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Canada: A Garden On Every Corner
Canada: A Garden On Every Corner
Linked by Michael Levenston
Broadway and MacDonald.
In Vancouver, British Columbia, one social enterprise looks to make the most of unused urban space by converting empty lots into temporary community gardens.
By Chris Reid
Vancouver Community Garden Builders
Mar 27, 2018
There used to be a gas station at the corner of Cambie and 16th Avenue in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Today the site hosts 100 raised garden beds and provides growing space for roughly the same number of gardeners, many of whom are families living in nearby apartments and condominiums.
The project is the result of a partnership between Wesgroup, a local developer, and Vancouver Community Garden Builders, a local social enterprise. Together the pair opened six new gardens in 2017, which equals 600 new garden beds. In total, VCGB manages eight projects with close to 800 beds or 16,000 square feet of urban growing space.
In a city like Vancouver, where wait lists for permanent community gardens can reach into the hundreds, projects like the one at Cambie and 16th are a useful stopgap providing much needed opportunities for city dwellers to learn about and participate in their own food security. A single garden bed produces around 10 pounds of yield in a year; multiply that by 100 and you’ve got a supermarket aisle full of locally grown, organic veggies.
The benefits of urban agriculture are well documented and innumerable. Beyond the nutritious food they grow, community gardens have been linked to increased social wellbeing in neighbourhoods, reduced crime rates and even less public litter. For many, they offer a retreat from the hectic, concrete urban landscape, and a simple way to recharge.
Cambie and 16th.
The results can be seen all across the city. Where once people came to fill up their tanks, green thumbs are now planting their first seeds of the year, hoping for an early spring. To learn more about the temporary community gardens.
4th and Macdonald Temporary Community Garden
Broadway and Victoria Temporary Community Garden
Dunbar and 39th Temporary Community Garden
Broadway and Alma Temporary Community Garden
Oak and 41st Temporary Community Garden
Cambie and 16th Temporary Community Garden
Could Urban Farms Be The Preschools of The Future?
The vision for Nursery Fields Forever. Courtesy of aut- -aut
Could Urban Farms Be The Preschools of The Future?
EILLIE ANZILOTTI MAR 7, 2016
A group of architects proposed a new design to help raise environmentally responsible kids.
Under the distant gaze of a city skyline, cows and chickens wander through rows of sprouting vegetables; clear glass greenhouses dot the periphery. It sounds like an ordinary urban farm, but on this particular site, the wardens are toddlers.
The farm, Nursery Fields Forever, is the vision of aut- -aut, a group of four architects hailing from Italy and the Netherlands. Their proposal for a preschool on an urban farm took first prize at this year’s AWR International Ideas Competition; the challenge centered around designing a nursery school model for London.
“The dominant preschool system keeps children in classrooms, where plants barely peek out from the window,” and animals are only visible in places like zoos, Jonathan Lazar, one of the architects, tells CityLab, adding:
The absence of direct experience has completely misled children’s perception of the world and of its most basic processes. It’s not rare to find children who ignore that the milk they drink comes from cows or that beans don’t sprout in cans.
Urban settings especially, Lazar says, obscure natural processes that are fundamental to our understanding of the world we inhabit. Nursery Fields Forever aims to dissolve the gap between education and environment, offering instead “a real hybrid between a farm and a school where children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development would be encouraged by interaction with plants and animals,” he says.
This is not just a glorified enrichment program attached to a standard educational model. Nursery Fields Forever would do away with classrooms entirely in favor of learning outdoors and in greenhouses throughout the property; the curriculum would rotate seasonally to “unfold along a trajectory based on natural cycles,” aut- -aut’s website describes.
A diagram of the project. (Courtesy of aut- -aut)
The preschool farm is a relatively novel concept, though the Agricultural University of Norway successfully piloted a similar venture, the Living School, in 1996; the program is still ongoing today under the name Living Learning. Introducing environmental awareness to early childhood education has long been supported by research. A 2012 article in Environmental Research Letterscites studies dating back to the 1970s that suggest:
Children are a frequent target audience as attitudes towards the environment start developing at an early age and—once formed—do not change easily. They are less likely to have well-established environmentally harmful behaviours to “unlearn”; have a longer period to influence environmental quality, and are possible effective agents promoting environmentally responsible behaviour in others.
Establishing a venture like Nursery Fields Forever would suggest a sense of obligation on the part of the designers to undo the damages of earlier generations’ environmental disregard. Intervening at an early age could preclude obliviousness to the negative impacts of prepackaged, processed foods and outsourced labor, says Lazar, and engineer a degree of self-conscious environmentalism back into the fabric of the city.
It’s a mentality seen also in the urban farms and gardens that have lately ramped up their efforts to educate the next generation. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden debuted its revamped Discovery Garden in 2015 as part of its Campaign for the Next Century—developed party in response to a growing interest in sustainable urban practices. The New York Timesreported that the new iteration is “geared toward immersing children in nature” without any of the “unfortunate dumbing-down-of-nature quality” seen often in children’s gardens.
At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Discovery Garden. (Barbara Nemcova/Flickr)
And in Atlanta, Patchwork City Farms hosts afterschool programs for local schoolchildren with the aim of instilling in them a sense of self-sufficiently and responsibility. Echoing Lazar’s sentiment, Patchwork’s founder Jamila Norman insists that farming is a great way to teach the next generation about how people and the environment interact. “Kids are sometimes grossed out by the things that come out of the ground,” she told Modern Farmer. “We have to teach them that it’s better like this.”
About the Author
Paris To Turn A Third Of It's Green Space Into Urban Farms
Paris To Turn A Third Of It's Green Space Into Urban Farms
April 10, 2018
Paris to turn a third of its green space into urban farms
Written by Katy Wong, CNN
France's famously beautiful capital is not a place you'd expect to find chickens, beehives, and rows of neatly planted cabbages -- but urban farming is flourishing in Paris.
It all started when the city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who was elected in 2014, declared her intention to make Paris a greener city. The Paris government responded to her call in 2016 by launching Parisculteurs, a project which aims to cover the city's rooftops and walls with 100 hectares (247 acres) of vegetation by 2020. One-third of the green space, according to its plan, should be dedicated to urban farming.
So far, 74 companies and public institutions have signed a charter to partner with the city in developing urban agriculture.
"Paris not only intends to produce fruit and vegetables but also (plans to) invent a new urban model ... Citizens want new ways to get involved in the city's invention and be the gardeners," says Penelope Komites, deputy mayor of Paris, who is in charge of the city's parks and green spaces.
"Three years ago, people laughed at my plan. Today, citizens are producing (produce) on roofs and in basements. We are also asked by numerous cities around the world to present the Parisian approach."
Farm to plate
Located a 20-minute drive from the Eiffel Tower, next to the Porte de Clignancourt metro station, in 2014, La REcyclerie built one of the biggest urban farms in the city -- before Paris had even started its project.
This cozy café in a converted former train station is at the heart of a 1,000 square meter (about 10,760 square feet) farm. It produces over 150 different herbs and crops, such as peas and potatoes, all of which are used in the café. Chickens eat any leftovers, while a flock of ducks roams the vegetable garden feasting on slugs.
At La REcyclerie, crops harvested from the urban farm are used in the café. Credit: Simon Lemarchand
The farm is perhaps best known for its three beehives. La REcyclerie has partnered with beekeeper Volkan Tanaci, founder of CityBzz honey -- to maintain and set up the beehives. The CityBzz honey scooped a silver medal in the 2017 World Beekeeping Awards, granted by the International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations, and took home gold at the first honey contest hosted by the Metropolis of Greater Paris.
"It's incredible that our urban honey is better than the rural one, but that's because we don't use any pesticide in our flowers and plants," says Marion Bacahut, head of programming at La REcyclerie. "We want to show people it's possible to farm in an urban environment and it is easy to live in an eco-friendly way. We are playing a big role in making the city greener."
High-rise farming
Since the Parisculteurs project launched in 2016, 75 projects have been approved by the city of Paris, covering 15 hectares of spaces. The projects will create more than 500 tons of produce.
La Chambeaudie Farm, run by agriculture start-up Aéromate, is located on the 500 square meter (5,380 square foot) roof of a medical center owned by Paris Metro (RATP) in the 12th arrondissement -- a district in the east of Paris on the right bank of the River Seine.
Michel Desportes and Louise Doulliet, the co-founders of Aéromate who are both in their 20s, submitted a proposal to the City of Paris when Parisculteurs launched. Their application to lease the rooftop from RATP, with a contract between the two parties in place, was approved after six months.
By using a hydroponic system on rooftops, it can reduce harmful emissions in the cities and produce higher yields with less water consumption. Credit: BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Théo Manesse, the business development manager of Aeromate, says becoming an urban farmer hasn't been easy, due to the level of government oversight required. "In France, every detail must be managed -- you have to do things perfectly." But he adds: "It's complicated and challenging, but really fun."
Today, La Chambeaudie grows more than 40 varieties of plants and herbs, which are sold to restaurants and grocery stores. The farm uses a hydroponic system, which grows plants in water enriched with nutrients, rather than soil -- the water can be recycled to reduce waste.
Aeromate recently set up a second farm on the rooftop of Tishman Speyer, a real estate group, at Place de La Bourse in central Paris, and plans to establish a third farm at The Duperré School of Applied Arts, a public college of art and design.
Making a living through urban farming
Komites says urban agriculture will not only improve Paris aesthetically and environmentally -- it will also provide employment opportunities. Season one of the Parisculteurs scheme, she says, "has created 120 full-time jobs." Aeromate's three staff work fulltime on their farming projects, and Manesse says he expects La Chambeaudie to become profitable this year. "We are creating jobs and just want to keep growing."
La REcyclerie is hoping to show citizens in Paris that it is possible to farm in an urban area. Credit: Simon Lemarchand
At La REcyclerie, the majority of income is earned by the café. "We welcome 600 people every day," says Bacahut, adding that the café will open greenhouses this spring, which will be used for farming workshops.
