Inside Urban Green

TEDxTalks » Two Smart Berkeley Business Heads Score Success with Mushrooms

It was pleasure to find this TEDx video about some very smart young business heads from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, California. It is particularly refreshing in that we have a plethora of rather noisy Berkeley foodies and Alice Waters Edible Schoolyard (all dirt) acolytes here in the Big Apple.

This is the story of a very clever entrepreneurial idea that literally mushroomed into a local urban agriculture, urban food and consumer product business success.

When we are more successful in getting the attention of other entrepreneurial minds we will most likely witness an explosion of new businesses, jobs and urban food production products in the U.S. It should mean many new businesses and jobs that currently do not exist.

We just need to get past the often anti-business hippie mentality that currently dominates the conversation, particularly here in NYC. Based on daily research, there is no doubt that this too shall pass. It will just take some time.

It is encouraging to see that many progressive business ideas have already emerged with many new aquaponics, hydroponics and other innovative urban agriculture businesses popping up across the country. Stay tuned for many more new blog posts about them. 

Note the bright red TEDx logo in the video. If  you have not seen it, check out Frieda Lim's How to Cultivate a (TEDx) Logo video. Her very green version of the logo has a surprising secondary function.

Their website: BacktotheRoots.com

Read more about Nikhil and Alejandro

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

A Peoples Garden in Wisconsin » Sack Planters Part 2

Following are screen shots from the Wisconsin PBS video about sack planters on the parking lot of a Salvation Army pantry. I have added further explanation and comments about this highly productive and inexpensive way to grow vegetables in the city.

A layer of gravel is poured into the bottom of the sack to create a base. I would add a layer of pourous nursery fabric or plastic screening to prevent soil from seeping into the gravel base. This retains air space between the pieces of gravel.

Position a can (with the top and bottom removed) in the middle of the sack on top of the gravel base. This will act as a mold or form for a gravel column that will go from the bottom to the top of the sack. Add soil until level with the top of the can mold.

An alternate method is to create a center core for the gravel column by using a piece of window screen material rolled into a round column shape to form the core. The screen retainer would rise from the gravel base to the top of the planter in one piece.

What is not quite clear in the video is that she lifts the can out of the soil at the bottom of the sack. The gravel stays on the bottom of the planter. Now reposition the can on top of the first soil/gravel layer, fill with soil around it, add gravel and repeat this procedure until reaching the top of the sack.

The planter is complete. Here you can see the gravel column that facilitates flow of water from top to bottom throughout the sack planter. Equally important are the pore spaces between the pieces of gravel that provide all important oxygen to the root system.

I have other ideas on using this basic system to make vertical planters like these even more productive and durable. Stay tuned.

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.

Nairobi, Kenya » Sack Garden Project

This is a very productive, low cost sack planter demonstration garden. Why is it that we do not have a garden like this (including raised bed sub-irrigated planters, SIPs) here in the biggest city in America? Why is it that planters like these are not included in the so-called USDA Peoples Gardens?

My plan is to find locations in all five boroughs to give the people of New York access to information about safe, productive, space saving methods of growing food in the city other than in a dirt box or often-contaminated city soil. I have several ideas about variations to make this sack planter method more durable and even more productive. Stay tuned.

Please contact me if you know of a location with public accessibility. It could be a school or current community or neighborhood garden. Brooklyn is my first priority to get this program off the drawing board and on the ground.

UrbanGreenscaper [at] gmail.com

Garden in a sack in Nairobi
Pascal, P.^1
1Responsable de la cellule technique / Référente sécurité alimentaire. SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, 50, rue Klock, 92110 CLICHY Ligne directe : +33.(0).1.80.21.05.10, Standard : +33.(0).1.80.21.05.05, Fax :
+33.(0).1.80.21.05.99 Courriel : ppascal@solidarites.org, Site Internet : www.solidarites.org

Abstract
Following shortages after the post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008 and faced with soaring food prices, Solidarites International, a French NGO, implemented a “sack garden” project in Nairobi’s slums where more than 60% of the population lives.

Solidarités International main strategy was based upon two major objectives: 1) to increase access to food using the “garden in a sack” concept; and 2) to increase the income available for household use through the sale of vegetables from the garden in a sack.

