October 29, 2015 | seedstock

1 RecoveryPark to get 35 acres of city-owned land in urban farming deal [Crain’s Detroit Business]

Excerpt: Nonprofit will first lease land for $105 per acre per year, then buy each acre for about $3,500.                  

2 Atlanta mayor names urban agriculture director [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

Excerpt: Mayor Kasim Reed announced Thursday, Oct. 22, that Mario Cambardella has been named urban agriculture director and will join the administration on Dec. 3.                                

3 Future urban farm to teach kids food literacy [KUNR]

Excerpt: Edible education is the goal of a new partnership between Renown Health and local nonprofit Urban Roots, which teaches kids about where their food comes from.                                 

4 Federal funding helps boost urban agriculture in Detroit [Centre Daily Times]

Excerpt: Federal funding is helping to boost urban agriculture efforts in Detroit. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan on Monday visited Frederick Douglass Academy for Young Men to announce $4,000 in U.S. Department of Agriculture funding.                                    

5 Urban farm dedicated within former firehouse [WANE]

Excerpt: Renaissance Pointe Urban Farm was developed at 2518 Winter St. in the lot where the former fire station No. 9 stood decades ago. Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and neighborhood leaders gathered to introduce the garden.                                  

6 Amid tough economic times, ‘locally grown’ farming demonstrates growth [Southwest Farm Press]

Excerpt: According to a recent USDA-Economic Research Agency report, producer participation in local food systems is growing and the value of local food sales, defined as the sale of food for human consumption through both direct-to-consumer and intermediated marketing channels, appears to be increasing.                                     

7 Partnership in La Crosse aims to increase local food production [WEAU]

Excerpt: Will Allen, CEO and founder of the Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization “Growing Power” toured the city to talk about the challenges facing today’s food system and to help launch a new partnership between three local groups.                                  

8 Rhode Island celebrates importance of local food [ecoRI News]

Excerpt: Saturday was National Food Day and there was plenty to celebrate about Rhode Island’s food industry. During a downtown food festival, leaders and pioneers in the local food movement explained how they are connecting Rhode Island’s restaurants and culinary arts sector with farming, education, environmentalism, entrepreneurism and social justice.                                  

9 Jeremy Bloom is a web-savvy problem solver in Maine’s food system [The Portland Press Herald]

Excerpt: Jeremy Bloom is an Internet farmer. Presumably you don’t know what that means. We didn’t either, so we called him up to ask. It turns out he’s a very diversified “farmer,” with his finger in many pies, including software development, urban agriculture, teaching fermentation classes and marketing restaurants.                               

10 The Good Acre food hub provides marketplace opportunities for farmers [Star Tribune]

Excerpt: A new state-of-the-art food hub opens Friday in Falcon Heights. The Good Acre will address the two biggest barriers to increasing local food, identified in a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report: meeting food safety requirements at the national and state level, as well as distributing produce to mainstream markets.

11 Aquaponics lab starts with growing tilapia [Wahpeton Daily News]

Excerpt: After two years of planning, raising funds and building a greenhouse, Lidgerwood Public School’s aquaponics lab is starting to function.                           

12 Forum Group donates $100,000 to Armstrong’s Aquaponics Research Center [Savannah Now]

Excerpt: The Forum Group Charitable Foundation presented a  $100,000 check to fund the creation of Armstrong State University’s Aquaponics Research Center on Oct. 1, whose mission is to conduct cutting-edge research, and to develop technologies and best practices that improve the sustainability and profitability of soilless farming techniques.                                    

13 Student Sustainability Association launches aquaponics facility [MSUM Advocate]

Excerpt: The MSUM Student Sustainability Association is working on an exciting new project this year. The SSA, Green Dragons and the Sustainability Department have been particularly active, with a host of projects including the removal of trash cans in classrooms, the installation of more efficient light bulbs and water bottle refilling stations.                                    

14 Growing interest in sustainability and horticulture [The Temple News]

Excerpt: Although Michael Bavas says his tilapia would taste delicious in Temple’s cafeterias, they are not on the menu. Instead, they’re used in an aquaponics program he founded in 2013 at the Aquaponics Research Lab at Temple Ambler.                                 

15 Vertical farming can provide needed crops to water-scarce regions [Environmental Leader]

Excerpt: In California, an area highly publicized for its severe water woes, agriculture alone uses 80 percent of the state’s water supply — yet farmers are forced to use less water and sacrifice crops for the good of the masses.                              

16 Vertical farms designed for unused city wall space [Circulate]

Excerpt: A Wyoming-based vertical urban farming company, Bright Agrotech, has identified wall space as a potential space for urban farming in the city. Their lightweight hydroponic systems can be attached to any wall, potentially space along sidewalks or behind buildings.                                     

17 The future of agriculture is an indoor vertical farm half the size of a Wal-Mart [Tech Insider]

Excerpt: Matros is CEO of FarmedHere, the largest indoor vertical farm in North America. At 90,000 square feet, the Bedford, Illinois farm is a leader in a growing agriculture movement that grows crops without soil and sunlight.                                     

18 Consumers want local food, but most isn’t [CBS News]

Excerpt: If you’ve noticed an increasing number of signs at the grocery store touting local produce and meat, don’t be surprised. Retailers are trying to ride a hot business trend.                 

19 Detroit urban ag startup raises edible insects [Model D]

Excerpt: Detroit Ento is an Eastern Market-based startup that’s turning locally sourced insects into food products.