Today, Paris counts about 15 hectares (37 acres) of urban agriculture. To reach its goal of 30 hectares before 2020 is a challenge. But there are plenty of projects in the works.
In 2019, the Chapel international project will open a 7,061 square meter (about 76,000 square feet) farm, that it says will be the largest cultivated rooftop in Paris. Its produce will be distributed by Franprix, a grocery store chain in Paris.
"We've seen a real craze among Parisians to participate in making the city more green," says Komites. "Urban agriculture is a real opportunity for Paris. It contributes to the biodiversity and to the fight against climate change."
What Would Make Urban Agriculture in New York City More Equitable?
Last year, City Council Member Rafael Espinal introduced a bill that would have set up a comprehensive plan, calling for an in-depth analysis of potential spaces, zoning laws, and building codes, as well as the expansion of the availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods.
What Would Make Urban Agriculture in New York City More Equitable?
The city needs policies to support both well-funded, high-tech farm operations and community-run urban farms.
Photo courtesy of Bushwick City Farm.
BY LISA HELD
03.05.18
Reverends Robert and DeVanie Jackson, founders of the Brooklyn Rescue Mission Urban Harvest Center in New York City, are proud of the fig trees and raised beds in their organization’s urban garden. Since 2002, local students and senior citizens have tended the crops that help stock the mission’s food pantry. A mile and a half away, Bushwick City Farm, which started in 2011 with volunteers reclaiming a vacant, garbage-strewn lot, now provides free, organically grown food to in-need community members.
Despite deep roots in their communities, both of these urban farms are at risk of collapse. The Jacksons may lose their land in March unless a crowdsourcing campaign can raise the $28,000 they owe the bank for the lot, located in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. And though the owner of Bushwick City Farm’s lot originally told the farmers they could use the space, in August, he changed his mind and gave them 30 days to vacate. The owner has yet to enforce that order, but that could change at any moment.
“We’ve got 30 chickens there, and we didn’t have anywhere to go; we felt like we were participating in the community and he wasn’t,” said Bushwick volunteer James Tefler. “The neighborhood rallied around us and we had meetings with city government representatives.”
Those representatives, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, have been responsive to their plight, but so far it’s unclear what the city might actually be able to do to help. And it’s just one example of why some city lawmakers have been pushing to establish a new urban agriculture policy that would provide guidance to and support local growers.
Photo courtesy Bushwick City Farms.
Last year, City Council Member Rafael Espinal introduced a bill that would have set up a comprehensive plan, calling for an in-depth analysis of potential spaces, zoning laws, and building codes, as well as the expansion of the availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods. The law the council ended up passing, however, was barely a shadow of the original proposal. It required the city simply to create an “urban agriculture website.”
Espinal said the original bill did not pass because many of his fellow lawmakers “felt as if there weren’t many barriers getting in the way [of urban agriculture]. We had some disagreements, and we agreed to move forward by taking what we see as a first step, by pushing the city to start a conversation.”
So while the website will be set up as a portal for growers to get information on things like regulations and resources, Espinal plans to continue to work on new legislation that will further his original goals. “The city has to sit down and really figure out ways that it can be a partner in helping urban ag grow,” he said. “There’s a whole ecosystem of opportunities and positive effects it can have on the city.”
Harvest time at Brooklyn Rescue Mission. Photo courtesy Brooklyn Rescue Mission.
But in a city where community farms are struggling to hold onto land while commercial indoor farms backed by venture capital are booming, can legislators create and pass policy that tackles the complexities of the landscape and supports a more robust, representative system?
Growing Community, and Commerce
While many other cities around the country, including Detroit, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, and Portland, Oregon, have passed progressive laws to support the expansion of urban farming, New York’s landscape is complex and crowded. New Yorkers have been working in “farm gardens” since at least 1902. In the 1970s, however, the community gardening movement took off in a new way as activists transformed the many vacant lots that spanned the boroughs. The city supported that effort by creating the GreenThumb program in 1978, which now oversees approximately 600 gardens across a total of 32 acres.
Over the past decade, as urban farming has expanded around the country, community gardens and commercial farming at a larger scale have also grown. In its Five Borough Farm report published in 2012, the Design Trust for Public Space identified 700 total farms and gardens in New York across four categories—community gardens, institutional gardens, community farms, and commercial farms—producing food in the city. In a 2014 follow-up report, that number had risen to 900.
Since then, commercial farm growth has been particularly significant. At the time of the first report in 2012, there were three in the city: Brooklyn Grange, Eagle Street, and Gotham Greens. Brooklyn Grange has since debuted a second, larger farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Gotham Greens now has three massive greenhouse farms—two in Brooklyn and one in Queens.
Photo courtesy Gotham Greens.
In addition, Bowery, Edenworks, Square Roots, and Local Roots are all indoor farms that began growing and selling produce within the past few years. And all of that development has occurred with little city involvement. This rapid rise of large-scale, well-funded farm operations in the Big Apple, alongside the growth of demand for community gardens, is part of what complicates New York’s policy work.
A Path Toward Policy
“The kids get in here and start touching soil, [and] they change. It might keep them out of jail, or they may get a Ph.D.,” Rev. Robert Jackson said of the 770 student interns the harvest center has hosted since 2002, as he threw vegetable scraps to excited chickens, which are famous in the neighborhood.
On a walk to the mission, local community leader Kenny Mbonu stopped the Jacksons on the street and began, unprompted, to talk about their impact. “These people are true pioneers in community food and in creating green spaces,” he said. “My kids held chickens for the first time at the farm. You should have seen their faces.”
Reverends Robert and DeVanie Jackson. Photo courtesy Brooklyn Rescue Mission.
While arguments for supporting urban growing often focus on food access, a 2016 literature review published by Johns Hopkins found that “urban agriculture’s most significant benefits center around its ability to increase social capital, community well-being, and civic engagement with the food system.” At the same time, the report found that urban agriculture can negatively impact communities through gentrification, and recommended that the development process include a community’s most vulnerable residents in the decision making.
Which is why advocates say involving community leaders and small growers in the policy process is so important. A public hearing on urban ag policy held last fall left a bitter taste in community organizers’ mouths; advocates said the meeting was largely skewed toward for-profit, primarily white growers, while community growers of color were underrepresented.
Luisa Santos, who testified on behalf of the Design Trust for Public Space at that meeting, called for a citywide task force that would review the proposed plan. A diversity of growers on that task force is key, she said, as is acknowledging resource gaps between community and commercial growers.
Protecting access to land, especially spaces community members have already invested in, is also an issue an urban agriculture plan could help with, Santos said. Espinal said he hears from constituents “all the time” about land issues. Many community gardens have been lost in the past two years to develop or have been taken over by the city to build affordable housing.
Photo courtesy Bushwick City Farms.
And simple clarity would help everyone involved in the system, from community gardeners to large-scale commercial farms, Santos said. “One of the great opportunities with an urban agriculture plan is just making sure that there is a policy for what you can and cannot do in relation to growing food, for yourself or to sell.”
Moving forward, Espinal said he envisions a future plan that would create opportunities for commercial growers to work together with and help community growers. “My main goal in the next few months is working with all stakeholders, figuring out what are the issues and barriers, and putting a policy document together.”
Santos said the Design Trust felt the legislative change was a disappointing setback, but that it didn’t destroy the possibility of “achieving a comprehensive agriculture plan” in the future, and that the organization is now putting together a task force to work alongside elected officials.
In the meantime, growers like the Jacksons will keep digging in the dirt and distributing food for as long as they’re able, tending to the hole in the hoop house has, and cutting back the cherry tree.
“We had an agreement with the birds,” Rev. DeVanie Jackson said. “They get the top and we get the bottom. But now, they’re getting everything.”
Food Deserts, Food Justice, Food Policy, Local Eats, Urban Agriculture
AgriPark, in Fishers, Indiana, Connects Urban Community To Agriculture
AgriPark, in Fishers, Indiana, Connects Urban Community To AgricultureAgriPark Connects Urban Community To Agriculture
Farm to raise produce for local food pantries
- Erica Quinlan | AgriNews Publications
-
- Mar 22, 2018
FISHERS, Ind. — A 30-acre city park in Fishers will serve as a functioning farm in 2018.
The Fishers AgriPark will be the largest park in the country that’s dedicated solely to a working farm.
The park will feature crops, livestock, aquaponics, an outdoor classroom, farmers market and eating area, as well as beehives. Volunteers will help to plant and harvest produce.
It also will fill a need in the community by donating a third of the produce raised to food pantries.
Jonathan Lawler, executive director of Brandywine Creek Farms, will operate the park’s farm.
“A third of the produce will go to Hamilton County Food Pantry, as well as food deserts in Indianapolis,” he said. “We’re hoping to produce half a million pounds on the property. It has the potential to produce more.
“We’re estimating close to 50,000 visitors to this park in the first year. This is a huge educational opportunity. It’s free to get in. There are low-cost classes you can take, as well.”
Lawler is on the lookout for sponsors to help the farm thrive.
“The more sponsors who step up, the easier our job will be,” he said.
Mayor Scott Fadness said that the park will help enhance quality of life and reduce hunger in the city.
“It also will provide opportunities for volunteers to get their hands dirty and help grow food that will be donated to local food pantries,” he said. “It’s an asset unlike anything we have.”
“Many Hoosiers are several generations removed from farming and give little thought to where their food comes from,” Lawler said. “This will be a very approachable place to reconnect with the land and to get involved in efforts to end hunger in our communities.”
The park will be located at 113th Street and Florida Road. It will be open dawn to dusk during the growing season.
Learn more at: https://in-fishers2.civicplus.com/1000/Fishers-AgriPark.
