10 Farm’s and food projects that inspired the world in 2013
(those seed catalogs have started to arrive!!)
Over the last year of running
the White Crow Farm Project, and now Over Grow The System, i have very
impressed by many farms and food projects. I decide that now at the end
of 2013, i would shed some light on some that inspired not just
myself, but many others into living a life that is more in tune with
nature and the planet. Have any farms you think should have made the
list? Please let us know in the comments below!
Hope you all had and amazing 2013.
Syd Woodward
Milkwood Permaculture
Milkwood is a family-based social enterprise. We’re
dedicated to best-practice homesteading education and skills for city
and country. We work between our farm in Mudgee and our closest city:
Sydney on the east coast of Australia.
Our mission is to skill-up folks living in urban and rural
communities with hands-on knowledge to live simply and well, while
regenerating the communities and landscapes around them.
We do this by providing tons of great free resources on
this here blog, and with short and longer face-to-face courses in
everything from natural beekeeping to permaculture design.
We work with the best teachers we can find. People who are
not only walking the talk, but are also skilled, humble and awesome
communicators, who can empower students to make the most of their new
knowledge.
Mason Street City Farm
The Mason Street City Farm is a quarter acre market farm
nestled into the heart of North Park neighborhood in beautiful Victoria,
British Columbia. Located just three blocks from City Hall, a stone’s
throw from the local fast food joint and tucked in between condos,
grocery stores, and the local elementary school is a highly productive
and accessible urban farm. It is a green space in the city where a
diversity of people with a diversity of skills come together in the
ancient and cardinal act of growing food. This quarter acre of land
nestled in the heart of downtown Victoria has been in cultivation for
over 20 years and currently provides food to local restaurants and
members of the community.
At the Mason Street City Farm we are dedicated to educating
people about growing food in the Pacific Northwest and cultivating a
just community food system through empowering local residents to
actively participate in food security on Vancouver Island. The Mason
Street City Farm offers a sustainable model of commercial food
production in the city with the intention to build and strengthen
community.
Green City Acres
Green City Acres (est. 2010) is a 4 acre urban farm,
operating on 6 plots throughout the central Kelowna area. We use front
and backyards, rented from homeowners, to grow vegetables for local
distribution. In exchange for the use of their land, our landowners
receive a weekly basket of produce throughout the growing season. This
mutually beneficial arrangement saves them the burden and cost of
maintaining a lawn, while reducing their food costs and providing us
with growing space. All of our produce is grown with natural methods,
meaning that no chemical fertilizers, sprays, or pesticides are used. In
fact, we barely use any fossil fuels at all. Our operation is largely
peddle powered, with the occasional use of a small flat bed truck that
is as low emission and fuel efficient as a smart car.
Our mission is to foster social and environmental change through the production of local food, and to help, teach, and empower people to start growing their own. We believe that our transition from a petroleum based society is inevitable and how we chose to perceive that potentially devastating event is entirely up to us. At GCA, we see that as an opportunity to create the world we want to live in, and while we move from a society and food system that is energy intensive, environmentally destructive, and socially inequitable, we can have fun, eat good wholesome food, get some exercise, and reconnect with the soil and our community at the same time.
Schoolyard Farms
Schoolyard Farms will cultivate
school land for the production or organic fruits and vegetables. This
will serve as a dynamic teaching tool for the students to interact with
and understand plant biology and ecological systems. (2) The farm will
also be a learning lab for local farmers where they can learn urban
agriculture techniques, a field that is largely unexplored.
CSA/Farm Stand: Schoolyard Farms will sell fresh produce to
the community, providing access to local, whole foods they may not
otherwise receive.
Food Donations: A number of CSA shares will be donated to low-income families at the school.
Summer Camp: The farm will serve as an educational summer
camp for the community providing an immersive farm experience that will
teach practical food production and cooking skills as well as plant
biology and ecological systems.
Subsidized Food: CSA shares and produce sold at the
farmstand can be purchased with Food Stamps, creating greater access to
fresh food.
Farm Tours: The farm will be open to the community to visit and learn about how food is grown.
After-school Programs: Schoolyard Farms will host an
after-school program that teaches plant science and food production
curriculum.
The Lexicon of Sustainability
http://www.lexiconofsustainability.comFor the past three years Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton have crisscrossed the USA to learn this new language of sustainability from its foremost practitioners in food and farming. Alice Waters on edible schoolyards. Wes Jackson on reinventing wheat farming. Joel Salatin on embracing the value of saner farming practices. Vandana Shiva on the global imperative of protecting seeds. Paul Stamets on how mushrooms can save the world. Will Allen on Food Security. Temple Grandin on the humane slaughter of animals. Farmer John on the revolutionary idea of community-supported agriculture.
In all, over one hundred leaders in food and farming from across the country have contributed their valued experiences to this rapidly growing Lexicon of Sustainability. These insights have been translated into large format “information art” photo collages and a series of short films commissioned by ITVS. Study guides, a book, a traveling show, installations, and lastly a website where people can dig deeper into these terms (and even add to our ever-evolving lexicon) are also under development.
