This movie by Heifer International demonstrates how they are working towards bringing urban agriculture and sustainable food system education to cities around the US.
Here in Cleveland, the movie Polycultures describes our local food system that is doing similar things to jump start urban agriculture. Here’s one of them.
This is a preview of the video my friend David Pearl and his cohorts created, Polycultures: Food Where We Live. Enjoy!
I was going to leave it at that, but I just had to add this clip from the movie as well:
The Cleveland Botanical Garden started its illustrious Green Corp program back in 1996 to leverage two of Cleveland’s most valuable and underutilized resources: vacant land and teenagers. By starting and maintaining productive gardens in inner city neighborhoods, the Green Corp program is not only creating green public space that helps to beautify urban areas, but is also employing and empowering inner city kids.
Through the Green Corp program, teenagers learn how to construct and maintain productive gardens (which are basically small urban farms), and then sell the produce that they rear from the earth. They learn gardening and business skills, in addition to the benefits of hard work, leadership, and teamwork. They can then take what they learn in the Green Corp back home to their families and friends.
On August 21st, Mayor Jackson visited the Green Corp’s 5th urban garden in Fairfax to celebrate the program’s success and the work of the teenagers that make it all happen.
The speakers in the video include Rob (a Green Corp participant), Mamie Mitchell (Cleveland councilwoman), Mayor Frank Jackson, and Ruth Eppig (president of the Board at the Cleveland Botanical Garden).
To learn more about the Green Corp program in Cleveland, click here.
During a workshop for “Re-Imagining a More Sustainable Cleveland,” one of the attendees stated ardently that chickens and farms belong in the countryside, not in the city. I understand where he’s coming from.
It would be better to have farms in the land surrounding our cities instead of pavement and seemingly endless suburbia. But the fact of the matter is that we do have suburban sprawl, which directly influences the amount of land available for farming and the distance that food has to travel in order to get into our cities.
On top of that, many post-industrial cities like Cleveland are “food deserts.” Meaning, because of racism and white flight from the inner city, grocery stores abandoned the city to take up post in the more affluent suburban neighborhoods. In their place, fast food restaurants thrived because of the cheap price of processed foods. The consequence of this is that many inner city inhabitants suffer from health problems associated with their poor diets. But what alternatives do they really have?
Continue reading
A little while ago I went on a tour of the urban farms in Cleveland. I brought my little sister from Big Brother Big Sister of Greater Cleveland with me, and since she is 7 years-old, she faded long before we made it to all 9 of the farms on the tour, but here are a few highlights from the day.
Blue Pike Farm:
900 E. 72nd St
Cleveland, OH 44103
Owner: Carl Skalak
Blue Pike Farm Market: Thursdays 4:00 – 7:00 P.M.
Blue Pike Farm is the first farm started in Cleveland proper in the 21st Century. They are dedicated to growing fresh products, using natural and sustainable agricultural practices. They collect and compost organic matter from local municipalities, coffee shops and roasteries, and local food markets.
Their products are available for sale on the farm, at local farmers markets and in restaurants that appreciate and support quality, fresh and locally grown produce.
Vel’s Purple Oasis:
10821 Frank Ave
Cleveland, OH, US
Owner Vel Scott is in the middle.
This guy is an expert in urban agriculture and gardening. Am hitting myself for not remembering his name right now (if anyone knows, please leave a comment). He works at Vel’s Purple Oasis and is showing us how they are using cardboard to create a lasagna-type compost to enrich the soil.
Vel Scott’s Garden is a blend of market and community gardening. The garden is in its first year of major soil remediation and bed building. Plants that tolerate unamended soil are being grown for market side-by-side with traditional annual crops in raised beds.
Gather ‘Round Farm:
3919 Lorain Ave
Cleveland, OH, US
This garden, built over an asphalt parking lot, grows vegetables, berries, herbs, and flowers. It is being developed as an educational and market farm, to serve the neighborhood. It is also features a Thyme Keepers Herbs and Crafts garden. Using permaculture principals, it demonstrates backyard sustainability practices such as: rain water use, run off best management practice, and native plantings for wildlife support. Tour the garden and feed the chickens.
Renovating the Rust Belt 