Erica Quinlan can be reached at 800-426-9438, ext. 193, or equinlan@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Quinlan
A Growing Concern
A Growing Concern
The Junior League of Richmond is raising $35,000 to buy a container-enclosed garden for residents in the city's East End
March 23, 2018
richmag
Developed by Envirable Grow Systems LLC, the EnviraGrow center will operate inside a 20- to 40-square-foot trailer.
Through midnight on March 23, the Junior League of Richmond is raising funds to purchase an EnviraGrow Mobile Learning Center — essentially a garden within a trailer similar to a shipping container — to be placed in the city’s East End.
“It’s being built and retrofitted in order to have an eternal garden,” says Kasey Hayes, a spokeswoman for the Junior League.
Developed by Envirable Grow Systems LLC, the sustainable community farming initiative focuses on providing access to more than 6,000 pounds of fresh produce per year while providing education and training on how to build and maintain an indoor farming system. The 20- to 40-square-foot EnviraGrow center is expected to open in June at the Virginia Cooperative Extension Center on 25th Street.
The Junior League hopes to raise $35,000 for the project through its “Little Black Dress Initiative,” in which participating members wear the same black dress for five days in recognition of the lack of choices people in poverty face. The organization notes that Richmond has one of Virginia’s highest percentages of residents living below the federal poverty threshold, nearly 25 percent, and about 40 percent of the city’s school-age children live in poverty.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is also working on opening an EnviraGrow centerin collaboration with the Richmond Office of Community Wealth Building’s Conrad Culinary Training Center program. Expected to open in two or three weeks, it will have wheels, allowing movement around the city.
Based in a warehouse in Richmond’s East End, Envirable Grow Systems LLC was started by Sean Jefferson with a goal of creating controlled environment systems with integrated grow lighting, shelving and a self-contained water reservoir. Jefferson says Envirable also has a location in Washington, D.C.
This model shows what the inside of an EnviroGrow center will look like. (Photo courtesy Sean Jefferson/Envirable Grow Systems)
Junior League of Richmond Anti-Poverty Commission Duron Chavis poverty urban farmingfood deserts Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Manhattan’s Only Underground Chef’s Farm Supplying Rare Herbs to NYC Restaurants
New York City’s farm-to-table scene just got even fresher. Farm.one is an underground vertical farm in the business of forward-thinking. With a little help from LED lighting and a climate controlled environment, it grows its produce year-round, one story below the hustle and bustle of Manhattan’s streets.
New York City’s farm-to-table scene just got even fresher. Farm.one is an underground vertical farm in the business of forward-thinking. With a little help from LED lighting and a climate controlled environment, it grows its produce year-round, one story below the hustle and bustle of Manhattan’s streets.
Located underneath the 2-Michelin star rated Atera, Farm.one has made a name for itself as a convenient alternative for restaurants that want produce that is not only hyperlocal but also delivered within hours of its harvest. Rob Laing, CEO of Farm.one, gave Untapped Cities an inside look at the rare micro-greens, herbs and edible flowers sought after by New York City’s most celebrated chefs.
After an April 2016 introduction inside the Institute of Culinary Education in downtown Manhattan, Farm.one expanded to its current space at 77 Worth Street in Tribeca. It currently uses hydroponic technology, growing its pesticide-free products in a water-based nutrient solution as opposed to soil. Although underground, the plants receive the perfect amount of sun year round, and are kept in an environment with optimal temperatures and humidity levels for growing.
This, combined with the ability to manipulate the light intensity and overall indoor environment, allows the farm to perform in a year-round capacity that is not restricted by outdoor conditions or season. In fact, venture capital funding for vertical farming saw a 653 percent increase from 2016 to 2017 alone, demonstrating that this innovative agricultural alternative has a promising future.
All that is produced at Farm.one is grown to order specifically for New York chefs, and delivered via bike and subway to restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn. This eliminates waste and food miles, meaning no emissions are created as the herb shipments are transported. In the age of sustainable farming as well as cognizant consumption, Farm.one also makes sure packages its product in reusable containers.
Everything from Bronze Fennel and Sweet Thai Basil to Epazote and Zaatar Marjoram is grown in the same underground space, demonstrating the breadth of Farm.one’s yield available to those on the buying end. Over time, the team at the farm hopes to build the widest selection of edible herbs and greens in the world.
Next, check out 10 Urban Farms in NYC and 10 of NYC’s Sustainability Initiatives.
Seeding Change: Woman Launches Eastside Erie, PA Urban Farm
Seeding Change: Woman Launches Eastside Erie, PA Urban Farm
March 18, 2018
Farm plots will take over vacant lots in the city, bringing food choices to people who need them.
Carrie Sachse, 35, a McDowell High School graduate, returned to Erie in 2014 after earning a degree in political economy and labor studies in Seattle and working around the country for a public sector union. She bought a house in Erie’s west bayfront neighborhood and is now poised to launch French Street Farms on vacant lots at French and East 22nd streets that she is purchasing from the Erie Redevelopment Authority. Sachse, an Erie County government worker by day, recently won a $5,000 start-up grant from the Idea Fund for her pioneering work on urban farming in Erie. Here is a conversation with her, edited for length.
How did you get interested in gardening?
It really all stems from my interest in food. I have always been interested in food and the politics of food, where it comes from, and cooking. After living in an apartment forever in Seattle, gardening was never an option. Once I bought my house, it was just very natural. The first thing I am doing is clearing my yard so I can have a big garden.
What took you to Seattle?
Growing up here, I just felt like this was a place that did not have a lot of opportunities. In the 1980s and 1990s, I felt like the Rust Belt vibe was strong and I always wanted to move to a bigger city that I felt had more opportunity. I put myself through college slowly and I was a manager at a little city market, a bodega. They had everything in a very diverse neighborhood.
I studied political economy as my major and labor studies as my minor. A lot of that was driven by trying to understand the economy of a place like Erie versus a place like Seattle — which is thriving — why do some places thrive and other places decline?
What was your takeaway from that?
I did that degree and then I took a job where I traveled full-time for about three and one-half years. My takeaway from that was that Erie was as good a place as any. I realized that more places are like Erie than not and that we do have a lot of natural assets and unique assets that we just have to capitalize on. We just need to change our perspective a little bit.
Where did the idea for urban farming come from?
To me, it just seemed natural to say, well, we have all this land in the city that no one is doing anything with and everyone is talking about a lack of fresh food in the city.
What were your first steps?
My best friend owns a food truck in Pittsburgh and I also knew I wanted to work for myself eventually. So we were kind of bouncing business ideas off each other and we both separately had the idea to do a city farm on individual lots versus trying to accumulate a lot of land to have a bigger farm. It was right after we started having that conversation that Scott Henry (former Erie Redevelopment Authority director) rolled out his adopt-a-lot program and that kind of felt like kismet.
The first thing I did was show up at the Redevelopment Authority and sit down with Scott Henry. I had no idea what I was doing, but I just told him all the reasons I thought it was a great idea and he was on board right away. His thing was I would have to buy the lots — not just rent them or adopt them — for a commercial operation. I was fine with that because I have to invest so much in the infrastructure, it would not make sense to invest in land I did not own.
But first city zoning had to change. That took about two years, correct?
So that was the biggest thing — almost all the vacant land in the city is residential. Scott Henry was able to talk to (former City Councilman) Dave Brennan and Dave Brennan sponsored the urban farming resolution at City Council. No one really knew what it was going to end up looking like. We just knew we needed some kind of a framework for urban farming in Erie because there was really just a void. City Council referred it to the Planning Commission and there was a little bit of back and forth. I went to the Planning Commission meetings and got to know them.
Did you ever have a moment where you thought, “I should just forget this?”
I really have not. It was an interesting process to go through. I am still relatively new back to town, so I enjoyed getting involved in local politics and seeing the inner workings. I was really pleasantly surprised. I found everyone to be really receptive to the idea. They say decisions are made by the people who show up, and just by showing up, people were really receptive to what I had to say. If I had not gone to the meetings, I think it would have been easy to say, “Yeah, we don’t want that.”
Did you have lots in mind that you wanted to develop?
When I went to see Scott Henry, I got a list of all the lots he had. I started on the lower west side and I drove around to see almost all of the vacant lots in the city.
A lot of them are just small overgrown lots in between houses that did not look very promising. But when I saw the lots I am buying, I immediately, I just stopped. I was just like, “Oh! I found them.” They were perfect.
I signed the sales agreement. I will be buying five lots this year.
What is the total price?
The first three, it is $750 for all three. The other two are $200 each and the fees are just nominal.
What are you going to sell and where are you going to sell it?
The more I read, the more I realized for it to be a sustainable operation, in the long run, I do need to have a diverse cross-section of crops so that I can rotate them and the land is not getting depleted. And also, for seasonality purposes, if I only wanted to grow peppers and tomatoes, I would not have anything to sell until August. So I do need to grow some spring stuff and early summer stuff. It will be around 20 different types of vegetables. I grow a lot of heirloom and specialty varieties.
Are you confident about that part of your skill set, actually producing the food?
That is probably the part I am most confident in because of the fact I have been gardening in my yard and I am a strong gardener. The business side of it is more new to me.
I did a master gardening training program. There is also a larger trend in agriculture. The farmers we have are getting older and most American farmers are around retirement age and there is a big problem with them not being replaced. One of the biggest demographics of people moving into farming right now are college-educated women. I am kind of an anomaly, but not totally.
When will you start planting?
I am starting seeds right now. There are also plenty of cold-starting crops, like kale and lettuce, that I can plant pretty early, hopefully by mid-April.
Are flowers in the mix at all?
I am going to do some sunflowers because I think they are great and I think they will do well at the farm stand. I also planted some bulbs as kind of a hedge in case we have a crappy spring, then the tulips and daffodils can round out my stand.
When you say “stand,” what are you picturing?
I am just going to do folding tables and a tent that I set up in different locations. So social media (www.facebook.com/frenchstreetfarms) is going to be really important for getting the word out to people and the regular website, too. I want to hit different areas of the city, so I can find good spots and find where people are especially interested in what I am doing.
