New Stories From 'Urban Agriculture Notes'

These open-surface waters often contain unmonitored concentrations of health-threatening contaminants, posing risks to human health, especially when used to produce vegetables for consumption.

By Wisdom JONNY-NUEKPE
B and FT Online
April 21, 2024

Excerpt:

An analysis of heavy metals and pathogen levels in vegetables grown using water from selected urban areas of the Greater Accra Metropolis has revealed that consumers face health risks linked to mercury (a heavy metal) and faecal coliforms.

The study, titled ‘Analysis of Heavy Metals and Pathogen Levels in Vegetables Cultivated Using Selected Water Bodies in Urban Areas of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA)’, was published in April 2024. It examines the levels of heavy metals and faecal coliform in two vegetables, lettuce and bell pepper, cultivated using open-surface wastewater from drains and constructed reservoirs at various locations within GAMA.

“The plants grow themselves but I would say just the watering and the harvesting takes a fair bit of time,” said Guthrie.

By Kevin Fleming
CTV News Calgary Video
Apr 19, 2024

Excerpt:

Science students at the University of Calgary use their roof top greenhouse to conduct all kinds of projects and had a little extra space that wasn’t being used. so some of them came up with the idea of growing food for the campus food bank.

“It was sort of a collaboration between a few people,” said Allison Guthrie, grad student. “But I was a big part of starting it, the Dean definitely was very supportive right from the very beginning, encouraged me and pointed out ways that we could do it.”

Kristin Baetz, the dean of science, says when students have initiatives that it has a big impact in the community.

A ‘people’s rally’ is bringing community food growers together from all over London next weekend to create a charter for the “right to grow food” on public land.

By Mike Brooke
Your Local Guardian
Apr 19, 2024

Excerpt:

It is being staged on April 27 for campaigners to “meet the challenges of urban food cultivation” for a more sustainable future.

Speakers at the rally, staged by the Roots and Shoots organisation at Kennington in south London, include the founder of Incredible Edible gardening project Pam Warhurst who advocates a “right to grow” policy for local authorities to maintain public land suitable for community cultivation.

“People are one of our most under-used assets for climate and food security,” Pam insists. “Communities want to grow their own food.

“It’s time for local authorities to trust people to steward public land in the places they call home by giving them a ‘right to grow’.”

As developers and city officials grapple with what to do with an abundance of vacant office space, particularly in downtown areas, the unexpected harmony between urban farming and commercial real estate office buildings may emerge as a creative, even if temporary, solution

By Warren Seay, Jr.
National Law Review
Apr 19, 2024

Excerpt:

Property owners who are thinking about converting vacant office space into vertical farms must carefully examine the applicable zoning laws. Updated zoning regulations have made it easier in most cities, including DC, to convert office space for residential use, but urban farming has not received the same attention. However, some cities, like Arlington, Virginia and New York City, are streamlining the process for office-to-farm transformations by modifying their zoning laws.

If you’re a property owner interested in these conversions, stay alert to evolving local zoning regulations.

By integrating an urban farm into their property, owners may be eligible to unlock immediate financial benefits at the local level.

“Our action will help expand access to healthy and fresh food by enabling people to farm in their own neighborhoods.”

By Sharon Bernstein
Reuters
June 16, 2014

Excerpt:

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 16 (Reuters) – San Francisco would be the first city in California to offer property owners a tax break if they agree to make empty lots available for urban agriculture, under an ordinance to be introduced at the city’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The measure to create an urban agriculture enterprise zone is the latest effort by U.S. cities to turn blighted properties into useful and attractive urban farms and gardens.

“The positives of urban farming go far beyond the production of locally grown, healthy sustainable food,” David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said in a statement on Monday. “Urban farming improves the environment, grows communities, creates beautiful spaces, increases food security, and advances the health of residents.”

The ordinance grows out of legislation passed last year at the state level allowing cities and counties to rezone as farmland any property whose owner agrees to use it solely to grow crops or raise farm animals for at least five years.

The Lincoln Children’s Museum is giving children a taste of the ag industry with a new exhibit called “Here We Grow.”

By Grace McDonald
1011 Now
Apr. 18, 2024

Excerpt:

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The tall buildings and traffic of Lincoln don’t fully reflect Nebraska’s reputation as an agricultural state. The Lincoln Children’s Museum is giving children a taste of the ag industry with a new exhibit called “Here We Grow.”

“Everybody saw the need for this at the (Lincoln) Children’s Museum and saw the need to kind of connect children back to the agricultural world,” said Ken Dobbs, the museum’s chief development officer.

“Here We Grow” features a water table that teaches children about irrigation, a combine cab, a poultry education area and many other hands-on opportunities.

In French With English Subtitles

Laetitia Limmois investigates.
This programme by France.tv Slash is part of the European Collection, a joint initiative from European public service media (ARD, ARTE, France Télévisions, SRG SSR, RTBF and ZDF), coordinated by ARTE.
24 minutes
2020

When you think urban gardens and vegetable patches, you might think locally produced food and self-sufficient cities, but feeding a whole city with just a few rooftop vegetable gardens was never going to be likely. So why are more and more of them springing up? Could these green spaces also be used for education, therapy and social integration?

Link to film.

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