October 11, 2014 | Nina Ignaczak

L.A. City Council introduces plan to encourage urban farming

Two Los Angeles City Council members want to transform empty, blighted lots into flourishing urban farms. A motion introduced Wednesday by Councilmen Felipe Fuentes and Curren Price calls for landowners to receive tax breaks for leasing vacant property for agriculture.

Source: LA Times

Urban Ag Grows Up: World’s Largest Rooftop Farm In Chicago

Excerpt: The Chicago project is the brainchild of the New York-based urban agriculture pioneer Gotham Greens. The company’s flagship rooftop greenhouse operation in Brooklyn yields more than 100 tons of fresh produce annually, and it also has another Brooklyn location designed to pump out 200 tons annually.

Source: CleanTechnica

Take off eh! Freight Farms expanding distribution to Canada

Excerpt: Boston-based Freight Farms, which raised a $1.2M Series A back in December has announced that it’s partnering with Canadian produce grower, Smart Greens, to expand distribution and customer support of Freight Farms in Canada. The company has been developing relationships to offer distribution and support outside of the U.S. The company said that this partnership will help ensure that quality of service extends across borders.

Source: AgFunder News

Michigan Aquaculture, an Infant Industry, Attracts Powerful Opposition

Excerpt: When Dan Vogler, Michigan’s largest commercial fish farmer, purchased the Grayling Fish Hatchery two years ago, the 45-year-old producer was widely viewed along the banks of northern Michigan’s Au Sable River as a civic hero. The 98-year-old hatchery, built to replenish the region’s grayling and rainbow trout fishery, closed in the 1960s, reopened in 1983, and then changed ownership and management three times in 30 years.

Vogler’s plan was to end decades of institutional uncertainty by expanding production of farmed trout for state markets while also ensuring that the stream of summer tourists to the historic hatchery could continue to feed and catch trout (50 cents an inch) in pools filled with the Au Sable’s famously clean and cold water.

Two years later Vogler’s plan for the Grayling hatchery, and his dream of developing Michigan’s tiny $US 5 million aquaculture industry into a $US 1 billion protein production sector, confront 21st century legal and cultural obstacles.

Source: Circle of Blue

Uncovering America’s Food Waste Fiasco

Excerpt: Every year, Americans throw away $165 billion dollars worth of food—that’s more than we spend on the food stamp program (SNAP), national parks, public libraries, and health care for veterans combined. Around 40 percent of our entire food supply gets tossed in trashcans, dumpsters, and landfills, and we’re not even a well-fed nation.

Source: Civil Eats

How Sourcery’s Payment Platform Aims to Revolutionize How Restaurants Source Food

Excerpt: The way restaurants typically manage the food sourcing process is antiquated at best. In an age where restaurant customers are using technology for everything from menu item recommendations to mobile payment, behind the scenes, operators are placing food orders with vendors by fax or phone; They’re sorting through piles of paper invoices and paying vendors by check. It’s inefficient, clunky and slow. Sourcery believes that sourcing ingredients shouldn’t be this hard.

Source: Food + Tech Connect