Urban Agriculture: Library Resources

This book examines alternative food systems in cities around the globe that are shortening their food chains, growing food within their city limits, and taking their "food security" into their own hands. The author, an award-winning food journalist, sought out leaders in the urban-agriculture movement and visited cities successfully dealing with "food deserts." What she found was not just a niche concern of activists, but a global movement that cuts across the private and public spheres, economic classes, and cultures. She describes a global movement happening from London and Paris to Vancouver and New York, to establish alternatives to the monolithic globally integrated supermarket model. A cadre of forward-looking, innovative people has created growing spaces in cities: on rooftops, backyards, vacant lots, along roadways, and even in "vertical farms." Whether it's a community public orchard supplying the needs of local residents or an urban farm that has reclaimed a derelict inner city lot to grow and sell premium market veggies to restaurant chefs, the urban food revolution is clearly underway and working.

This fascinating edition includes a variety of for-or-against viewpoints on urban agriculture. Essays include discussing urban agriculture as a viable solution to food insecurities, the economic sustainability of urban agriculture, the impact of urban agriculture on specific groups, such as women in developing countries, and the future of urban farming.

The "how-to" guide for a new generation of farmers from the author of Farm City and a leading urban garden educator. In this indispensable guide, Farm City author Novella Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal share their experience as successful urban farmers and provide practical blueprints-complete with rich visual material-for novice and experienced growers looking to bring the principles of ethical food to the city streets. The Essential Urban Farmer guides readers from day one to market day, advising on how to find the perfect site, design a landscape, and cultivate crops. For anyone who has ever grown herbs on windowsills, or tomatoes on fire escapes, this is an invaluable volume with the potential to change our menus, our health, and our cities forever.

Strategies and techniques for making a living with intensive food production in small spaces. There are 40 million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Major benefits include: Low capital investment and overhead costs, reduced need for expensive infrastructure, and easy access to markets. Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production in small leased or borrowed spaces.

People have always grown food in urban spaces: on windowsills and sidewalks, and in backyards and neighborhood parks. But today, urban farmers are leading an environmental and social movement that transforms our national food system. To explore this agricultural renaissance, brothers David and Michael Hanson and urban farmer Edwin Marty, document twelve successful urban farm programs: from an alternative school for girls in Detroit, to a backyard food swap in New Orleans, to a restaurant supply garden on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Each beautifully illustrated essay offers practical advice for budding farmers, such as composting and keeping livestock in the city, decontaminating toxic soil, even changing zoning laws.
**available as an ebook.

Urban Homesteading is the perfect "back-to-the-land" guide for urbanites who want to reduce their impact on the environment. Full of practical information, as well as inspiring stories from people already living the urban homesteading life, this colorful guide is an approachable guide to learning to live more ecologically in the city. The book embraces the core concepts of localization (providing our basic needs close to where we live), self-reliance (re-learning that food comes from the ground, not the grocery store; learning to do things ourselves), and sustainability (giving back at least as much as we take). Readers will find concise how-to information that they can immediately set into practice, from making solar cookers to growing tomatoes in a barrel to raising chickens in small spaces to maintaining mental serenity in the fast-paced city environment. Full of beautiful full-color photographs and illustrations, and plenty of step-by-step instructions, this is a must-have handbook for city folk with a passion for the simple life.

Permaculture in Pots shows you how to get started with whatever space you have available--appealing to those who feel powerless to meet their own subsistence needs through lack of growing space. Month by month we learn what to grow on a balcony or in a container garden, using low impact permaculture principles. It doesn't matter when you pick up the book and start your journey of container gardening--wherever you are in the year, open the book to that chapter, and it will tell you what you should be doing. Each month's section details things to be done: how to plan ahead for the next season, and which fruit, vegetables, and herbs to be sowing, growing and eating. There are recipes, photos and anecdotes from the author's experience growing food on her small balcony in a London suburb. Kemp is warm and self-effacing, and makes an excellent guide. Each month has its own herb, with growing tips and culinary and medicinal uses for each.

Organic Farming magazine is the UK's leading journal on organic farming and growing. Published three times a year, each edition keeps readers up-to-date with the latest news, policy issues and market information.
There are technical features and reports on the latest field labs and research, covering all aspects of organic farming and growing. There is also a comprehensive advertising section.

Permaculture Design is an independent quarterly serving the permaculture movement in North America. We publish articles dealing with the spectrum of permaculture thought and action—from gardening to ecovillages, renewable energy, natural building, ethics, and more.

Mother Earth Gardener is a premium print publication that expertly covers all aspects of growing and using historic fruit and vegetable cultivars, along with fiber, ornamental, and medicinal plants. Published by Ogden Publications (Mother Earth News, Grit, Capper’s Farmer), the new-and improved Mother Earth Gardener combines 140+ years of organic growing know-how to provide the most in-depth and inspiring gardening content on the newsstand.
Each quarterly issue is thoughtfully designed to preserve and honor North American plants of antiquity by featuring beautifully illustrated botanical lessons, step-by-step seed-saving tutorials, seed and plant histories, detailed growing information, seasonal recipes, and DIY projects inspired by homegrown materials.

The thousands who subscribe to our magazine are holding onto the best-kept secret in farming: Acres U.S.A. Every month, professional farmers, ranchers, and growers receive practical articles about soil health, livestock management, economic farm practices, and tools that work for both organic family farmers and those rooted in large-scale convention. Employing just a single practice taught by expert farmers can save you thousands of dollars per year, which means not only is Acres U.S.A. magazine a best-kept secret, we are also one of the best deals in agriculture. Subscribe today! Established in 1971. The Voice of Eco-Agriculture.

Growing for Market is the magazine for local food and flower producers. GFM keeps you informed about the business of growing and selling vegetables, fruits, cut flowers, plants, herbs, and other food products. If you are market gardening or farming, whatever your scale, we guarantee you'll find valuable information that will help make your business more profitable and enjoyable.