Posts tagged as:

local agriculture

South African couple adds to continent’s ‘Green Revolution’

by Editor July 21, 2010 Economic development

REPORT FROM SOUTH AFRICA By Susan Richardson Grahamstown, South Africa –Zolile and Charlotte Mbali grow greens in discarded car tires.  They provide an excellent growing environment, the couple said, and help prevent soil erosion on their plot in the township of Clermont in the outer west of Durban.  And, best of all, the tires are free, said [...]

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Summer at the Hull-House Farm: Episode 3

by Cassandra West July 13, 2010 Seasons
Hull-House Heirloom farm near downtown Chicago

We’re back with our latest episode on the Hull-House Heirloom Farm, located at the University of Illinois-Chicago campus. When we checked in July 1 with farm director Ryan Beck, he was in the middle of talking with a group of students visiting from Northwestern University, explaining the rewards and challenges of managing an urban farm. [...]

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Root-Riot Madison Ave. Ribbon Cutting brings out Oak Park gardeners

by Cassandra West July 11, 2010 Community gardening
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Root-Riot Urban Garden Network held a dedication and ribbon cutting on a beautiful, sunny July 10 Saturday morning. Many gardeners and supporters came out to see what has sprung up on the Madison Avenue lot. About 50 raised beds are now going strong, filled with many varieties of vegetables and flowers. There’s also a lovely [...]

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Documentary explores history of the School Lunch Program

by Editor June 19, 2010 Agribusiness

By Susan Richardson Lunch Line, a new documentary about the history of the school lunch program, comes at  an important time. The 64-year-old  program is up for reauthorization by Congress as part of the Child Nutrition Act, bringing attention to what children are eating, where it comes from and the role of the federal government  in ushering food [...]

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Chicago food activists stand with Haitian farmers in rejecting Monsanto seeds

by Cassandra West June 1, 2010 Agribusiness

Since the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, many Haitians came to see agriculture as the most practical and long-term solution to healing the land and the economy. Then in stepped big agribusiness, as always, with its own solution, designed more to help its bottom line than the Haitian population. Monsanto, the St. Louis-based agri-chemical company, announced [...]

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How far does your food travel?

by Cassandra West May 22, 2010 global food systems

We found the above chart while reading a 2003 report from the Agriculture Footprint Brief titled “Eating up the Earth: How Sustainable Food Systems Shrink Our Ecological Footprint.” The local-food movement goes beyond city dwellers’ desire to work in a garden because it’s a cool idea. It has strong ecological implications we all should consider. [...]

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Hull-House farm (Episode 2): Some soup and signs of growth

by Cassandra West May 21, 2010 Community
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We promised a few weeks ago in a post about the Hull-House Museum urban farm that we’d return with regular updates on its 2010 growing season. We got back to the farm to record Episode 2 (see video below) this week after stopping in at the weekly (Tuesdays) Re-Thinking Soup lecture and lunch, a big [...]

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'Greenest Market' coming

by Cassandra West May 14, 2010 Community

Billing itself as Chicago’s “greenest” market, the new Glenwood Sunday Market in Rogers Park opens June 6 at 9 a.m., with a ribbon cutting at 8:30. Food produced by 11 farmers will be offered. All the farmers are and either certified organic or transitioning to organic and come from within 200 radius of Zip Code [...]

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