By illuminating the vocabulary of sustainable agriculture, and with it, the conversation about America’s rapidly evolving food culture, the Lexicon project will educate, engage and activate people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and their responsibility for creating a healthier, safer food system in America.
And it all begins with learning a few words.
Young Agrarians
http://youngagrarians.org
Who are the Young Agrarians?
Who are the Young Agrarians?
Young Agrarians is a grassroots initiative made up of
agriculturalists and media conspirators intent on growing food
sustainably. Inspired by The Greenhorns
to build a network Canada-side to celebrate, connect and recruit young
farmers – the Young Agrarians are the movers and shakers of a new
agrarians movement: young agriculturalists, farmers, urban farmers,
market and community gardeners, community groups and academics,
organizations and the public who want to ecologically rebuild, promote
and inspire the agriculture of our country. We are using the power of
media and the internet, and bringing people together in real time- to
build community and grow ‘good, clean, and fair’ food.
What does Young Agrarians do?
YA is both an on-line and off-line community building project.
YA is building an online network to engage young farmers,
would be farmers and the public in the reshaping of our food system. It
includes: a young farmers blog and farmer resource map centralizing
information about sustainable agriculture resources to support the next
generation of food producers! Check out TOOLS for more information.
Hastings Urban Farm
The Hastings Urban Farm is a market
garden project coordinated by the PHS Community Services Society in
partnership with the Hastings Folk Garden Society. It seeks to improve
community health in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood through
increased access to fresh & nutritious vegetables, naturalized
spaces, and gardening educations, hands-on skills training, and
meaningful volunteer opportunities. The project has converted a derelict
lot into a half-acre of productive growing area and a much needed
community gathering space.
Some of the produce is sold to local
restaurants, which helps recover costs for the project. Some is donated
to community kitchens, aiding the efforts of those organizations to
source local produce and prepare nutritious meals from whole, fresh
ingredients. Most of our produce is distributed to the community through
our weekly farm-gate market; we use sliding-scale pricing so that
everyone can take home the produce they need, no matter what their
financial situation. We also like to see the veggies bartered in
exchange for volunteer farm labour.
With increased funding and sophistication of operations, the project aims to:
• Produce 2000 pounds of vegetables,per year using organic farming practices;
• Hire a total of six part-time urban farmers;
• Engage thousands of community members through volunteerism and visits to the farm;
• Deliver an 8-month agricultural training program for residents of the Downtown Eastside;
• Offer support services for other gardens, urban farms, restaurants and community kitchens.
See for yourself what’s happening at Hastings Urban Farm! Pay us a visit at 58 West Hastings Street, between Carrell and Abbott.
Sole Food Street Farms
http://www.solefoodfarms.com
Farming in the city presents us with unique challenges and opportunities. Land is scarce and valuable, often paved, and normally requires some form of security to prevent vandalism and theft. Urban land is also too contaminated to grow in.
Farming in the city presents us with unique challenges and opportunities. Land is scarce and valuable, often paved, and normally requires some form of security to prevent vandalism and theft. Urban land is also too contaminated to grow in.
On the other side, we have direct access to huge
populations who are hungry for fresh products, love our story, and are
lifted by seeing food growing amongst the endless landscape of pavement.
Our urban challenges required that we develop systems that isolate the
growing medium and are moveable in order to satisfy short-term leases.
We have also had to develop creative leases that provide land owners
with tax incentives and the guarantee that we can and will move on short
notice.
All
of our farms have their own micro-climates and are in neighborhoods
that are both individual and dynamic. We like to think that the foods
that are produced at each site have their own brand of urban “terroir”.
We hope that our customers will taste the difference between carrots
from Strathcona and those that come from False Creek.
Polyface Farm
http://www.polyfacefarms.com
In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young
family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out,
eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a
pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that
now supports three generations.
Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted
trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with
portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to
produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.
Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier
non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s
design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin
family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to
develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing
agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the
world.
The Salatins continue to refine their models to push environmentally-friendly farming practices toward new levels of expertise.
Garden Pool
Garden Pool started as one family’s blog to document
converting an old backyard swimming pool in to a closed-loop
food-producing urban greenhouse and has evolved in to a non-profit
organization.
The GP (short for Garden Pool) was a one of a kind creation
invented by Dennis McClung in October of 2009. It is truly a miniature
self-sufficient ecosystem. Rather than keeping our creation to
ourselves, we have decided to share it with others. Garden Pools are
being built all over the world offering an easy and sustainable solution
to current food production challenges.
Garden Pool is dedicated to research and education of
sustainable ways to grow food. Our mission as a non-profit is to develop
better ways to grow food and help others do the same. Our operations
are based in Mesa, Arizona at the home of the original Garden Pool.
