They're the bane of urban and suburban areas alike: the vacant, boarded-up K-Marts and Home Depot Expos, squatting like concrete cowpies amidst a landscape of weedy parking lots. But where most people see blight and a waste of space, San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur Gene Fredericks sees opportunity: to grow food. Lots of food. Neither a farmer nor a foodie, Fredericks is a technology veteran who's designed several large, complex network and software systems, working with Apple, Getty, Google, Kaiser, and others; he previously founded Edison-West and ran it for 15 years. And now he's trying to raise money to launch his latest venture, Big Green Boxes, which he thinks will bring a new, high-tech, sustainable approach to Feeding the City. What is Big Green Boxes, exactly? It's a new business that will transform unused warehouse space into year-round indoor growing centers. We'll use hydroponics
On Friday, New York Times op-ed contributor Steven Budiansky challenged local food advocates to rethink their math, mainly about food miles. As it happens, I was already doing some food calculations that day -- but not of the sort Budiansky discussed. My numbers included the following: As of Friday, 450 million eggs originating from two Iowa egg operations -- both of which buy feed and chicks from the same company -- had been recalled from stores in 14 states for salmonella contamination. These days, record-breaking food recalls are happening with disturbing frequency. We
My four-year old ate a vegetable frittata the other day. Mind you, this hardly ranks among the most staggering of childhood achievements. It's not exactly up there with the 2-year-old who gained admission to Mensa, or the kid who paints like Rembrandt, or the 13-year old
At last week's farmers market, one of my outside the zone choices (made in honor of National Farmers Market Week) was agretti (Salsola soda) from La Tercera Farm. Agretti is a deep-green, spindly vegetable that goes by many names, including barba di frate ("friar's beard" in Italian), roscana, marsh samphire, barilla, "chicken claws," salicorne, and glasswort. To further confuse things, the iconic Silver Spoon cookbook connects the name "barba di frate" with buck's horn
In the world of science, there's something called "publication bias," which recognizes that studies with positive results are more likely to be published than studies with negative ones. I suspect there is a similar bias in the world of food blogging: a blogger is much more likely to spend time writing a post about a recipe that turned out well than one that didn't. I know that I've often been affected by "food blogging bias," so in this post, I'm striking a minor blow against it by writing about a recipe that didn't please me, figuring some Ethicurean readers might
Last week, I vowed to escape my farmers market rut and cook outside my comfort zone in honor of National Farmers Market Week Aug 1-7. Farmers markets are spreading like (edible) weeds around the country. There were 5,279 as of 2009 by the USDA's count, up
In honor of Farmers Market Week next week, I vowed here to get out of my market rut and cook outside my comfort zone. That's how I came to be picking up these beautiful squash blossoms on impulse at the Berkeley, Calif. Farmers market on Saturday. Squash blossoms, or fiori di zucca as they are called in Italy, are my madeleines. I first ate them when I was an 8-year-old military kid -- OK, yes, a brat -- living in the steep Posillipo neighborhood of Naples, Italy. The concierge's
It's the height of summer, and the tables of farmers markets around the country are overflowing with firm-fleshed, scarlet tomatoes; bunches of fragrant basil; and -- depending on where you live -- juicy stone fruits, avocados, and more. Such bounty makes it easy to celebrate National Farmers Market Week August 1-7 by visiting a market near you (you can find one via the Eat Well Guide, LocalHarvest, or USDA). And
By Stephanie Paige Ogburn We’ve all seen it: the vacant lot down the street that gets full sun, or the underused city park choked over with weeds. And many of us have thought: I bet that would be a great community garden space, if some enterprising growers could take it over. For most of us, the thought doesn’t go much further than that. But if you're serious about starting a community garden on public land near you, the following are some tips and advice to help make your undertaking more successful. Step One: Land locator If you think the land you’re eyeing is publicly owned, you need to find
