Category: Urban Farming

At the center, clients waiting for appointments browsed tabletops filled with an assortment of fruits, vegetables and nuts including strawberry plants, pecans and a variety of greens, all of which were priced at $1 or $2. Anileidi Gomez, 31, examined giant sweet potatoes, a favorite of her four children, as Market manager Loren Ferguson offered a recipe for slow cooker sweet potato soup printed in English and Spanish.

“It’s awesome. I always shop here when we come,” said Connie Lotze, 62, who drives over an hour from North Georgia to bring Jim Nelson, 60, to his appointments at the health center. She helped Nelson, who doesn’t have insurance, find the center years ago, and while they don’t come often, the Market is a highlight when they do. Lotze said she had never seen a health clinic with its very own farm and market.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/just-what-the-doctor-ordered/nAuZKvENoVEGGfP4bBYtFM/

The United Nations estimates that nearly 10 billion people will be living in cities by 2050. According to a recent publication by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, urban eaters consume most of the food produced globally and maintain more resource-intensive diets including increased animal-source and processed foods — rich in salt, sugar and fats. At the same time, many urban populations — particularly in low-income areas and informal communities — endure acute hunger and malnutrition as well as limited access to affordable, healthy food.

But there are countless ways that cities can feed themselves and create better linkages between rural and urban food systems. In Mexico City, the organization CultiCiudad built the Huerto Tlatelolco, an edible forest with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank, and plots for biointensive gardening. In the U.S., City Growers uses New York City’s urban farms as a learning laboratory for children to reconnect with nature. And in the Kalobeyei Settlement in northern Kenya, urban agriculture represents a tool for empowerment by improving food security, nutrition and self-sufficiency among refugees.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://www.ecowatch.com/urban-agriculture-tech-and-innovation-2642311884.html

In the Kalobeyei Settlement in northern Kenya, refugees are turning to urban farming to improve food security, nutrition, and self-sufficiency. Kitchen gardens, a project of the multi-agency Kalobeyei Integrated Socio and Economic Development Programme (KISEDP), supplement food distributed by humanitarian aid. The KISEDP program equips households with seeds, tools, and mentorship, helping enable families to set up vegetable gardens using dryland farming techniques.

Droughts and land-use changes in recent years challenge the livelihoods of both refugees and pastoralist communities in Kenya’s desert region. As a response, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme, and the Turkana County Government introduced the kitchen gardens in 2017 to combat food insecurity and provide an alternative source of livelihood to both hosts and refugees.

“Food can be a powerful force for social integration,” says Johanna Mendelson Forman, Adjunct Professor at the American University’s School of International Service. Mendelson Forman is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center’s Food Security Program. “You can [improve] food security with people that can grow their own food. They can also take the [surplus] product to a place where they can earn a little livelihood,” Mendelson Forman tells Food Tank.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://foodtank.com/news/2019/12/empowering-refugees-in-kenya-through-urban-farming/

This Christmas garden poem was written for this column more than 25 years ago.

It is still the most requested encore of any column I have written, and, as a gift to my readers, I grant copyright permission for it to be downloaded and used from my website. Just visit www.binettigarden.com, and you will also be able to see where I am speaking and giving gardening seminars, how to sign up for our trips and where to send garden questions if you need a quick answer to a garden problem.

Now, here’s the poem:

T’was the week before Christmas, and all through the yard, not a gift was given, not even a card.

The tools were all hung, in the carport with care, with hopes that St. Nicholas soon would repair,

The shovel with blade all rusty and cracked, the pitchfork still shiny, but handle it lacked.

When out on my lawn, (it’s brown and abused) I could see poor old Santa, looking confused.

No list had been left for Santa to see, no gardening gifts were under the tree.

But wait there’s still time, it’s not Christmas yet, and gardening gifts are the quickest to get.

You can forget the silk tie, the fluffy new sweater, give something to make the garden grow better.

Bright and early one Saturday morning in downtown Austin, Texas, young people hustle to set up a farmers market stand piled high with leafy greens and freshly harvested vegetables. Just a short drive away on a three-acre farm, more youth are preparing to lead a group of adults through a day of planting, weeding, shoveling and learning. This is what Urban Roots is all about.

“One of the most powerful parts of our work is we can engage young people and adults from all walks of life to work across from each other,” explained Max Elliott, co-founder and executive director of Urban Roots. “They’re going to have some differences: They might come from different parts of town, they might have different ages, they might look different. But together we’re working toward a shared goal of nourishing the community.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.wcbi.com/a-small-urban-farm-has-a-big-impact-on-young-lives/

Detroit — If all the high-definition cameras happen to catch is rabbits eating carrots in her garden, that’s just fine, says Barb Matney, who savors the safety cameras provide as she tinkers in her green space.

Matney is the co-creator with husband Joe of the “In Memory Of” garden at Minock and Whitlock on Detroit’s west side.

As president of the South Warrendale Neighborhood Watch Radio Patrol, Matney, 53, takes a proactive approach to security in the neighborhood she’s never left.

Now, with the Detroit Police Department’s Project Green Light adding its first outdoor space in her community garden, cameras will be part of the landscape.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/11/03/project-green-light-surveil-first-community-garden-detroit/2450198001/