Inside Urban Green

TEDxManhattan - Marianne Cufone - Recirculating Farms Coalition

This is Marianne Cufone's TEDxManhattan presentation mentioned in this prior post about her and the Recirculating Farms Coailition.

Keep in mind that sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) for consumer use have the same water-conserving benefit of a recirculating farm. You might think of them as cousins in their environmental mission. There is no runoff and waste of water in a closed-system SIP. Aside from a small amount of evaporation, all of the water goes directly to the plant's root sytstem.

Note the green TEDx logo on stage. If  you have not seen it, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video. The logo has a surprising secondary function.

via TEDx YouTube Channel

Marianne Cufone is the Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition. She is an environmental attorney, and long time sustainable food advocate. Marianne is a professionally trained health supportive chef.

She has worked in natural resources management, focused on oceans, fisheries and seafood, for over a decade, in which time she has challenged and helped write and pass many significant state and federal policies and laws.

She directed the fish and oceans program at Food and Water Watch (2007-2011), managed the Gulf, South Atlantic and Caribbean fisheries programs for the Center for Marine Conservation (1999-2003), and is the founder and managing partner of Environment Matters, a consulting group that provides legal, policy and communications support to non-profit organizations (2003-present).

Previously, as an adjunct professor in law and environmental studies, and currently, as a guest lecturer at various academic institutions, Marianne helps to develop future advocates.

 

Aquaponics » A TEDxTalk by Charlie Price of Aquaponics UK

If you are new to aquaponics, this TEDx video is a good introduction to an important urban food production subject. Charlie Price of Aquaponics UK does an excellent job of explaining the basic principles and potential of aquaponics.

via TEDx YouTube Channel

If you visit YouTube, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video if you have not seen it. It surprised a lot of people in the audience and watching on the web.

At UCLA » Re-Imagining Agriculture: Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship in Southern California

If your interest is entrepreneurial urban agriculture, there is a do-not-miss event coming up at the UCLA Anderson School of Management on Wednesday, March 7, 2011 from 6 to 9 pm .

If I were still living in Southern California, I would be there in a heartbeat. There are people on the panel who are in the forefront of modern method urban food production. I would love to hear and meet them.

Here is the lineup:
 
Colin and Karen Archipley, founders of Archi’s Acres and the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program. They are located in San Diego North County and include hydroponics in their production and training.  Among other locations, they sell produce at the Hillcrest Farmers Market in my old San Diego neighborhood. That brings back good memories.

David Rosenstein: Founder of EVO Farm, an urban farming organization in Los Angeles. EVO Farm operates the only commercial aquaponics farm in L.A. David is Chair of the Aquaponics Association – Western Region. He also serves on the Los Angeles Food Policy Council.

Pierre Sleiman: Founder and CEO of Go Green Agriculture, located in Encinitas, San Diego. Go Green Agriculture is a Southern California leader in hydroponics and the integration of information systems technology with greenhouse automation.

Jesse DuBois and Dan Allen: Founders of Farmscape Gardens, a Los Feliz, Los Angeles based   gardening business that provides organic garden installation and maintenance throughout Southern California. They provide a variety of modern looking raised beds and planters. It does not appear, however, that they are sub-irrigated.   

tickets via seedstockandersonevent.eventbrite.co

Sub-irrigation (SIPs) = Simple Hydroponics

In a prior post about the TEDxManhattan How to Cultivate a Logo video, I called the TEDx logo planter a hydroponic lettuce grower. How come? As revealed in the video it is clearly a sub-irrigated planter aka SIP (prior posts).

Actually, it’s both. The logo planter is a SIP as well as a simple form of hydroponics without an air pump. If the public is confused by all of the terminology used for various forms of food growing systems it is no surprise.

We have an overabundance of names for a variety of systems for growing plants. Pared down to the basics however, just about all of them are variants of hydroponic growing even though we use different names for them. It is a language and education issue rather than the “engineering” of the methods.

Sub-irrigation (aka SIPs) is an accurate term for systems that use solid (i.e. soil) media contained over the top of a water and oxygen reservoir system. Up to now, I have refrained from calling it hydroponics in the consumer market for a couple of reasons.

1. Hydroponics implies complexity and the need for plug-in power for oxygenation. SIPs are simple to make and do not require power. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand how they work

2. In the past, hydroponics has been heavily associated with marijuana growing. I have shopped in many hydroponics retail stores over many years and observed the traffic and the conversation. It is mostly a male clientele and they’re not talking about growing lettuce. This will change over time and these stores will become more family and children friendly.

