Will Allen Growing Power Aquaponics and Greenhouse

Great for local food, local jobs, and encouraging innovation. Originally posted by GreenLearning on YouTube as "1 MILLION pounds of Food on 3 acres. 10,000 fish 500 yards compost."

A return to the land, and fresh food, in the backyards of the Delta | Grist

A return to the land, and fresh food, in the backyards of the Delta | Grist

Great simple framework, mostly low tech and high impact.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Cabarrus County forms up a Food Council http://www.cabarruscounty.us/News/2010/May/May28_FoodCouncil.html

Lots of good models showing up with solid effect. Let's get through the secondary research before we all go grant crazy for primary research. Google, not grants!

Another addition: http://www.ethicurean.com/2010/06/10/usda-looks-at-local/  For USDA discussion of "what is local food"

Shout out to http://www.localdirt.com/ for excellent newsflow @localdirt

Via Local Dirt: Rooftop gardens from around the world - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot

Rooftop gardens from around the world - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot

Beautiful photos and many examples - via http://www.localdirt.com/

cias.wisc.edu on Distribution Models of Local Food and Maps

Once again, Wisconsin's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems rocks! I can't believe I missed this the first time around.

Lovely open source map of food distribution systems, and model descriptions. And supporting reports at 

Distribution Models for Local Food

View National Distribution Models in a larger map

Additional reports at "CIAS and the UW-Extension Ag Innovation Center have written a report featuring case studies of some of these distribution models: “Scaling Up:  Meeting the Demand for Local Food.”

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans | CommonDreams.org

On Job Creation—Local Fruits and Vegetables vs. Corn and Soybeans | CommonDreams.org

Informative writing on regional economics (upper midwest) and the driving potential of local production.

From CommonDreams.org's blog:

Some key findings on the economic impacts on the region as a whole:

• Increased fruit and vegetable production in the six states could mean $882 million in sales at the farm level, and more than 9,300 jobs. Corn and soybean production on that same acreage would support only 2,578 jobs.
• If half of the increased production was sold in farmer-owned stores, it would require 1,405 such stores staffed by 9,652 people.

The full study new study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.


This is consistent with findings in numerous local food studies: economic, profitable, sustainable, and not requiring extensive subsidy beyond instantiation of infrastructures (say, processing facilities). 


See also Grower To Grower from cais.wisc.edu for some of the dynamics of smaller scale farms. Big bucks from small acres. University of Illinois Extension circa 2002 found a lot of "takers" for small scale farming; some of it purpose-driven, funding college, a new boat, or to pay down a mortgage, etc. I don't have a link at hand for that one.


Photograph: Mike Glodo, Small Jonathan and Stayman Apples from Southern Illinois

"Local and Regional Foods in Community and Economic Development" from Cornell et.al.

Well crafted presentation. Concise tutorial.

Cornell Presentation

View more presentations from Ed Morrison.

Kudos to the authors, Rod Howe, Katherine Lang, Bernadette Logozar, Heidi Mouillesseaux-Kunzman, and Duncan Hilchey

My friend Dayna Conner at Food Works here in deep Southern Illinois pointed me to an upcoming webinar on Local and Regional Food Systems by Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) that led me to that presentation. Her organization's blog is here.

Small Scale Fresh Food Prototyping With Rusty Bookcase + Ladybug

Good Bugs and Good Eats

But fresh, even small scale, makes the winter days brighter.

Got started late this year and have only anemic prototypes of growing tomatoes, but have achieved proof of principle.

I use a rusted out metal bookcase in a south window. That works too. It's been a safe house for the many ladybugs that pop out during the warmer days here. They've been munching some kind of pests on the plants and it seems a fair deal. (Introducing exotic species generally a very poor idea. Finally starting to see native lady bugs again).

So the bookshelf's not really a bona fide prototype, but I bought a bunch of end of season seed geraniums for a dime on the dollar which faded, then came back and made me smile throughout the winter.