You said at the Idea Fund competition that some restaurants are already reaching out?
Yes, which is amazing. If anything I am more concerned about keeping up this year. Judging by the response so far, if anything, I am not going to have enough to sell.
So you are getting good reactions?
People seem to be really excited about it, especially people my age and younger. They are interested in food in a way that I think older generations aren’t necessarily. And they are interested in where it comes from and how it is grown and they understand the importance of having it grown locally. They are excited at having a new option for that because we have been pretty limited in Erie.
And that was part of the Idea Fund competition — impacting Erie? How will the farm impact Erie?
I think this project works on a lot of levels. First, it is about producing more fresh food for people in Erie to eat and for people who have limited access — by being in the city and coming to them. It is also about giving people who have access, access. I have a car and I can drive to the grocery store, but this gives people better options.
The redevelopment component is real for me. I think it is a fun project. It is an interesting project. There is also some vibrancy here that I think Erie needs, in terms of the neighborhood and putting the land back into use on the tax rolls and giving the neighborhood something cool. That part of town has been struggling for a long time. I think there are so many ways (the farm) contributes to the general momentum that Erie has right now to kind of turn the corner.
What is your long-range vision?
I hope it is a successful venture. I think there is a lot of potential in a lot of different directions. We know there is a lot of vacant land in Erie and there is going to be more if the comprehensive plan is implemented. There are a lot of blighted houses and things are going to be changing if we continue to implement the comprehensive plan. I don’t know, but theoretically, there is a lot of room for expansion. It depends on how receptive people are and how successful business is.
You talked about feeling that “Rust Belt vibe” growing up. How does it feel being part of something that might help the city turn a page?
It is really exciting. I really did come around to the idea that Erie is just as good as anywhere else and maybe even better. There is a lot of opportunity here and maybe people who have been here forever and don’t have the broader perspective might not see it. But land is really cheap. Buildings are really cheap. I think Erie has a lot more potential and a lot more opportunity than people give it credit for.
Lisa Thompson can be reached at 870-1802. Send email tolisa.thompson@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNthompson.
Unilever Launches Vegan Snack Line To Support Urban Farming Projects
Unilever, a global product corporation, recently introduced a new vegan snack line to benefit urban farming initiatives. Fifty percent of profits from these organic vegan crunchy clusters, Growing Roots, will be donated to various organizations that work to make fresh food accessible in urban areas.
Unilever Launches Vegan Snack Line To Support Urban Farming Projects
Posted by Tanya Flink | Mar 12, 2018
Unilever, a global product corporation, recently introduced a new vegan snack line to benefit urban farming initiatives. Fifty percent of profits from these organic vegan crunchy clusters, Growing Roots, will be donated to various organizations that work to make fresh food accessible in urban areas.
The new snack line launched at the Expo West 2018 trade show to attract attention to the product. Each of the four flavors are made with minimal, plant-based ingredients, such as corn, coconut, and seeds. Each is seasoned with spices, and two have a splash of alcohol for an extra kick. The clusters come in both sweet and savory varieties, including Cocoa Chipotle, Pineapple Coconut Rum, Maple Bourbon, and Coconut Curry. All flavors are certified organic, gluten-free, and vegan.
The proceeds from Growing Roots will strengthen Unilever’s work in supporting urban farming initiatives. Although the company services over four hundred brands around the world, it focuses on the individual communities that make up its international consumer base. Unilever is a strong believer in corporate social responsibility, and it is particularly interested in providing everyone access to affordable, healthy foods, and basic nutrition education.
Matthew McCarthy, the company’s Vice President of Foods for North America, said in a press release, “What’s so special about Growing Roots is that it started as a social mission that our employees were passionate about, born from the belief that everyone should have access to affordable, nutritious food.” He continued, “Seeing the transformational impact urban farms have in communities, we created a brand from the ground up to help fulfill and extend that mission.” Growing Roots is not just a product, it is an on-going campaign.
Urban farms are community-supported agricultural projects. These small farms provide produce to metropolitan areas that lack access to fresh foods, which are also known as food deserts. People living in these communities often rely on convenience stores for their nutritional needs, surviving off processed and packaged foods. Urban farms help these people gain access to fruits and vegetables and also serve as an educational tool. Residents learn first hand where their food comes from, in addition to learning about plant-based nutrition.
Growing Roots just launched at ShopRite stores in the Northeast, with plans to expand to retailers nationwide and Amazon.
Image Credit: Growing Roots and Green City Force
This Musk — Elon's brother — Looks To Revolutionize Urban Farming
This Musk — Elon's brother — Looks To Revolutionize Urban Farming
This Musk — Elon's brother — Looks To Revolutionize Urban Farming
Zlati Meyer, USA TODAY February 18, 2018
Square Roots urban farming has the equivalent of acres of land packed inside a few storage containers in a Brooklyn parking lot. USA TODAY
(Photo: Jennifer S. Altman, for USA TODAY)
NEW YORK – In sunny California, Elon Musk is upending America's auto and space industries. And here, in a cold, gritty section of Brooklyn, his brother Kimbal has embarked on a project that's just as significant in its own way: Trying to reboot the food system.
The younger Musk is the co-founder of Square Roots, an urban farming incubator with the goal of teaching young people how to farm in cities while preaching the importance of locally sourced, non-processed food.
Having shown its potential during the past two years in the parking lot of a shuttered factory near public housing projects of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, Square Roots is ready to branch out. It is looking to set up plots — each the equivalent of 2 acres of farmland — in cities across the U.S. They're hydroponic, which means the crops grow in a nutrient-laced water solution, not soil.
The sites in contention, all of which had to pledge support from local governments and businesses, are in Chicago, Denver, Memphis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Tampa, Atlanta, Dallas, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and a second site in New York. Musk and Square Roots CEO Tobias Peggs will narrow the list down to 10 later this year.
In Brooklyn, budding agricultural entrepreneurs set up year-round farms inside 10 retired metal ocean shipping containers and grow crops like microgreens, herbs and strawberries.
"I want them to get to know entrepreneurship through food," said Musk in a phone interview, who counts both growing business and food as big passions.
Kimbal Musk is a co-founder of Square Roots. (Photo: Neilson Barnard, Getty Images for New York Times)
In 2004, Musk co-founded The Kitchen Restaurant Group, which opened eateries in Colorado, Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana. Musk, who sits on the board of directors of his brother's electric car and solar power provider maker Tesla, also co-founded Big Green, an organization that installs gardens in underserved schools and teaches children about the importance of eating natural food.
With so much on his plate, Musk leaves the day-to-day running of Square Roots to Peggs. They usually talk twice a day, Peggs said. The two met while working at OneRiot, a social media target-advertising company in Colorado, which Walmart acquired in 2011. Peggs has a doctorate from Cardiff University in Wales in artificial intelligence but can just as easily switch to extolling the virtues of freshly-picked peppery arugula.
"By 2050, there’ll be 9.6 billion people on the planet and 70% of them in urban areas. That’s driving a lot of investment and interest in urban farming. Our thinking was if we start in New York and we can figure out solutions ... then we’ll be able to roll out those solutions to the world," he said.
To initially get set up in Brooklyn back in 2016, Square Roots raised $5 million in — no pun intended — seed money, Peggs explained. For each of the 10 new locations around the country, slightly more than $1 million is needed.
Peggs said the farmers find buyers for their produce, like stores, restaurants, and individuals, though they also inherit the client's list from previous Square Roots participants. Some of Square Roots' staff of 14 help generate leads, too. Thirty percent of what they earn goes to Square Roots, and expenses are another $30,000. That leaves them with an annual profit of $30,000 to $40,000.
A single 40-foot container provides 320 square feet of growing space. It is outfitted with long, narrow towers studded with crops that are hung on tracks from the ceiling in rows, like vertical blinds. The plants get their water and nutrients from irrigation pipes running along the tops of the towers and their sunlight from dangling narrow strips of LED lights. Besides arugula, crops include kale, radicchio, and pak choi.
More: Urban farmers grow veggies in freight containers
More: Farm on wheels will deliver fresh produce to food deserts
"What we’ve proven in the first phase is we can take young people with no experience in farming and get them very, very quickly to grow really high-quality food that people want to buy," he said.
Over the year-long program, the young, mostly 20-something farmers learn about not only agricultural science and farm management but also marketing, community outreach, leadership, and business, according to Peggs. During a typical week, they spend about 15 to 20 hours doing farm work, 10 hours handling the business side and 10 hours getting coached by Square Roots' in-house agriculture expert and the team of mentors the company has assembled.
Last year's group was comprised of 10 people, and this year has six. More than 1,500 individuals have applied to Square Roots, the company said.
The program has attracted participants like Hannah Sharaf, who sells her weekly yield of 25 to 30 pounds of microgreens to office workers for $7 per 2.25-ounce bag. Sharaf, 27, said she is fascinated by "how food affects the body," prompting her to give up a career in international marketing. "I really want to be a farmer. I'm exploring both urban and soil."
"High-profile, really cool projects are important because they draw attention to urban agriculture. They fascinate people. They attract capital, and that helps to grow the sector," said Nevin Cohen, research director of the City University of New York's Urban Food Policy Institute.
Part of the draw is the bold-faced name attached to it: Musk. That could make urban farming a bigger topic in the national conversation about local and fresh food, which also is driven by thousands of small activists, some of whom have been advocating for decades.
"I don’t enjoy the industrial food system. It's definitely not good for America or the world," Musk said, citing high obesity rates, the thousands of miles food has to be shipped and the lackluster taste. "We're very excited to teach America about real food."
But Musk acknowledged that not everyone can afford that — including some of Square Roots' neighbors. At least, not right now.
"It's not something restricted to the urban elite," he said. "Our mission is real food for everyone. We need food to be delicious and young entrepreneurs to be empowered."
