In Michigan, NIMBY trumps urban farming

Recent changes to Michigan’s 33-year-old Right to Farm Act exclude urban farms from protection.

When Michigan passed the Right to Farm Act back in 1981, it was designed to protect farmers from urban sprawl. As suburban development expanded into rural areas, the new residents—people with “limited understanding of farming,” as a Right to Farm Act FAQ sheet calls them—often found typical farming conditions, including dust, odors, animal noises and such, unacceptable. Sometimes, the interlopers would file nuisance suits against the farmers. Essentially, the law said this is how farming smells, sounds, looks and acts. It has a right to do so.

Over the last several years, the flow has reversed, with farming moving back to town. Increasingly, urban dwellers are raising vegetables, chickens and even goats in their backyards or on small plots of land. Some do so for their own consumption, wanting to reduce their reliance on factory-farmed foods. Some are entrepreneurs, producing small batch products to sell at farmers markets and other outlets. Late last month, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development put their right to do so in doubt. Continue reading “In Michigan, NIMBY trumps urban farming” →

Small bites: Organic farming on a Chicago roof and wild-caught fish from the wilds of Minnesota

The nation’s first certified organic rooftop farm and a sustainable fishing success story are subjects of a pair of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

The last two weekends have found us at garden centers. We don’t do a lot of gardening (and by we, I of course mean Marion—I mostly just carry the occasional bag of cow manure), but garden centers are always inspiring. They instill hope for the spring that continues to merely flirt with us. Standing in the checkout line with our half dozen tomato plants and about as many herbs got me thinking about the resurgence of urban farming in the last few years. One of the most exciting places urban farming is happening right now is on the roof of a Chicago restaurant. Continue reading “Small bites: Organic farming on a Chicago roof and wild-caught fish from the wilds of Minnesota” →

Will Allen: Basketball player, farmer, major voice for urban agriculture

An unlikely farmer with an unlikely place to farm—and the effect he’s having on low-income kids, communities and presidents (yes, plural)—is the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post.

A World War I-era song asks the musical question “How ‘Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm? (After They’ve Seen Paree).” When Will Allen left his father’s farm on a college basketball scholarship, he certainly had no intention of ever returning to farming. But after a pro basketball career in the US and in Europe (where he certainly got to see the lights of Paris) and a stint in the corporate world, back to the farm is exactly where he headed.

It was while playing ball in Belgium and driving around the countryside there that Allen began to feel the pull of the farm again. Soon, he was hanging out with Belgian farmers and moving to a house with room for a garden and some chickens. Continue reading “Will Allen: Basketball player, farmer, major voice for urban agriculture” →

Green .000367 Acres: Farming in Manhattan on a very, very small scale

The urge to grow your own food can strike in even the most urban environments. My post on the USA Character Approved Blog this week shows how one person answers that urge in the wilds of Manhattan.

Peter Bazeli and his wife Lisa Nathan live the big city dream—certainly my big city dream. Their apartment on the Upper West Side faces New York’s green jewel, Central Park. But old habits die hard. Peter grew up helping his parents in their large family garden in the Midwest. Gradually, he took it over and even put in a fish pond. Moving to the big city did nothing to stifle his desire to dig in the dirt. So he rents a tiny plot in a Manhattan community garden, where he and Lisa raise heirloom tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, eggplants, lettuce and spinach.

“Farming” a four-foot by four-foot garden plot in the heart of New York City is not without its challenges. Continue reading “Green .000367 Acres: Farming in Manhattan on a very, very small scale” →

Extreme locavores: In Brooklyn, “truck farm” is taken literally, Chicago restaurant farms its roof

The Brooklyn filmmakers who gave us the Peabody Award-winning feature documentary King Corn turn an old pickup truck into a farm and a film. And Chicago’s first certified organic farm is on a restaurant rooftop.

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How do you grow your own food in the big city if you ain’t got any land?” That was the central question behind Truck Farm—both the tiny farm and the film. Filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney set out to prove that fresh vegetables can be grown just about anywhere. Even in the bed of a 1986 Dodge Ram pickup.

To do so, they combined “green roof technology, organic compost and heirloom seeds to create a living, mobile garden on the streets of Brooklyn, NY.” They’re using green techniques to film the project too, outfitting the truck with a solar-powered camera to provide a time lapse record of the farm’s progress.

Following the lead of other small farms, they’ve even started their own CSA. Your $20 subscription will get you Continue reading “Extreme locavores: In Brooklyn, “truck farm” is taken literally, Chicago restaurant farms its roof” →