Urban Farm Hub

There have been high hopes that the farm bill was finally going to be changed to support local healthy eating instead of agribusiness but guess again.  This post from Grist on the farm bill is a really good summary of where things are at with this huge bill. On June 10th the U.S. Senate passed […]

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Jerome Chou, past Director of Programs at the Design Trust for Public Space, developed these infographics during his work with the Five Boroughs Farm in New York City.    

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Five Boroughs Farm in NYC has been doing intensive work on distilling down the metrics and tools to use when tracking urban ag outcomes.  Here’s some info from the executive summary. Numerous studies have demonstrated that urban agricultural activities improve healthy eating, increase physical activity, provide employment opportunities, and build community cohesiveness. However, very little of […]

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This research paper looked at the fruit and vegetable intake for 766 adults participating in a community garden in Flint, Michigan.  It is one of the few studies to really measure whether consumption increased or not and by how much.  Using questionnaire items from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System phone surveys were conducted from […]

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From Pub Med here is more good news on the benefits of gardening! The effect of a community garden on HgA1c in diabetics of Marshallese descent. Weltin AM, Lavin RP. Source Department of Nursing, Clarke University, Dubuque, Iowa 52001, USA. ann.weltin@clarke.edu Abstract A mixed-convergent parallell designed intervention study was created to learn whether a community […]

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As a public health nurse I fully realize that we are healthier today not due so much to modern medicine but due to environmental measures such as purifying water, pasteurizing milk and separating disease vectors, like animals, from people.   This has put me in conflict at times with my desire to live sustainably through eating super locally and having […]

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By Ian Marcuse, Community Connector Grandview Woodland Food Connection An exciting direction that things are going in Vancouver is the development and commitment by both the Provincial Health Authority and the City government to support so-called Neighbourhood Food Networks (NFNs). It acknowledges that grassroots, local level networks are the best vehicle to responding to the needs […]

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As urban farming gains popularity more and more people are looking to  park lands as possible sites for food gardens and other food related activities.  When done right this can work out well for all; increasing bringing new people into parks,  reducing maintenance costs, producing delicious super local food, reducing crime and building community.  Here in Seattle the Parks Urban Food System team […]

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By Cathy Tuttle Seattle is in the midst of a local healthy food renaissance. Revelations about food and public health, food and climate change, and food and the local economy are crossing our tables daily. These food system ideas are relatively new to Seattle policy makers and the public, but they are the bread and […]

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