With the emerging popularity of aquaponics (prior posts), hydroponics is gaining a more family-friendly image. Millions of people will be raising fish and vegetables in home aquaponics systems in the future. Much like the evolution of personal computers and mobile phones, these systems will become more affordable, less complex and user-friendlier. Currently they are not a mass-market product, but I predict they will be.

Back to hydroponics SIPs. These photos reveal what is going on in the hidden zone of a typical sub-irrigated planter. It happens to be a window box SIP that grew lettuce on my fire escape. Obviously, this is a healthy and robust root system. The upper zone in the soil media contains a soil-media root system but look at the mass of white roots that were growing in the water/oxygen chambers. They are “water roots” that have a different cellular structure than "soil roots".

Plants roots are incredibly aggressive in finding water. It is a matter of survival!

Clear SIPs help immeasurably in understanding this. While capillary action is elevating water from the reservoir, the roots are making a beeline down to find it. This is why these systems work so well even when the physical height limitation of capillary action is exceeded.

Only time will tell how affordable aquaponics systems will become. At this time however, various forms of sub-irrigated planter hydroponics represent the best choice for millions of city dwellers around the world.

Photo reveals the inverted (recycled) nursery flat that forms the water & oxygen reservoir. Bottom of fill pipe (recycled water bottle) lower right. The window box is a typical planter found in big box stores. It is too small as demonstrated by the root mass. Wider and half again or twice as deep would be much better.

 

Aquaponics Now Has an International Organization

Perhaps you have seen articles about aquaponics in the media. Just a little bit of web research shows that aquaponics is definitely a hot topic in urban food communities across the country and around the world. 



Aquaponics (prior posts) is a food growing method that combines aquaculture (the raising of fish) in a symbiotic relationship with hydroponic plant growing. The fish waste provides nutrients to the plants.

The movement is now organized under the banner of the recently formed Aquaponics Association. They have a very active website and an Annual Conference. The second annual conference will be in Denver, Colorado, September 22-23, 2012. Last years conference was held in Orlando, Fl in September. They also conduct workshops and tours throughout the year.

The association already has over 4,000 members (they call themselves "aquapons") and is adding them at the rate of about 15 per day. These are impressive numbers and a testimony to the importance of aquaponics as both a small business and personal food production method.

As you may know, two of the most publicized aquaponics businesses are Growing Power and Sweet Water Organics in Milwaukee. Growing Power also has a facility in Chicago called Iron Street Farm.

Stay tuned. The veggies are growing and the fish are swimming close by.

Meet Martin Schreibman » Dr. of Aquaponics at Brooklyn College

Many people in the NYC horticultural community know Dr. Martin Schreibman and his work but it’s doubtful that many in the population at large know about him and his work at Brooklyn College. Dr. Schreibman wasn't a presenter at the recent TEDxManhattan "Changing the Way We Eat" event but Marianne Cufone was (watch this video). Martin is a board member of the Recirculating Farms Coalition.

Martin is also the founder and Director Emeritus of Brooklyn College’s Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center (AREC). It’s a long name to remember but a key part of AREC is its aquaponics lab (the symbiotic raising of both fish and plants).

There is little doubt that aquaponics is playing a key roll in developing facilities for localized urban food production. It is a modern method and the antithesis of throwing tons of dirt on the roof of an industrial building to create a traditional “farm”. Urban dirt farming may seem like a good idea at this time but there are much better ways to create a profitable urban food production business.

We already have well-known pathfinders in the aquaponics movement in Growing Power and Sweetwater Organics in Milwaukee. There are many others springing up around the country. Two good ways to keep up with the trend is to tune in to activities of the Recirculating Farms Coalition (see prior post) and the burgeoning Aquaponics Association (more about it coming soon).

The recent TEDxManhattan event gave new hope that we can move the current rather recalcitrant urban agriculture movement into the 21st Century. It was great to see progressive people like Marianne Cufone (Recirculating Farms Coalition), Paul Lightfoot (BrightFarms) and Howard Hintertheur (Center for Veterans Issues and one of the creators of Sweetwater Organics) on the TEDxManhattan program.

