URBAN AGRICULTURE HIGH SCHOOL IN NEW YORK!!!

Today a new school is born and important change is rolling forward towards our alternative legacy!!!!

from http://farmtogethernow.org/2010/09/30/urban-ag-high-school/
September 30, 2010

We just got this press release about an exciting development in education out in New York:

Just Food and Partners Announce Launch of Farm School NYC:

The New York City School of Urban Agriculture

Just Food and an alliance of local horticultural and food justice organizations are pleased to announce the official launch of Farm School NYC: The New York City School of Urban Agriculture.  The school will offer a unique, community-based certificate program with enrollment beginning in January 2011.  The mission of the school is to provide comprehensive professional training in urban agriculture, while spurring positive local action on issues of food access and social, economic and racial justice.

Community gardens and urban farms throughout the city will serve as outdoor classrooms, and their neighborhoods and gardeners as inspiration for a vibrant, fair local food system that nourishes bodies and minds.  Training programs will be accessible to adults of all educational backgrounds and income levels.  In particular, Farm School NYC targets New York City residents unable to access traditional agricultural education and for whom skills in urban food production can contribute to reduced hunger and diet-related diseases that disproportionately affect low-income city residents.

“For the first time, New Yorkers and city dwellers from all over will have access to agricultural training that directly relates to the unique setting of urban agriculture,” says Karen Washington, a nationally-recognized urban farming pioneer from the Bronx, and a member of the school’s Executive Board. “We grow it so we know it, and we’ve shown that city farming can make a huge difference in the health and nutrition of low-income urban communities.”

Farm School NYC will offer instruction in sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and food systems management.  “Our goal for the school is to build and share knowledge within our communities and improve local access to healthy food throughout the city,” said Jacquie Berger, Executive Director of Just Food. “By bringing urban farming skills to a much broader population, Farm School NYC will magnify the impact of urban agriculture on community health in New York City and beyond.”

Learn More:  Visit Farm School NYC’s website: www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Molly Culver & Eric Thomann

Interim Co-Directors

Farm School NYC, Just Food

212-645-9880×224

farmschoolnyc@justfood.org

www.justfood.org/farmschoolnyc

PAST AND EXITING NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM TINAG

http://www.criticalcities.net/

Also check out TINAG´s page at : http://www.thisisnotagateway.net/
Upcoming festival 22nd - 24th October in London!

"Alongside the general open call the festival will include activities from across the globe that interrogate and propose new futures for ‘The Corporation’- otherwise known as Financial Districts / The City / Central Business District’s / Downtowns.
Despite their uniqueness ‘Financial Districts’ are erroneously understudied. This may in part be due to a perception that they are banal, sanitised non-places, perhaps even benign. It is likely that the difficulty in accessing and penetrating the real or illusory boundaries around these sites, might also contribute to a gap in knowledge.
A contemporary interrogation of these spaces, by a spectrum of disciplines and approaches, is vital as the current crisis of capitalism can be traced throughout these ‘financial service centres’. Since the decline of European communism twenty years ago these unique spaces have been rapidly built across the globe with noteworthy similarity. Recently in centres such as London, discussions about how these spaces may be re-understood and re-used, have begun – no doubt accelerated by predictions that financial and business services are expected to rapidly decline.
Desired, celebrated, ignored, distrusted or transformed into sites of protest – what can we learn about the most avant-garde spaces of modern capitalism? What does this mean for the future of how we might conceive of cities and our lives within them? Do these spaces allow us a clear view into how we may live our lives in the 21^st century?... "

