Urban Agriculture

This video from the BBC looks inside some of the 200 urban farms that provide vegetables for Havana and the rest of Cuba.

This video from Reuters looks at a new rooftop garden in Brooklyn. Covering 6,000 square feet, the flourishing garden provides fresh produce to local restaurants.

The Portland, Oregon area is well known for preserving agricultural land separate from urban areas. In the new town of Damascus on the border of the growth boundary, landowners are seeking a way to mix the two.

A small strip of land in Los Angeles is being used to grow vegetables for the cafe next door. But officials say the plot violates zoning rules.

Beekeeping is on the rise in urban areas, despite laws to the contrary. Some beekeepers are concerned about the decline in bee populations and are doing their part to change that- other see it as a way to nurture local food movements.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a directive that seeks to mandate healthy eating and food production in the city.

Organic farms are increasingly being included in site plans for new subdivisions. And homebuyers seem to like them.

In this excerpt from their new book, The Urban Homestead, authors Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen point out all the ways city dwellers can move away from industrial agriculture.

In Cleveland, the rise of urban agriculture has spurred new regulations intended to help farmers raise chickens or bees. Some fear, however, the newly created red tape makes it more difficult.

Whether through community gardening or high-tech "vertical farms" interest is growing in urban agriculture.

Urban gardening is spreading to Mexico City, resurrecting an ancient history of growing produce in the city.

In industrial West Oakland, backyard farming is flourishing, with more than 80 farms sprouting up with organic produce and a local bent.

Katie and Sabrina Lewis of Clayton, CA have inadvertently gotten tied up in a political mess of zoning and commercial uses by selling produce from their family garden at a stand in front of their house.

Cal Poly students, working with nonprofit Urban Farming, are creating 'edible walls' for low-income residents in L.A.

Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia, says that global climate change will require us to reconsider growing food indoors, and proposes that farming go vertical.

Thanks to industrialized agriculture, there’s a wide gulf between those who produce food and those who consume it. Too many city-dwellers lack access to nutritious, non-processed foods. Dave Steel thinks that urban agriculture is the key.