Super Creative Organic Urban Gardens Around the World: Who Needs Biotech?

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/super-creative-organic-urban-gardens-around-world-who-needs-biotech-1401089997



Not only are people around the world capable of growing nutrient-dense, nourishing food that will feed their communities, even if they live in an urban setting, but they can also do it with élan. Some of the most creative urban gardening projects around the globe can inspire us to create our own green space in the city, or add luster to a space that’s already underway which just needs a little oomph. Here are some off-the-(biotech)-chain gardens that will get our creative juices flowing so that we can carry the dream of living pesticide and GMO-free, further:

Everyone who has kept abreast of national news has heard of the urban blight that has devastated Detroit. This once burgeoning center of the auto-trade in America is now a sprawling concrete wasteland – or is it? Food Field is an urban farm in the middle of central Detroit. It grows heaping amounts of organic produce using permaculture. They even raise chickens and ducks, grow food utilizing aquaculture, raise honey bees, and have their own organic fruit orchard. This all happens on a piece of land that is smaller than that of many McMansions. Even in one of this country’s most economically depressed cities, where unemployment rates are currently swollen to 14-17 percent, people are flourishing growing their own organic food.

[Major Nikon]

1. Aquaculture and more specifically aquaponics has enormous potential

You can basically grow food anywhere, even in desert and space limited environments.

[mopinko]

2. chicago refugee gardens

we have a terrific, big garden here that is run by a refugee assistance agency.
it is on a long strip of land along the chicago "river". (aka, the sewer, at one time. better now.)
it is a for profit garden, and they have a full time market stand.
naturally, they specialize in hard to find ethnic veggies. folks get seeds from home, and grow all kinds of crazy veggies.
the use the darnedest things for trellises. they strip old mattress and use the frames, they have 1" pvc arches, buckets, barrels, you name it.
crazy cool. (and hoping to help them out next year with growing some seedlings. cant wait to get my hands of some of these plants.)

we are very proud to be "urbs in horto", city in a garden. it is a passion here.

[mopinko]

3. one beef, tho- i wish people toss around "organic"

it has a quite specific meaning, legally and practically.
i doubt this little farm has gone though certification, or could pass certification in the middle of detroit.

they might follow organic practices, as do i, but it means something to be organic that goes beyond not using pesticides.
it's not a very useful concept on this scale, really.
nobody on this scale needs the kind of stuff that big ag dumps on our food, anyway.

but i tell people who ask me about this-
we live on a poison planet. that is a given. i dont even want to know what is in my existing soil. i just keep building new soil on top of it, and carry on.
the idea that i could put some of stamp of purity on it is crazy to me.

and i am betting these guys really wouldnt qualify. if they feed scraps to their chickens, and put that manure on the gardens, there is a whole part of the stream that is just not gonna be controllable.

petty quibble, but a personal annoyance. i have a neighbor who buys my eggs, but cant feed them to the grandkids because they arent certified organic. and i refuse to pretend that they are.