Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Sounds like a plan. On the plus side it sure helps to deal with the
legalities and the soil remediation. The Rainbow Farmers Coop looks good.
And Will Allen looks like the real deal, an actual market farmer selling
affordable food to people who need it. His teaching urban agriculture
strikes me as a very good idea, and he does it. Esp check out Growing Power
at http://www.growingpower.org/new_page_1.htm . This is serious local
agriculture, folks. 

On the other side, the website about vacant lots in Chicago looks very long
on talk and very short on results. 60,000 vacant lots in Chicago doesn't
tell us what anyone's doing with them - apparently nothing so far. Again,
we're all for growing food instead of lawns. But growing food on vacant
lots will always be problematical due to legal and pollution issues. Not a
new idea either. What http://www.growingpower.org/walnut_way.htm does not
tell us is how the project turned out, whether any edible food was ever
harvested or at what cost. Why aren't they showing us the results? Is it
because it flopped, even with all the money and help poured into it? Having
to get grants from nonprofits or cities doesn't strike me as a reproducible
model for everywhere else. And surprise - they want donations and
volunteers. Been there, done that. Doesn't work.

I can't help but notice that website
http://www.growingpower.org/walnut_way.htm states only ONE vacant lot was
gardened so far. I can't believe that getting the city to lease ONE vacant
lot is "pioneering a new trend in urban agriculture". That's hype. That
kind of hype combined with asking for money and volunteers is a major
turnoff. 

What's wrong with just encouraging people to grow food not lawns?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 4/4/2007 at 8:51 PM Bobby G wrote:

>well i'm not familiar with the "Food Not Lawns"
>people, although i've often felt that could be a good
>slogan, if people took it seriously.
>
>but here in Wisconsin, this guy Will Allen and the
>Growing Power urban agriculture project are legendary:
>
>http://www.growingpower.org/
>
>who Will Allen is...
>http://www.growingpower.org/will_allen.htm
>
>from the front page of the web site, looks like they
>have their sites set on those "60,000 vacant lots in
>Chicago". now, they don't just come in and start
>planting in some vacant lots.  the web site mentions
>perpetual leases, with permissions, at least in
>Milwaukee, where the project started.  so i imagine
>any such lots in Chicago would be handled similarly,
>with permission, funding, etc. involving the city.
>
>and the first thing i notice that is addressed is soil
>remediation, knowing your brownfields, etc.
>
>urban reclamation can happen.  but it won't be easy,
>nor glamorous, nor involve a lot of celebrities on a
>day-to-day basis (they come just for the photo-ops).
>
>bobby g
>
>