A book to read: The Vertical Farm

Bob Ewing — Poverty and its companion manifestations haunt our world. Until we resolve the issues that are manifested due to poverty and its companions, our communities are unlikely to know true peace or to become sustainable. There is much work that must be done, in order to eradicate poverty. Fortunately, there are a number of promising efforts being made around the world.

One of the efforts which has considerable promise is urban agriculture. Growing Power, which has its headquarters in Milwaukee, is perhaps, one of the most successful urban agricultural projects in North America; if nothing else it is likely the best known.



Urban agriculture and the role it can play in creating strong, sustainable local economies, especially when coordinated with appropriate renewable energy projects, has interested me for a number of years now.

I am currently reading a book that I must recommend to anyone who wants to give some thought to the possibilities that urban agriculture can offer, and the reasons why growing food in the city is a vital idea — one worth serious consideration, development, and research.

The Vertical Farm, Feeding the World in the 21st Century, by Dr. Dickson Despommier, presents a vision both philosophical and practical that has the ability to alter how we see farming.

This quote from the inside cover of the book jacket is inspiration enough for anyone who senses that urban agriculture has potential is sufficient reason to pick up a copy and find out were the author is taking the idea of growing food in buildings whose size is usually associated with office towers and high rise condos.

“Imagine a world where every town has its own local food source grown in the safest way possible, where no drop of water or particle of light is wasted…”

I borrowed my copy from the local public library; get one and let your imagination out for a ride. We can make major strides to reducing poverty, what is first required is that we believe this is possible. Despommier's book fuels that belief.

SPIN Farming: Growing Urban Farmers

[caption id="attachment_14887" align="alignleft" width="300"] Courtesy SPIN Farming[/caption]

Bob Ewing - What people really want is a job- a steady income that enables them to pay for food, school and medicine, for example.

The way out of the social and economic mess we are in is to create those jobs, cooperatively and individually, thereby allowing people to work and earn enough money to take part in the market place, and purchase the goods and services they need.

There are a number of ways that this can be done. Urban agriculture is often presented as one of the ways people can generate income. Urban agriculture involves growing food and raising livestock within municipal limits, while the movement is growing it is still controversial. The keeping of livestock, chickens, goats and pigs, often encounters stiff opposition

I will look at livestock in a separate article, and for now focus on herbs, vegetables and salad greens when using the term urban agriculture.

Despite the controversy, there are people and organizations who are working to make urban agriculture a viable business opportunity. Roxanne Christensen is one of those people.

I first talked with Roxanne Christensen for an article that was published in Digital Journal in November 2009. The article focused on a new, at the time, urban farming technique known as spin farming.

Roxanne Christensen co-founded Somerton Tanks Farm, a half-acre demonstration urban farm that served as the U.S. test bed for the SPIN-Farming method from 2003 to 2006.

SPIN stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive, and it makes it possible to earn significant income from land bases under an acre in size by growing common vegetables.

The method sounds perfect for anyone who lives in an urban environment, and wants to make a living growing herbs and vegetables, for example. However, there is much more to running a farm that growing the vegetables, Even if you are an excellent gardener and grow great tomatoes you may not understand the market place, pricing, promotion and how to sell to restaurants.

In her article, The Professionalization of Urban Agriculture, Christensen states what she feels makes Spin Farming a viable business model for the urban farmer.

“While most other farming systems focus primarily if not exclusively on agricultural practices, SPIN emphasizes the business aspects and provides a financial and management framework for having the business drive the agriculture, rather than the other way around.”

People need to eat and most of us appreciate food that is fresh and the closer to home the food is grown the fresher it is likely to be. Urban agriculture moves the farm into your neighbourhood and SPIN farming provides the farmer with the tools needed for success.

People want work. Urban agriculture can create those jobs. If it is embraced by municipalities who can then develop the bylaws that assist, rather than hinder, the growth of urban farms, and if the future urban farmers get the business training they need to succeed.

If this happens, then economic revival at the local level will begin to happen and spread from community to community across the country.

Hunger a Growing Problem

[caption id="attachment_14800" align="alignleft" width="168"] Food bank[/caption]

Bob Ewing - The first food bank in Canada was apparently set up in Edmonton, Alberta in 1981. Since then food banks have spread across the country, in response to an insistent and growing demand for their service.
I have worked at a food bank, and have seen, first hand, the shame some feel because they must rely on a hand out, and the desperation others experience when they are told the cupboard is bare.
Food banks do run out of food, but they do not run out of people who need that food. This is an ongoing problem; one I have experienced as a food bank worker on more than one occasion.
Each year, in March, the Canadian Association of Food Banks conducts a survey of food bank usage across Canada.
Consider these figures from HungerCount 2011:
• 93,000 people each month access a food bank for the first time
• 38% of those turning to food banks are children and youth
• 7% of adults helped are over age 65
• 35% of food banks ran out of food during the survey period
• 55% of food banks needed to cut back on the amount of food provided to each household.

There is little doubt that food banks provide a much needed service. They serve food to those who would otherwise go hungry, and therefore, they need to be supported. However, is there not a better way to reduce hunger in our country?

People go to the food bank because they do not have enough money to purchase all the food they need in the market place, especially as costs rise, and their fixed incomes, and this applies to the working poor as well, do not.