Even had success with some cherry tomatoes that I started in September. They're horribly abused but I have a few green ones now. Brandywines started at same time about a foot high, and wintered over not much the worse for wear. Nice early start for spring (if something doesn't eat 'em when transplanted from the pots).

Urban food, local food, good eats. We'll get there.

More urban farming at Will Allen's www.growingpower.org/

Local Food, Local Economy, Bad Governmental Policy

Why we need transformational leadership in government. Status quo is hurting families and limiting choice.Florida and California apparently dominate policy. Where are we?

My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)

By JACK HEDIN

Published: March 1, 2008

Ultimately, it is the consumer who will pay the greatest price if the federal government continues to prevent the local food movement from expanding.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html

White Lily Flour from The New York Times

Upon recommendation from my friend Mark, I got a bag of White Lily flour. It's been around as a southern brand since the early 1880ss, and was acquired by the Smuckers company a few years ago.

Results

Made amazing biscuits this morning with it. Lard *and* butter cut into the package recipe. Very nice biscuits reminding me of my Grandma's (a goal to strive for - she always used Crisco and kept the works in the fridge at home).  Will keep tweaking recipe - maybe add some baking soda and repeat.

Grandma used buttermilk. Her sister Louise always suggested clabbered milk (which can be found at http://www.ehow.com/how_2192640_make-clabbered-milk.html)
see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crème_fraiche
I've used whole milk yoghurt with decent results in biscuits; provides similarly good taste.

Also going to check on Nunn Better http://www.nunn-better.com/flour-corn.htm (Evansville, IN) and Virginia's Best which seem to have a following of their own. Likewise, soft red wheat flours with low protein.

Meanwhile, the debate about what Smucker's did when they closed the plant and moved operations is found at

DINING & WINE

Biscuit Bakers’ Treasured Mill Moves North

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: June 18, 2008

For generations of Southern bakers, the closing of the White Lily flour mill is causing ripples of anxiety that Southern biscuits will never be the same.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/dining/18flour.html

Fish and Salad In Situ Ville: NY Times on Aquaponics

New technology has enabled smaller scale livingry systems. (That is a Bucky Fuller word.)

Fascinating overview. Fish-Sun-Water-Plants

The New York Times discusses aquaponics as practiced in the US, with a ton of Australians in the mix. See http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/ for more on that. I just discovered the Australian site and am gleeful from the experience. The Times article mentions also Aquaponics Journal, which has doubled subscriptions every year for the last five years.

The Spotless Garden

By MICHAEL TORTORELLO

Published: February 17, 2010

Aquaponic gardens use fish, water and no soil — and may be the future of food growing.

This technology/approach dates at least to the early 1970s - see New Alchemy Institute's innovations in bioshelters. I had mentioned New Alchemy Institute in November 2005 in the context of Sustainable Architecture at http://techneblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/sustainable-architecture.html

More New Alchemy materials at The Green Center http://www.vsb.cape.com/~nature/greencenter/ which includes reports on aquaculture, bioshelters, and agriculture.

Good stewardship + good eats.

Strawberries: High Margin Greenhouse Food

Perfect example of in-situ agriculture yielding ~ $20/pound. Systems. Systems. This is what physicists do when they change jobs: geek and eat.

Readily tweakable for other environments and economies. From Smithsonian Magazine.

High tech greenhouses in the desert, physicist. Lovely. "In 1991, a French nursery called Marionnet introduced Mara des Bois, a deep red strawberry with soft, melting flesh and a fantastically intense perfume... it fetches a premium price, and accounts for about a tenth of the nation's strawberry harvest." Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/strawberry-side.html?c=y&page=1

In-Situ Ville, 17 Years Later

Fascinated by the potential of 3D printers.

Although CrunchGear reports the demise of Desktop Factory, I met a friend of makerbot.com an open source 3D printer project at the SIUIS4 conference.

