Former men’s room of what used to be an elementary school in Detroit; the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a charter high school for young mothers and pregnant teens, now calls the historic building home.  The property’s grounds feature a four-acre urban farm, which helps teach students about gardening, and enhances their skills sets. The school, which allows students to “attend classes and care for their babies in a single environment,” was slated to be closed in 2011. Thanks to community members who rallied in support of the school, the school remains open today. Almost all the school’s graduates enroll in two- or four-year colleges. Via The Unreal Estate Guide to Detroit: Places: Design Observer. Photograph by Andrew Herscher.
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Former men’s room of what used to be an elementary school in Detroit; the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a charter high school for young mothers and pregnant teens, now calls the historic building home. 

The property’s grounds feature a four-acre urban farm, which helps teach students about gardening, and enhances their skills sets.

The school, which allows students to “attend classes and care for their babies in a single environment,” was slated to be closed in 2011. Thanks to community members who rallied in support of the school, the school remains open today. Almost all the school’s graduates enroll in two- or four-year colleges.

Via The Unreal Estate Guide to Detroit: Places: Design Observer. Photograph by Andrew Herscher.

Source: places.designobserver.com

weworkhere:

watershedplus:

The Science Barge greenhouse is a prototype of sustainable urban farm floating on the Hudson River. The greenhouse grows an abundance of fresh produce including tomatoes, melons, greens, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero pesticides, and zero runoff.

More at Groundwork Hudson Valley

Yes please!

(via poptech)

Source: watershedplus

To Find Fields to Farm in New York City, Just Look Up

smarterplanet:


The New York Times looks at the rise of “basil and bok choy growing in Brooklyn, and tomatoes, leeks and cucumbers in Queens”:

“In terms of rooftop commercial agriculture, New York is definitely a leader at this moment,” said Joe Nasr, co-author of “Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture” and a researcher at the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University in Toronto. “I expect it will continue to expand, and much more rapidly, in the near future.”

Read the full article and find out more about our Request for Proposals for the development and operation of a rooftop farm at a 200,000-square-foot property on a site located in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.

Photo credit: Angel Franco/The New York Times

(via emergentfutures)

Source: nycedc

fastcompany:

“Edel was interested in ways of bringing back manufacturing jobs to the city,” explains Melanie Hoekstra, director of operations at The Plant. The building is uniquely suited to food production; it contains food-grade materials (these allow for legal and safe food preparation) because of its meatpacking history. Instead of combining farming with other types of manufacturing, The Plant is sticking entirely to food—and lots of it.

A Meatpacking Plant Transformed Into A Vertical Farm

(via npr)

Source: fastcoexist.com

Via steveleathers: For PARK(ing) Day, my company created an Urban Farmlet on SW 2nd Street in Portland (between Taylor and Yamhill).  It’s only two parking spots, but it feels like a lot more. If you’re in the area, come by and check it out. Have some lemonade. Enjoy some space that you normally wouldn’t have the chance to. Happy 2011 PARK(ing) Day, y’all.  PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good. Click here to view a map of cities where residents have set up pop-up parks.  See also: Earlier Gardens in Unexpected Places post here.
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Via steveleathers:

For PARK(ing) Day, my company created an Urban Farmlet on SW 2nd Street in Portland (between Taylor and Yamhill). 

It’s only two parking spots, but it feels like a lot more. If you’re in the area, come by and check it out. Have some lemonade. Enjoy some space that you normally wouldn’t have the chance to.

Happy 2011 PARK(ing) Day, y’all. 

PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good.

Click here to view a map of cities where residents have set up pop-up parks. 

See also: Earlier Gardens in Unexpected Places post here.

Via contained: Localize It: PodPonics Grows High-Tech Organic Produce In Shipping Containers — Fast Company  As fuel prices go up, the cost of shipping produce thousands of miles away rises accordingly. In the past few years, a number of companies have attempted to capitalize on the increasing hunger for locally produced food — we’ve seen rooftop farming startup BrightFarms and Brooklyn hydroponic farming startup Gotham Greens, just to a name a couple.  [Atlanta-based] PodPonics started in 2010 when founder Matt Liotta — a serial entrepreneur who has launched Internet, software, and telecom startups — noticed that demand significantly outstripped supply in the local food business. “[My work] in Internet, telecom, and agriculture is all pretty similar in that the goal was to find a mature industry and come up with a disruptive technology,” he says. “If you wanted to produce fresh produce at the point of consumption in a way that was economically viable, what would you have to invent to do it?” Liotta decided to use recycled shipping containers as “grow pods,” which are outfitted with organic hydroponic nutrient solutions; computer-controlled environmental systems to regulate temperature, humidity, pH levels, and CO2; and lights that emit specific spectrums at different points in the day. The system provides the exact amount of water, lights, and nutrients that a crop requires—so there is no wasted energy (though the pods are still hooked up to the power grid). In a 320 square foot area, PodPonics can produce an acre’s worth of produce. The pods can be stacked on top of each other for more efficient use of space. Full story: Fast Company. Photo via PodPonics.
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Via contained:

Localize It: PodPonics Grows High-Tech Organic Produce In Shipping Containers — Fast Company

 As fuel prices go up, the cost of shipping produce thousands of miles away rises accordingly. In the past few years, a number of companies have attempted to capitalize on the increasing hunger for locally produced food — we’ve seen rooftop farming startup BrightFarms and Brooklyn hydroponic farming startup Gotham Greens, just to a name a couple. 

[Atlanta-based] PodPonics started in 2010 when founder Matt Liotta — a serial entrepreneur who has launched Internet, software, and telecom startups — noticed that demand significantly outstripped supply in the local food business. “[My work] in Internet, telecom, and agriculture is all pretty similar in that the goal was to find a mature industry and come up with a disruptive technology,” he says. “If you wanted to produce fresh produce at the point of consumption in a way that was economically viable, what would you have to invent to do it?”

Liotta decided to use recycled shipping containers as “grow pods,” which are outfitted with organic hydroponic nutrient solutions; computer-controlled environmental systems to regulate temperature, humidity, pH levels, and CO2; and lights that emit specific spectrums at different points in the day. The system provides the exact amount of water, lights, and nutrients that a crop requires—so there is no wasted energy (though the pods are still hooked up to the power grid). In a 320 square foot area, PodPonics can produce an acre’s worth of produce. The pods can be stacked on top of each other for more efficient use of space.

Full story: Fast Company. Photo via PodPonics.