The Cleveland Urban Gardens and Farms thread inspires this opening post to collect information for other Ohio cities and nearby places I'm familiar with (ie Louisville)

 

For Dayton there are things surfacing:

 

Miami Valley Grown...

...and their facebook page

 

Miami Valley Urban Agriculture Roundtable

 

An informal group for anyone wanting to be involved in farming within urban areas in and around Dayton, Ohio. Got a vacant lot in your neighborhood that you'd like to grow vegetables on? A series of 4 vacant lots together that you'd like to see growing wheat or lavendar? You're a true believer in chickens in the city or you want to donate food to the hungry. This is the place to share ideas, resources and projects - and to build coalitions.

 

Here's a group that is actually out there growing stuff and distributing it:

 

Feed Dayton Urban Farming Program

 

Feed Dayton is a model urban farming program that maximizes community resources to grow large amounts of high nutrition produce for those who need it most.Mission:The mission of Feed Dayton is to locally grow food with the highest nutritional value, and help distribute it to the local agencies that are feeding people who are going through difficult times.

 

Feed Dayton has a pretty good little website that talks about how they operate, their mission, etc:

 

Feed Dayton

 

 

Imagine, if you will, an urban farming program that grows food exclusively for those who need it most.

 

Now picture this program growing only a small variety of crops chosen specifically for their high nutrition value and abundance of harvest, rather than based on popularity or marketability.

 

Now what if this program engaged the residents from the nearby low income communities to come in and do the ongoing harvesting in exchange for keeping a portion of what they picked . . . 80% given to the agencies that feed people . . . 20% kept by those doing the picking.

 

What if this program dramatically lowered expenses by collecting valuable compostable materials from throughout the community such as leaves, grass clippings, and wood chips, as well as horse manure, fish from the nearby rivers, and other organic fertilizers. Now imagine two more things that are extremely important and integral to this program.

 

What if this entire program {including compensating the growers/farmers} could be funded without the need for any grants, donations, subsidies, or any cost to anyone at all . . . and yet still operates at full scale, entirely in the black? See “fund generating” section below.

 

What if this entire program, including the funding mechanism, could be easily and instantly duplicated and implemented all across the country?

 

That is Feed Dayton . . .  The Feed Dayton Urban Farming Program. Read through the contents of this website and you will learn more about how all of this is possible. If you want to implement this program in your community, let us know, and we will be happy to help you get started.

 

Next up, a report on a meeting (the Soil Summit) I went to in Louisville on this, including a videoconference with Will Allen of Milwaukee, but also with some intel as to what is going down in Louisville.

 

 

 

 

Heres some intel on what I was doing the past weekend in Louisville. Spent Saturday Morning at the "Soil Summit".  It was hosted by Breaking New Grounds and 10,000 Farmers.

 

Breaking New Grounds

 

..it started out from the good intentions of a co-owner of a local coffee chain:

 

Several years ago, Gary and Mike started researching the composting of the 50 tons of coffee grounds produced by their five local coffee stores each year. Then, after traveling to Nicaragua and Guatemala in 2005 and 2006, they saw how the purchase of fair trade, organic coffees helped the communities of coffee farmers there. They wondered what they could do in Louisville, Kentucky to help our economically disadvantaged neighbors, and their children who go to bed hungry, to transform their lives? Was there something they could do to reduce the ecologic impact of their business and at the same time produce some added benefit for the local community? Thus, the idea of Breaking New Grounds was born—a neighborhood-based community food system that turns "waste into wealth."

 

(BTW, I shared a table with Gary Heine at the event, talked a bit with him).  The concept is to use coffee grounds and other organic material and worms to generate compost.  But it moved beyond composting to urban ag.

 

A related organization is 15 Thousand Farmers

 

The Vision:

15Thousand Farmers helps create, empower, and inspire 15,000 new, organic, neighborhood backyard/front yard farmers in Louisville, KY to feed their families and themselves and to give away! How?  By using simple and easy instructions, checklists and materials and ongoing support provided through local growers and resources that will provide everything needed to start Easy Farms in our yards, on decks or in community gardens.

 

...and on Facebook:  15 Thousand Farmers

 

For the Soil Summit, it was quite inspiring, especially what Will Allen is doing up in Milwaukee

 

Here was the blurb & agenda:

 

If you are thinking about growing delicious veggies in your yard, or you operate an urban farm, join our panel of experts including urban farming pioneer Will Allen (via videoconference) to learn about the importance of your soil. Gary Heine from Louisville's community gardening organization 15Thousand Farmers will Join Mr. Allen and a panel of expert presenters.

 

Named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2010, Will Allen is an internationally-recognized soil expert. He'll kick off a morning of learning about:

 

•the risks and benefits of growing food in urban environments

•easy ways to test your soil for pollutants like lead and arsenic

•simple techniques for making your soil safer for growing food

•easy steps for increasing your yields with sustainable growing/farming practices

 

The Agenda

8:30-9:00 AM Registration and Light breakfast

9:00-9:10 AM Opening - BNG Video

9:10-10:30 AM Will Allen Presentation and Q & A

10:35-10:45 AM Break

10:45-11:15 AM Bob Perkins - Soil Specialist, AMEC Earth & Environmental Inc.

11:20-11:50 AM Wayne Long - Agriculture Agent, Jefferson County Cooperative Extension

11:55 AM-12:20 PM Chris Harrell - Urban Farm Planner

12:20-12:50 PM Q & A panel with presenters and Gary Heine of 15Thousand Farmers

12:50-1:00 PM Closing

 

Most of the later stuff was pretty technical, about soil testing,  contamination and levels of concern, but the fnal thing with Chris Harrell was quite interesting as he discussed what he was doing with a school in Indianapolis, who wants to mix urban ag with teaching.  Harrell is from Louisville but works in Indy as a planner.  So some interesting cross-regional pollenization (pardon the pun) going on.

 

I invite the lurkers could post what is going on in your towns...could be things like CSA and organic farming and farmers markets networks as well as urban ag.

 

Next:  I will be checking out a rural farmers market this weekend in Bellefontaine.