Modular Farms Co Adopts Brisbane's Eat Street As Home
BRISBANE is now home to the first “modular farm” in Australia. And it’s just a stone’s throw from the CBD. Modular Farms Co opened its first permanently located herb and vegetable production facility, housed within a shipping container, at the popular food precinct, Eat Street Northshore.
Modular Farms Co Adopts Brisbane's Eat Street As Home
31 Mar 2018
INSTALLATION: The final piece to the Modular Farms Co vertical farm being installed at Brisbane’s Eat Street Northshore food precinct, earlier this month.
BRISBANE is now home to the first “modular farm” in Australia.
And it’s just a stone’s throw from the CBD.
Modular Farms Co opened its first permanently located herb and vegetable production facility, housed within a shipping container, at the popular food precinct, Eat Street Northshore.
The vertical hydroponic farm will help provide fresh herbs and vegetables to the numerous food vendors located within the precinct.
With access to power and water, Modular Farms can grow fresh produce nearly anywhere in the world and in any climate.
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The facility is a vertical hydroponic system inside shipping containers with the idea being to blend into the landscape that is synonymous with Eat Street’s aesthetic.
Modular Farms says the system is able to grow food sustainably and cleanly for everyone to enjoy and can be utilised anywhere, including those regions prone to devastating droughts.
Modular Farms has based its new Australian headquarters in based in Brisbane, where it will manufacture its state-of-the-art farming systems and modules designed for scalability and maximum “return on investment” for agriculturalists.
GOING UP: The vertical farming system allows for more growth in tighter spaces, ideal for shipping containers.
At the helm
LEADING Modular Farms Co in Australia are James and Prue Pateras, who aim to connect with local businesses, entrepreneurs and farmers, including those still recovering from, or experiencing drought.
"Having grown up on a farm near Melbourne and having experienced first-hand the distressing effects of drought, I wanted to create a new business model for farming, based on a concept of doing more with less,” director Jame Pateras said.
“With an invested interest in technology I knew it had the capability of improving productivity, sustainability and farming life. This is ultimately what I feel we have achieved.”
RIPE: A strawberry produced from within a modular farming system.
“Current farming practices are over 100 years old and are unsustainable for the next 100 years. Using Modular Farms technology, we are reducing food waste, increasing food security, and eliminating supply chain logistics to cut food miles.
“We are excited to be able to showcase what this amazing product can do by partnering with Eat Street Northshore and are so grateful for the opportunity it has afforded us.
“We welcome people to come and taste our produce in the delicious food being served at ESN.”
One of the partners in Eat Street, John Stainton, said he was thrilled to have a Modular Farm onsite.
“James and the modular team are now part of the family and the produce they are able to supply ensures we have a constant, and consistent supply of high quality, fresh food for our customers without the food miles,” Mr. Stainton said.
“You can’t get much fresher than having a farm on-site.”
HEALTHY HARVEST: Modular Farms says given access to water and power, the vertical farming system is able to produce food in all climates and areas, possibly helping drought-affected areas.
The Modular Farm will supply the Northshore precinct and OzHarvest with some of their fresh produce needs and will also provide the opportunity for potential Modular Farmers to see the technology in action.
What is Modular Farms Australia?
MODULAR Farms Australia is the first Modular Farming operation outside of North America providing fully engineered units compatible with multiple terrains, weather conditions and a focus on plant health.
Current modules include Primary and Vestibule with the Macro coming soon.
The Modular Farms App allows users to monitor and control their farm in real time from their smartphones.
By partnering with experts in LED lighting, plant health sciences and indoor agriculture, Modular Farms Australia brings opportunity for expansion and growth in the agricultural industry.
GOOD GLOW: Modular Farms Co director, James and Pateras, says vertical farming reduces food miles, cuts back on waste and increases food security.
To improve upon the first-generation shipping container concept, the research and development was jointly conceived by a team diversely educated farmers and engineers, including Mr Pateras, which resulted in the founding of the technologically advanced Modular Farms Co in Canada in 2015.
Its engineered farming units are designed with modularity and scalability in mind, taking Modular Farms to new terrains and markets.
According to the company, modular farming is suitable for remote and island communities, grocery stores, food services, agribusinesses and educational facilities wanting access to freshly harvested, sustainable food.
By doing so Modular Farms reduces food waste and transportation while increasing food security.
A World Of Pier Imagination: Design Firm Pitches Futuristic Eco-Towers For Manhattan Tip
An international design firm has crafted plans for the residential supertowers of tomorrow — complete with vertical farms, flying robo-taxi docks, and talking restaurants — and they’ve pegged Pier 2 off The Battery as the ideal site of their visionary development.
A World of Pier Imagination: Design Firm Pitches Futuristic Eco-Towers For Manhattan Tip
March 29, 2018 | Filed under: News | Posted by: Bill Egbert
Humphreys and Partners Architects’ highly speculative proposal for a high-tech, eco-friendly development for the tip of Manhattan would include vertical farms, photovoltaic windows, talking restaurants, and a host of other whiz-bang features.
BY COLIN MIXSON
March 29, 2018
An international design firm has crafted plans for the residential supertowers of tomorrow — complete with vertical farms, flying robo-taxi docks, and talking restaurants — and they’ve pegged Pier 2 off The Battery as the ideal site of their visionary development.
Humphreys and Partners Architects’ pair of high-tech high-rises may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but the combination of Downtown’s explosive growth, affluence, and high-tech industries — coupled with the city’s crumbling infrastructure — make Pier 2 a natural fit for the company’s forward-thinking homes, according to the firm’s Vice President of Design.
“Manhattan encompasses all the issues that we’re dealing with — extremely high construction cost, not enough parking, high population, high density, services about to collapse — that kind of thing,” said Walter Hughes. “There’s a lot of new stuff happening Downtown too.”
The Dallas-based design firm presented plans for its high-concept multifamily residential towers at the 2018 International Builder’s Show in Orlando in January, where Hughes showed off renderings depicting two, neon-lit towers, joined by sky bridges, and hugged by outdoor gardens and bulging glass terraces overlooking the harbor.
The building’s look is undeniably sci-fi, but it’s the towers’ whiz-bang amenities that make the development truly future-proof.
The entire complex is designed for 100-percent sustainability, with just about everything in the buildings either absorbing solar and kinetic energy or storing it. The structure would be constructed with photo-voltaic roofs and windows, walkways that absorb the energy of footsteps, walls that double as batteries, and integrated smart systems that let residents manage household consumption from their living room couch.
And these will quite literally be green buildings — the outside walls will be wrapped in vertical gardens sown with food crops and carbon-capturing vegetation.
Such cutting-edge sustainability features may seem futuristic for a stateside structure, but additions like these are becoming commonplace in new European buildings, where developers have left American builders in the dust, according to Hughes.
“It’s no question, sustainability is completely accepted in Europe,” he said. “Everything they’re building is net zero. In the U.S., our mindset is at least 15 years behind.”
To save time and money, the building would be built in modular pieces off-site — a process that takes about a third the time is 50-percent more energy-efficient and would cause significantly fewer quality-of-life issues to Downtown residents, who have long suffered the constant racket of non-stop construction.
Solar windows, smart appliances, and modular construction are all off-the-shelf technologies in use today, but some of Humphreys and Partners’ other plans for Pier 2 are a bit more off the wall.
The complex would be serviced by a Hyperloop train, a high-tech subway replacement currently in development by Elon Musk — of electric-car and space-rocket fame — which aims to use magnets to propel passenger pods at speeds of around 600 mph through airless tubes to avoid that age-old impediment to velocity: friction.
Other transit options would include autonomous-car parks that promise to recharge electric vehicles within 30 minutes, and self-driving busses, which Hughes insists will be commonplace within a decade. But it may be a little longer before another of Pier 2’s transportation amenities becomes practical — helipads for robotic, flying taxis.
Even the lifts will be straight out of Star Trek, and like the turbolifts that ferried crewmen around the starship Enterprise, the elevator cars would travel both vertically and horizontally, allowing for swift lateral movement across the two towers.
And as with many current techno-trends focused on cutting out the middleman —emphasis on man — the future buildings will also accommodate residents’ desire to avoid the rest of humanity, with features that allow easy airborne and ground-based drone deliveries, along with a talking restaurant that doesn’t require any human contact — like Seamless IRL.
The Pier 2 concept complex will almost certainly never be built, Hughes conceded, but he insists that buildings like it will become more and more common in the coming years. And while the pie-in-the-sky proposal is mostly a way for the firm to show off its design chops, it’s also a way for the visionaries there to sharpen their teeth and prepare for the residential demands of tomorrow, he said.
“We’re always looking at what’s coming, what’s next, what are the issues we’ll have to deal with five-to-10 years from now, and we start preparing ourselves and answer those questions before they’re here,” said Hughes.
When Farm-to-Table Comes To Your Own Front Yard
Kevin Meehan, chef-owner of Kali restaurant on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, in an urban garden located in the front yard of a home near his restaurant. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
"We're a farm-to-table restaurant."
Sound familiar? These words are part of the repertoire of greetings uttered by countless servers in Los Angeles and beyond.
If you've been paying attention, the term farm-to-table, which refers to the idea of showcasing farm produce on your menu — and was coined by this paper's own restaurant critic Jonathan Gold in a 2000 Gourmet article — is nothing new. In fact, it's been used to describe just about every notable restaurant opening in the last decade.
Garden-on-the-neighbor's-front-lawn-to-table? Now that's something a little different.
After operating a roaming pop-up dinner party series called Kali Dining, chef Kevin Meehan, who grew up in Long Island, N.Y., and has cooked at the Los Angeles restaurants L'Orangerie, Bastide and Citrine, opened Kali restaurant on Melrose Avenue in 2016. A little more than a year ago, he started knocking on the doors of the squat Craftsman houses that surround the Larchmont restaurant, determined to find a neighbor who would let him grow a garden on their front lawn.
