City Agriculture - June 19, 2025

In Kenya, a law against sharing indigenous seeds and a village choir raising their voices against it https://globalvoices.org/2025/05/10/kenya-outlawed-the-sharing-of-indigenous-seeds-an-village-choir-is-fighting-back/

HS student creates an app for an online farmers' market https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/high-school-student-creates-an-online-farmers-market-with-app/69-dea24a69-9172-46e4-aaaa-b23822098006

Vertical farms in cities to alleviate food insecurity https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/05/13/food-insecurity-vertical-farms-startups-cities If you hit a paywall, try https://archive.ph/zOMxS

Schools planting green spaces https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/16/la-schools-green-spaces

Lorain, OH [population 65,000] is beginning a "comprehensive initiative to turn underutilized spaces into thriving centers of food production, education, and opportunity” with the help of a USDA grant https://www.agritecture.com/blog/urban-farming-lorains-next-frontier-for-innovation-and-growth

LA’s Front Lawn Farm Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We1qoSDfUJE

Inside Africa's Food Forest Mega-Project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBdIG--b58 hat tip to https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/23/maybe-theres-hope-for-a-hopeless-time/

Gasometer tower to hydroponic production - from relic technology to a future https://www.agritecture.com/blog/reclaiming-the-industrial-past-for-a-greener-future-jabha-biotower-nam-earns-international-recognition

Indigenous ancient lagoon water management system of Ecuador https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/13/ecuador-indigenous-map-pre-inca-myths-ancient-lagoon-water-drought-

New advances in growing spirulina algae in vertical farms https://cleantechnica.com/2025/06/18/a-new-wave-of-algae-is-perking-up-the-vertical-farming-industry/

Food Twin Map - Discover where food is produced and how it travels around the world by selecting any region. https://foodtwin.theplotline.org/
Explanatory article https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-new-app-details-where-your-food-comes-from-and-just-how-fragile-the-global-food-system-really-is/

Respyre - bioreceptive concrete cladding and a specialised moss gel making it easy to create green facades that purify the air, sequester carbon, and cool buildings
https://www.gorespyre.com/

City Agriculture - May 12, 2025

Urine as fertilizer
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250227-the-vermont-farmers-using-urine-to-grow-their-crops

An industrial designed bee hive based on the form factor of a hollow tree
https://www.core77.com/posts/135723/HIIVE-From-An-Industrial-Design-Thesis-to-Market

Black Farmers Index - connecting consumers to local food grown by Black farmers
https://blackfarmersindex.com/

ART given notice to quit 31-year-old Food Forest - not all news is good news
https://substack.com/home/post/p-159120584

The world’s biggest soil conservation project
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/14/how-china-led-way-water-soil-conservation

Enhancing agrivoltaic synergies through optimized tracking strategies - "This paper presents a methodology for dynamically optimizing solar panel positioning to meet the varying light requirements of crops. Simulations are conducted for a case study of an agrivoltaic system in an apple orchard in southwestern Germany."
https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/journal-of-photonics-for-energy/volume-15/issue-03/032703/Enhancing-agrivoltaic-synergies-through-optimized-tracking-strategies/10.1117/1.JPE.15.032703.full
hat tip to https://cleantechnica.com/2025/03/15/new-agrivoltaic-tool-optimizes-solar-generation-and-crop-production/

Community farm reviving prairie land in Chicago
https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/03/17/how-a-little-village-farm-is-reviving-prairie-land-in-chicago/
hat tip to @chasesolidago.bsky.social

Paris votes for 500 more green streets
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/paris-residents-vote-favour-making-500-more-streets-pedestrian-2025-03-23/

Creole gardens as a response to climate change in Guadeloupe
https://globalvoices.org/2025/04/15/in-guadeloupe-creole-gardens-give-climate-lessons-in-a-spirit-of-solidarity/
Editorial Comment:  I’m reading Toxic Tropics:  A Horror Story of Environmental Injustice by Jessica Oublié, Nicola Gobbi, Kathrine Avraam, Vinciane Lebrun about the persistent contamination of Guadeloupe and Martinique by chlordecane which was used to control pests in banana plantations.  We have big problems on multiple fronts.