By Mat Rogers Recently my wife and I took a day trip to the cherry and apricot orchards of Enos Family Farms in Brentwood, California, which offers pick-your-own-fruit harvesting. We drove through golden hills dotted with oaks under deep blue skies. We wandered though the shaded, quiet, picked-over center section of the orchard, away from the riotous sounds of all the families with kids -- where finding the cherries left on the trees was an enjoyable scavenger hunt. We had a basket and blanket for
To mark the opening of "Water, Rivers and People (Agua, Ríos y Pueblos)," a photography exhibition about people's relationship with rivers and their struggle to protect them from destructive dams, mining projects, and other threats, International Rivers held a panel discussion with two of the exhibit's photographers and two river activists. One of the main themes of the discussion was the importance of images in galvanizing a movement, and it made me think a lot about the missing visual element of the SOLE food revolution. Aviva Imhof, the Campaigns Director for International Rivers, noted that
Denis Guyer, a state representative from Western Massachusetts (2nd Berkshire District) plans a community development corporation (CDC) that will foster "agrepreneurs." The proposed mixed-use space would include a combination of affordable housing, a
Big hats carrying small sticks: The CEO of R-Calf, which represents cattle raisers, has been criss-crossing the country, exhorting people to get to Fort Collins, Colorado, on Aug. 27th for a federal-level workshop about competition in the cattle industry.
Po' po-boys: Monday marked the opening of shrimp season in Louisiana. Federal officials say Gulf seafood safe to eat, but shrimpers themselves are dubious, reports the Washington Post. Some worry that the government's testing -- which has yet to turn
Summer of urban-ag love: The Bay Area is known as a bastion of urban farming and the local food movement, but "laws governing land use are still stuck in another era, one that frowned on farming in the city, especially in residential areas," reports Zusha
Forage gleans a new strategy: When Forage restaurant opened in Los Angeles's Silver Lake neighborhood, they used produce from customers' backyards to supplement their normal produce purchases, paying for the backyard produce with food or drink from the
The meals on the bus go round and round: In Richmond, Virginia, Mark Lilly has transformed a 1987 diesel school bus into a mobile produce market called Farm to Family, which also has a CSA program. The interior is really cool looking -- what a great idea
The July 16 episode of Living on Earth had two interesting food-related pieces, each accompanied by a transcript and MP3 download: The wide sargasso seizure: The first covered sargassum seaweed, the primary vegetation that collects in the Sargasso Sea,
Net prophet: "There are few things in life more complicated than sorting through the various ethical implications of which fish you should be eating," writes Russ Parsons in this review of Four
A new law in Michigan makes it easier for home cooks and bakers to sell certain types of foods at farmers markets, fairs, flea markets and other locations (but not grocery stores or restaurants). Under the law, people can sell up to $15,000 of food made
From fields of war to fields of crops: The Davis, California-based Farmer Veteran Coalition put on a job fair in southern California last week, giving veterans a chance to learn about potential careers in the food and farming business. One of the exhibitors
Sweet talk: In early 2008, Honest Tea sold a minority stake, for $43 million, to Coca-Cola. As this interesting NY Times Small Business article notes, meshing the two companies' sensibilities has not always gone smoothly. In particular, Coke objected
B'more healthy: Baltimore has hired a food policy coordinator, making the city one of the first with a paid "food czar" -- although taxpayers aren't paying her salary, a coalition of nonprofits are, to the tune of just 30 hours a week. Holly Freishtat
Let's rurbalize it!: While "farming is the new golf," in terms of surburban developments incorporating communal food-growing operations into their scope, urban planner Daniel Nairn sees many more advantages to embedding such land use into the fabric of
Poison - It's what's for breakfast!: A toxicologist for the Utah Department of Health tracked worrisome levels of arsenic in two children to the family’s backyard chicken coop — "along with the eggs that came out of it, the feed that went into
Shrek drek: Do inexpensive plastic toys lure children--or their parents--into making unhealthy food choices? The Center for Science in the Public Interest believes they do and is threatening to sue McDonald's if the company doesn't stop using toys to
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