Dear Mr. President

Update: As of 9:05 am ET January 29 there are 3,967 questions about marijuana and only 1 about what I posted about. There are obviously a lot of people who are well organized (and funded) around pot growing but don't get it about urban food growing.

Is marijuana our national priority over new job creation, hunger, better nutrition, obesity and childhood lead poisoning? If it is, we have bigger problems in this country than I realized.

 Many of you may know that the White House sent an email invitation to post a question to the president on YouTube. I did! This is a screenshot (no live links) of my question to President Obama in 250 characters and spaces or less.  Both the "watch video link" and the bit.ly link go to the logo video on TEDxManhattan.

To find the question scroll down to the Search box on the right and search on the word SIPs or sub-irrigated. Please do yourself and all the children you know a favor by giving it a thumbs up, Tweet it and do whatever else you can do in the great big wide world of social networking to share the question with others.

I truly regret not having my social networkng act together yet, but I will very soon! The Dear Mr President question is only the start of things to come. A new activist web site to get modern methods into the so-called Peoples Gardens including the White House Lawn garden is in the very near future.

With no demonstration of a dirt garden alternative like SIP beds and boxes they should be called the Some of the Peoples Gardens.

Thanks to the UN FAO organization, The Growing Connection, there are a few EarthBoxes in the USDA Peoples Garden in D.C. Other than this rather anemic demonstration that few Americans know about the rest of the gardens are all about top-watered dirt boxes.

These inaccurately named Peoples Gardens are certainly not gardens for all the people who live in concrete jungle cities, particularly inner city neighborhoods of color. 

Here are some very smart people who get it and deserve your recognition.

Rick Bayless, chef extrordinaire and a favorite of Barack and Michelle Obama grows vegetables on the roof of Frontera Grill in EarthBox SIPs. Smart chef! Smart Chicagoan!

Vikram Bhatt, Director of the McGill School of Architecture’s Minimum Cost Housing Group (MCHG) initiated the McGill Edible Campus. This award winning campus garden was created by students who made the SIP planters from recycled materials. The campus is a joy to behold. Smart educator, smart students! Smart Canadians!

The Rooftop Garden Project in Montreal is the grand daddy of rooftop gardens all over the world. It has been a proving ground for many different sub-irrigation and simple hydroponics methods for many years. The young people who staff this and other gardens provide fresh vegetables to the Santropol Roulant kitchen. Read their rooftop gardening guidebook. Watch a video about the project. Smart rooftop gardeners! Smart Canadians

Ken Waagner, unsung hero of modern urban gardening, managed to get EarthBox SIPs installed on the granite steps of the Museum of Science and Industry and the rooftop deck of the Smart Home. Smart business man! Smart Chicagoan! (smart museum CEO and smart architect too!)

Ron Wolford, Madiem Kawa, of the U of IL Extention Program and Cook County Master Gardners are the ones who create, manage and maintain the innovative gardens, including EarthBox SIPs on the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry & Smart Home. Smart educators! Smart Chicagoans!

Johanne Daoust in Toronto discovered SIPs last year, converted her entire rooftop garden (including traditional raised beds) and heard the applause of all of her friends. Smart professor! Smart Canadian! Read a prior post here.

Long time penpal Heidi Hough who created the SIP acronym, has been growing in SIP buckets for years. Smart editor! Smart Chicagoan!

Helen Cameron, co-owner of Uncommon Ground restaurants in Chicago grows some of her rooftop vegetables in EarthBox SIPs and also created a sidewalk garden with them. Smart business woman! Smart Chicagoan!

Lorraine Gibbons of Garden State Urban Farms founded a socially responsible business serving the needs of New Jersey urbanites of all stripes, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker. She grows in many EarthBox SIPs as well as a hydroponic greenhouse. Smart business woman! Smart New Jersian! Smart Mayor!

Larry Hall invented a very creative way to use SIPs and rain gutters to make an auto-irrigated gardening system. This SIP system has enormous potential for urban food production, school and community gardens in particular. Larry has done this for social good. Smart inventor! Smart Minnesotan!   

There are many, many more smart SIP gardeners across the country and around the world. We just haven't organized yet, but we will!

 

 

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.