2 GW agrivoltaic project in China
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/19/massive-2-gw-agrivoltaic-project-aims-to-restore-desert-in-china/
Editorial Comment:  I learned a new word:  ecovoltaic - rebuilding soil health while restoring natural habitats and native plant species
Agrivoltaics and ecovotaics are examples of geotherapy, helping ecological systems restore the damage homo sap sap (that sap!) has done.

Growing strawberries under different levels of shading from thin-film solar panels
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/strawberries-under-solar-panels-agrivoltaics-canada

How Trmp’s first 100 days changed the USDA food system
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/trump-usda-food-system-agriculture-first-100-days/

City Agriculture - March 3, 2025

 The Poor Prole's Almanac: Restoration Agroecology

https://poorprolesalmanac.substack.com/
hat tip MT Spriggs

Port Huron, MI is planting trees to provide free fruit for residents under new pilot “Edible Parks” program
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2024/12/20/michigan-city-planting-trees-to-provide-free-fruit-for-residents-under-new-pilot-program/

Food Forests in Permaculture:  And In-Depth Guide/
https://www.permalogica.com/post/food-forests-in-permaculture-an-in-depth-guide

Urban farming in Baltimore isn’t just about growing food
https://popularresistance.org/in-baltimore-urban-farming-isnt-just-about-growing-food/
Editorial Comment:  Baltimore has done a lot around local agriculture and grassroots leaders like Mel King in Boston and Grace Lee Boggs in Detroit have used urban gardening to build a foundation for much larger social movements
More on Grace Lee Boggs at https://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-next-american-revolution.html
More on Mel King at https://solarray.blogspot.com/2023/04/how-many-ways-did-he-change-world-mel.html

USDA supporting urban agriculture and sustainable food production with $14.4 million in funding
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/usda.gov-urban-agriculture-grants

Growing microalgae for food and fodder indoors in Iceland
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gjry6dv4yo

LONGi Kubuqi Desert Solar Power Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntwjqMgCaE

Growing food in empty office spaces
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250127-why-veg-is-growing-in-empty-office-spaces

Food, water and energy self-sufficiency in a 33 meters diameter with a 3D printed house
https://3dwasp.com/en/itaca-the-self-sufficient-and-eco-sustainable-3d-printed-house/
hat tip Michael Bauwens

The green belt cooling a city
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/06/we-water-rest-water-the-green-belt-of-vegetable-plots-cooling-a-city

LA urban farmers will regrow and expand after the fires
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2025/feb/24/california-wildfires-altadena-farmers

Green roofs increase biodiversity for Basel, Switzerland.  They use native plants and seeds.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/28/green-roofs-deliver-for-biodiversity-how-basel-put-nature-on-top
from https://cityag.blogspot.com/2022/07/city-agriculture-july-31-2022.html
Rotterdam’s roofscape - greening 10 million square feet of rooftops
https://www.c40.org/case-studies/cities100-rotterdam-mitigation-meets-adaptation-on-rotterdam-s-rooftops/
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f082078d610926644d22e00/t/621e3b2a1ee23c373149cac0/1646148404157/URBANISTEN_Rotterdam_Rooftop_Potential_EN.pdf
https://www.fastcompany.com/90755913/inside-rotterdams-quest-to-green-10-million-square-feet-of-rooftops

City Agriculture - November 26, 2024

 From Nazi Bunker to Green Cultural Center and Urban Farm

https://www.core77.com/posts/133514/A-Nazi-Bunker-Transformed-Into-Green-Cultural-Center-and-Urban-Farm

Food Waste Legislative Tracker - State by State
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sU_r0MLaO4Nqx3HAJXqkOh1XabYkzRm5Zo9zsB2ZMxM/edit?pli=1&gid=1902823679#gid=1902823679
from Divert - protecting the value of food
https://divertinc.com/
Zero Food Waste Coalition
https://zerofoodwastecoalition.org/
Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic
https://hls.harvard.edu/clinics/in-house-clinics/food-law-and-policy-clinic/

Caixz Forum Museum vertical garden (living wall) in Madrid, Spain
https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/caixa-forum-museum-vertical-garden/
Explore Amazing Living Architecture Projects from Around the World
https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/

