Posts Tagged ‘urban agriculture’
Seedbombing and the Guerilla Gardening Movement
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 11th, 2010
Source: Worldchanging
This article from Worldchanging provides a good insight and relevant links into the growing (sorry) Guerilla Gardening Movement, particularly in the USA:
The popularity of guerrilla gardening is growing. National Public Radio recently covered two stories on the subject, one on American seed bombing and another on night-time planting in London. We’ve covered guerrilla gardening at Worldchanging before (as well as the related topic of public food foraging and mapping), so we thought you might be interested to know about a new guerrilla gardening tool: tech savvy seed bombs that use biodegradable casings and are available at Etsy shops, ice cream trucks, grocery stores, and even vending machines! You can find seed bombs with local varietals categorized by geographic regions in the U.S. at Visualingual’s Etsy shop and at Anthropologie.
Common Studio founders Daniel Phillips and Kim Karlsrud have given new life to Karlsrud’s father’s old gumball machines and turned them into seed bomb dispensaries in a project they call Greenaid. For a quarter and a turn, the Greenaid vending machines dispense seed bombs made up of clay, compost and seeds to guerrilla gardeners in California, Minnesota, Illinois, and North Carolina.
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Read the full article by My Tam Nguyen and Amanda Reed.
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Extending Value: The Life Box
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on July 19th, 2010
Source: Core 77
From “The Life Box: Packaging That Turns Into Trees“:
Now this is some truly brilliant package design: Mycologist Paul Stamets’ Life Box, a simple cardboard box impregnated with a mixture of Department-of-Agriculture-approved seeds.
The Life Box suite of products builds upon the synergy of fungi and plants by infusing spores and seeds together inside of packaging materials that can be planted. The Tree Life Box is made of recycled paper fiber. In this fiber, we have inserted a wide variety of tree seeds, up to a hundred, dusted with mycorrhizal fungal spores. The mycorrhizal fungi protect and nurture the young seedlings. For millions of years, plants and beneficial fungi have joined together in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.
You can get started by simply tearing up the box, planting in soil, and watering.
The fungi “sprout” or germinate to form an attachment with root cells and extend into the soil with a network of fine cobweb of cells called mycelium. The mycelium mothers the seed nursery by providing nutrients and water, thus protecting the growing trees from disease, drought, and famine.
Stamets estimates that 1 tree out of 100 will survive to the 30-year mark, at which point it will have sequestered one ton of carbon. And how’s this for an endorsement: Al Gore is shipping his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, in Life Boxes.
Read the full article on Core 77.
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Greening the Concrete Jungle: Report
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 14th, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From “Trees a ‘low-cost’ solution to air pollution and biodiversity loss in cities“:
Native woods and trees in urban areas, including gardens, provide haven for wildlife, reduce air pollution, surface run-off and flooding Reversing the declining numbers of native trees and woods in cities would provide numerous benefits at ‘relatively little cost’, says a report from the Woodland Trust. As well as access to green space, the report, ‘Greening the Concrete Jungle‘, says trees provide a wide range of free ecosystem services including reducing the risk of surface water flooding and improving air quality that could save millions in flood defence and healthcare costs.
The UK has one of the world’s highest rates of childhood asthma, around 15 per cent, particularly amongst lower socio-economic groups in urban areas. Research shows asthma rates among children aged four to five falls by a quarter for every additional 343 trees per square km, as they help keep the air clean and breathable and reduce ambient temperature. Trees are also able to reduce the pressure on the drainage system during flooding. The University of Manchester has shown that increasing tree cover in urban areas by 10 per cent reduces surface water run-off by almost 6 per cent. A major international study published earlier this year, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), put the global value of services provided by forests and biodiveristy at between £1.2-2.8 trillion a year.
Despite these ‘invisible’ benefits, the report says urban tree cover is actually deteriorating in many areas, with concerns over tree safety and insurance claims as well as development. Many places have seen a decline in older trees with large spreading crowns, replaced with smaller, more manageable alternatives. Smaller crowned trees have less capacity to intercept rain. Fewer than 10 per cent of city dwellers have access to local woodland within 500m of their homes. Evidence suggests proximity to a wood encourages physical exercise, whilst a woodland walk lowers the heart rate and mental stress.
