Urban Agriculture Advocates To Convene In Milwaukee, 2/28-3/1
Milwaukee will be centerstage for a national meeting of activists on the cutting edge of an important and growing movement nationally: urban agriculture.
Details of the conference, planned for February 28-March 1 at the Hilton downtown, are here.
And a session of the 4th St. Forum, scheduled for noon at Turners on Friday, February 29th, will focus on the issue, too. Preliminary details are here.
Urban agriculture makes sense on so many fronts, summarized below (a great site is provided through Growing Power, long a local leader in hands-on projects and education in the field:
- Locally-grown food is fresher.
- Consumers can support area producers, or get involved in growing and sharing their own food through neighborhood gardens and coops.
- Locally or homegrown foods are more likely to be organically-produced.
- Energy is saved through minimized transportation and shipping expenses.
- Green planning and participation is infused throughout the community, from individual action to neighborhood action to governmental support. Absolutely no one loses, and everyone wins.
It's significant for Milwaukee that that this national conference, with local support, is being held here.
Here is a jpg of the conference flyer. Pass it along.
More on this topic to follow.
4 comments:
I consider it a highly significant development to find James Rowen awakened to the promise of urban farming! Milwaukee may well be on the road to becoming "the" center of this emerging movement, brewing in the neighborhoods, associations, and now, in our governmental institutions.
Urban Farming is in the Milwaukee Department of Development's Master Plan, Northeast Area.
If you read the Draft, Chapter 3: Policies and Strategies, Page 4. This is in the draft:
http://www.mkedcd.org/planning/plans/Northeast/plan.html
1. Support urban farming (small scale intensive farming, an updated modern version of "victory gardens") in residential and mixed use neighborhoods as a way to:
1. Build self reliance for those who grow healthy, fresh food for themselves and their families.
2. Provide extra family income for those who create food for sale in neighborhood farmers markets.
3. Advance community building, as neighbors enjoy the beauty of urban farms and gardens, participate in growing community and food together, and provide gainful work for neighborhood residents, especially the young and the old.
http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/ObamaCampaign
I'm a long-time urban gardener and been in my share of food coops, so I'm not a complete newcomer to the arena.
But I am glad to commit the blog to these issues.
Any chance you can inspire Obama and Hillary to adopt an urban farming plank in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Campaign?
Mayor Daley and Mayor Barrett have discovered the potential of urban farming.
Why have not Obama and/or Hillary?
Do Obama or Hillary Know Our Vets Are Denied Therapeutic Gardens at the Soldiers Home?
Do they know that our children are denied edible school yards?
Do Obama or Hillary know that there are tens of thousands of vacant city lots
Crying for the people to gather to grow good soil, plant good food,
Make money selling food and healthy bodies and families
Growing and eating this bounty from rain, sun, soil, and thoughtful work?
Do Obama or Hillary know that there are tens of thousands of unemployed
Young people, and under appreciated elders, who could return to the sacred ways
Of their noble ancestors of 10,000 years, grow much more of their own and their community's food,
And gloriously participate in nature's miraculous web of relationships?
And if Obama or Hillary do not know all this,
Why don't they?
Or why do not his policy teams
Alert them to these facts?
A Milwaukee Apprentice City Farmer
I am sure both candidates would be supportive, but it is beyond my powers to bring that about.
My guess is that a dozen well-placed emails to the candidates' websites/advisors, or a question at a debate would do the trick.
These campaigns are tugged a thousand different, well-intentioned directions every second.
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