Guttman, who directs the initiative for Kennett Township, explained that “it is very important to our initiative to attract innovative ag tech companies like Autogrow to help us grow and diversify our regional indoor ag industry. But Autogrow offers a lot more than just its state-of-the-art control systems. Autogrow also has a very forward-thinking strategy that can help us adapt our extensive infrastructure to incorporate emerging trends like the Internet of Things (IOT) and ‘big data,’ which will have a huge impact on how indoor agriculture is done in the future. Working together with Autogrow and our other partners, we hope to develop a blueprint not only for Kennett, but also for a network of similar indoor agriculture hubs around the world.” 

About Autogrow

Autogrow (www.autogrow.com) is a leading supplier of climate and automation control systems for indoor agriculture, building systems for everything from single compartment environments through to large-scale, fully-automated greenhouses. In the last few years, Autogrow, based in Auckland, NZ, has been at the forefront of new emerging developments from the US, Canada, UK and Asia in vertical growing, building conversion and shipping container based systems. 

About Kennett Township, Pennsylvania 

Kennett Township (www.kennett.pa.us) is a municipality in SE Pennsylvania, and historically the center of the 100+ year old US mushroom industry, with grows 500M pounds of fresh produce year-round exclusively in climate-controlled indoor facilities. Kennett Township is currently involved in a major initiative to diversify its economy by leveraging its already-extensive indoor agriculture infrastructure to create a world-class research, training and production hub for the whole indoor agriculture industry.

Indoor Farming Operations Still Unsure If They Are "Organic"

04/27/2017

Indoor Farming Operations Still Unsure If They Are "Organic"

• Source: Specialty Food News

• Categories: Industry Operations; Suppliers

• Tags: farming; organic

• Indoor farming operations will need to wait until the fall to find out whether the government considers their operations "organic," after the National Organic Standards Board delayed its ruling on the subject. In the meantime, operations can call themselves organic, but many in the industry are troubled by the uncertainty. Current guidelines are very specific on the type of soil that can be used by organic operations, but there is not a set rule on whether plants must be grown in soil.

“It's more about organic, certified farmers wanting to maintain their market share,” JP Martin of GROWx, an aeroponic farming system told Forbes. “The fertilizers are identical... so the argument that they use different nutrients breaks down." Full Story

Related: Indoor Food Startup Plans 300 Farms Globally; USDA Proposes Eliminating 11 Substances From Organic Production.

Alumnus Goes Organic With Entrepreneurial Hydroponic Venture

Alumnus Goes Organic With Entrepreneurial Hydroponic Venture

25 Apr 2017

by Emily Reise

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh alumnus Bryan Ernst ‘12, of Ripon, is an entrepreneur who started Ernessi Organics, an original hydroponics system that grows herbs and vegetables.

Hydroponics is the growing of produce without the use of soil. Plant roots are suspended into a nutrient liquid mixture, which provides just the right amount of nutrients that the soil will accept. Ernest can control the specific mixture that certain plants receive to maximize growth and yield.

This venture is something the geology graduate has always been interested in pursuing.

“Prior to going to UW Oshkosh, I was a marine and had been to many barren areas, so I’ve seen first hand how hard it is for people to find food,” Ernst said. “I’ve always wondered how we can grow food efficiently in dense urban areas.”

Ernessi Organics grows all sorts of herbs and more than 100 types of micro-greens like kale, cabbage, basil, chives, cilantro and sage in Ripon’s urban downtown area.

“Basil is by far our highest selling item. We have done 2,100 pounds of basil in the first quarter here in our little grow operation,” he said.

Ernessi’s organic produce can be found in 17 Festival Food stores across the state as well as in local grocery stores and restaurants like the Roxy Supper Club.

He said supplying local people with local food that isn’t transported from overseas is gratifying.

“We come in at the same price as a producer from Mexico. By doing this we ensure that we don’t price certain people out of the market for our healthy and fresh food.“

The hydroponics system used in the operation is unique because Ernst designed it over years of experiments and research.