Finnish geotherapy for peatlands
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240912-the-finnish-fishermen-fighting-climate-change-by-preserving-carbon-rich-peatlands
Editorial Comment:  A little far afield but these kinds of initiatives are probably the quickest way to draw down carbon from the atmosphere

Concrete that absorbs CO2, insulates, and serves as a growing medium for vertical gardens
https://www.theplaidzebra.com/moss-growing-concrete-absorbs-co2-insulates-and-is-also-a-vertical-garden/

A greenhouse over a house in Norway that grows food all year round
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irp_HPzfxbQ
hat tip boingboing.net

Electro-agriculture to replace photosynthesis
https://scitechdaily.com/farming-in-the-dark-how-electro-agriculture-outpaces-photosynthesis/
hat tip ‪@johnsmillie42.bsky.social‬

Microfarms in LA yards
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/05/climate/microfarms-cropswapla-food-deserts.html
https://archive.ph/xjl6G - if you can’t get past the paywall

Denmark’s Groundbreaking Agriculture Climate Policy
https://www.wri.org/insights/denmark-agriculture-climate-policy

Agrivoltaics may improve the taste of lettuce, among many other things
https://www.microgridknowledge.com/commercial-industrial-microgrids/article/55238664/oregon-agrivoltaics-based-microgrid-tackles-crop-warming-from-climate-change-and-may-improve-taste-of-lettuce

Farm in the City - controlled environment agriculture for Puerto Rico, which imports 85% of its food
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/farm-in-the-city-is-transforming-puerto-ricos-food-system

New book - Urban Food Mapping
https://mikeytomkins.co.uk/urban-food-mapping/
hat tip to John Thackara

City Agriculture - September 4, 2024

 No Waste Army to rescue climate-changed vegetables (and farmers)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/29/its-not-beautiful-but-you-can-still-eat-it-climate-change-leads-to-more-wonky-vegetables-in-netherlands

Agrivoltaics - growing adoption and new technologies
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/07/11/peaches-grapes-the-agrivoltaic-farm-of-the-future/

Indoor farming for CO2 capture
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/direct-air-capture-dac-technology-for-indoor-farming
Editorial Comment:  I remember someone presenting this idea for greenhouses as direct air capture [DAC] of CO2 from coal and gas generators at an MIT climate conference about a decade ago.

Farm Urban - a community-wide initiative for growing food in Liverpool, UK
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/vertical-farming-and-social-good

Lawyers supporting natural plants against local weed ordinances
https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2024/07/25/lawyer-helps-people-fighting-weed-ordinances/
https://archive.ph/3seaw

Urban rice terrace roofs to avoid flooding and sponge city forms
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240805-how-ancient-rice-terraces-inspire-flood-resilience-in-asian-cities

Kindergarteners drop seeds in the crack of the sidewalk 
https://streetartutopia.com/2024/04/28/kindergarten-children-dropped-seeds-in-the-crack-of-the-sidewalk-to-see-what-would-happen/

Editorial Comment:
        I can't remember seeing it any other way but whole, a big
round rock wheeling about the heavens and comin' on green to
crack sidewalks, gentle and undemanding, as if I saw it first,
approaching it from somewhere else.

Lew Welch, "He Begins to Recount His Adventures”
https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/welch/welch_adventures.html

Rooftop farm, restaurant, and bar in Copenhagen
https://www.grospiseri.dk/the-team
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/t-magazine/copenhagen-rooftop-bar.html

Whole country survey of agrivoltaics - Canada
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043228
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/agriculture-and-energy-future-agrivoltaics

Survey of current solar energy + agriculture, agrivoltaic, projects around the world
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/08/28/new-agrivoltaic-project-pairs-high-tech-solar-panels-with-shrimp-shaped-yams/
A little history:
https://solarray.blogspot.com/2019/09/agrophotovoltaics-agriphotovoltaics.html

Lawns to Legumes - Minnesota state project for "installing pollinator-friendly native plantings in residential lawns” - a Tim Walz initiative it seems and the first state to do this
https://bwsr.state.mn.us/l2l
hat tip Monica Raymond

Ecological restoration of the Klamath River basin after dam removal
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240903-removing-the-klamath-river-dams-to-restore-the-river-what-happens-next

City Agriculture - July 2, 2024

 The world’s first organic state:  Sikkim

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26234911-000-take-a-photographic-tour-around-the-worlds-first-fully-organic-state/
hat tip Monica Raymond

