Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 2:58PMPosted by Emery Donovan, Programs and Events Intern
Summer is here and urban agriculture initiatives around the country are going in all sorts of interesting directions. We thought we’d look beyond the Colorado border and see what’s been happening with urban agriculture in the rest of the country…
40,000 square feet, 1.2 million pounds of soil, and a whole lot of manual labor. That’s what it took to create New York’s largest rooftop farm, which began over a year ago and was officially opened this week with a “vegetable cutting ceremony.” The farm is located atop an industrial building in Long Island City, Queens. Brooklyn Grange, the commercial farming company that owns the farm, sells the produce from the farm in the lobby of the building and at a local farmers market.
Rooftop farms aren’t the only urban agriculture news from New York – the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently removed honey bees from the Health Code’s register of “venemous insects,” inspiring hope that urban beekeeping might make a comeback in the Big Apple. This is good news. As the NYT article notes, honey from urban beehives is lower in chemical residue than commercially produced honey. Moreover, urban beehives have been shown to provide jobs, help pollinate local gardens and even reduce allergies! If you’re interested in beekeeping, be sure to check out the beehives at DUG’s DeLaney Community Farm in Aurora.
The 10 percent local food challenge, issued in March at the Homegrown Local Food Summit in Ann Arbor, Michigan, challenges individuals to spend 10% of their food budget on locally produced food. The idea originated in Washtenaw County, Michigan, a county that estimates its residents spend $1 billion on food annually, less than 1% of which is spent on local food. The group estimates that if local food spending increased to 10%, it could dramatically spur the local economy and create thousands of new jobs.
Here at DUG, summer has been busy and beautiful! Our summer programs, including the Youth Farmer’s Market at Fairview School, Garden Clubs at local schools, and the WIC program out at DeLaney, have all been going well! We’ve also been busy planning summer events, including the second annual Multiculturalism in the Garden Tour on July 17, and the Bike Tour, which will be on August 7. Looking forward to the fall, we are excited for Flourish! on September 25. As a celebration of the groundbreaking of our 100th garden and in honor of our 25th anniversary year, DUG is parterning with the City of Denver to host a day-long community celebration at Ruby Hill Park. The event will include a concert by the Swallow Hill Music Association, cooking demonstrations by local chefs featuring produce from DUG’s DeLaney Community Farm, and the ribbon cutting ceremony of DUG’s 100th garden. We can’t wait to see you there!
Happy summer!