He also designed and had his own LED lights specially manufactured. Through research, he learned that most plants only need red and blue wavelengths. This saves energy costs and helps the plants grow more efficiently.

In addition, Ernst programmed an app that assists with the seeding and harvesting processes.

“The app was something I taught myself to design. It is a bunch of algorithms that indicates what plants need to be seeded and harvested weekly so we always have a constant turnover of product,” Ernst said.

Aside from growing plants ,the entrepreneur also grows mantis bugs. Since he doesn’t use pesticides, he controls pests by releasing carnivorous mantis bugs into the plants to find and eat the bugs that would otherwise damage the plants.

As Ernessi Organics keeps growing, Ernst said the next step will be expansion.

“We are looking to either franchise in other areas of the state or other states so we can provide food locally to other areas with intense farming seasons or areas of food desert,” he said.

Ernst said being an entrepreneur isn’t easy in the beginning, but it is rewarding once you get your feet on the ground.

“There is never a good time to start a business and you are never going to have enough money, so if you have a good idea you have to just jump into it,” he said.

Link to: Ernessi Farms

 

Learn more:

• Sustainability at UW Oshkosh

Indoor Farmers Face Uncertainty Over Organic Labeling

APR 24, 2017 @ 06:03 PM

Indoor Farmers Face Uncertainty Over Organic Labeling

Debra Borchardt ,  CONTRIBUTOR

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Indoor farms can stack plants vertically and grow more crops than a traditional outdoor farmer. (Photo by Shutterstock)

The National Organic Standards Board have kicked the can down the road on hydroponic and aquaponic farming. The group was supposed to decide on April 21 if the systems can be considered organic. The only decision they made was to learn more about the farming process and have pushed their decision until the fall.

This has left current hydroponic and aquaponic farmers that consider themselves organic in limbo. They can continue to call themselves organic until a decision is reached, but in the meantime the uncertainty is troubling.

“It's more about organic, certified farmers wanting to maintain their market share,” said JP Martin of GrowX, an aeroponic farming system. “The fertilizers are identical,” he said, “So the argument that they use different nutrients breaks down.”

Terra Tech is an indoor farming company that grows leafy greens and its crop that has some soil exposure has been certified organic. Chief Executive Officer Derek Peterson said, "If they came back and had some sort of ruling that disallowed organic, it would be tremendously hurtful. We would lose shelf space." He noted that the demand for non-organic produce continues to drop because the price premium is down for organic. "It's more affordable so the demand has increased," he said.

He's right. The market has grown tremendously. The USDA said that there was a 13% increase between the end of 2015 and 2016 of organic farms. This is the highest growth since 2008.

The point of contention is whether food grown without soil can be considered organic. The USDA admits that obtaining organic certification for crops is challenging and the guide is over 60 pages long. There is a lot of detail regarding the soil, but there isn't a hard and fast rule that the food must be grown in soil.

“It's really about where the nutrients are coming from and less about the methodology,” said Martin. He said it just boils down to money and market share because hydroponic farming has been around for years. If anything, the indoor farming is much more organic than outdoor farming according to Martin.

5 Control System Questions With Darryn Keiller of Autogrow

5 Control System Questions With Darryn Keiller of Autogrow

Darryn Keiller, CEO of control company Autogrow, came to the company from a consulting background, and has led the New Zealand-based company to a sub $3mn equity raise since taking the helm.  Ahead of his presentation at Indoor Ag-Con on May 3-4, we caught up with Darryn to ask him about big data and the future of controls in controlled environment agriculture.

1. Autogrow has created a dedicated system – RoomBoss – for controlled environment applications. What drove you to do that?

Market need. Urban and vertical systems are on the rise; from a control and automation perspective innovators in this space have either a) been sourcing from industry vendors existing technology created for Greenhouse production or b) building their own. What is needed is a technology approach that is purpose designed for systems using LED / HPS grow lights, CO2 management and integrates dosing control and all other automation requirements. The Room Boss is a Beta product that also anticipates controlling automated harvesting and robotics. It’s an Internet of Things based platform, not just a device.

