The snappy term “agro-imperialism” doesn’t appear in Andrew Rice’s  NYT Magazine piece on the rich buying the earth from under the feet of the poor. Although Rice does mention GRAIN, a dedicated non-profit supporting small farmers and social movements, his article leans heaviest on the side [...]]]> Sometimes the headline writer gets it more than the journalist.

The snappy term “agro-imperialism” doesn’t appear in Andrew Rice’s  NYT Magazine piece on the rich buying the earth from under the feet of the poor. Although Rice does mention GRAIN, a dedicated non-profit supporting small farmers and social movements, his article leans heaviest on the side of the capitalist investor who simply wants to “help people” by appropriating their land for factory farming.

“Africa is the final frontier,” Payne told me after the conference. “It’s the one continent that remains relatively unexploited.” Emergent’s African Agricultural Land Fund, started last year, is investing several hundred million dollars into commercial farms around the continent.

Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism? – NYTimes.com.

“One can imagine pushing a shopping cart through this suburban farm and picking your produce right from the vine, with the option to bring your harvest to the restaurant chef for preparation and eating your harvest on the spot.”

via [...]]]> An interesting entry in the Reburbia contest asking designers to imagine better ways to use the suburbs:

“One can imagine pushing a shopping cart through this suburban farm and picking your produce right from the vine, with the option to bring your harvest to the restaurant chef for preparation and eating your harvest on the spot.”

via BIG BOX AGRICULTURE: A Productive Suburb « ReBurbia.

Crop Shop

Can Urban Agriculture Save the World?

I’m doing it together with famed compost aficionado Spring Gillard, author of Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator, Edible Essays on City Farming.

Hope you [...]]]> We’re up and running…well not really running. But standing, and talking, to all kinds of lively people for a podcast series out to answer a simple question:

Can Urban Agriculture Save the World?

I’m doing it together with famed compost aficionado Spring Gillard, author of Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator, Edible Essays on City Farming.

Hope you like the first one…we’re still just feeling our way around, cautiously, in this case, as we’re on a roof. It’s in downtown Vancouver, where we meet a guy growing tons of food, when he can harvest it before the punk crows and roof rats show up.

Skyfarmer Ted Cathcart