I would like to attend. I think that I can make it in the afternoon; I have been a big fan of urban agriculture as a way to live within my means and keep me away from opium dens.
Just made up that last part about living within my means...
posted by historymike at 10:57 P.M. EST on Thu Nov 10, 2005 #
Some notes I scribbled down at the New Urbanism meeting a couple of weeks ago at the Downtown Latte. Just listing them as I wrote them down with some comments in parens.
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New Urbanism - Nov 29, 2005
Topic: Toledo Grows/Urban Agriculture
Two people affiliated with program gave a slide show presentation.
Michael Szuberla, I think, of Toledo Grows from the Toledo Botanical Gardens went first.
Urban and rural problems: Food, land, farming.
Last 20 years, Toledo area lost 50 sq miles of farmland, according to a study by a UT grad student.
Most of northwest Ohio farmland lost due to "out-migration," not development. (I guess out-migration means: "To move out of one community, region, or country in order to reside in another." I would think development is still a part of out-migration.)
Approx 2/3 of water used in U.S. goes to agriculture.
Local enterprises in good position to reap a windfall from runaway fossil fuel prices.
Seafood imports are second largest contributor behind oil/energy to U.S. trade deficit.
Aquaculture or fish farms are one of three new major economic opportunities available in the new millenium. Tilapia popular species from these enclosed fish farms, which can function in northern climates.
Other economic opp: organic produce, gourmet/medicinal mushrooms, ethnic and gourmet niche products. Able now to grow mushrooms in controlled environments, such as a greenhouse.
Book: "Mycelium R?n?ing" - Mushrooms (not sure of book name passed around to view)
UT Study showed that a purchase at Thackeray's had a four times greater impact on the local economy than if the purchase was made at Barnes and Noble. Thakeray's used local businesses for sign making, etc. Everything.
Ohio DNR Study showed that 55% of landfill contents could be composted. 15% is food, 40% paper and cardboard.
Computer equipment such as motherboards should be handled as hazardous waste, but they aren't. Harsh chemicals are used to clean the motherboards.
Over 90% of our region's premium priced organic food is imported.
"Green Roofs" - Trees, plants grown on building rooftops to reduce energy costs. The Ford Rouge River plant in Detroit and the City Hall building in Chicago were a couple of examples mentioned.
The next presenter was from the Ottawa Hills CDC - Community Development Corporation. Toledo has 11 CDCs. These are "grassroots" orgs, trying to improve their neighborhoods/local communities.
GroWest - A community owned and operated urban ag business, located I think in Milwaukee.
Doeller-Jarvis site in west Toledo. Toledo CDC and the Ottawa CDC are working together to get this land converted to greenspace and an ag biz.
DJ is an old foundry, vacant for 30 years. Originally, OCDC looked into developing the site for housing, but has decided to go the community garden route.
Northwest Ohio has a growing greenhouse industry. They're looking for workers. NW Ohio is 4th largest producer in the U.S. of "bedding plants."
The CDC applied for a $2.9 million grant to clean the DJ site.
CDC goal is to build a community owned and operated urban ag business. Self-operating, self-sufficient. It will be for profit. Plan is to sell food to local restaurants and to the community via their own produce market store.
The presenter showed an artist's drawing of the plan for the site. The DJ site is 10.5 acres. Plan calls for four to five greenhouses and a training facility on four acres. The urban ag site would employ 10-20 people. The other 6.5 acres would be converted to passive green space: community herb, veggie, and meditaion gardens, and bike paths.
DJ site is along Smeed Rd near Bancroft and Door area???
The DJ site is a brownfield.
Vermiculture - raising red worms for the castings. Red worms eat garbage and paper.
Presenter showed a picture of one of these worm boxes at the urban ag site in Milwaukee. Every 8 weeks, the worms produce $4,000 worth of castings at the Milwaukee place. The box in the pic containing red worms looked to be 4-5' long, 2-3' wide, 1-2' deep.
(The 577 Foundation in Perrysburg has a couple worm casting setups for viewing. For every 1 lb. of red worms, they need 1/2 lb. of garbage per day to feast on.)
The TCDC-OCDC team will know about the $2.9 million grant status on Dec 15. Team will travel to Columbus to make pitch.
One brownfield remediation technique: inject vegetable oil into land. Also use mushrooms to leech toxins from soil. Obviously, these shrooms are not for eating. (What happens with the toxic shrooms???)
For the DJ site, will take 12-18 months to do remediation. Mayor Ford approved $900,000 for improvements to Smeed Ave.
Planning for Jarvis site started in 2004. Group visited the Milwaukee site (Growing Power) in Feb 2005.
OCDC currently in process of buying land. Owner of DJ land site is only selling 6 acres and is donating the other 4.5 acres.
posted by jr at 06:46 P.M. EST on Thu Dec 15, 2005 #
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