2. How much of the hoopla over the application of big data in the industry is well-founded and how much is just hype?

Certainly, there is no shortage of hype. Along with machine learning, deep learning, etc. in every other sentence. The opportunity to apply these data methodologies and techniques to solve real world problems in agriculture is real. The time-line to make these effective and beneficial on a prolific basis is a lot longer than everyone would like. Part of this is due to the slow rate of market adoption and part of it is the technology development itself. Its potential is well-founded.

3. What’s the most common mistake you see beginning farmers make when picking a control system?

The first thing is considering the control and automation side of things last – this happens all the time. And it then leaves the farmer trying to find a solution with what’s left of their budget. Automating your production is key to consistently great crops and profitability through using less labour and managing inputs like water, energy and nutrients. The second part is thinking ahead – if you purchase a limited system now, then what happens when you decide to scale your operations? Sometimes spending a little more now is better than having to “rip and replace” technology later. The approach is to obtain technology that is flexible and modular, that grows as you grow.

4. What do you expect control systems to look like in five years’ time?

I expect most indoor growing environments will be fully automated with no human component except pre-planting and post-harvest. All automation and control to be cloud delivered and all physical automation will be carried out through a variety IoT devices and multi-functions sensors. This will include automated robotic harvesting – it’s already here when you look at examples like Urban Crop Solutions of Belgium or integration of machine vision solutions for crop monitoring, pest and pathogen detection as examples.

5. What’s the biggest advantage that being a Kiwi gives you?

We’re a nation of innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs – it’s how Autogrow began 24 years ago. As a nation, we have a deep history in horticulture, agriculture and pastoral production including R&D in genomics, biologics and technology. We even have our own Rocket company which despite the name was founded and is based in New Zealand. A nation of 4.5m we feed 40m people, exporting 95% of what we produce to 100 countries, every month, including beef, wool, seafood, dairy products and fruit. Because of our location, we travel the World and we embrace the idea of boundarylessness – no limits! Autogrow now exports to 30 countries around the globe.

 SEE DARRYN SPEAK AT THE 5TH ANNUAL INDOOR AG-CON ON MAY 3-4, 2017 

Indoor Ag-Con Features Container Farm Tours From Indoor Farms of America & Modular Farms

Indoor Ag-Con Features Container Farm Tours From Indoor Farms of America & Modular Farms

Indoor agriculture's premier conference now features tours of live vertical farming operations on site, as well as 50+ exhibition booths & 40+ speakers

We’re excited to have our participants experience these farms on site”

— Nicola Kerslake, Founder, Newbean Capital

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA, April 24, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Farm tours are a popular feature of agriculture trade shows, but Indoor Ag-Con – the indoor agriculture industry’s premier conference – likes to do things a little differently. It will instead be featuring two container farm tours at its next event, at the Las Vegas Convention Center on May 3-4, 2017.

The tours will be operated by two leading container farming equipment suppliers, Indoor Farms of America and Modular Farms. Their staff will be on hand from 8.30am to 5.30pm on each of May 3 and May 4 to walk participants through the farms and answer questions about their equipment. Their farming approaches are quite different from one another, and will allow participants to identify the best fit for their vertical farming needs. “We’re excited to have our participants experience these farms on site” commented Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, the event’s host.

Indoor Farms of America is based in Las Vegas, NV, and utilizes vertical aeroponic technologies in its container farm products, which range from the truck-mounted farm that it will be showcasing at Indoor Ag-Con to a farm specially adapted to meet the needs of disabled veterans. The farms offer 40 plants/ft2 of grow area, are designed to be used in both controlled environment and greenhouse settings and use just 3% of the water of a traditional farm. It recommends that customers grow leafy greens, herbs, chili & sweet peppers, peas, strawberries, cherry tomatoes and beans in its systems, and is continually adding more crops to the list. The Company’s website is at www.indoorfarmsamerica.com.

Canadian Modular Farms has developed a series of modular units, such as, ones for refrigerated storage and for growing microgreens, that work with its primary unit, a specially designed 40’x10’x10’ composite steel box. The eight unit options can be combined to create the optimal farm for each customer. Its units are based on hydroponic growing and include ZipGrow towers, with over 300 towers packed into its production-only macro farm unit. The Company’s website is at www.modularfarms.co.