Kansas Ioway tribe shifts to regenerative agriculture
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-soil-kansas-tribe-shifts-regenerative.amp
hat tip Soil4Climate.org

Pioneer ecological designer John Todd has a Substack
https://oceanarks.substack.com/

Aquaponics in city farming
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/circular-economy-aquaponics-in-city-farming
Editorial Comment:  John Todd was a pioneer in the integration of aquaculture with gardening and water purification

Chinese agri and aqua voltaic projects
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/03/dual-harvest-agrivoltaics-boost-food-energy-production-in-asia/

Keystone plants by ecoregion - "we have included critical plant genera and local species that host significant numbers of butterflies, moths, and pollen specialist bees. Without these ‘key' plants, the ecosystem and the wildlife would suffer."
https://nwf.org/keystoneplants

Growing food on Mars can help on Earth, using an indigenous agricultural method
https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/why-a-new-method-of-growing-food-on-mars-matters-more-on-earth/

Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-03-04/future-proof-food-systems-in-europe-a-call-for-action/
Marburg Action Plan for Future-Proof Food Systems in Europe
https://www.arc2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Marburg-Action-Plan_final.pdf

Fork Farms provides hydroponic farming systems to schools
https://www.forkfarms.com/
Editorial Comment:  Learned about this on 6/13/24 CBS Evening News “Eye on America” segment where they featured their installation at an Appleton, WI school (and a food pantry)

Fighting for the right not to mow - rewilding lawns and the law
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/21/the-gardener-who-took-a-canadian-city-to-court-for-the-right-to-not-mow-his-lawn

The Man Who Planted Trees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY_zuNtf3_g
Editorial Comment:  A classic.  It is fiction but there are working examples of others doing the same all around the world.  We need more.

Urban agrivoltaics for Detroit
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/06/25/solar-neighborhoods-in-detroit-choose-lightstar-to-illuminate-the-future-with-innovative-neighborhood-agrivoltaic-solar/
https://detroitmi.gov/government/mayors-office/office-sustainability/solar-neighborhoods

City Agriculture - May 23, 2024

 Restoring Scotland’s Uplands - 25 years of experience in rebuilding a valley

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/a-mecca-for-rewilders-the-community-led-project-restoring-scotlands-southern-uplands
Editorial Comment:  rebuilding healthy ecological systems in distant places can make cities and the whole world more resilient

$1 billion, 6,000 acres for agrivoltaics in Ohio
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/ohio-greenlights-massive-solar-storage-and-agrivoltaics-project

Solar racking design specifically for agrivoltaics
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/03/22/gorgeous-agrivoltaic-system-gilds-the-rural-solar-lily/

American Solar Grazing Association - agrivoltaics, combining agriculture and solar power production
https://solargrazing.org/

The energy costs of controlled environment agriculture
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/27/vertical-farms-climate-energy/
If you need to get past the pay wall:  https://archive.ph/TrQqF
Editorial Comment:  In all the years I’ve been collecting these links I have found very few CEA businesses that thought about energy from the beginning

Orbital Farms “is a Circular Project Development company which is developing 200 large scale closed loop farms around the world in the next 10 years."
http://orbital.farm
Editorial Comment:  Orbital Farms is one of those few CEA businesses I mentioned above

The House of Green - buildings that bring nature inside
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240420-12-stunning-buildings-that-bring-nature-inside

World’s first zero waste restaurant
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0hs7sj4/world-s-first-zero-waste-restaurant-without-a-single-bin

Planning Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems:  From Soil to Soil By Julia Freedgood  (ISBN 9781032276861)
https://www.routledge.com/Planning-Sustainable-and-Resilient-Food-Systems-From-Soil-to-Soil/Freedgood/p/book/9781032276861

Making urban agriculture more sustainable
https://www.agritecture.com/blog/how-can-we-make-urban-agriculture-more-sustainable

"World’s largest coastal regeneration project” - mangroves for Dubai
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/travel/dubai-mangroves-design-spc
hat tip Bethany Leach Parmley

A microfarm in LA
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/15/urban-microfarm-farming-environment
The organization which helps homeowners go from lawn to microfarm in LA
https://www.cropswapla.org/