3D printers create a solid form "layer by layer" from plastic (for now.)

These flexible gizmos would appeal to the folks back in the day of Drop City and (more likely) the New Alchemy Institute for generating one-off or pre-production prototypes.

One app that appeals to me is the idea of creating the "Shopsmith TNG" for use in extreme or isolated places (like shipboard). I'm provably not an engineer, but the tech suggests rapid lost wax casting of parts, etc.

My concept of in-situ ville came from 1992 working papers and presentations on the interaction of ubiquitous networks presented in New York in 1993 called "The Information Superhighway". Essentially, the forecasting and behaviors of people using networked communications suggested strongly the ability to support smaller-scale communities and businesses. "The arrival of new corner groceries" captured that idea. Now, much more of the future can be shaped with local manufacture and mass customization, often using open source designs and materials/feedstocks coming through a closed loop consumption-distribution-production cycle.

" Metals recirculate on a sum-total-of-all-metals-average every 22 1/2 years....
I was able to arrive at that figure of a 22 1/2-year metals recirculating cycle in 1936. I was working for Phelps Dodge Co., which had asked me to give them some prognostications about the uses of copper in the future of world industry."

R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path

Cited by me in "Say watt again. SAY WATT AGAIN" on the subject of Green Computing

Sustainable Local Foods Farming Program at John Wood Community College

JWCC’s new Sustainable Local Foods Farming program provides courses and hands-on training in sustainable fruit and vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and marketingJWCC’s new Sustainable Local Foods Farming program provides courses and hands-on training in sustainable fruit and vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and marketing. More athttp://www.jwcc.edu/instruct/agriculture/LocalFoodsFarming/default.asp


Course brochure (pdf) athttp://www.jwcc.edu/instruct/agriculture/LocalFoodsFarming/docs/SustainableFoodsBrochure.pdf

USDA Policy Encouraging Local Economic Growth

USDA changing policies to encourage local food production in an All Things Considered interview with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsak.

Know your farmer know your food is focusing on creating wealth in rural communities.

Note that the policy of emphasizing the economic clout of smaller scale producers on the local economy has become more of a focal point for policy: entrepreneurs matter, throughout the network that produces food.

This production network goes well beyond the farmer or rancher. It encompasses the systems and people supporting markets. Distribution companies, information technology, newly transformed landscape companies, web designers, broadband providers, retailers...

So the first law of ecology from Garrett Hardin: "You cannot do only one thing."

More of the story at: NPR.org - Farmers Markets: Fresh, Local, Government-Approved

Will Allen: Urban Farming

Good summary article of Will Allen's commitment and innovations in urban local food in the New York Times Magazine, 5 July 2009. Good summary article of Will Allen's commitment and innovations in urban local food in the New York Times Magazine, 5 July 2009.
Street Farmer
By ELIZABETH ROYTE
Published: July 5, 2009
Can Will Allen make the inner city the next front in the good-food movement?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html

Milli Market Segments for Local Food

Although Eric Sink, managing partner of Champaign, Illinois Source Gear LLC, writes about the software business, his article "Whining by a Barrel of Rocks" applies to ways of thinking about the structure of food "as a business" and the many opportunities for collaboration and economic growth with both large "production agriculture" firms and more narrowly focused specialty/local/boutique businesses.

Mr. Sink writes:

"Now let's suppose we're considering a market opportunity with realistic potential for $3M USD annual revenue. The big vendors can't even consider pursuing a market that small. It's not worth their time. But a $3M annual revenue stream will easily sustain a small company of 15-30 employees. That niche is an opportunity, and somebody is going to build a nice company inside it.

Identifying all the opportunities for software products is like filling a barrel with rocks.

We start by putting in the really big rocks like office suites and desktop operating systems. Soon the barrel is full and will hold no more large rocks.

