Category: Urban Farming

NATIONALOBSERVER.COM – Mike Levenston stands over a half-harvested stalk of kale, eyeing the autumnal remnants slowly disintegrating into the soil. It’s a familiar scene for Levenston, an urban gardener who has been growing food and community in the garden he founded, dubbed City Farmer, for more than 40 years.

At the time, it was almost unheard of to grow food in cities, and gardens weren’t given much thought in city planning efforts. No longer: Urban gardens are thriving worldwide, especially this year as pandemic-bound city dwellers have sought sustenance in gardens, parks and other green spaces.

“I’m there seven days a week. It’s the best place for my family to be in COVID times because it’s a garden with lots of space,” Levenston said. “We’re busier than ever because of the backyard garden craze. We sell city compost bins (and) people are picking them up every day, and (there) are a lot of new gardens (in the city).”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/10/28/news/urban-gardens-growing-strong-covid-pandemic

WFMZ.COM – Whole Foods Market customers are now able to purchase a range of fresh produce that has been grown by Infarm – the world’s fastest-growing urban farming network.

It marks the third major expansion into the UK retail space for Infarm as retailers seek ways to reduce the environmental footprint in their supply chain and develop their range of sustainable produce.

Infarm has installed two of its modular vertical farming units in two of Whole Foods Market’s London outlets; High Street Kensington and Fulham, so shoppers can buy fresh produce grown directly in store. The remaining five London stores will be supplied with produce from a local Infarm growing center in Tottenham, providing flexible supply as and when required.

The partnership between Infarm and Whole Foods Market aims to satisfy increasing consumer demand for sustainably grown products, helping customers to both make healthy choices and reduce their food waste.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_business/whole-foods-market-partners-with-infarm-to-offer-a-more-sustainable-way-to-shop/article_7c245853-006e-55ae-a440-085af99200e9.html

ABC.NET.AU – Urban farmer Rachel Rubenstein thinks the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down major cities, state, and international borders, is a chance to rethink where we get our food from.

Local car parks, median strips and rooftops, golf courses, and even public parks — they’re just some of the ideas she and her city farming friends are throwing around as potential places to grow food.

“I think that having food grown close to home is super important because we have seen a lack of access to fresh food with the bushfires and then COVID,” Ms Rubenstein said.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-10-25/urban-farming-on-rise-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/12797672

Podcast – Boston, Massachusetts is home to the United States’ oldest, continually-operated Victory Garden, made up of some 500 small plots dating back to World War Two. Today, urban farms throughout the city provide much-needed nourishment for the city’s residents, but the COVID-19 crisis changed the way these small farms operate. WBUR’s Bruce Gellerman reports.

During World Wars One and Two the US government encouraged people to plant victory gardens to grow their own food as a way to support the war effort.
The nation’s oldest continually operating Victory Garden is in Boston and across the city, modern urban farms carry on the tradition of growing hyper-local food for residents.
The farms were growing in size and scale but had to adjust operations when the Covid19 pandemic hit. WBUR reporter Bruce Gellerman has the story.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST | Air Date: Week of October 16, 2020

ModernFarmer.com – In my ongoing quest to learn everything I can about gardening as part of our Million Gardens Movement, I recently encountered a fascinating thing: urban permaculture.

Australian academics Bill Mollison and David Holmgren are credited with creating the concept of permaculture in the 1970s. Mollison, an ecologist and university professor, defined permaculture as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” Holmgren, for his part, went on to coin 12 design principles of permaculture in his book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability. Before your eyes glaze over at the seeming complexity of all of this, let me point out that urban permaculture is really quite simple to understand and practice.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://modernfarmer.com/2020/10/the-art-of-urban-permaculture/

GreenQueen.com – Agtech startup Rooted wants to make urban farming the new corporate hobby with its new micro-learning platform, which offers users the tools and skills they need to grow their own food at home. Launched amid the coronavirus pandemic at the agri-food conference Future Food Asia 2020, which has led most of us to rethink food safety and health, the first-of-its-kind global farming hub will offer bite-sized and interactive information with input from farming experts so corporates can engage their employees to cultivate fresh produce at their own pace.

We don’t just turn to Instagram to stalk our favorite celebrities and social influencers to find out what they’re wearing, eating or where they hang out. Instagram also has a bevy of great accounts that celebrate and share knowledge about the dirty but glorious world of gardening.

So, for those who’ve started to dabble in urban gardening during the pandemic lockdowns, we’ve rounded up a list of 10 gardening accounts to provide you with the ultimate inspiration for plant cultivation. You’re welcome!

FOLLOW THESE TOP 10 INFLUENCERS NOW: https://ecowarriorprincess.net/2020/09/10-influencers-instagram-accounts-gardening-advice/

JSOnline: An urban garden and community education center is being proposed for a central city site northwest of downtown Milwaukee.

It would be developed on a 9,000-square-foot vacant lot, south of West Walnut Street between North 14th Lane and North 15th Street, by Venus Consulting LLC, according to a new Common Council resolution.

That resolution calls for selling the city-owned lot for $1 to Venus Consulting, which a Department of City Development report describes as community advocacy, activism, and education organization.

READ THE FULL STORY: https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/real-estate/commercial/2020/09/28/milwaukee-urban-garden-community-education-center-proposed-central-city/3559624001/