"I decided to get weird," says Meehan on a recent afternoon, dressed in crisp chef's whites and a blue apron. "It's my dream as a chef to have a farm like Blue Hill at Stone Barns, but that's not going to happen in L.A. So I knocked on this one door and asked if I could beautify the front yard with a garden. The guy who answered was like, 'Nah, not interested, weirdo.' So I kept going."
Kevin Meehan waters the plants in an urban garden located in the front yard of a home near his restaurant. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Meehan's luck changed on his sixth try, when he came to a dark gray, single-story house with white trim, bars on the windows and a white Mercedes in the driveway. "The guy who owns it just said, 'Hell yeah,'" says Meehan. "He wants no money. He won't even take money for the water. So I beautified his front yard. Boom."
What was a square lawn covered in drought-ridden grass is now a sprawling grid of nine 12-foot by 3-foot garden beds made of beautiful California redwood, collectively filled with about $1,500-worth of soil. It's like a small oasis, smack dab in the middle of the block.
Rosemary sprigs threaten to overtake one of the beds while red sorrel, mustard frills and arugula fill another. Oregano and Cuban oregano grow next to each other alongside a patch of salad burnet. The box full of dinosaur kale looks like it could supply bowls of salad at the restaurant for weeks. There's a section full of thyme, and just across a small walkway: sage, parsley and nasturtiums. And this is just the beginning.
And all that produce accentuates just about every dish on the menu: kale salad with crème fraîche; charred Hass avocado surrounded by garden greens; a burrata salad studded with mustard frills; yellowtail crudo zapped with peppery nasturtiums; cavatelli pasta served in a ring of crispy arugula.
Violas grow in an urban garden located in the front yard of a home near Kali restaurant in Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Meehan gets what he plants from Jimmy Williams and his son Logan, who together run Logan's Garden. The father-and-son duo sell plants and fertilizer mix at the Sunday Hollywood and Wednesday Santa Monica farmers markets. They advise Meehan on the garden, encourage certain plants and give him tips on how to keep them thriving.
"I worked out this deal with them so they give me everything for free and we do a food trade," says Meehan. "They come in once a week for dinner and a bottle of wine and they give me $400 worth of stuff to plant."
In addition to venturing out into the neighborhood, Meehan asked the woman who runs a book binding shop next to the restaurant if he could put a garden bed outside her back door. The shop's owner, Charlene Matthews, said yes, and this is where Meehan mostly grows herbs and some arugula, in a single garden bed just steps from the restaurant.
"It's nice because it looks really good and I guess I steal a bit of arugula," says Matthews. "I was happy when they said they wanted to put the garden bed in. There should be gardens like this in more places."
Meehan's plan is to take over more front yards in the neighborhood, and he says he's not opposed to foraging in the area, deriving inspiration from his surroundings.
Kevin Meehan plants mustard frills in an urban garden located in the front yard of a home near his restaurant. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
"I look at my commute from Culver City as one supermarket that's just waiting to get tapped into," says Meehan as he points out a lemon tree in a neighbor's backyard. "I tell my chefs when they park their cars to keep a lookout."
In the two years, he's been in this location, Meehan has picked lemons from that neighbor, loquats from another nearby house, cactus fruit from the house directly behind the restaurant — he uses it to make sorbet — and pink peppercorns from a nearby tree.
"I constantly put feelers out there on social media to see if people have fruit trees," says Meehan. "I tell them to bring them through, even if they aren't perfect, because we can make jams — and we'll hook them up with a free meal."
You could say the garden is a fluid extension of the chef's obsession with getting to the root of things — the building blocks that form his every dish.
A walk through the chef's kitchen reveals no less than 10 slow cookers full of black garlic, some of which have been fermenting for weeks. He'll turn that garlic into his own umami powder, which he uses to season dishes, dust plates of crudo and coat his fried chicken sandwiches. In the back of the kitchen, Meehan makes his own butter. He uses the buttermilk to make his own crème fraîche and bread. Jars of pickles line one wall of the small kitchen. And he makes his own yogurt too.
Chef Kevin Meehan inside the kitchen of his restaurant, Kali. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Back in the garden, Meehan places a pizza box on the dirt next to one of the beds, kneels down on top of it, rolls up his sleeves, and prepares to switch out some of the lettuces.
Meehan persuaded another neighbor to let him use his front lawn. And at some point, he's hoping all the neighbors will say yes.
"There are so many benefits to this, and it helps me keep my cooks engaged and happy," says Meehan. "There's a real connection to the food and you don't want to waste anything because you can see what it took to grow it."
On his way back to the restaurant from the garden, Meehan spies a man a few houses down, who is out front watering his lawn. The chef quickly rushes over to him.
"Want to get weird?" Meehan asks.
Local chefs with dedicated gardens
Nyesha Arrington of Native restaurant in Santa Monica works with the Cook's Garden on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. Gardener Geri Miller turned a vacant lot into the garden in 2013, and runs it with her team from Home Grown Edible Landscapes. Arrington is currently getting nasturtium and passion fruit from the garden. The Cook's Garden also works with Antonia Lofaso of Scopa Italian Roots, the Tasting Kitchen, Tender Greens, Wes Avila of Guerrilla Tacos, Michael Fiorelli of Love & Salt and Bruce Kalman of Union Restaurant.
Tony Esnault of Church & State and Spring restaurants, both in downtown L.A., works with the Community Garden on Industrial Street in the Arts District, located between Mateo and Mill streets. Residents of the Biscuit Lofts, where Church & State is located, launched the small garden (four garden beds) in 2009. Esnault's mother-in-law Shamsi Katebi maintains Esnault's two beds in the garden, as well as some planter boxes outside the restaurant's kitchen door. She also grows herbs in the flower pots that surround the restaurant's patio. At the community garden, Katebi is growing kale, Swiss chard, fennel, nasturtium, borage, lemon verbena, parsley, basil and cilantro. And in the planter boxes, she's growing herbs and edible flowers.
Gary Menes of Le Comptoir in Koreatown turned the front, back and side yards at his mother's Long Beach house into a garden last year. He grows everything in 1- and 5-gallon pots using compost and organic fertilizer. Menes says he purchases most of his seeds from Bakers Creek in Missouri, and is currently growing a market's-worth of produce including cipollini onions, four kinds of radishes, sprouting broccoli, two kinds of cauliflower, fava beans, English peas, potatoes, eggplant, garlic chives and more.
Timothy Hollingsworth of Otium in downtown L.A. worked with LA Urban Farms to plant a garden on the rooftop of his restaurant a couple of weeks before it opened in late 2015. There are 24 vertical pods on the rooftop used to grow sage, lettuce, kale, fennel fronds, borage, arugula, mustard frills, mustard greens and more. The restaurant chefs maintain the garden on a daily basis but the pods are on an automated system that waters the plants. And a team from LA Urban Farms comes out to check on the garden weekly.
Niki Nakayama of n/naka and her wife and sous chef Carole Lida-Nakayama planted a garden at their home in Los Angeles in 2006. Farmscape, an Eagle Rock-based company that helps manage gardens, maintains the garden, which grows on the front yard of the house. The Nakayamas grow Japanese vegetables including cucumbers, eggplant and herbs such as shiso for the restaurant.
Fernando Darin at Ray's & Stark Bar at LACMA recently rearranged the onsite garden, which was started at the restaurant in 2014. In the seven raised beds, Darin is growing arugula, mustard greens, sorrel, cilantro and edible flowers. The restaurant also has a compost program that turns organic food waste into soil used in the garden.
Arthur Gonzalez of Roe Seafood and Panxa Cocina works with Sasha Kanno, owner and operator of Farm Lot 59 in Long Beach to grow produce for his restaurants. Kanno created the 6-acre farm in 2010. She and Gonzalez are currently growing fennel, carrots, huacatay, lavender, kale, serrano peppers, jalapeño peppers and tomatoes for the restaurants.
An Akron Company Is Farming Sustainable Produce Inside Former BFGoodrich Factory
An Akron Company Is Farming Sustainable Produce Inside Former BFGoodrich Factory
The trio harvests lettuce, basil, microgreens and more in the former tire facility.
The unassuming brick buildings and parking lots lining downtown Akron’s South Main Street hide something remarkable.
On the third floor of the 110-year-old former BFGoodrich tire factory, a 6,000-square-foot, purple-lit greenhouse resembles a mad scientist’s laboratory. But instead of plotting a world takeover, Vigeo Gardens uses custom-designed and -engineered hydroponic vertical gardens to change the way Northeast Ohioans’ food gets from farm to table.
“We’re not just farmers,” says Jacob Craine, chief marketing officer. “Vigeo is focused on agricultural technologies that highlight integrity, producing products we would actually eat with the highest nutritional value possible.”
The seed for Vigeo — which means “to thrive and flourish” in Latin — was planted in 2015 at the University of Akron. Childhood friends CEO Vincent Peterson and Craine saw a chef harvesting microgreens, a fast form of farming in which the crop is picked just after the first leaves sprout. Both restaurant employees, the pair thought it could be the key to putting better crops on diners’ plates.
“We decided to set up a garden in my girlfriend’s basement,” says Craine. “We were constantly coming up with ideas to increase our harvest in the most chemical-free, pesticide-free, non-GMO way possible.”
Three years later, after adding chief operating officer Mark Preston and upgrading Vigeo Gardens’ basement digs to its current space, the company is harvesting thousands of heads of lettuce, hundreds of trays of microgreens and a few hundred pounds of basil every week.
Three giant fertrollers maintain the pH and nutrient levels of the water that is constantly cycled through three zones and 37 giant racks, feeding the roots of eight types of lettuce and 25 varieties of microgreens.
This closed system, which lets plants grow even in the harshest winter months, helps reduce clients’ carbon footprint by removing the need to truck greens from California to meet Cleveland diners’ demands in February.
Its client list includes more than 60 restaurants, including Zack Bruell’s restaurant group, and grocery stores such as Heinen’s and Giant Eagle. The company, on track to hit $1 million in sales this year, even inked a deal with Quicken Loans Arena in December.