But smaller rocks can still be added easily. In fact, we have to add a surprising number of small rocks and pebbles before the barrel can be considered full."

More at http://www.ericsink.com/bos/Whining_by_a_Barrel_of_Ro.html

The Need for Broadband Networks in Local Food Systems

Although some "local" farm telecommunications can take place with relatively slow speed private networks (such as those which support remote low data rate sensors for water or nutrients) and basic "telephone" calls, the bulk of the information needed for the Local Food farmers and eaters has trended along with the Internet traffic patterns generally: more and more information comprises richer media: video and audio.

"Digital Divide" has been used to describe the disparity of computer and network access - typically in the context of relative incomes. In other words, poorer people use (or have access to) significantly less computing (and networks) than wealthier people. With respect to Local Food Systems, the Local Food System digital divide breaks along geographic disparities - especially population densities - and the willingness of incumbent network providers (telephone companies and cable companies) to provide access to the "thinner" parts of their service areas.

And these poorly served areas are rural, holding farmers, ranchers, and consumers who cannot reasonably gain access to higher capacity networks. The network potential benefits resemble the effects of Rural Electrification during the 1930s. Illinois citizens - particularly at the south end of the state - are merely one generation removed from kerosene lanterns and battery powered radios.

History Does Not Repeat Itself But It Often Rhymes

Attributed to Mark Twain

Regarding Rural Electrification from http://newdeal.feri.org/tva/tva10.htm

"In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring electricity to rural areas like the Tennessee Valley. In his 1935 article "Electrifying the Countryside," Morris Cooke, the head of the REA, stated that

In addition to paying for the energy he used, the farmer was expected to advance to the power company most or all of the costs of construction. Since utility company ideas as to what constituted sound rural lines have been rather fancy, such costs were prohibitive for most farmers. [ footnote]

Many groups opposed the federal government's involvement in developing and distributing electric power, especially utility companies, who believed that the government was unfairly competing with private enterprise (See the Statement of John Battle ). Some members of Congress who didn't think the government should interfere with the economy, believed that TVA was a dangerous program that would bring the nation a step closer to socialism. Other people thought that farmers simply did not have the skills needed to manage local electric companies.

By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25 percent. The enthusiasm that greeted the introduction of electric power can be seen in the remarks of Rose Scearce.

When farmers did receive electric power their purchase of electric appliances helped to increase sales for local merchants. Farmers required more energy than city dwellers, which helped to offset the extra cost involved in bringing power lines to the country."

Why regional markets matter: Driving Distance and Times. Chicago's 35 minutes closer than Kansas City

From Goreville, IL	Miles	Hours:Minutes
	Paducah, KY	45	0:50:00
	St. Louis, MO	131	2:08:00
	Evansville, IN	144	2:21:00
	Nashville, TN	180	2:50:00
	Springfield, IL	201	3:20:00
	Memphis, TN	205	3:00:00
	Louisville, KY	232	3:33:00
	Chicago, IL	332	5:18:00
	Kansas City, MO	379	5:53:00

Hi gang, I'll pretty this up at some point but the message is clear: we have export markets which have little to do with upstate. Louisville's about 2 hours closer than Chicago. Nashville, TN is closer than Springfield, IL. Memphis is 2 hours closer than Chicago.

This matters, and I want "regional" to get into the vocabulary ASAP. Geography's a hard thing to grasp, and when any of us (me included!) say Illinois it means a lot of things that I, for one, don't always understand it to mean. The latitude down here is the same as Roanoake VA and San Francisco..... It matters. Thanks.
Yours for good eats,
Mike (Born in Memphis, raised in Grand Tower Illinois, boomerang and proud of it!)

Urban Food Producers and Pondering

In Michael Shuman's Going Local, he cites (p.59) the productivity of urban growers:

"In Hong Kong, which has an extraordinary population density, nearly half of all vegetables consumed are grown within the city limits, on 5 percent to 6 percent of the city's land."

