Posts By Trish Popovitch
Is Farming in a Box Viable, or Just a Fad?
May 8, 2017 | Trish PopovitchBed in a bag, soup in a jar, cake in a cup and now ‘farm in a box’? As many urban-ag-ers jump on the shipping container farm bandwagon that’s made inroads across the pro-grow community, some are wondering if the farm in a shipping container idea is really as cost effective and sustainable as it may at first appear. Hydroponics has proven a sustainable and reliable method for growing food in the city. Where concrete fields abound, so do vertical towers. Yet some would argue that a successful hydroponics system needs more than an upcycled shipping container to sustain success.
In states with short growing seasons and tumultuous weather, the idea of an indoor, self-contained growing unit employed to produce consistent and plentiful yields and steady revenue streams seems like the ideal solution for spreading sustainability, growing local and decreasing the impact of long established food deserts. Read More
Woodchip Gate: Injustice for an Urban Farmer in Toledo, OH
May 1, 2017 | Trish PopovitchNefarious woodchips? Criminalized soil remediation? According to the supporters of urban grower Thomas Jackson of Toledo, OH, the level of police and city council harassment leveled against a local urban grower for having woodchips in his compost on his residential lots went far beyond outdated zoning laws and stepped things up to arrest warrants and legal pressure. All Jackson wanted to do was grow some organic produce in clean soil.
Master Gardener and multi-certified composter Thomas Jackson owns several empty urban lots in downtown Toledo. December of 2015 a complaint was filed against Jackson claiming his odorous compost was attracting vermin and in violation of residential zoning laws. A few years ago, Jackson began breaking down woodchips on the site to create a composted mulch. He wanted a contaminant free bed for his organic vegetable gardens, planning to sell his produce to area restaurants. Yet despite neighborhood support for a radius of five blocks around the site, officials insisted the neighbors were not happy with the state of the lots. Read More
The Seeds Could Guide the Sun: Facing Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Ag
April 24, 2017 | Trish PopovitchFacing a 21 percent budget cut under the new White House Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is looking for a strong advocate in the President’s cabinet. Today, former governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue (R) faces his full Senate hearing. Perdue’s hearing before the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, better known as the Ag Committee, and the late announcement of this position by the new president, has many in the world of sustainable agriculture concerned for farming’s importance, especially urban farming, in the White House’s agenda.
Perdue was raised on a “dairy and diversified row crop farm” in Bonaire in rural Georgia. His dad was a farmer and his mother a teacher. He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine. Perdue has a successful grain storage business with ties to the international agriculture trade. Read More
On California Coast, an Urban Farm Emerges to Serve the Community and Teach Self-Reliance
April 17, 2017 | Trish PopovitchFocused on preserving traditional Jewish agricultural techniques and furthering the concept of local community, the folks at The Leichtag Foundation incubated Coastal Roots Farm in early January of 2016 after two years of planning and preparation with lots of help from Farmer D, aka Daron Joffe. Located in Encinitas, CA, Coastal Roots is an educational hub offering food, farming and spiritual wisdom for a more sustainable life.
The Leichtag Foundation, a Jewish nonprofit philanthropic organization established in the 1990s bought the 67 acre property that houses Coastal Roots Farm in 2014. Joffe was hired to create the plan and layout of the property. “The idea was for Coastal Roots Farm to be incubated by the Leichtag Foundation but then within five years to be a viable independent community farm that served Encinitas and Glenn County,” says Sona Desai, Associate Director of Coastal Roots. Read More
In Wyoming, School Protein Enhancement Project Brings Local Meat to School Lunches
March 27, 2017 | Trish PopovitchEastern Wyoming is cattle country, a place where both traditional and grass fed beef ranches punctuate a landscape of rolling hills and sweeping plains all just a truck or horse ride away from the legendary Platte River. If you’ve never had a steak from a cow that’s spent its life absentmindedly meandering the wide open ranges and drinking the fresh clean water of Wyoming, then you’ve never had a good steak.
Thousands of Wyoming cattle make their way to South Dakota, Nebraska and across the country every year mostly due to a lack of slaughtering plants in The Equality State. This means ranchers are taking local meat and revenue out of state and local beef away from local consumers. Unfortunately, it is not economically viable for many small producers to pay for processing locally. The recently passed School Protein Enhancement Project Act 52 SF0123 hopes to ensure local Wyoming children have that local Wyoming meat in their school lunches while saving local school districts some much needed moolah. Read More
Visit our sister sites!