FARM TOGETHER NOW : DISCOVERING MORE AND MORE UF NETWORKS

http://farmtogethernow.org/

SOME MORE ARLENE BIRT : VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS OF FOOD BACKGROUNDS

Background Stories: Visual Communication of Food Backgrounds . 2006

Visit www.backgroundstories.com for the current project.
Masters Thesis from Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
To encourage consumer awareness of how their food choices affect not only themselves, but also global environment and society, consumers need to feel a connection with the environmental, social and economical impacts of their foods.
This thesis is a case for a new direction in product labeling, corporate communication and advertising.
For the exploration of this topic, a focus is taken on foods. As an industry, food already has a high level of trace-ability, due to growing food safety concerns (especially following outbreaks of Foot and Mouth and other such diseases), and consumer demand.
As indicators to support this argument, social and environmental issues are growing in importance in both the corporate sphere and in the public eye. Corporate violations of social responsibility have threatened consumer trust, and thereby lead to a greater consumer demand for information, which thus causes increased transparency on the part of corporations. In business, there is a need to communicate on changes towards social-responsibility. In advertising, the changing role of the ‘brand’ and the continual evolution of advertising (currently away from image-based (ego) appeal) highlight a need for a new direction in marketing communication. Technology already allows such viewing behind the product: using search and tracking tools such as Google, GPS, RFID and RFD tags, consumers can pinpoint and track products through their virtual networks.

Designers are in a prime position to be able to communicate complex background information to consumers. Stefano Marzano of Phillips Design says that as designers, “if we can’t change the nature of people, we can affect their behavior: By designing the environment.”

Much like the Nutrition Facts label changed consumer behavior because it made direct connections between the nutrients of the food and individual health – over time – such communication on the backgrounds can change consumer purchasing behavior. The ‘dolphin-free tuna’ label is another example of this established connection: between buying tuna and harming dolphins. Prior to the money that was put into media to communicate the message behind the ‘dolphin-safe’ mark, consumers were unaware of the connection.

VISUALIZING GROCERY IMPACTS

Visualizing Grocery Impacts is a data-driven and interactive installation that will help individuals better understand how their daily purchases have global social and environmental impact. In an installation which mimics a super-market, products with custom labels can be collected from the shelves by visitors, and scanned with a barcode reader that will project interactive and visual information on the productʼs background impacts (including global, ecological, political, social and cultural impacts) onto a nearby wall. The variety of visual background stories presented will display information with an activist intent as well as in a positive light to motivate consumers toward more conscious purchasing decisions. The installation will provide an innovative approach to understanding sustainability: as an intersection between digital data and the physical world.

read more at : http://northern.lights.mn/programs/aov2/arlene-birt/ 

Arlene Birt
email: arlene (at) arlenebirt.com
www.arlenebirt.com Arlene designs for the communication of backgrounds: bringing cultural, environmental, political and historical stories into focus.
With roots in the Midwest U.S. and a background in journalism, advertising, sustainable development, graphic and product design, Arlene graduated with a Masters in Humanitarian Design at Design Academy Eindhoven (the Netherlands). She is an occassional design writer and was a 2004-05 Fulbright grant recipient to the Netherlands, where she focused on the visual explanation of product life-cycles. She's currently fascinated by telling visual stories with brand public relations agency Haberman and mapping the 'water flows' of the Twin Cities. Arlene is adjunct faculty of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Sustainability Certificate program and catalogs critique and inspiration for the visual communication of background stories on www.arlenebirt.com/blog.

BERGEN PILOT CITY FOR RE-DESIGN

Pressemelding , 28.09.2010

Miljøvernminister Erik Solheim lanserte i dag Bergen som pilotby for Redesign.  Det er et arrangement som setter fokus på forbruk og gjenbruk. - Skal vi klare omstillingen til lavutslippssamfunnet, må vi lære å bruke ressursene smartere og annerledes enn vi gjør i dag, sier Erik Solheim.

Redesign er et arrangement som Klimaløftet og Bergen kommune inviterer hele byens befolkning til på Torgallmenningen 23. oktober.  Pilotprosjektet skal vise i praksis hvordan vi kan ta bedre vare på tingene våre og gjenbruke dem. Øvrige samarbeidspartnere er FN-sambandet, Framtidens byer, Grønn Hverdag, Fretex og Bergen Interkommunale Renovasjonsselskap.
Redesign arrangeres på Torgallmenningen hvor det vil det være en kombinasjon av ulike informasjonsstands, aktiviteter som viser gjenbruk i praksis og moteoppvisning med redesignede klær. Redesign er også en utstillingsplass der flere hundre organisasjoner og håndverksbedrifter er invitert il å vise frem sine aktiviteter og eskempler på gjenbruk.  Det blir også et eget sceneprogram og en konsert med bandet The New Wine.
Arrangementet inngår i Klimauken i Bergen og innleder starten på FN-sambandets Internasjonale uke. - Vi setter søkelyset på forbrukskulturen vår og hvordan vi bruker ressursene. Gjennom redesign og gjenbruk forvaltes ressursene på en kreativ måte, samtidig som vi får en miljøgevinst, sier byråd Lisbeth Iversen.
Bergenserne inviteres til å ta med egne redesignede produkter og vise dem fram på Torgallmenningen den 23. oktober.  Premie for mest originale produkt utdeles under arrangementet. Egen Facebook-side er opprettet der informasjon og tips blir lagt fortløpende ut: www.facebook.com/redesign.gjenbruk.

