Inside Urban Green

Fish And Fresh Lettuce Growing In An Old Factory

Johanna (Jo) Hearron-Heineman checks the water lines on hydroponic butter lettuce, grown in a Racine industrial building on the fourth floor. The water for the lettuce comes from the tilapia also raised on site. Hearron-Heineman operates the business with her husband Joe Heineman, doing business as Natural Green Farms.

Having a love for old buildings, it's really cool to see them find a new lease on life as urban farms. From what I've read about these types of projects it's doubtful that they're making money yet but it's great to witness creative entrepreneurship at work. We need much more of it in the field of urban food production. There's much more to growing food in the city than digging dirt.

via www.jsonline.com

Old factory now home to tilapia, lettuce

Racine - Imagine raising vegetables in an abandoned, four-story manufacturing building. And doing it without soil.

An old JI Case building once used to manufacture plows for farm fields is being transformed into a dirtless vertical farm where fish and lettuce are grown in a symbiotic system.

The farm, in a part of the city that once was an industrial hub, potentially could produce the same amount of food as 40 acres of land without the use of pesticides or fertilizer, according to the entrepreneurs behind Natural Green Farms at 615 Marquette St.

This particular method of growing food, using treated fish wastewater to grow lettuce, is nothing new. But it could be a cutting-edge venture if it turns an obsolete industrial building into a local model for a new industry that creates jobs and produces fresh food close to the people who would eat it.

In Japan, obsolete auto manufacturing buildings have been converted into food-growing factories, said Joe Heineman, who owns Natural Green Farms with his wife, Johanna Hearron-Heineman.

The Heinemans say they could produce 4 million heads of lettuce and 1 million pounds of fish a year if they expanded their model to fill all four floors of the building. So far, they're using portions of two floors - about 10,000 square feet of the 200,000-square-foot building - to grow 7,000 heads of lettuce a month, plus about 24,000 fish at different stages of maturity. They've been in the building, experimenting, for three years.

Sub-irrigation: Good For Farmers But Not For Home Gardeners?

“We build the days around agronomy tours that
look at herbicide plots and tillage comparisons.

This year we have a sub-irrigation tile irrigation study that should be very informative,” he adds.

The article refers to a sub-irrigation system that probably uses principles very similar to these using corrugated drain pipe. There are a couple of interesting points about this event.

If sub-irrigation is a good system for commercial growers, why isn't it a good system for home gardeners? Notice also that they don’t refer to sub-irrigation by the inaccurate and highly misleading term "self-watering".

I'm finding many articles in the current news about urban farming. It is a minor media rage. Just about all of what I read is about dirt farming in the city.

Due to the dumbing down of our education system regarding the use of modern technology, journalists, politicians and foodie activists know only about digging in the dirt. That was appropriate to the time we were a rural economy in prior centuries. We no longer are and it’s time to recognize that. Victory Gardens and community dirt gardens are WWII and yesterday.

Of course there's a place for in-ground growing in the city but to rely on it exclusively in the built environment is sheer folly. There is a major role for sub-irrigation planter systems (SIPs), micro-gardening, simplified hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics. Our education system, however, only teaches consumers about tilling dirt. This isn’t Cuba.

An Uncommon Organic Rooftop Farm

Photo via www.organicnation.tv

Uncommon Ground is a popular Chicago restaurant with a certified organic rooftop garden. It is claimed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. Garden Director Dave Snyder is performing a valuable public service by blogging about the progress of the garden on Huffington Post. This type of information is currently unavailable from our public institutions.

As you can see, the garden has large custom made top-watered planters along with EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). It should be noted that fellow Chicago restaurateur and chef Rick Bayless also has an EarthBox  garden on his Frontera Grill rooftop.

Now in its second season, the Uncommon Ground garden offers the unique opportunity to compare experiences with both top and bottom methods of container gardening irrigation. Dave Snyder is sharing this information with us as it happens. I don't know of another project like this anywhere in the world.

Here Dave shares his opinions about the EarthBoxes.

Dave Snyder: Uncommon Ground Rooftop Farm Update: Week 5

Enough doom and gloom. Lets focus on the good stuff. The tomatoes are popping up in our earthboxes. If you're unfamiliar with earthboxes, they're a self-contained, sub-irrigation system -- like a self-watering planter box. They're a great way for urban gardeners to grow vegetables in places where you might not have access to soil: rooftops, fire escapes, balconies, window sills, even parking lots! But of course, since they're sealed on the bottom, they're also usable in places where the soil is infertile or contaminated. They're so efficient and easy that an organization called Growing Connection is sending them all over the world to places where people have trouble accessing reliable sources for fresh vegetables. If they work in Ghana and the Bronx as well as they work here, it's gonna be tomatoes all the world over this August.

NY Times: ‘Peak Oil’ Movement Prepares for the Worst

Photo: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Jennifer Wilkerson’s preparations for a post-petroleum world include growing her own food and stockpiling supplies against any shortages.

The photo is from a front page above the fold article about "peak oil doomers", or those who are preparing for the worst when the oil runs out. It reminded me of the "duck and cover" years when many Americans were building bomb shelters in their backyards. Those were family raising years for me and I remember them well. And no, we didn't build a bomb shelter.

What obviously got my attention was the unidentified EarthBox in the photo. Not a word is mentioned about what it is. It's yet another journalistic mystery. How could the writer not mention it? How many readers know what it is?

Also note the light garden made from an InterMetro type rack and low-cost fluorescent shop lights. How many readers know how cost effective, productive and flexible these are?  

I am not a "doomer" but fervently believe that every citizen should be provided with current information about modern methods of personal and family food production that are not dependent on the availability of tillable land. Food activists love to use the words "food justice". There's no justice in ignorance.

