Summary

Here is my final summary entry. This post is geared towards those who will be grading my idea-book-blog. I've listed categories that I felt would be of interest to you and provided you a link that will bring up all posts tagged with that word. The labels on the right of the page do the same thing if you are interested in pulling up other topics I talked about.

Here you go!

Volunteering: link 

Garden Duty: link
*Just a note on the garden duty. I think there's one or two days I didn't post about garden duty, simply because I forgot. I also worked shifts that had one other person during the shift so we would some times switch off weeks if one of us had a doctor's appointment or time conflict for that week.

IPRO Projects: link

Articles: link

Ideas: link & pinterest

South Central Farm

So this post is a little bit more special to me and it doesn't consist of just one article but quite a few articles because I was just so fascinated by the community garden. Back story: I was Googling urban agriculture in hopes to find an article to fulfill my last and final article research report. I came across an article by National Geographic talking about the benefits of urban agriculture. I finished reading the article and went, "Eh, I knew all that stuff already... boring." Before I continued my search again, I noticed some very interesting photos right above the article and started scrolling through them. Here's what the page looked like so you can understand:

Here's a link to the article.

And I stopped myself at this photo:

I was so intrigued by the photo because it just looks like there's  a lot of story to it. (Plus, I mean look how big those vegetables are!) So I nodded my head in approval and thought, 'Good for you, dude' and skimmed over the article's title name "Farming South Central". I nodded my head some more and prepared to click on the next photo until four small words at the bottom of the page caught my attention: South. Central. Los. Angeles. My home! (relatively speaking). This is why this post is special to me because I connect to this area. I know this area. So I read the article.

I learned that South Central Farm was a farm in South L. A. that covered 14 acres of a vacant lot in an industrial area. There was a land dispute that could not be settled with the owner which resulted in a highly publicized protest. Ultimately, the community farmers lost. 

I was sad to see that this community garden no longer existed. If only  I had known back in '94 - '06 maybe I could have been involved! Just kidding guys, I was only two years old in '94; and in '06 I was 14 years old and preparing for the horrors of high school. The article gave a short and sweet summary of what happened in those 12 years of the farm's existence and the Academy Award-nominated documentary that spawned from it. But it wasn't enough for me. Twelve years and all this article could give me was four measly paragraphs about the farm? I could seriously write this entire article on the palm of my hand, and do you know how small my palms are?

So unsatisfied, I continued to dig with an unsatisfied hunger. No pun intended. Actually, yes, pun intended.

I refused to resort to Wikipedia as a source of information about South Central Farm. I tried to look for articles by the local news about the actual farm. I wanted to know the in's and out's: how did they maintain it, what types of produce did they grow, what did they grow? But a majority of the articles were about the protests during the land dispute. I read this article (link) by the L. A. Times.

The articles title read: "L.A. Garden Shut Down; 40 arrested".  It described a very sad story with the protestors preparing for the worst. Emotions were very high. People were very passionate about South Central Farm and went as far as shackling themselves to buckets of concrete. The bulldozers came in just abolished all the produce growing in the farm. Apparently the owner of the plot of land had started to grow weary of being a land lord to the farm. The farmers, with some aid of non-profit organizations, offered to buy the land from the owner. He named the price, which they met. Then he raised the price again to a price that the community could not meet. 

I finally succumbed to Wikipedia only to look at their sources to read articles they cited. I found this article (link) titled: "Planting Food and Hope: The Inspiring Afterlife of South Central Farm". The article is about Tezozomoc and the rest of the community farmers from South Central Farm. They rallied together afterwards to develop an 85- acre, worker-owned farm 100 miles outside of the city. The farm grows organic food that is still provided to the same community that South Central Farm provided for. 

I found this article was particularly inspiring because of how much the community care for the farm and how much it brought them together. The community valued the growing of their own food so much that they made a new farm--100 miles away, mind you--to bring that food back to their community. It would be amazing to see if communities all across the nation were close enough and cared enough about each other to due extraordinary things like Tezozomoc and the other farmers have done. 

The last article I read was actually an academic paper (link). It was an anthropology paper that I thought was really interesting and focused on the cultural side of South Central Farm. The community that was involved with the farm a largely hispanic community. The paper talks about the values of the hispanic community such as family and the importance and tradition of growing their own food. The South Central Farm was a transplantation of the culture this spanish-speaking community left in Mexico to the area of Los Angeles they lived in. It goes on to talk about the workings of the farm in context of the relationships the community built with one another.

The reason why this I thought this was interesting was because I grew up with a pretty large hispanic influence in my life. I lived in a spanish-speaking neighborhood my entire life, both when I was growing up and now in college with my boyfriend (who is Mexican). My best friend growing up is El Salvadorian and my friends in college are mostly from hispanic backgrounds. (I don't know why it happened that way, it just did). My family is Filipino, and for those of you who don't know anything about the Philipines, it was controlled by Spain for a very long time; which is why Filipino culture and Spanish cultures are very similar. Our languages are nearly identical:

Tagalog (Filipino) | English | Spanish

Tito | Uncle | Tio

Tita | Aunt | Tia

Sapatos | Shoes | Zapatos

Baño | Bathroom | Baño

I'm going to stop there because I find it really amusing and could go on the entire day doing just that. But having that heavy Spanish influence in my life and coming from a culture who has similar values as the community at South Central Farm made their story a little more personal to me because I could relate to them. I could feel the disappointed they did when they lost their farm. I could feel the togetherness and family-like atmosphere the farm brought because I know what that feels like. My attachment and connection to a farm that I never even participated in is something that I lack with UFarmIIT.