Next stop for Vigeo Gardens? An abandoned warehouse near you.
“We want to take old Rust Belt factories sitting there doing nothing and create an efficient vertical farm producing food that people will be proud to have on their plate,” says Craine. “You don’t have to knock down buildings to make room for the innovation we desperately need in our food system."
Profits Mushroom For This Urban Farmer
Kamala makes ₹30,000 a month after turning her Bengaluru house into a mushroom farm.
Profits Mushroom For This Urban Farmer
B S Satish Kumar
BENGALURU, MARCH 16, 2018
Kamala
Kamala makes ₹30,000 a month after turning her Bengaluru house into a mushroom farm
A small house can turn into an urban farm, yielding a tidy income. That is what it did for 40-year-old Kamala, who gave up her job as a garment worker in Bengaluru and turned her house into a 1,200 sq. ft. plot into a mushroom farm.
Two decades of back-breaking work in different garment factories in the city convinced the woman, who has a pre-university education, that it was time to try something less strenuous. “The continuous hard work does not even give you enough time to visit the washroom. It started making me feel as though I was in jail,” she recalls.
She quit the garment job that was fetching her ₹8,000 a month and chanced upon an article on mushrooms in a magazine. Inspired, she went to Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), 4 km from her house on Tumakuru road on the city’s outskirts, and enrolled in a mushroom cultivation course.
“A short training session by experts was offered, after which I launched cultivation in my house about two years ago. It started with two to three kg a month. Now I grow 50 to 60 kg of oyster mushrooms a month without engaging labour, and earn a profit of about ₹30,000,” she says proudly.
What she cultivates is sold to hotels and vegetable shops regularly. Now that Ms. Kamala has mastered the basics, she has joined a training programme at IIHR on value addition: turning leftover mushrooms into sambar powder and ready-to-eat products.
Her quest now is to set up a unique hotel that is dedicated to mushroom dishes in her husband’s hometown of Kushalanagar in Kodagu district. He works as a supervisor in a garment unit, and the couple has a daughter and a son.
“I know I have the potential to increase mushroom production five-fold. But I cannot raise the resources required for such an increase on my own. I am looking for government assistance in any form,” she says.
Ms. Kamala has become an example for her former colleagues in the garment industry, and some have adopted her business model. “People from farming families too can add to their incomes with mushrooms,” she says. On Thursday, she was honoured by the IIHR for her achievements at the inaugural session of its three-day national horticultural fair which attracted farmers from several States.
Welcome To The Family!
Welcome To The Family!
We are delighted that Andrea Theodore and Jorge Inda Meza are joining the GrowGood board of directors. We thought you'd like to get to know them a bit.
Andrea is executive vice president and CMO at Pharmavite, which makes Nature Made vitamins and supplements. She is in charge of leading marketing, strategy and venturing into new emerging spaces for the company. And she has more than two decades of experience in consumer goods at PepsicoEmerging Nutrition and Procter & Gamble. Her husband, Bob, is a builder who also wants to get involved. In fact, it was Bob who saw a posting about GrowGood and told Andrea, "I feel like this is made for you."
Jorge works for Anheuser-Busch as the head of marketing for western North America and is responsible for communications strategy and partnerships and brand programs.
We asked Andrea and Jorge a few questions. Here's what they had to say!
What made you decide that you and GrowGood
were meant to be?
Andrea: I moved to Los Angeles six years ago. My husband and I have always had a passion for inner-city issues and opportunities to grow communities. The first place I was able to use that passion was when I was on the Naked brand and connected with Wholesome Wave (a food nonprofit) to donate fresh fruit and vegetables. The opportunity to work on homelessness was a big one, and I really felt like GrowGood was the perfect place for me to exercise my passion, be involved with an organization that had the same sense of purpose.
Jorge: I think for me it was the notion that these ways of helping, growing food, are more powerful and more personal than just donating money. Having a platform that is about growingfood for a community that needs it and employing people and teaching people to give them job opportunities is such a powerful way of bringing good to the community. It’s such a unique thing, rather than let’s raise money to donate. I wanted to be part of the solution, rather than just a spectator. I have a strong attachment to the community; it is a Hispanic community for the most part, and I come from Mexico.
What are you most eager to get started on
at GrowGood?
Andrea: I am most eager to get my hands dirty and get to spend time with the people in the Bell community and be a part of it. From a board standpoint, I’m most excited to use the 24-plus years of experience I have in consumer goods, packaged goods and help other people see the passion and get involved.
Jorge: I want to help the team to get the word out, to get more and more people in Los Angeles, in Southern California and beyond to know about it, and to find out about the mission of the organization. And following that, telling the town and telling the world, getting people supporting it – donations, volunteering, getting the food out to more places. Making sure that as many people as possible know about it.
Anything else?
Andrea: I’m sort of infatuated with Charlie (Southward, a farmer at GrowGood)
and I just want to be able to exude the same passion he does.
Jorge: I think to me it’s more that in today’s age, everyone can be involved in any sort of capacity to do good -- from sharing a newsletter with your friends to actually volunteering on the farm and making sure people who don’t have the same opportunities have food. In today’s world, if every reader could tell their friends about GrowGood, we’ll get a lot better. Thank you!
Whirlwind Thursday
For a small organization, our dance card can get really full. Thursday, February 22nd, was one of those busy days for GrowGood – a day that shows our reach and the terrific work that goes on at our farm and in our programs.
First, the culinary class served delicious food students made at an open house for staff to promote openings in the next class, which will begin in a few weeks. Reviews of the food were excellent.
It was such a joy to see Carl Mack, Roy Huerta and Izzy Medero all in uniform, showing off what they learned, and watching them made it no surprise they've all been offered employment. There were biscuits and homemade citrus marmalade, a salad with creamy herbal dressing and roasted vegetableswith a green sauce. (If you’d like any of those recipes, please email Mary.)
"You're going to love that. I made that. Roy, here, made the biscuits, and I made the salad, which is organic from the garden.
The vegetables were made by Carl." (Izzy)
One case manager at the shelter, Kyna Morris, said it's gratifying to see "any client come here, at their lowest point sometimes, and to assist them building themselves back up." Of Izzy, she said, "You can see him shining from the inside."
That afternoon, shelter resident Allan Kesick, who is a member of the Algonquin Nation and the Odawa Tribe from Michigan, gave the farm a blessing and told the staff about his traditions.
He filled the bird-shaped bowl of his pipe with sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and tobacco, and used it to reach to the ground and to the sky at the four points of the compass. Traditionally, a blessing would be given for each round of planting, he said. He also cleansed the staff and guests using a white sage smudge stick.
And that’s not all. It was the 30th birthday of our farmhand Velva Flemings! Finally, Jayne Torres, program cultivator, and Mary MacVean, executive director, gave a tour to a group of guests from the Department of Public Health. We’re all hoping for future collaboration.
How Urban Farmers Are learning To Grow Food Without Soil Or Natural Light
How Urban Farmers Are learning To Grow Food Without Soil Or Natural Light
February 13, 2018
Mandy Zammit/Grow Up, Author provided
Author
- Silvio Caputo
Senior Lecturer, University of Portsmouth
Disclosure statement
Silvio Caputo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners
University of Portsmouth provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.
Growing food in cities became popular in Europe and North America during and immediately after World War II. Urban farming provided citizens with food, at a time when resources were desperately scarce. In the decades that followed, parcels of land which had been given over to allotments and city farms were gradually taken up for urban development. But recently, there has been a renewed interest in urban farming – albeit for very different reasons than before.
As part of a recent research project investigating how urban farming is evolving across Europe, I found that in countries where growing food was embedded in the national culture, many people have started new food production projects. There was less uptake in countries such as Greece and Slovenia, where there was no tradition of urban farming. Yet a few community projects had recently been started in those places too.
Today’s urban farmers don’t just grow food to eat; they also see urban agriculture as a way of increasing the diversity of plants and animals in the city, bringing people from different backgrounds and age groups together, improving mental and physical health and regenerating derelict neighbourhoods.
Many new urban farming projects still struggle to find suitable green spaces. But people are finding inventive solutions; growing food in skips or on rooftops, on sites that are only temporarily free, or on raised beds in abandoned industrial yards. Growers are even using technologies such as hydroponics, aquaculture and aquaponics to make the most of unoccupied spaces.
Something fishy
Hydroponic systems were engineered as a highly space and resource efficient form of farming. Today, they represent a considerable source of industrially grown produce; one estimate suggests that, in 2016, the hydroponic vegetable market was worth about US$6.9 billion worldwide.
Hydroponics enable people to grow food without soil and natural light, using blocks of porous material where the plants’ roots grow, and artificial lighting such as low-energy LED. A study on lettuce production found that although hydroponic crops require significantly more energy than conventionally grown food, they also use less water and have considerably higher yields.
Growing hydroponic crops usually requires sophisticated technology, specialist skills and expensive equipment. But simplified versions can be affordable and easy to use.
They grow up so fast. Mandy Zammit/Grow Up, Author provided
Hemmaodlat is an organisation based in Malmö, in a neighbourhood primarily occupied by low-income groups and immigrants. The area is densely built, and there’s no green space available to grow food locally. Plus, the Swedish summer is short and not always ideal for growing crops. Instead, the organisation aims to promote hydroponic systems among local communities, as a way to grow fresh food using low-cost equipment.
The Bristol Fish Project is a community-supported aquaponics farm, which breeds fish and uses the organic waste they produce to fertilise plants grown hydroponically. GrowUp is another aquaponics venture located in an East London warehouse – they grow food and farm fish using only artificial light. Similarly, Growing Underground is an enterprise that produces crops in tunnels, which were originally built as air raid shelters during World War II in London.
The next big thing?
