Call for Papers

PRACTITIONERS                GRADUATE STUDENTS                      APPLIED RESEARCHERS

The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) announces its call for briefs and articles related to

Best Practices in Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Development

To be included in JAFSCD Vol. 1 Issue 2

Deadline: June 5, 2010

[This submission deadline may be extended with permission of the publisher]

JAFSCD welcomes research or policy briefs, and case studies (up to 2,500 words) and full articles (up to 8,500 words) on best community-development practices related to:

• Urban livestock management and regulation
• Urban market gardening and backyard gardening
• Marketing and value-adding
• Waste management and reuse
• Urban farming by immigrant or other special populations
• Farming on the fringe

Briefs, case studies, and articles should focus on illustrative programs or projects, survey results, literature reviews, and public policy related — but not limited to — land-use planning and regulation, health ordinances or their implementation, training and educational programs, marketing systems or value chains, partnership development, systems approaches, issues of scale, and farm-neighbor relations. We are particularly interested in holistic approaches that combine community and economic development with environmental protection. Examples of applied research questions include:

• Poultry, rabbit, swine, and small ruminant production versus community health: can a balance of interests be found?
• Where and why are urban live animal markets flourishing? What are the SWOTs?
• Where and why have some conventional family farmers been able to successfully adapt to urbanization, and what are winning programming strategies to support them?
• What are key programmatic ingredients in helping older immigrants with a background and interest in farming gain access to agricultural opportunities in and around cities?
• What are the trends in growth of urban and peri-urban farming, and what hinders or encourages urban or peri-urban agriculture?
• What architecture or landscape designs are successfully accommodating urban or peri-urban agriculture?
• Where are urban farming policies working or showing promise? Why?
• What are viable approaches to market analysis and modeling for urban food production and sales outlets?
• There is a rich literature on urban agriculture in the Global South. Can that literature inform approaches that can be taken in the North?

Background

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has defined urban agriculture as “an industry that produces, processes and markets food and fuel, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city, or metropolis, on land and water dispersed throughout the urban and peri-urban area, applying intensive production methods, using and reusing natural resources and urban wastes to yield a diversity of crops and livestock” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_agriculture). The findings of national censuses, household surveys, and research projects suggest that up to two-thirds of urban and peri-urban households around the world are involved in agriculture. Much of the food produced is for their own consumption, with occasional surpluses sold to local markets (www.fao.org/ag/magazine/9901sp2.htm).

Urban and peri-urban agriculture appears to be on the rise in industrial countries, especially among ethnic immigrant groups in North America and Europe. This may be fueled by people’s economic situations as well as by growing interest in greening cities, localizing food production, and promoting food sovereignty These trends in urban and peri-urban agriculture are also accompanied by debates on related issues like land use, public health, sanitation, and economic viability. Our intent for this special-topic call for papers is to fill the significant deficit in the applied literature on trends and programming activities.

FOR DETAILS on this call for papers and submission guidelines, visit www.AgDevJournal.com.

The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development is published by New Leaf Publishing and Consulting (www.NewLeafNet.com).

Action Alert: Help Save Zinniker Farm, a CRAFT Farm and one of the oldest biodynamic farms in the US.

– ACTION ALERT FROM THE BIODYNAMIC ASSOCIATION –

Please forward to anyone you think would be interested.

Help Save Zinniker Farm

The Zinniker Family Farm of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, was established in 1943 and is considered one of the oldest biodynamic farms in the United States. The farm has played a key role in the biodynamic movement, hosting field days, workshops, and prep-making events that have introduced hundreds of thousands of farmers and consumers to biodynamic agriculture. This fall, Zinniker Farm was shut down by the State of Wisconsin for distributing raw milk through a cow-share program they had run since the mid-80s. Through the program families purchased a share in the cow herd and picked up raw milk from their cows on a weekly basis. In the last year the State of Wisconsin reinterpreted the laws that originally made these programs legal, and now has begun to crack down on such programs in the state. This crackdown is widely considered to be driven by large corporate interests who are threatened by the number of consumers who are obtaining their milk and other food products direct from producers. A group of individuals are now working closely with the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund and the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association to explore alternative ways to sustain the farm into the future. In the meantime, however, the Zinniker’s have no tangible source of revenue.

If you can help support the Zinniker’s in this time of need, please make a check out to the Zinniker Support Fund and mail it to Zinniker Support Fund, N7399 Bowers Rd, Elkhorn, WI 53121.For more information contact Robert Karp at robert.karp@biodymamics.com or (262) 642-3672.

Organic Gardening Basics Class at the Garfield Park Conservatory

Wednesday, January 27th from 6:30 pm – 8 pm

6:30 pm – 8 pm

Organic Gardening Basics

Looking to invite an abundance of bees, birds, beetles and worms into your garden? Joining forces with these natural co-habitants will help you maintain the delicate balance of all the organisms in your yard, including yourself!  Kirsten Akre, from the Chicago Park District’s Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse, will discuss ways to encourage a diversity of life in your garden both above and below ground, as well as organic ways to grow healthy productive plants for food and enjoyment.

$5 suggested donation per person

(Registration not required.)

LOCATION: THE COMMUNITY ROOM @ the GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY, 300 N. Central Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60624

AUA Winter Meeting

Sweet Saturdays at Garfield Park Conservatory

2^nd Annual Sweet Saturdays:

February 6 & 13 ; 11am – 4pm

Everyday, Garfield Park Conservatory is a veritable plant-based candy show of living sweets like bananas, vanilla beans, cinnamon bark, sugar cane and even chocolate trees! We’re celebrating the sweetest month of the year with two Saturdays full of tropical treat stations where you learn a fact and sample a flavor. Each Saturday will also offer family make-and-take projects, tropical treat souvenirs, and activities sponsored by partnering vendors and organizations. This event is appropriate for any learner, including the kid, the adult and the Valentine variety!  For more information about this event, visit our website at www.garfieldconservatory.org.