The Woodland Trust said socially disadvantaged groups were the most likely to lose out with around two-thirds of urban trees in private or less accessible public grounds. It is campaigning to plant 20 million native trees annually accross the UK for the next 50 years.
‘Towns and cities also tend to put into sharp relief some of the key problems we are facing as a society – physical and mental health problems, childhood obesity and asthma, differences between rich and poor, air pollution, soaring summer temperatures, flash flooding, energy conservation, diminishing wildlife – so they are a good place to start when trying to illustrate just where green space can deliver significant improvements for relatively little cost,’ said report author Mike Townsend.
Read the full article on The Ecologist.
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Finding the Plot: Event Report
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on June 17th, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
Image: © RISC
In October 2009, Local Action on Food (LAF) and Women’s Environmental Network organized an event (Finding the Plot) aimed at community groups wanting to set up food growing projects in urban areas. The day looked at the challenges that groups face and provided an opportunity to share experience and skills. The final report outlines the presentations made by the speakers, and includes links to available on-line copies. The report is a valuable resource as it contains references to a wide range of case studies and projects in the UK, and discusses common issues encountered by community food groups at various stages of development.
Download Finding the Plot: access to land for food growing groups in urban areas – final report
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Growing Communities: Start-Up Programme
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on June 7th, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
Growing Communities 2010 Start-Up Programme
Growing Communities (GC) is a social enterprise run by local people in Hackney, East London. It has been running a community-led box scheme since 1993 and now packs over 900 bags of fruit and vegetables a week, most of which come direct from local, sustainable farms and some of which is grown in their urban agriculture sites dotted around Hackney.
GC wants to help more communities round the UK to set up their own community-led box schemes, as a practical way to change the food system and increase the economic sustainability of food growing projects. There is now a Start-Up Programme with materials, training and web-tools to help groups set up community-led box scheme using the Growing Communties Model.
If you are interested in joining the programme or if you want to register to receive email updates, visit the website.
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Allotment Gardens: Social-ecological Resilience
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on June 3rd, 2010
Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre
Image: beachcomber1954 via flickr CC
From “Urban gardens key in times of crisis“:
Allotment gardens have often been sources of local resilience during periods of crisis. During World War I the number of allotment gardens surged from 600,000 to 1,500,000 in Britain, supplying city people with food and other ecosystem services. The gardens were planted in parks and sports fields, and even Buckingham Palace turned up the earth to grow vegetables. After declining abruptly in the 1920s and 1930s, World War II saw a new explosion in the numbers of allotment gardens in cities of Britain and other parts of Europe.
The story above is told in a new seminal article (Social–ecological memory in urban gardens—Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services) by centre researchers Stephan Barthel, Carl Folke and Johan Colding.
The article, which is in press in Global Environmental Change, investigates where and how ecological practices, knowledge and experience are retained and transmitted in allotment gardens in the urban area of Stockholm. It is the first study ever to really analyse in-depth the concept of “social-ecological memory” as the carrier of ecological knowledge and practices that enable sustainable stewardship of nature. Linking back to the story of allotment gardens during the World Wars, the specific aim of the new study has been to explore how management practices, which are linked to ecosystem services, are retained and stored among people, and modified and transmitted through time.
Compost Cab: Food Scraps Pick-Up Service
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 28th, 2010
Source: Springwise
…For every 50 pounds of organics the company collects, customers can receive five pounds of fresh compost and one pound of worm castings in exchange.
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Read it on Springwise:
The average American family produces more than 500 pounds of leftover organic material every year; composting not only keeps that waste out of methane-generating landfills, it also produces nutrient-rich, fertile, natural soil. Composting may be the right thing to do for the environment, but it can be hard to get around the smell and the mess—particularly for urbanites without expansive yards. Compost Cab is a new service about to launch in Washington, DC, that can be called upon to handle all the dirty details.
