SAN DIEGO, CA – On Saturday July 30, San Diego Food System Alliance, Slow Food Urban San Diego, International Rescue Committee, and Alchemy San Diego will be hosting an Envision Urban Agriculture Fair from 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. to support the local food movement and celebrate the City of San Diego’s implementation of Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones (AB 551). The Fair will include an urban farmers market, heirloom seed swap, healthy cooking demos by chefs, soil corner with composting demos, local kombucha and beer, local organic food makers, workshops including beekeeping, resources for growers by nonprofits and nurseries, small…
Author: urbanagnews
Stuppy, Inc. offers aquaponics system to school of choice for Tour de Fresh top fundraiser for salad bars in 2016 WATSONVILLE, Calif. (June 29, 2016) – To encourage even more support for riders in this year’s Tour de Fresh, Kansas City-based Stuppy, Inc. announced that it will award the rider who raises the most money the chance to gift one of its Aqueduct aquaponics systems to the school of their choice. Stuppy, Inc. is a greenhouse design, manufacturing and construction company that offers schools one-semester worth of curriculum and the necessary equipment to house their own self-sustaining horticultural program. Valued…
Click here to download the issue. Urban Ag News Issue 14 | July 2016 Urban Ag News Issue 14 cover story looks at Kimbal Musk’s “community through food” philosophy. Kimbal, who is the younger brother of Elon Musk, talks to Urban Ag News about his restaurants and the Learning Gardens. Kimbal co-founded The Kitchen restaurants to serve food and drink from local farmers, ranchers and suppliers for the sustainable enjoyment of the whole community. Kimbal also helped co-found the Learning Gardens that serve as outdoor classrooms and experiential play-spaces that connect kids to real food and empower them to make…
We’re looking for your thoughts on the state of indoor farming. A number of organizations including the Association for Vertical Farming, Agrilyst, Urban Ag News, Foodshed.io, and Cornell University have teamed up to survey growers from around the country about the current state and future growth of the indoor farming industry. All answers will be anonymized in the results and no information will be published in a way that is identifiable to you. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. We appreciate your time and your valuable insight. Results will be included in a State of the Industry…
The New York Times gave us a shout-out! Urban Ag News founder Chris Higgins and the online magazine Urban Ag News were cited by The New York Times in an article on vertical farming. The article also included Urban Ag News Issue 9 cover story personality Dan Albert, owner of Farmbox Greens in Seattle, Wash., who was also interviewed for the article. The article by Eilene Zimmerman, published June 29, 2016, titled “Growing Greens in the Spare Room as ‘Vertical Farm’ Start-Ups Flourish” highlights several growers and their stories. The below are Zhanna and Larry Hountz who are growing microgreens right in their own home…
The online course “Nutrient Management (Level 1)/Manejo de Nutrientes (Nivel 1)” offered by University of Florida IFAS Extension (UF) helps growers make better crop management decisions. This course is designed for US and international growers that have practical experience or entry university level, and are in production, technical or sales roles. The course is offered in English and Spanish. Topics covered include common nutrient problems, essential nutrients, fertilizer types and how to interpret a fertilizer label, managing total nutrient level, pH and EC and onsite testing, and growing media. The course runs for 4 weeks, from July 18 to…
A comparison between environmental arguments to stay and leave. It is without doubt that Britain is poised to make one of the most important decisions in its history on June 23. At Commercial Waste Magazine, they care about agriculture and the environment, which is why they have put together a graphic, showing arguments from both sides of the EU debate in regards to what will happen to both farming and the environment if they were to leave. Commercial Waste is a leading online commercial waste and recycling publication, reporting on breaking stories, industry and regulatory news, as well as providing advice and…
NPR June 16, 20164:33 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Dan Charles If you’re a home gardener in most of the country, your tomato plants are probably just getting started. It’s not even officially summer. Yet if you go to the grocery store, you’ll probably see tomatoes that come from even farther north: Canada! Our cold-weather neighbor sends us more tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers than we send the other way. Despite all the vegetable fields of California and Florida. When I discovered this fact, I was so shocked that I decided to investigate. …Listen below… For more pictures…
NPR June 3, 20164:58 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Dan Charles One of my fondest childhood memories is of eating tomatoes. We picked them in the garden and ate them in sandwiches, sitting on a picnic table under the trees outside our house. That juicy, acidic taste is forever lodged in the pleasure centers of my brain. For anyone with similar memories, supermarket tomatoes are bound to disappoint. Indeed, the classic supermarket tomato — hard, tasteless, sometimes mealy — has inspired countless bitter complaints. Take a closer look at the tomato display in your local grocery store,…
Photos from Ny SunWorks Youth Conference on June 2, 2016. Read the full article in Issue 14!
More than 700 agricultural leaders from across the country will gather in Virginia Beach September 20-22 to identify ways to secure the future success of our nation’s small farms and ranches, numbers of which have been dwindling for decades, while the number of very large farms has seen rapid growth. The conference specifically focuses on small farmers because of the vital role they play in the national economy, environmental sustainability, local (agro-) biodiversity, and landscape and cultural heritage. Yet they face unique challenges that set them apart from mid-size or large farming operations. According to the USDA, a small farm…
Recent tests conducted by Rutgers University and Utah State University confirm the Fluence VYPRx PLUS lighting system has achieved an efficacy 21 percent greater than the best technologies in a previous study; breaks 2.0 micromoles per joule barrier. AUSTIN, Texas, April 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Fluence Bioengineering, a photobiology design and manufacturing company, has developed an indoor and greenhouse lighting system with an efficacy above 2.0 micromoles per joule (µmol/J) according to replicate, collaborative testing conducted by Rutgers University and Utah State University. The testing found that the VYPRx PLUS had a 21 percent and 58 percent greater efficacy than the…
The Valoya C-series is complemented with the C75 DIM, a 1475 mm (5 feet) model in addition to the previously launched 1200 and 1800 mm models (4 and 6 feet). C-series fixtures are ideal for growth rooms and chambers, vertical farms and other demanding applications, where high IP rating and high light intensity is needed. The ultra slim design of C-series allows installation in a limited space and the fixture lengths are ideal for replacing 1200 and 1500 mm fluorescent tubes. The dimmable C-series fixtures are available in all Valoya standard spectra for various applications including research with artificial daylight,…
PRESS RELEASE During last month’s GreenTech 2016, the Priva De-Leafing Robot was introduced to the market. This robot is the first product, worldwide, that provides growers with an economically viable alternative for manual de-leafing of tomato crops. Three major growers from the consortium involved in the development, Lans, Prominent and Vereijken Kwekerijen expressed their commitment and will start working with the robot. The Priva De-Leafing Robot is the first in a series of solutions for automated crop labour in horticulture. Labour expenses are a particularly large part of the operational costs, but that’s not all. Labour can be unpredictable and…