A Sweet Volunteer Opportunity:

Volunteers are at the heart of all of our special events and we definitely need your help with Sweet Saturdays! Most volunteers will be working at our “fact and flavor” stations, where visitors can get a treat and learn a quick fact about the tropical plant that produces it. There are 2 volunteer shifts available each day: 10:00am – 1:30pm and 1:00pm – 4:30pm and we need to fill both shifts for both days. We are putting together a schedule now, so contact us right away if you’re interested and available. Sign up for as few or as many shifts as you can commit to. We can use volunteers at all levels of participation!

Volunteer Training for Sweet Saturdays will take place on Saturday, January 30, 10am – Noon. This is not a mandatory training, but is highly recommended. We have quite a bit of logistical information and tropical treat trivia to convey to all participating volunteers.

To volunteer with us at Sweet Saturdays, please contact:

Mattie Wilson

Volunteer Coordinator

Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance

(773)638-1766 x26

volunteer@garfieldpark.org

Job Openings

Candidates for the position of Director for Urban Agriculture at Chicago’s Resource Center are now being sought. Information about the position can be found here.

Candidates for Urban Farm Assistant and Rural Farm Assistant at Chicago’s Growing Home are now being sought. Information about the positions can be found here and here.

5th Annual Elizabeth I. Benson Awards

It’s the 5th Annual Elizabeth I. Benson Awards, and we’re honoring Ken Dunn, founder of the Resource Center and City Farm!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ
615 W. Wellington Avenue (Lakeview)
Suggested Donation $15 (no one will be turned away)

We hope you’ll join us for an evening of inspiration and fun (and all those other words that prompted you to open this email). After all, where else can you go to see and interact with WCPT’s Mike Nowak from WCPT’s “Mike Nowak Show”, and not only hear, but sing along with The Bullfrogs Community Choir? And…there will be testimonials from fans and friends whose lives have been changed by Ken over the years, hors d’oeuvres provided by Frontera Grill and North Pond Café, and wine by Bodega Ramos.

So who is this “soon to be honored” Ken Dunn? Ken is a visionary who put his ideas into practice:

* In 1975 he founded the Resource Center, the south side-based nonprofit that now has 20 employees running recycling, composting, job training, and community gardening programs. The Resource center also initiated the bike rebuilding program that is now run by the Experimental Station on Chicago’s south side.

* In 2000, Ken started City Farm, an organic garden cultivated on a vacant lot in the middle of the Cabrini-Green public housing development that employs neighborhood residents and sells vegetables to local restaurants and walk-in customers.

These projects demonstrate that it’s not only possible, but preferable to create local economic systems that don’t exploit people and resources, but instead work with our natural environment and, at the same time, provide opportunities for meaningful employment. In Ken’s words: “We need to create an alternative on a scale that can’t be dismissed, and that showcases the pleasure and beauty of life values—of being in the right place with plants, animals, and people.”

Check out Wellington’s website, where you not only can buy tickets, but also can become a sponsor for this event. Do consider joining us …. we promise to put a smile on your face, and shine a light into what good things each of us can do when we dream the possible and join forces for change!

Questions? Contact Pam at: prichart@ecojusticecollaborative.org or 773.556.3418.

Courses on Organic Vegetable Production Offered by Windy City Harvest

While it snows outside, it’s time to start thinking about spring!

Windy City Harvest is offering a series of monthly short courses on organic vegetable production starting in January 2010.

Workshop Topics & Dates:

*Crop Planning* January 23
*Seed Starting* February 27
*Season Extension* March 27
*Window-box or Container Gardens* April 24
*Building Healthy Soil* May 22
*Organic Pest Control* June 26
*Harvest Techniques* July 24
*Cover Cropping* August 28
*Seed-Starting: Cool-Season Crop Planning* September 25
*Season-Extension* *Techniques* October 23
*Troubleshooting Cool-Season Production *November 27
*Fruit Tree Pruning* December

All workshops are held Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon in the greenhouse classroom at the Arturo Velasquez Institute, 2800 S. Western Avenue. The cost is $39 each. All materials and handouts are provided. Workshops are taught by Chicago Botanic Garden and Windy City Harvest staff.

You can download registration form here.

Free Urban Agriculture Distance Learning Courses

In response to an increasing demand for training in urban agriculture, RUAF, ETC-Urban Agriculture and the Ryerson University’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education and Centre for Studies in Food Security have developed the following portfolio of distance education courses on urban agriculture:

- Course 1 ‘Understanding Urban Agriculture’
- Course 2 ‘Dimensions of Urban Agriculture’
- Course 3 ‘Urban Agriculture Types’
- Course 4 ‘Urban Agriculture Policy Making’.

The courses are being offered in 2 modalities: as paid and accredited courses (as part of Ryerson Chang School’s Certificate in Food Security) and as free and self-paced courses.

Click here for more information.

One Seed Chicago Voting Now Open

Vote now at One Seed Chicago for your favorite seed.

One Seed Chicago is an urban greening project. People, just like you, vote for a favorite seed and One Seed Chicago mails you the seeds for free. Grow them in your garden or a community garden in your neighborhood. One Seed Chicago is brought to you by NeighborSpace in partnership with GreeNet.