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Mangalitsa's, Harvest Moon, big cheese and rare grains at Chicago Reader's Food Issue

NASA's Plant Research Unit

Domed agri-architecture at IAAC Blog

"Electronically-assisted plants" via Natural Fuse

Design, public space and growing at: Work AC, Thread Collective, Public Works, Bohn & Viljoen and Public Stages

PROTOTYPES I : seeds and weeds

Atelier Bow Wow

The harvest-table-mobile-unit.
Singular and spectacular.

Teaching the skills to cook healthy meals

An interesting article about brit Jamie Oliver's quest to revamp american food philosophy. Some interesting tidbits about economic and psychological factors around food access, both here and abroad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/magazine/11Oliver-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

clm

NYT: The Grass Is Greener at Harvard

One organization's move to organic gardening. Hopefully, we've reached a tipping point where it will be expected that everyone changes their thinking to work with nature, not against it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/garden/24garden.html

Local Food/SF Edible Landscapes links

A ranking of the top 10 cities for local food:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/10-best-us-cities-for-loc_n_244682.html

And an interesting article about Gavin Newsom's edible landscapes initiative:
http://civileats.com/2009/09/09/gavin-newsoms-executive-directive/
and the directive itself:
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/sffood/policy_reports/MayorNewsomExecutiveDirectiveonHealthySustainableFood.pdf

possibly we should share with Daley...

NYT: In Michigan, the Disappearing State Fair

In light of our recent urban county fair trip:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/us/08fair.html

Hanging planters, global bucket, etc.

10 "Killer diy garden hacks", including upside down, cinder block and earth box planters:

greenupgrader.com/8601/10-killer-diy-garden-hacks/

Global Buckets

New community kitchen open house, 9/26-27 10-3

Logan Square Kitchen

Another Roof-top garden

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-garden/2009/08/cook-county-sheriffs-boot-camp-vegetable-garden.html

recently added links...

spontaneous vegetation

area - issue 2

area - interview with nance klehm

phenologic forest

sky full of bacon

simparch

public works group

punk-rock permaculture blog

geurilla gardening

Farmadelphia

CCA actions

More Policy Resources

A member of Advocates for Urban Agriculture suggested these resources.

Visit the Municipal Reference Library http://www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/harold-washington/p/Gpdmrc/ for the best index of Chicago ordinances and zoning laws. You might also ask your alderman for help.

Another source of information would be the American Planning Association (www.planning.org), headquartered in Chicago, though generally one has to be a member to benefit from this professional membership organization's services. However, many of their publications probably are at the Chicago Public Library or available through your college or through the public library on interlibrary loan.

Some of their publications on food planning include:
-The August/September 2009 issue of Planning, the Magazine of the APA is entitled "Special Issue: The Food Factor."
-A Planners Guide to Community and Regional Food Planning (PAS Report 554), www.planningbooks.com
-"Community and Regional Food Planning" (PAS Memo, Sept. 2007), www.planning.org/pas/memo/2007/sep/index.htm
-"Zoning for Public Markets and Street Vendors" (Zonng Practice, Feb. 2009), www.planning.org/zoningpractice/2009/pdf/feb.pdf

The website UrbanChickens.org is compiling a state-by-state list of ordinances. Backyard Poultry magazine: www.backyardpoultrymag.com

The Community Food Security Coalition Listserv: www.foodsecurity.org/list.html.
Urban Planning & Food Systems: https://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/foodplanning

Farmers Markets of the Future

These are the closest things I've seen to what I've been imagining.

http://www.core77.com/blog/competition/redesign_your_famers_market_winners_14570.asp

EVENT: Urban Country Fair!

Garfield Park Conservatory Urban County Fair

September 19, 2009

11:00am - 4:00pm

Redesign Your Farmer's Market Competition

market competition

some good concepts, nice display of information (webs, flows, narratives and giant carrots!).

Perhaps the individual research everyone is doing could be absorbed into one or more informational graphics, each starting a little more focused and then figure out how they all connect. For example, Geoff's graphic might connect to Adam's distribution, to Kate's sympathetic institutions...

m.

Zoning and Land Use Ordinances in Chicago

It's hard to find specific laws about farm land, but some things about commercial zones may apply. Community gardens are permitted in some types of parks. The ordinance maps might be useful once we're looking at specific sites.

http://egov.cityofchicago.org:80/city/webportal/portalDeptCategoryAction.do?BV_SessionID=@@@@0390215458.1252356312@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadeifgelgmicefecelldffhdfhm.0&deptCategoryOID=-536902708&contentType=COC_EDITORIAL&topChannelName=Dept&entityName=Zoning+and+Land+Use+Planning&deptMainCategoryOID=-536902708


-- Rachel

Pruned

a collection of Pruned articles/links regarding urban agriculture:

http://pruned.blogspot.com/2008/02/on-agro.html

http://pruned.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-agro-redux.html

Fresh Taste Blog

Thanks to Rachel, this is an invaluable Chicago Food Blog:

freshtaste.typepad.com

The following are highlights from the last few posts:
Chicago Public Radio - "South Siders Spend Billions Each Year Outside Of Their Neighborhoods"

Growing Home Informational Video

Sundry

Edible Estates: conversion of lawn space into productive garden space
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html

Foodprint: Dutch initiative to increase awareness of food production in The Hague
http://www.stroom.nl/activiteiten/manifestatie.php?m_id=4645496

Free Soil: good blog/link source on kindred initiatives
http://www.free-soil.org/

Recitas Urbanas: group finding loopholes/potentials in the bureaucracy of space
http://www.recetasurbanas.net/index.php?idioma=ENG#img

Community garden sites

Check out these two links. The first is the Chicago centered site, the second is the national site. Tons of good stuff from Top 10 gardening tools, to soil contamination information.

greennetchicago.org

communitygarden.org

Portable Architecture

Here are a few brief links and books of interest in the realm of moveable architecture:

http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/11/more_mobile_por.php

Keister, Douglas. Teardrops and Tiny Trailers. Gibbs Smith, 2008.
Kronenburg, Robert. Portable Architecture: Design and Technology. 1st ed. Birkhäuser Basel, 2008.
Siegal, Jennifer. More Mobile: Portable Architecture for Today. 1st ed. Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.
Siegal, Jennifer, Robert Kronenburg, and Andrei Cordescu. Mobile: The Art of Portable Architecture. 1st ed. Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.

More to come on building with recycled/reclaimed materials...

Welcome to Agricultural Commons!

With a growing awareness of the social, economic, and health benefits associated with local food production, we see the opportunity to bring to this conversation a suite of culturally relevant artifacts and programs that contribute in material ways to the life of the Architectural Commons Project.