March 10, 2016 | seedstock

 

1 Whole Foods plans 100 rooftop solar systems [New York Times]

Excerpt: The food retailer plans as many as 100 systems, which would increase renewable energy and save money.                           

2 Local food, local hunger [Wicasset Newspaper]

Excerpt: Food for thought: At some point in their lives, 12.9 percent of all children born in Lincoln County today will experience hunger, the majority as children or elderly adults, according to Healthy Lincoln County.              

3 Buying locally produced foods [Cincinnati.com]

Excerpt: The local food economy has indeed grown quite a bit as our agriculture community has adapted to changing consumer needs. Recent research with households in the Kentucky Food Consumer Survey suggests local foods are some of the hottest consumer tickets out there, especially for fresh produce, meat and eggs.             

4 3 food system stories that will be huge in years to come [Forget The Box]

Excerpt: We tend not to see food security in the headlines. Yet sustainable food systems underlie nearly every hot issue—from economy to foreign policy to health. Save for passing mentions at rhetoric-heavy Climate Change conferences, food systems remain in the shadows when it comes to everyday news.  

5 Rancher develops hydroponic feed [Argus Leader]

Excerpt: As many stories of innovation start, Dihl Grohs knew there had to be a better way. That was about four years ago, when the farmer and rancher started trying to figure out how to grow feed without using expensive farmland.                

6 Urban farms lay the groundwork for cleaner air [Voice of San Diego]

Excerpt: Let’s think outside the conventional picture of agriculture, get some biology into our geology and make San Diego a leader in growing healthy soil.                  

7 USDA works to attract millennials to farming [Ag Week]

Excerpt: “How do we bring the brightest and best back to agriculture?” asked Pam Johnson, a farmer and former president of the National Corn Growers Association, at the annual U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Outlook Forum in Washington D.C.           

8 Urban farms fuel idealism. profits? Not so much [NPR]

Excerpt: Raising crops in the city has become trendy, yet earning a living at it is tough, a survey finds. But many urban farmers are in it for other reasons, like addressing hunger and building community.                   

9 Could urban farms be the preschools of the future? [City Lab]

Excerpt: Under the distant gaze of a city skyline, cows and chickens wander through rows of sprouting vegetables; clear glass greenhouses dot the periphery. It sounds like an ordinary urban farm, but on this particular site, the wardens are toddlers.

10 Venezuelan president launches urban farming scheme [FreshFruitPortal.com]

Excerpt: As his country grapples with hyperinflation, civil unrest and shortages, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced an ambitious 100-day plan to plant 12 million square kilometers (4.6 million square miles) of crops in urban and semi-urban environments.                

11 Urban chicken farming remains no-go in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania [Trib Live]

Excerpt: Plans to allow chickens in Penn Hills still haven’t hatched. Council tabled plans to amend the municipality’s zoning ordinance that would have allowed residents to keep up to four hens in backyard coops.               

12 Empowering young people and nurturing equitable food systems [Food Tank]

Excerpt: The Massachusetts Avenue Project is building a more equitable food system and educating young people to be food justice advocates.             

13 On Philly’s vacant lots, a network of edible forests [New Food Economy]

Excerpt: A few blocks from my apartment in West Philadelphia, a community orchard is toughing out the winter beneath a crust of snow. It’s situated on a 40-by-60-foot lot behind an iron stockade fence. 

14 Want farmland or garden space in the city? Look up. [Madison.com]

Excerpt: Looking out across an urban or even some suburban skylines, most people see an expanse of rooftops. A few enterprising gardeners, however, see something different: wasted acreage just waiting to be planted.               

15 EXCHANGE: ‘Weed blaster’ technology a boost to organic farming [Kansas City Star]

Excerpt: Researchers at the University of Illinois are blasting away at noxious weeds. Fields test are expected to begin this summer of Star Wars sounding “weed blaster” technology that fires, concentrated organic grit from a high-pressure nozzle at Mach 1 – more than 760 mph – to obliterate vulnerable weed seedlings.                   

16 Fresh produce stand pops up at transit center in food desert [ABC Action News]

Excerpt: There are food deserts all over the Tampa Bay area, often in low income neighborhoods. Now some of the people living in those areas will be able to get fresh produce without going out of the way.            

17 Local farms sell ‘shares’ to supply residents with fresh produce [Niagara Gazette]

Excerpt: Heritage Manor will be freshening up its menus for residents this summer. The Lockport-based assisted living facility and senior housing complex is entering into a community-supported agriculture arrangement with McCollum Orchards for the first time this year.