DC-area consumers begin by signing up online. Once it launches, Compost Cab will then provide them with a standardized bin equipped with a sturdy, compostable bag liner. Each day clients will fill the bin with their organic material, and once a week—on a reliable, fuel-efficient schedule—Compost Cab will pick up the bag, leaving behind only a clean bin with a new liner. The cost is simply USD 8 per week per bin; no long-term commitments are required. Compost Cab’s primary composting partner is Engaged Community Offshoots (ECO), a seed-stage urban farm in College Park, Md., that uses finished compost to grow natural, nutritious food for local kids.
At least as interesting is that clients who have been with Compost Cab for nine months or longer can claim some finished soil in return. Specifically, for every 50 pounds of organics the company collects from them, they can receive five pounds of fresh compost and one pound of worm castings in exchange. Those who choose not to claim their share, meanwhile, can ask Compost Cab to donate it on their behalf to ECO. Compost Cab is a production of Agricity LLC, a Washington, DC-based company focused on sustainability.
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Grow Your Own: iPhone App
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 24th, 2010
The free Grow Your Own iPhone application (app) from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is designed to help you choose and grow fruit and vegetables – however much space or time you have. Currently, the content covers the 20 most popular varieties of fruit and veg, but low cost bundles of content covering additional fruit and veg will be available to buy soon. This app is initially intended for less experienced or less confident gardeners but will be a valuable resource for all because it gives you the chance to access horticultural advice from the UK’s leading gardening organisation while you are out and about in your garden with your iPhone.
Current features
- Choose vegetables and fruit for your garden based on your level of expertise, and your available space and time
- Access expert RHS advice about your chosen fruit/veg, what to do and when, view varieties that we recommend and learn about common problems you might encounter such as diseases and pests and what to do about them
- Link to the RHS plants site to buy quality plants
- Access the RHS Grow Your Own forum, to ask questions, advice and chat to fellow gardeners
The next release of this application will allow you to unlock more content and functionality for a small charge. It will include:
- An additional 15 fruit and veg (bringing the total to 35)
- Calendar and To-Do list functionality to keep track of your plants’ progress so you know what to do and when
- Location aware weather alerts
Bundles of new content will become available as they are released, again, for a small fee.
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Shared Earth: connecting gardeners with gardens
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on May 17th, 2010
Source: Treehugger
“I’ll provide the land, water and materials if you’ll provide the work. We can share the produce 50-50.”
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“It’s an obvious problem in urban and suburban jungles around the country: many people are eager to garden but have nowhere to indulge their green thumbs. And plenty of homeowners have gardens in need of tending. Enter SharedEarth.com. Taking the Craigslist model to gardening, it helps match up prospective gardeners to those with gardens, for free. Think of it as sharecropping 2.0 — or a kind of dating site for garden lovers. The idea has already inspired a trend (and a TV show) in the UK. The implications for the U.S. could be huge.
Consider less wasted land, lower greenhouse gases, more local, homegrown food, stronger community bonds, and perhaps the chance to make some extra cash. It’s the kind of thing that Malcolm Gladwell can dig, apparently. And while it’s just getting started, the site’s already shared almost 26 million square feet of land. Just before the site launched on Earth Day, I spoke to the founder, internet entrepreneur Adam Dell (Michael’s brother) about the site and where it grows from here.
Locally Grown Cultural Food: Guides
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on April 15th, 2010
Source: SustainWeb
Interested in buying cultural food that is locally grown? Now, you have a way to find it! In Fall 2009, Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) made it easier for Torontonians who are looking for fresh cultural foods ‘from back home’ to find retailers selling locally grown cultural food. How? By developing the first-ever locally-grown cultural food guides that identify the location of farmers, farmers’ markets and food retailers selling cultural food grown in the Greenbelt and surrounding area. We’ve started with four guides that help Torontonians buy locally grown food used for African/Caribbean, Chinese, Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisine.
When you have a choice, cooking with cultural foods grown locally helps the environment, helps local farmers and is more nutritious than buying imported food. And it helps preserve our precious agricultural land, much of it in the Greenbelt.