The farms will be displayed at Indoor Ag-Con, a two-day event held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and tailored toward corporate executives from the technology, investment, vertical farming, greenhouse growing, and food and beverage industries, along with hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic startups and urban farmers. The event is unique in being crop-agnostic, covering crops from leafy greens and mushrooms to alternate proteins and legal cannabis.

The farms will join industry majors such as Argus Controls, Autogrow, BrightFarms, Certhon, Dosatron, DRAMM, Hort Americas, Philips Lighting, Priva, and Transcend Lighting in a 50+ booth exhibition hall. The event includes two full days of speakers, including executives from CropKing, Driscoll’s, Fresh Box Farms, Grobo, Helical Holdings, Intravision, Kalyx Development, MedMen, Plenty, Shenandoah Farms and Village Farms among a 40+ strong speaking faculty.

Indoor Ag-Con has also hosted events in Singapore, SG and New York, NY in the past year, and is currently planning its first event in Dubai. Since it was founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has captured an international audience and attracted some of the top names in the business. Events have welcomed nearly 2,000 participants from more than 20 countries.

Newbean Capital, the host of the conference, is a registered investment advisor; some of its clients or potential clients may participate in the conference. The Company is ably assisted in the event’s production by Rachelle Razon, Sarah Smith and Michael Nelson of Origin Event Planning, and by Michele Premone of Brede Allied.

5th Annual Indoor Ag-Con
Date – May 3-4, 2017
Place – South Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
Exhibition Booths – available from $1,499 at indoor.ag
Registration – available from $399 at indoor.ag
Features – Two-day seminar, an exhibition hall, and after-party

For more information, please visit www.indoor.ag/lasvegas or call 775.623.7116

Nicola Kerslake
Newbean Capital
775.623.7116
email us here

A Self-Proclaimed City Boy Is Helping Farmers Grow Their Businesses

A Self-Proclaimed City Boy Is Helping Farmers Grow Their Businesses

April 24, 2017

Written by Erin Booke, The Dallas Morning News

Nick Burton is a self-proclaimed city boy, a businessman first and a farmer second. He’s also an educator, a mentor and the kind of friend that wants others to succeed.

When someone is struggling with their business and needs some advice, people often say, “Oh, do you know Nick? You should really talk to Nick.”

Burton, 39, runs Blue Collar Paris Victory Gardens in Paris, Texas, where he grows vegetables hydroponically and in soil. It used to be a nursery but now functions as the source of his subscription-based salad delivery business, Victory Lunch Club.

A New Mexico native, Burton moved to Texas in 2001. He started a lawn and landscaping business and grew from there. The “self-development junkie” says he became addicted to business coaching, which ranges from speaker training to technical expertise to image consulting.

“Whenever I got outside coaching, that’s when my business took off,” he says. “And whenever I couldn’t afford it was when I needed it most.”

Nick Burton stands in a high tunnel greenhouse at Paris Victory Gardens in Paris, Texas. In addition to Paris Victory Gardens, Burton has started State of the Soil to help other farmers start and grow their businesses. 

(Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photograher)

State of The Soil

Now Burton's the coach. Earlier this year, he launched another business, a passion project called State of the Soil. The series of virtual seminars is designed to educate farmers on business and marketing tactics. Recordings of the webinars are available any time online for a fee, but live webinars are available for free a few times a year. (The next free weekend is May 26-28.) As a farmer, Burton feels obligated to pass along where he has made mistakes and to give back to the agricultural community.

“Farmers are not used to having to pay for training because of the USDA and other programs,” Burton says. “But with that they are not getting great education, especially when it comes to the business side of things.”

Farming, by nature, can be a solitary career choice — and a calling for many — that’s full of trial and error and a lot of learning the hard way. Farmers are not used to networking or asking for help, and they're driven more by pride in their work than by market demands.