An Edible Green Rooftop Grows in Chicago

What synchronicity it is that this Paupered Chef post about the Green Roof Growers and sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) should appear today at the time of the bee-eating bird-cam post.

Blake Royer tells the whole story of what they do and what urbanites across the country could be doing if we had the leadership to do it.

The GRG template isn't just for rooftops. It is applicable for any sunlit urban setting whether paved backyard, schoolyard or driveway. It's perfect for balconies too, just on a smaller scale. Whatever the setting, it is a productive and environmentally sound way to grow fresh food in the city and these folks prove it every day. 

Our glaring lack of leadership is the story that gives me the blues. It is truly unbelievable that the Big Apple, the supposedly big kahuna of our cities could be so horticulturally backwards but it is. I read the evidence every day in my research. Much of it is in the NY Times, the gray lady who is getting grayer by the day. 

Food And Jobs: EarthBox Edible Garden Project

The City of Long Beach in Southern California is using EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs)  to grow food and teach young people new skills.

Their progressive program produces food and jobs. Why aren't we doing this in all cities, New York for example?

We need leadership from mayors with other than watering can skills.

via www.longbeach.gov
Read their Brochure (PDF)

Learn to easily grow your own food in garden containers!

Green job trainees from the Hire-A-Youth program have established a demonstration garden in order to show citizens how easy and rewarding it is to grow their own food in an urban setting. The surplus of fruits, veggies, and herbs will be donated to a local food bank so that everyone has an opportunity to eat fresh, healthy food.

What is Urban Gardening?

Urban gardening involves the idea that citizens can grow food no matter where they live, whether it’s a high rise apartment, a tiny condo, or a house with no backyard. Some examples of urban gardening are:

* Community gardens (located all across the city)
* Container gardening (such as this garden)
* Rooftop gardens (speak to your landlord)
* Garden sharing (renting out space from a neighbor who has a yard)

Thank The U.N. For Helping Us To Grow Food In The City

This photo showing EarthBoxes growing food on a city rooftop is from The Growing Connection (a UN Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO) blog. The location isn’t identified but it could be anywhere in the U.S.

The Growing Connection is responsible for the use of modern food producing methods like sub-irrigated planters (SIPs) in many urban locations across the country. Helping people to grow fresh food, improving nutrition and eliminating hunger is their mission.

If it were not for the work of TGC, we would be largely dependent on the information provided by the USDA Extension Program. The following Extension video recently uploaded to YouTube is a typical demonstration of what that would mean. It is uncomfortable to even comment on the video, it is that bad.

Watch it and see for yourself. If you have any experience with SIP food gardening, you will understand my discomfort. The information is totally outdated and reveals how out of touch the Extension program is regarding the needs of urban America.

The fault lies not with the presenter but rather on those in management who signed off on the videos. Incidentally, there is a Container Gardens, Part 2 video here. My best advice is to not follow any of the information presented in these two videos.

It is no surprise that a recent PEW Survey revealed the high level of distrust of big government we have in the U.S.

An Urban Food Production Advocate At Work

via thegrowingconnection.blogspot.com

One of these people is doing much to help feed people living in densely populated urban environments who have little or no access to tillable land. Do you know these two people?

Baskets Of Fresh Food For Kids In The City

These Chicago school kids and a mom are going to enjoy a bounty of fresh greens from a city farm of an unusual kind.

Have a look at the photos below and see where it came from. EarthBoxes are growing fresh food on the cold granite steps of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry entrance. Does this look like a farm? Well it is.

If our education system was working we would have many more sub-irrigated planter (SIP) farms and gardens like this in cities across the country.

In my view, the fact that we don't have them is a national disgrace. Part of the reason is here.

More photos follow.

Lack of Modern Urban Food Production Information: Extension Program Policy or Ignorance?

Why is this such an under publicized story?

This is definitely my favorite photo of the urban greenscaping movement. What a great shot. The backdrop of this wonderful outdoor urban theater includes the Smart Home and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Are there any more important words for the future of America than smart, home, science and industry? Let's add two more critically important words that are also a part of this picture, education and youth.

The onstage performers are Cook County Illinois Master Gardeners. The audience sitting on entrance steps to the museum is composed of students. The steps are home to the "EarthBox Smart Garden”. 

What a complete story in only one photo. There's just one problem and it's a big one. We are not replicating this story across the country or even in Chicago. Someone should answer why this is. There are really just two possible answers, ignorance or unpublicized policy on the part of the Extension Program. Of course, neither of these is acceptable. 

It is significant to know at the outset that the UN donated the EarthBox sub-irrigated planters (SIPs). Why are we in need of UN aid to do the right thing?

What is even more disturbing is that the local extension program is essentially mute on the subject of these modern methods. Unbelievably they appear to be stuck in a bygone drain hole age. 

Following are links to recent Chicago Extension Program web sites on the subject of edible container gardening. A local extension program educator wrote each of them (one of them is heavily involved in the Smart Home EarthBox garden).

Each of them somehow manages to ignore the reality of the very successful Smart Home SIP garden. Read for yourself.

Tips For Great Looking Container Gardens  - University of Illinois Extension - There Is no mention of “self-watering” planters, sub-irrigation (SIPs) or EarthBoxes, only the usual and tired drainage admoniton.

Watch Your Garden Grow – University of Illinois Extension – There is an easy-to-overlook mention of the earthbox (lower case) that links nowhere. It's close to the "must have drainage" dumbness. Without explanatory information it might just as well not be there. Few readers would even notice. See if you can find it. I found it only by using a search feature. 

We all need to speak up about out-of-date horticultural information paid for by taxpayers. This is particularly true in light of the current campaign to fight obesity, improve nutrition, produce more local food and a perceived need for expensive in-ground school gardens. As is often said, “In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." This one appears to be stuck in the dirt.