Diane Hatz the main organizer and host of TEDxManhattan did a superb job of assembling a very interesting menu of speakers. I look forward to seeing videos of all the presentations (coming soon) and participating in the next event.

Marianne Cufone » Recirculating Farms Coalition

Marianne Cufone is Executive Director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition and now lives in New Orleans. She spoke at the recent TEDxManhattan event "Changing the Way We Eat" this past Saturday. I regret not being well enough to attend and meet Marianne and other participants.

The TEDxManhattan video of her presentation will be uploaded in the coming weeks. In the meantime you can learn about the coalition in this video featuring Marianne. It is a look into the future of urban agriculture and more than likely a peek into the future of personal food production.

Few people understand that sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) are actually highly productive and versatile hydroponic micro recirculating farms for personal food production. They save water and can also save the lives of children who might otherwise be exposed to lead poisoning from often-contaminated city soil.

Thanks to the rather dumbed down consumer horticulture education system in the U.S. people (including the USDA Extension Program) call them "self-watering" planters. If there is a horticultural "ignorance barometer" in the U.S., the widespread usage of this term is it.

Fishy Pix From the Past

Speaking of fish, here are some fishy photos from the past. They are from the Shorpy.com vintage photo blog. Photos like these are in my inbox every morning. It's coffee and Shorpy time. This is a link to a Shorpy search on "fish".

The Shorpy photos are particularly interesting in that you can enlarge them to full screen and see some interesting details that are not visible in smaller photos. Read the comments too. They are mostly by guys and some rather sexist more in tune with the older times of the photos. Then again...maybe not so old.

Gloucester, Massachusetts, circa 1905. "Handling a cargo from the fishing banks." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
via www.shorpy.com

September 1926. "Thos. R. Shipp Co. -- C.H. Javins stand." The Charles Javins seafood stand in our second look today at Washington's old Center Market. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. February 1913. Bluffton, South Carolina. "Varn & Platt Canning Co. 10-year-old Jimmie. Been shucking 3 years. 6 pots a day, and a 11-year-old boy who shucks 7 pots. Also several members of an interesting family named Sherrica. Seven of them are in this factory. The father, mother, four girls shuck and pack. Older brother steams. 10 year old boy goes to school. Been in the oyster business 5 years. Father worked for 25 years in the Pennsylvania Coal Mine, and the oldest brother there. They said they liked the oysters business better because the family makes more." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Kansas City » Meet Jason Fields of The Urban Farming Guys

The name Jason Fields may not be a household name to you today but it may well become one in the not to far distant future.

Jason is one of the Urban Farming Guys (families) in Kansas City. I see him as a present day Bob Vila of the original This Old House on PBS. He is a talent in every good sense of the word.

Like Giacomo Salazonni, he comes across as a counter-culturist with his head screwed on straight. I look forward to meeting him one day. He has the same type of energy and enthusiasm as I have seen from the Buster brothers of Global Buckets renown. America desperately needs thousands more young people like the Urban Farming Guys and Buster brothers. They represent our future.

You can listen to a podcast interview with Jason and watch other Urban Farming Guys (and gals) on YouTube sharing their enthusiasm and experiences with urban renewal and urban farming that I call urban greenscaping. Go guys!

Interview with Jason

via www.thesurvivalpodcast.com

Today Jason Fields joins us from The Urban Farming Guys. Jason is part of a group of about 20 families who have purposefully uprooted from out of their comfortable suburban homes. They then relocated to one of the worst neighborhoods in Kansas City with the goal of transforming it.

Manchester, UK » An Old Building to Become a Vertical Farm

Does this look like a farm? Hardly, but go to England in 2013 for the Manchester International Festival (MIF) and you will see that it morphed into Alpha Farms. If all goes well it will be a prototype for rebirthing old buildings into modern age food factories all over the world.

This decrepit old building will soon house multiple stories of vegetables and fish growing hydroponically and aeroponically.
Watch the video and you will see what it looks like now.

Also, see what John Edel is doing in Chicago. He too is converting an old building into an urban vertical farm he calls The Plant. Will Allen’s Growing Power and Sweet Water Organics are projects of similar nature in Milwaukee.

I wonder when (or if) we will see projects like these in New York City. Currently we are the city of dirt. There is no significant future for often-contaminated dirt in the city.

via www.bbc.co.uk

"Imagine a greenhouse stacked on top of itself, so you have three or four layers of greenhouse - it's a multiple storey greenhouse."