The potential to grow food in small spaces, under any environmental conditions, are certainly big advantages in an urban context. But these technologies also mean that the time spent outdoors, weathering the natural cycles of the seasons, is lost. Also, hydroponic systems require nutrients that are often synthesised chemically – although organic nutrients are now becoming available. Many urban farmers grow their food following organic principles, partly because the excessive use of chemical fertilisers is damaging soil fertilityand polluting groundwater.
To see whether these drawbacks would put urban growers off using hydroponic systems, my colleagues and I conducted a pilot study in Portsmouth. We installed small hydroponic units in two local community gardens, and interviewed volunteers and visitors to the gardens. Many of the people we spoke to were well informed about hydroponic technology, and knew that some of the vegetables sold in supermarkets today are produced with this system.
A simplified hydroponic frame in Portsmouth. Silvio Caputo/University of Portsmouth, Author provided
Many were fascinated by the idea of growing food without soil within their community projects, but at the same time reluctant to consume the produce because of the chemical nutrients used. A few interviewees were also uncomfortable with the idea that the food was not grown naturally. We intend to repeat this experiment in the near future, to see how public opinion changes over time.
And while we don’t think hydroponic systems can replace the enjoyment that growing food in soil can offer, they can save water and produce safe food, either indoors or outdoors, in a world with increasingly scarce resources. Learning to use these new technologies, and integrating them into existing projects, can only help to grow even more sustainable food.
As with many technological advancements, it could be that a period of slow acceptance will be followed by rapid, widespread uptake. Perhaps the fact that IKEA is selling portable hydroponic units, while hydroponic cabinets are on the market as components of kitchen systems, is a sign that this technology is primed to enter mainstream use.
Architecture Students Impress At GREAT Festival of Innovation
De Montfort University’s Leicester School of Architecture MArch students Tom Cox and Khanh Nguyen described their visions for a sky farm and vertical villages which would emphasise creating communities and connections.
Architecture Students Impress At GREAT Festival of Innovation
Students’ designs which could reshape entire cities and help us reconnect with the process of growing the food we eat have been praised by a packed audience at Hong Kong’s GREAT Festival of Innovation.
March 22, 2018
De Montfort University’s Leicester School of Architecture MArch students Tom Cox and Khanh Nguyen described their visions for a sky farm and vertical villages which would emphasise creating communities and connections.
They could not have chosen a better place to discuss vertical living than Hong Kong, which has more than 7,800 high-rise blocks. Its Wan Chai area is one of the most densely-populated places in the world.
Dr Yuri Hadi, senior lecturer in Architecture, said that with ever-increasing populations, the challenge of managing and planning urban areas that worked for all was “the most important challenge of the 21st century.”
He said: “The answer lies in discovering how we live, work and play, what we enjoy and what we need for wellbeing. The challenge in design is how we shape that environment that effectively or positively affects social life.”
“What we have been doing for the past 100 years is that we stack up flats like layer cake. What we are trying to propose is, what if you can look at it as a series of communities. We look at it as a structure from the outside but we rarely think about how it feels living inside.”
Instead of corridors of flats or apartments with no central community spaces, Khanh’s 60-storey vertical village could house 1,000 people, all living in spaces designed to be social such as parks every sixth floor, and 10 ‘sky farms’ which would be areas designated for allotments and wildlife spaces to encourage biodiversity.
Tom’s sky farm showed how crops could be grown vertically, using nitrogen filtered from car or factory emissions to provide an organic plant food. Using vertical farming methods leads to higher yields and could provide jobs and homes as part of the development.
The students’ presentation was given centre stage in the GREAT festival’s Lippo Amphitheatre, one of just three stages offered for people to share ideas, entrepreneurial stories or debate key issues facing the creative, technology and digital industries. It was attended by some of the biggest names in design.
Simon Bee of international design firm Benoy – which has designed Manchester’s Media City, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi and has designed the new Hong Kong Waterfront - was full of praise for their work. He said: “This is completely relevant in Hong Kong. I think these are both wonderful examples of where we should be headed. This is right on the money in the sort of things that young people should be looking at in this part of the world.”
Tim Bowder-Ridger CEO and senior partner of major London design practice Conran and Partners, which recently opened an office in Hong Kong, also praised Tom and Khanh’s work, telling them: “Fantastic ideas and really excellent presentations.”
Khanh said: “I was very nervous before but very happy now. The audience asked a lot of questions and I think they liked our ideas.
Tom said he was “a bit stunned” by the reception to their work. He said: “I cannot believe how well received our ideas were. To hear from people that they thought we were onto something, and to have such great feedback from people from such big firms and to have them coming up to us afterward and giving us business cards, what an opportunity!”
RELATED NEWS:
* Find out about studying Architecture at our next open day
* WATCH video of Khanh's vertical village here
* DMU Architecture graduate named industry's rising star
DMU is the sole higher education partner for GREAT, the UK Government’s key platform for creating trade deals and growing UK businesses. The four-day festival looks at innovation in the areas of work, live, play and learn.
Tomorrow students and graduates from DMU’s renowned Fashion Design course will be running pop-up salon shows. Across all four days of the festival, DMU is showcasing international experience programme #DMUglobal and #DMUworks, our new way for students to get skills and businesses to get access to talent that could create the next innovation.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape.
Vincent Callebaut’s Arboricole Tower Brings Vertical Agriculture To The City
Vincent Callebaut Architectures, known for green projects that combine smart building with advanced renewable energy solutions, has officially unveiled Arboricole – a new “biophilic” building that brings agriculture to the urban landscape. Residents of the building can grow food on their own terraces thanks to permaculture, with the building’s curved, sinuous design acting to reduce turbulence and maximize comfort in these elevated gardens.
- Arboricole aims to answer a vital question: how can we adapt our European historic cities to climate change and the ensuing phenomena of strong floods, heavy rains, and current heat waves? To help combat these events, the building is covered with endemic plants from the Loire region that act as a “sponge,” limiting its carbon footprint, collecting rainwater, and optimizing the residents’ quality of life.
Related: Vincent Callebaut’s twisting carbon-absorbing skyscraper nears completion in Taipei
White tuffeau stone covers the building’s wave-shaped facade. The architects drew inspiration from the agriculture of the Angevin groves, whose undulating plateaus create a visually engaging waterfall effect. Designed for the intersection of Boulevard Ayrault and Quai Gambetta in Angers, France, the building gradually rises to 114 feet (35 meters) and maximizes the amount of sunshine each terrace receives during the day.
Related: This plant-covered Singapore skyscraper is the tropical building of the future
Micro-perforated satin aluminum plates serve as false acoustic ceilings for the balconies, absorbing the noise pollution emitted by car traffic and showcasing the plant life climbing Arboricole’s vertical grove. And, not to be outdone, the plants themselves – 20,000 perennials, shrubs, and trees – could absorb up to 50 tons of CO2 in Angers’s atmosphere each year.
A’s Unveil The Farm, Another New Coliseum Feature For 2018
A’s Unveil The Farm, Another New Coliseum Feature For 2018
Quite literally rooted in Oakland.
March 13, 2018
Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Just like last season’s Championship Plaza and this season’s The Treehouse, the Oakland A’s have announced yet another new improvement to the Oakland Coliseum: The Farm.
No, don’t worry, there won’t be a petting zoo, a herd of cows, or a John Deere tractor, but the Farm will be a unique and special new attraction for fans. Located at the south end of the East Side Club near the right field flag poles, it will feature an assortment of produce and flowers planted in large redwood planters along with picnic tables and benches so fans can watch and enjoy the game.
So what makes the Farm different from other gardens, pools, and special features at stadiums around the league? This garden is legitimately “Rooted In Oakland,” and not simply because of its location. To make the Farm happen, the A’s have partnered with Acta Non Verba, an East Oakland nonprofit whose mission is to create safe outdoor areas for people in the community to enjoy.
Acta Non Verba will then be able to sell the produce grown in the Farm. The money will go to students as long-term investments toward their college educations. The upkeep of the Farm will be in the hands of volunteer students of all ages as part of Acta Non Verba’s after-school volunteer program.
The Farm is not just another feature for the stadium — it’s helping Oakland community youths’ hopes for a better education and a brighter future. It will be a place where local children along with adult fans can not only enjoy the game but learn more about urban agriculture, play, relax and expand their horizons.
Kelly Carlisle, the founder and executive director of Acta Non Verba, says she is honored to partner with the Athletics and proud to be able to bring more attention to the nonprofit’s philanthropic work. Acta Non Verba is — like the A’s — also “Rooted in Oakland.”
A’s team president Dave Kaval echoed Carlisle’s sentiments, saying:
“We are thrilled to partner with Acta Non Verba to convert an unused space on the concourse into a unique, interactive gathering place for our fans. Acta Non Verba does wonderful work in Oakland, and this is a dynamic way for us to engage with youth and their families in our community while investing in their futures. This fun space brings a whole new meaning to ‘Rooted in Oakland.’”
Not only will the Farm teach fans about urban agriculture and support children’s educations, it will also educate them about Minor League Baseball by highlighting the A’s MiLB affiliates: the Nashville Sounds, Midland RockHounds, Stockton Ports, Beloit Snappers, and Vermont Lake Monsters. Each team in the A’s farm system will be represented by a scarecrow dressed in the team’s uniform and placed in planters around the Farm, and the area will feature in-game segments on the minor league teams’ accomplishments and prospect updates provided by NBC Sports California.
More importantly, however, celebrity chef Nikki Shaw will host a regular segment teaching kids about healthy living and eating as well as sustainability. The Farm will then not only be a boost to the Oakland community and to the Coliseum, but it will in fact be educating all its visitors on the importance of nutrition as well as saving the planet.
The Farm will be open to approximately 100 fans at a time, but the beautiful new space will also be available for groups of fans to book for pregame events.
The Farm is a wonderful new feature for the stadium promoting education, fun, baseball, and the importance of sustainability to the health of our planet. Plus, by working with an Oakland nonprofit that is also “Rooted in Oakland,” the Farm is yet another way to show A’s fans that the team is committed to the community.