“I want to give people permission to tell their story, and sometimes I have to give people permission to make a profit," Burton says. "But a lot of these are small family farms, and if they don’t succeed, they are going to lose it all.”

Nick Burton demonstrates how hydroponically grown lettuce is harvested in a grow house at Paris Victory Gardens.  

(Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer)

No Whining Allowed

Burton is all about the tough love, however. He wants to help farmers build a community full of collaboration, innovation and support, but only if they are willing. No whining allowed.

“When we didn’t have good sales, I didn’t blame the market, I blamed myself,” he says. “Many people just grow what they like, but they have to grow what the market demands. It’s not about the farmer, it’s about the client.”

Burton doesn’t advocate one type of farming, even though there’s often infighting and debate among farmers about topics such as hydroponics vs. soil. “Whenever farmers say these things publicly, they are not helping each other out,” he says. “Everyone is so passionate about what they do, but there’s no one right way to do everything. Unless you’re out there just spraying chemicals on everything, I don’t have a problem with it.”

Red Butter lettuce seedlings sprout in a grow house at Paris Victory Gardens. 

(Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer)

Network of Experts

And while Burton runs State of the Soil, he doesn’t do it alone. He has tapped others in the agriculture community to share their stories and expertise. There are about 38 speakers for 2017 (and more than 40 for 2018) who will talk about such topics as market development, funding, restaurant sales, farmers market sales, media relations, food trends, farm-to-table events, social media, photography, technology and even work-life balance. An all-access pass is $129, and you can watch the webinars any time.

Jeff Bednar, owner of Profound Microfarms in Lucas, teaches a seminar on agricultural real estate for State of the Soil. He owned a real estate company and then branched out into real estate education before deciding to buy land and start growing. He, his wife, Lee, and his two young daughters grow vegetables, mostly leafy greens, hydroponically, aquaponically (with fish) and even vermiponically (with worms).

Andrea Shackelford, executive chef at Harvest Seasonal Kitchenin downtown McKinney, teaches a seminar on selling to restaurants and developing relationships with chefs. Tim Kelly of SunTx Capital in Dallas offers details on funding and investing. Other speakers are from across the country and around the globe.

Nick Burton walks through a grow house at Paris Victory Gardens. 

(Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer)

Not Just for Newbies

State of the Soil clients have ranged from newcomers with no growing background to longtime farmers looking for that extra push. “I see it as a very healthy mix,” Burton says, “people interested in farming for all kinds of reasons.”

Terry Foster of Houston runs Home Town Roots, an urban, indoor vertical farm that specializes in greens and supplies restaurants. Foster, 60, left his corporate job in the oil fields in 2014 to start a second career because he’s “old, tired and crusty,” he says, and “has lost all his mind but still has a strong back.”

He heard Burton speak and then signed up for State of the Soil. He says what he learned was worth much more than he paid. 

“The knowledge I had of social media would fit on half a pinhead,” Foster says. “He’s trying to show us dinosaurs how to use social media to market ourselves.”

Foster has since updated his website and developed a Facebook page and and Instagram account.

Plants waiting for their new greenhouae home. Getting close.

In 2016, Piper Klee of McKinney started Urban Dirt Co., building raised-bed gardens for people in their backyards and helping maintain them. Klee had a background in corporate sales, not farming, so she needed to pick someone’s brain.

“Nick is full of information and knows people. He started giving me information, and we spent hours driving around, meeting people,” she says. “People give away information for free in this industry. They want people to succeed. They are generous with their information, and Nick is more generous than most.”

Her biggest takeaway from the State of the Soil classes was encouragement. “It was good to see that I’m not the only one doing this,” she says. “And it wasn’t just people who’d been farming their whole lives. There were accountants and bankers turned growers.”

Klee is originally from Colorado, where she says almost everybody grows food in their yard. North Texas is on the cusp of this movement, she says, and there’s just enough information to get going.

“That’s why we have to have State of the Soil because we are not Colorado or Oregon,” she says. “We have to find a way to share information.”

And Burton clearly doesn’t mind sharing. He sees it as an obligation. “I’ve got a complete abundance mentality,” he says. “I think there’s room for everyone.”