Abby Caparros-Janto - OnEarth Magazine, from NRDC

Down on the Farm...

Last Friday, I finally got the chance to visit Garden State Urban Farms (GSUF) in Newark. It was probably one of the most amazing places I’ve been in my life. Unfortunately, the lot that the farm currently resides on was only on-loan from the City, and is now going to be used for a low-income housing development. Most of the Earthboxes were gone by that point, they had already been moved to other locations, but the ones remaining still had some awesome fresh produce growing in it. I got to pick my own lettuce, zucchini, and golden beets. While I was there we met with a woman who worked for the Newark Housing Authority (NHA). Based on everything we discussed, the partnership between the City and GSUF, if allowed to come to full fruition, could become a vehicle for serious social change in Newark, and in other depressed communities. The possibilities for expanding GSUF are endless. We tossed around ideas like, a partnership with UMDNJs nutrition program to develop nutrition and ...read full post

Comments (0) | October 15, 2009
A Garden grows in Newark: Urban Farming in the Garden State

When you think about Newark, New Jersey, food production certainly does not come to mind. However, in the last year and a half Garden State Urban Farms (formally Brick City Urban Farms) has begun to change that. GSUF is part of the growing movement in the United States to re-localize agriculture, bringing small farming operations to urban population centers, as opposed to away from them.
In the United States, most people are completely disconnected from the process of food production. This is largely the result of the industrialization of agriculture, which not only separates people from where and how their food is produced, but also comes at a huge environmental and social cost. In comparison, Urban Agriculture provides an answer to many of the problems that Industrialized agriculture creates. Although most people think it is impossible to have agricultural operations of any scale in the cramped quarters of the modern metropolis, this is simply not the case. Abandoned ...read full post

Comments (1) | October 8, 2009