Urban farming is alive and well in La Jolla

“Regulations allow two miniature goats, two beehives and up to 25 hens (not roosters, because those are the chickens that crow at sunrise) on every residential property in the City of San Diego — with restrictions depending on the distance they’re kept from property lines.

Considering how crowded La Jolla is, these regulations do not affect very many of its residents. But a maverick few dozen — those with larger houses and, usually, income streams — pour dozens of hours of hard and dirty work and hundreds of dollars a month into food they’re proud to grow themselves.

Todd Lesser, owner of a telecommunications company, grew up on an old apricot and prune orchard in the Bay Area and has done his best to reproduce it on the half acre he and his wife, Nanette, own on Mt. Soledad.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT: “JaJollaLight.com“

Women farmers earn about $58,000 a year—but they still outearn their male counterparts

“Kriss Marion wasn’t planning to become a farmer when she moved to Blanchardville, Wisconsin. The goal was to get out into green space with her family and be around farms, she tells CNBC Make It.

But after working on farms in the area and growing her own garden, Marion took the plunge and opened a community supported agriculture operation (CSA) in 2007. Today, her farm, CircleM Market Farm, continues to grow for CSA, offers a bed and breakfast for guests and raises sheep and cows. “It’s been really delightful to grow and change on this farm, and I feel like a rural place like this offers a lot of opportunities,” says Marion.

Marion is one of a growing number of women making a living running her own farm. In fact, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,women farmers, ranchers and agricultural managers outearned their male counterparts in 2017, one of just 10 occupations in which that’s the case. The weekly median salary for women in this field was $1,114. Men took home $963.”

READ THE FULL STORY: “CNBC.COM“

Can Maggots Fix Singapore’s Food Waste Problem?

“SINGAPORE — IT’S HARD not to miss the giant black flies that flit within the white net enclosures at Insectta, Singapore‘s first licensed insect farm. The swarm of flies looks like something from the start of the apocalypse, but these flying insects are not here to mark humanity’s downfall – in fact, they may be here to save it.

Singapore is experiencing a trash crisis. Some predict the world’s second most-densely populated city will run out of room in its landfill by 2035. According to figures from the country’s National Environment Agency, while recycling rates for food waste are going up in Singapore, residents still threw away 676,800 metric tons of food in 2017. Only 16 percent of this was recycled – the rest went to the landfill.

Yet there may be a solution, according to a group of urban farmers and scientists in this Southeast Asian city-state, and it’s one that has been buzzing under everyone’s noses all along.

Living within the jungles of Singapore is the black soldier fly – nature’s own waste disposal unit. When its larvae are born, they voraciously eat almost any food waste left in their way. The sleek tropical insect is now being intentionally brought into the city by two entrepreneurial farmers, Darren Ho and Ng Jia Quan, who have created Insectta – an insect farm in the residential area of Queenstown. The goal of Ho, a natural resources management graduate, and Ng, a former chef, is to adopt sustainable farming practices that reduce urban waste and embrace the natural, eco-friendly food cycle long a feature of the island.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT: “USNews.com“

Reinventing Food One Shipping Container at a Time

“The low-slung building on Evans Avenue with the greenhouse roof blends into the surroundings in an uninspiring stretch of Denver, all nondescript retail and pockets of ranch homes. It’s a hydroponic farm, run by partners Jake Olson and Lauren Brettschneider. The produce is all on tables at waist height, and the plumbing is subtle and minimalist. There is no soil anywhere. From the street it’s easy to miss Rebel Farm; inside, it looks like an Apple Store hosting a farmer’s market.

One afternoon this summer, Kimbal Musk, a tall, lanky man in a cowboy hat, ducked in through the front door. He was here to see about the produce for his Denver-area restaurants. Unlike, perhaps, the average restaurateur, he’d brought a couple of assistants, who used smartphones to photograph his entrance, and his greeting with Olson and Brettschneider, and the huge smile he put on when he surveyed the farm. He’d never been to Rebel Farm before, but the operation was already providing him gem lettuce, a trendy green, and now he wanted to see what else it might offer. Olson and Brettschneider start walking him up and down the aisles. The building’s southern exposure is a heat-exchanging wall, and they start there, in the cool-climate crops.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT: “PopularMechanics.com“

Urban farm bounties benefit cancer patients

“MURRAY — Brent Ottley drives a truck that gathers produce from the Green Urban Lunch Box farm and a bunch of unused backyard gardens across the Salt Lake valley, then delivers it to seniors and others in need of freshly picked food.

On Thursday, the recipients were cancer patients, and proper nutrition — particularly from fruits and vegetables — is key to treatment.

“There are definitely phases of treatment where nutrition plays different roles — there are moments you just want them to eat anything,” said Elisa Soulier, oncology LiVe Well program manager at Intermountain Medical Center. “Then there are moments where they are merely surviving, where we emphasize a plant-based diet, one that contains all the antioxidants and healing properties they need to prevent complications of treatment and recurrence of the disease or other types of cancer.””

READ THE FULL STORY AT: “DeseretNews.com“

Rooftop Gardens Are Turning the Urban Shopping Scene Green

“PARIS — It’s a swift ride by elevator from Galeries Lafayette’sperfume section to the grand department store’s 10th-floor luxury farm with its signature scent of sage, rosemary and compost.

The rooftop garden, lush with climbing plants, tomatoes, marigolds and strawberries, is part of a plan to transform city farming into a deluxe shopping attraction for customers yearning for an exclusive green refuge — and perhaps a taste of beer brewed from the store’s homegrown hops.

For now, only select customers can experience this haute farm on the Right Bank with weekly reserved tours. Eventually, Galeries Lafayette intends to expand to other roof sections to host larger events and fashion shows among leafy, vertical walls of plants with a panoramic view of the Eiffel Tower and the city’s opera house.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT: “NYTimes.com“

‘Urban farm’ shuts down as proponents call for more understanding

“Activists are calling for greater understanding of urban farming after a small farm run by two veterans near Hephzibah is shutting its doors.

Urban Grange Farm, owned since 2015 by Alesha and Thomas Gonzales, is moving out of Augusta after being cited for animal cruelty, allowing livestock to run at large, operating in a residential zone and not obtaining a local business license. The four-acre farm, located in a rural neighborhood of large-acreage lots, had become a regular vendor at Augusta’s Saturday market and the Veggie Park Farmers Market and sold its produce and meat to local caterers and restaurants.

An Augusta animal services officer told the court she responded to a report of ducks in the road in September and found some in a ditch in front of the Gonzales’ Seago Road home. Behind the house, the birds had access to water from a small swimming pool, she said.

Returning with department of health and codes enforcement officers a few days later, she photographed chickens and turkeys she said were crowded in a coop with little or no access to water. Augusta Code Enforcement Officer James Robinson said he saw four piglets scamper into the yard next door, then run back.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: “AugustaChronicle.com“