"TAPPED" - DOCUMENTERY ON NORWEGIAN BROADCASTING TONIGHT

This interesting documentary shown on NRK2 tonight (21092010) is an interesting comment on who owns nature resources and who will control and enjoy the businesses deriving from them.

see also this article on the movie : http://www.examiner.com/indie-movie-in-washington-dc/documentary-film-tapped-exposes-dangers-of-the-bottled-drinking-water-industry

Or visit the site of the Norwegian Broadcasting NRK2 : http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/direkte/nrk2/

ALTERNATIVE LEGACY RECIPES BOOK

This  is  a small introduction to local food; the  seeding, planting and caretaking of the  vegetable garden and the harvest possibilities within the 100-mile diet circle
of Bergen city, on the West Coast of Norway. The book is a result of photos taken of the plants followed from seed to fruit during the diploma period, and the investigations concerning production of food on an artisan level and nutritional facts and numbers that become relevant on this level of planning, education and action.Enjoy! 

 Altenative legacy recipes e book-laura ve

View more presentations from Laura Ve.

DELHI NULLAHS: THE FRACTAL METROPOLITAN LAYER

www.delhinullahs.org

'The fractal metropolitan layer' is an endeavor in progress by Morphogenesis, that aims to reveal the hidden opportunity that lies within our organically evolved cities by establishing a green and sustainable network as an alternative source of engagement with the city for the common man. The initiative aims to reclaim the derelict, the forgotten, the recyclable, and the toxic by involving all stakeholders, thereby collapsing the boundaries of decades of non-systemic thinking which have generated unsustainable urban growth. The contiguous, sewage-laden nullahs, the greens, the alleyways and the river are viewed as the arteries of a city that can be linked to create an environmental network which integrates livability issues of air, water, sewerage, heritage and walkability. These ecological potentials and vestigial organs of planning can be modulated, transformed, and spatial strategies devised to optimize the ecological, social, cultural, and economic dynamic that can be created through them.

The Morphogenesis Delhi Nullahs installation live at the India Habitat Centre

The installation aims to create awareness by engaging people, to speculate on what is and what can be, by bridging the gap between the reality of our cities as perceived from the outside, and the virtual image of what Delhi potentially is. The tree has been used as a metaphor and a fractal insert into the fabric of the city; representative of our symbiotic relationship with Nature, and its omnipresence in Delhi.

PASS THE URBAN VEGGIES PLEASE!

Making this a part of community development and urban design strikes us as low-tech genius. Davenport city designer Darrin Nordahl established a corner plot near his City Design Center office at 2nd and Brady Streets. Now aldermen have OK'd a parking plaza makeover at 5th and Brady streets that will include fruits and vegetables among landscaping plants.
Nordahl wrote the book on urban agriculture. Literally. "Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture" comes out Sept. 25 and "profiles urban food growing efforts, illustrating that there is both a need and a desire to supplement our existing food production methods outside the city with opportunities inside the city," according to publisher Island Press.
Those opportunities won't resolve world hunger. But they will bring people together to plant, tend, harvest and share in public, urban places. And that builds community, the network that elevates great towns above the average.


Darrin Nordahl, urban planner for the city of Davenport picks corn at the Northeast corner of 2nd and Brady streets. Nordahl has a book coming out titled "Public Produce" that talks about cities using public land (easements, medians, parks, etc.) to plant food rather than just flowers. (Kevin E. Schmidt/QUAD-CITY TIMES)

http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/article

I would like to share this with you tonight,
I guess the lesson still is "knowledge is power full"

 
http://endoftheline.com/

food, and wild harvest is the important resource with enormous consequences for our future...

check the link above or see  http://www.nrk.no/programmer/sider/dagens_dokumentar/ 

for more info "Dagens dokumentar: Bunnen er nådd"