Posts By Bethany Knipp
Sustainable Agriculture Institute Arms Returning Veterans with Tools to Become Farmers of the Future
December 1, 2016 | Bethany Knipp
Colin and Karen Archipley, the co-founders of Archi’s Acres and Archi’s Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (AISA). Photo Courtesy of Archi’s Acres.
Returning military often find themselves struggling to return to normality after serving overseas. Colin Archipley, co-owner of Archi’s Acres in Escondido, CA knows exactly how they feel. He served three tours of duty during the Iraq War that began in 2003. Between his second and third deployment, Colin, along with his wife Karen, bought an inefficiently run avocado farm. Besides starting their own very successful living basil hydroponics farm on the site, the empathetic couple created a sustainable agriculture training center called Archi’s Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (AISA) to help ease the transition of service members from military to civilian life. The courses offered at the institute are open to civilians as well as veterans giving everyone a way to serve their local community while building a sustainable business that will support their family.
The AISA learning center is based in Valley Center, California, near San Diego, and offers its students instruction in everything from sustainable agribusiness and farming production methods to business development and planning during a six-week course on founders’ Colin and Karen Archipley’s farmland. Read More
As Primary Goal, Two Decades Old Community Farm in Tennessee Teaches People to Grow Food Sustainably
November 15, 2016 | Bethany Knipp
Beardsley Community Farm donates all of the food it produces to local pantries, kitchens and hunger relief organizations. It cultivates 10,000 pounds of produce a year. Photo courtesy of Bruce Cole Photography.
Initially established in a Knoxville, Tennessee, food desert, CAC Beardsley Community Farm has been donating its fruits and vegetables to area hunger relief organizations for almost two decades.
“Beardsley started in ‘98 actually as a way to address the situation in this area because at that point it was a food desert,” Beardsley Farm Manager Charlotte Rodina says.
The farm, which exists in a public park that was originally the site of an agricultural college, and later a middle school, is owned by a local governmental social service organization called Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee.
Rodina says the farm is still working on hunger relief efforts despite the fact the area is no longer considered a food desert. Read More
Farming Formerly Vacant Lots, Urban Ag Program Grows New Farmers and Fresh Produce for Food Deserts
November 7, 2016 | Bethany Knipp
The West Sacramento Urban Farm Program leases city, school district, private and commercially-owned land for five years in the area’s food desert. Photo courtesy of West Sacramento Urban Farming Program.
An urban farming project in West Sacramento, California, aims to fill the area’s food deserts with fresh produce and create new farmers in the process.
Founded in 2014, the West Sacramento Urban Farm Program is an initiative of the agricultural education nonprofit Center for Land-Based Learning, headquartered in Winters, California. The program converts vacant lots in urban West Sacramento neighborhoods to increase food access, and support production of fresh fruits and vegetables.
“We’re growing about 25,000 to 30,000 pounds of produce a month, so it’s definitely a significant amount of produce that all stays within West Sacramento for the most part,” program founder Sara Bernal says. Read More
An Urban Farm Born of the Recent Recession Takes Flight in Austin, Texas
October 24, 2016 | Bethany Knipp
Paula and Glenn Foore decided to start a farm on their land in east Austin that they initially used for a landscaping business. They started Springdale Farm in 2009. Photo courtesy of Mel Cole.
Glenn and Paula Foore say their urban farming style uses common sense and basic practices.
“We’re wanting, and we are getting, back to where we came from,” Glenn Foore says, referring to decades past when he says more families picked fresh vegetables from their own gardens.
The couple owns and operates Springdale Farm within the city limits of Austin, Texas, and grow about 75 different types of vegetables — including tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, arugula, zucchini, broccoli. The Foores grow the vegetables all 52 weeks of the year on just under five acres of land in the central Texas climate.
They started Springdale Farm in 2009, but the Foores bought the land where the farm sits in 1992 through an economic development program in east Austin. The land served as the site of their landscaping business as a part of the city’s program, which incentivized small businesses to come to east Austin through low-interest loans as long as the companies employed eastside workers. Read More
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