He works through Training and Development Corporation http://www.tdc-usa.org/about-us

More information on local growing, organics, community sponsored agriculture, and food for thought (heh) at AlterNet, in the piece Food of the Future which provides other references to local food systems.

Shuman's ongoing work gives the local food issue a useful context: that local food efforts involve also the transformation of local economies.

Campbell's Law of Everything applies: "You can't do just one thing."

For example, to develop more decentralized food systems, changes in local zoning may be essential enablers for local production to come to life.

Chickens, for example, were common part in the little Illinois river town where I grew up.

There was an "egg man" who visited each Saturday with product from about 1/2 mile away. And those who wanted had a couple of chickens even (gasp) in town. My grandma would get the garden (next to our house) turned over by a neighbor with a horse. The horse lived in a small barn about 100 yards from my house. The horse could find its way home from the bar on Front Street with the owner in (not on) the wagon. If the owner overstayed, the horse would go home under its own power.

How many things intertwined to make this happen?


This was in the 1950s through the early 1970s.

Things change.

Local food, local community, trade.... all forms of interconnected systems. Some of these systems are hugely dependent upon societal, policy decisions. Many of the food systems today suffer from the "unintended consequences" of regulation, which so often has driven to centralization and concentration of the markets and producers.

The cousin of the bacteria from the custard pie which sent the church elder to the bathroom for a rough night after the fundraiser now visits hundreds of thousands of families at the speed of a truck fleet and forces a national recall of the "product"; which, of course, is the newspeak for food.

Not that centralization, per se, always has problems, but centralization certainly always has consequences.

Rather than edit and tighten this up, I'll post and ponder.

The Need for Broadband Networks in Local Food Systems

Although some "local" farm telecommunications can take place with relatively slow speed private networks (such as those which support remote low data rate sensors for water or nutrients) and basic "telephone" calls, the bulk of the information needed for the Local Food farmers and eaters has trended along with the Internet traffic patterns generally: more and more information comprises richer media: video and audio.

"Digital Divide" has been used to describe the disparity of computer and network access - typically in the context of relative incomes. In other words, poorer people use (or have access to) significantly less computing (and networks) than wealthier people. With respect to Local Food Systems, the Local Food System digital divide breaks along geographic disparities - especially population densities - and the willingness of incumbent network providers (telephone companies and cable companies) to provide access to the "thinner" parts of their service areas.

And these poorly served areas are rural, holding farmers, ranchers, and consumers who cannot reasonably gain access to higher capacity networks. The network potential benefits resemble the effects of Rural Electrification during the 1930s. Illinois citizens - particularly at the south end of the state - are merely one generation removed from kerosene lanterns and battery powered radios.

History Does Not Repeat Itself But It Often Rhymes

Attributed to Mark Twain

Regarding Rural Electrification from http://newdeal.feri.org/tva/tva10.htm

"In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring electricity to rural areas like the Tennessee Valley. In his 1935 article "Electrifying the Countryside," Morris Cooke, the head of the REA, stated that

In addition to paying for the energy he used, the farmer was expected to advance to the power company most or all of the costs of construction. Since utility company ideas as to what constituted sound rural lines have been rather fancy, such costs were prohibitive for most farmers. [ footnote]

Many groups opposed the federal government's involvement in developing and distributing electric power, especially utility companies, who believed that the government was unfairly competing with private enterprise (See the Statement of John Battle ). Some members of Congress who didn't think the government should interfere with the economy, believed that TVA was a dangerous program that would bring the nation a step closer to socialism. Other people thought that farmers simply did not have the skills needed to manage local electric companies.

By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25 percent. The enthusiasm that greeted the introduction of electric power can be seen in the remarks of Rose Scearce.

When farmers did receive electric power their purchase of electric appliances helped to increase sales for local merchants. Farmers required more energy than city dwellers, which helped to offset the extra cost involved in bringing power lines to the country."