Food banks do a good job but they cannot address the income issue. When it comes to ending hunger in Canada or anywhere else, for that matter, what we need is a two fold approach; one, we need to support the food banks and make sure no one goes hungry; two, we need to create the jobs we need, and increase the incomes of the people who are using the services of the food bank. This way they can buy their own food in the market place.

In the case of hunger, the problem suggests the solution, or at least part of the solution. Growing and producing food in urban centres can create jobs, new jobs, and by doing so provide an income for those who need one. Apprenticeship and training programs can help individuals develop the skill set that is needed to work and or operate an urban agriculture enterprise.

When we begin to grow and produce food in and close to urban centres, we relocalize production, and bring food closer to the people who consume it, while creating meaningful economic opportunities, and long term, sustainable employment at the same time. How can this be done, next week, I begin to answer that question.

Urban Agriculture: Aquaponics

[caption id="attachment_14123" align="alignleft" width="300"] Aquaponics[/caption]

Bob Ewing - Food, we all eat it, or at least we want and need to, how we meet that daily demand varies culturally, economically, socially and psychologically. In the past two articles, I have been focusing on the economic aspects, and will continue to do so today.

Aquaponics is gaining in popularity across the country, both small scale backyard projects and larger scale commercial efforts are establishing themselves as viable enterprise.

Aquaponics refers to an aquaponic system specifically set up for the purpose of providing a protein crop (the fish) and a vegetable, herb or fruit crop (the plants).

The Aquaponics Journal states that basil is the most commonly grown herb in aquaponic and hydroponic systems. Basil has a hardy nature and is in great demand, an ideal marketing combination.

Basil is also one of the most popular culinary herbs, so it is possible that an aquaponic system that includes basil could be a profitable venture. Of course a marketing study as part of an overall business plan would need to be done to determine if it was worth proceeding. Of course, basil is not the only plant that can be grown in an aquaponic system.

Perch, trout and tilapia are the most commonly used coldwater edible fish in an aquaponics system, however, goldfish, for example, could just as readily be used if the operator did not want to raise fish for food purposes.

Growing Power is a national not-for-profit company with the following vision:

“Inspiring communities to build sustainable food systems that are equitable and ecologically sound, creating a just world, one food-secure community at a time.”

Growing Power has offices in Milwaukee and Chicago and provides an inspiration to any community seeking to secure its food supply, while building a strong and vibrant local economy.

As the practice of urban agriculture spreads across North America, and elsewhere, entrepreneurs are creating new ways to grow and distribute food.

Aquaponics is both old and new, but it is growing. If we look at what Growing Power, for example, is able to produce, we can see the economic potential of similar projects.

Across the continent similar projects are springing up, some are located in communities, that have experienced neglect, lack sources of fresh food, need revitalizing and jobs. Urban agricultural projects can provide all three.

People need to join together to address the economic situation; it is no longer acceptable to leave the decisions in the hands of a few who often act in their own best interests.

Businesses need to be more democratic and inclusive and the cooperative model is both. Urban agricultural enterprises can be set up as workers cooperatives, for example, and by including aquaponic systems in their food production, produce more than enough food for the people in their community, and create jobs at the same time.

Permaculture: Growing Hope

[caption id="attachment_11837" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="adult literacy"][/caption]

Bob Ewing - Permaculture is a nature-inspired, holistic design methodology that can be used to grow food, create communities and build businesses.

My personal experience has encompassed all three with creating communities and building businesses being combined and leading the work, both paid and volunteer, I do.

We live in false and troubled time, this reality has been brought into the light by the Occupy Movement and we must keep that light shining as it can guide our way. One of the results of Occupying was the awakening of hope.

Hope, not the buying of a lottery ticket with the goal of increasing your income type of false hope, but real hope that is rooted inaction, is what we need to encourage today.

I like the definition of hope put forward by Rebecca Solinit:”Hope just means that another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranted. Hope calls for action: action is impossible without hope.”

Permaculture design is action, considered action that can change how we see the world around us and how we related to all the elements that bring that world into being.
My study and work using permaculture ethics and principals shows that if we want economic regeneration, and we do want and indeed, need this, then the place to begin is with environmental regeneration.

Urban agriculture, for example, could create enterprises that would revitalize low-income communities. Brownfields and other vacant lands that are suitable for urban agriculture are often located in low income areas. These sites can be reclaimed by the community businesses and become attractive, productive enterprises rather than empty eyesores.

Brownfields are properties, often, industrial or commercial areas that have been abandoned because of perceived environmental contamination. Some examples include abandoned factories or manufacturing plants. Gas stations that are no longer in business are one example.

On-the-job-training, such as adult literacy projects, could be incorporated an urban agriculture enterprise which is located in a low-income community. This provides fresh food, education and work for the community members.

If the urban agricultural project is designed using permaculture techniques in will help reduce the stresses because they can contribute to the strengthening of a community’s resilience.

Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem, in this case, urban environments, to withstand extreme stress and to survive periods of catastrophic occurrences.

Resilience is often used to refer to the ability to survive natural disaster such as floods and hurricanes and permaculture design can create systems that will do this.

However, resilience is also vital when it comes to getting through the human made disaster of a false or lop-sided economy. For example, credit unions, cooperatively owned and operated are a viable alternative to banks. Workers cooperatives are a democratic business structure that empowers the worker-owners.

Permaculture design is praxis or theory in action and as such it grows and nurtures hope, hope that will generate action, action that will bring about, a just and sustainable society where no one will live in fear.