I'm not saying that I'm not invested in it, because I very much am. But the interest is different. This is a class for me and I have to do the work. I'm required to work in it. I've very much enjoyed myself but I definitely wish that this attachment and connection is something that I had with UFarmIIT. I think it's something that all community gardens/farms are meant to bring to a community. 

Imagine this: If tomorrow the University were to decide to get rid of the garden and develop a new building in its spot, are the individuals and groups involved in the farm care enough to shackle themselves to concrete to save it?

It would be pretty awesome if they did.

Picking Up Printed Posters.

Today Wudasse and I picked up that foam boards and posters. We mounted the posters on the foam boards just outside of the Idea Shop. No pictures, sorry. Didn't think to take any.

Community and Economy Article by sustainabletable.org

Community and Economy by sustainabletable.org

This article focuses on the negative effects of large scale farming on economy. Large farms replace smaller, local farms thus creating an economic downturn.

JOB ACCESS

Factory farms promise the creation of more jobs, when actually they do not create more opportunities for the average farmer/rural worker. These farms claim there will be influx of jobs entering community; however, the pay  is so low that the work is more of a pay cut. As a result, factory farms end up outsourcing jobs to Mexico and South America.

LOCAL BUSINESS

Local farmers are losing control of way they farm and the prices they can ask for due contract growing imposed by corporate farms. Most farmers don't own animals they raise and are required to buy feed from the same companies that own their animals. As corporate farms get bigger, smaller farms can't compete and eventually disappear.

PROPERTY TAX & REVENUE

Property values are often negatively affected by large-scale livestock production. Its effect on tax revenue is also negative. The reason for this is that many industrial farms receive large tax breaks, abatements, and exceptions contributing little to local revenue.

I particularly liked the sustainabletable.org because their articles use lots of references. This means that they are supporting their claims and arguments with solid facts. Their facts support that there is an obvious issue that should be addressed. I like this article because it really depicts the economic consequences of industrial farms.Industrial farms are focused on economic gain and because of that the economic gain of local community is lost. The local community has to suffer in order to have "efficient" large scale production. This is  one of the reasons why should support local farms. Also, the livelihoods of local farmers is taken away from them and destroyed. Given the entire US economy as it is now, we as a society should look for ways to improve everyone's lot in life not just our own.

Final Report, Final Presentation, Final Friday : FINALS.

Today's a pretty crazy day. It still is because I have to study for an exam tomorrow while completing the final report, organizing the final presentation, and making sure people are prepared for IPRO day on Friday.

So during Tuesday's class, Wudasse and I were able to get a good 2/3 of the report done. We were just waiting for the sections of the building and farm management team to be sent to us so we could complete the report. Wudasse and I worked really well together. We were able to work on it independently and keep the other person updated via text message, email, or comment on the paper; as well as working on it at the same time and communicating via chat. 

Getting ready to proof read!

Afterwards, I took a mini break. Sort of. I wrote up a run down for Thursday presentation since Wudasse and I were the ones who went through the run down with Rodger and Erika during Tuesday's class. I just wanted to make sure that information was relayed to everyone in the IPRO.

Final presentation outline!

Here's just a screenshot of everything as I was working on it. I did a lot of things simultaneously. I love Apple's Spaces feature. It's the ultimate multi-tasking tool. Seriously.

The middle screen on the bottom reads: When the going gets tough, the tough get working. It helped keep me motivated when I thought I was sinking in work. You can do anything you put your mind to ;)

Garden Duty, Broken Hose, and Pico De Gallo

I arrived at the garden before Hannah did because she was caught in traffic. I started to set up the hoses and noticed something wrong with water pressure. I eventually figured out that the splitter was stuck on the hose head and that the splitter was broken. I wish someone had informed me personally about this since the hose does belong to my sorority. I'm waiting to hear how this problem is going to be addressed.

Broken splitter stuck on hose head.

While watering with Hannah, we looked at all the fruiting produce around the garden. We stumbled along the biggest cucumber ever. Seriously! Look at this thing! It was almost twice the length of my hand! We were both pretty amazed by it.

Cooking things: Later that night I went home and made some pico de gallo with some left over Roma tomatoes I had bought a few days ago. I was really scared because I had never really prepared anything with such a large amount of jalapeno and I'm relatively new to spicy foods. I just wanted to make it taste exactly how my boyfriend's mother had made it because it was so good! 

It tasted exactly like hers! :D

Video Editing and Completion, Beginning of Final Report

IPRO314.mov !

Today I finished editing the video. I have here on my desktop just waiting to be viewed. I uploaded it to Youtube and submitted it to the IPRO office as well. The concept for the video was that since our IPRO is a continuing IPRO, the video is meant to be a sort of continuation of the previous IPROs.

Wudasse and I started discussing the organization of the final report. Quite stressful. We determined how we wanted to format it and planned on working on it during class on Tuesday. We emailed a member from each other other three teams to write up 2-3 paragraphs for various sections of the report.

Looking over final report guidelines and discussing them with Wudasse.

Volunteering at Chicago Lights

Last night was the big storm. When my boyfriend and I were leaving our apartment we found that our neighbor's tree was blocking our way out. Once we worked our way around it, I dropped him off to work and I headed to Chicago Lights (just down the street from his job!).

It was a pretty large branch!

Once at Chicago Lights, Hannah and I were put to work inside of the hoop house. We pulled out any left over lettuce roots/crowns in the beds to prep them for planting. We also weeded around the exterior. A team of teens from their summer program came in afterwards and flipped the soil.

Our buckets of pulled greens!

I found this guy while digging through dirt. He was ugggly.

Once we finished, we were asked to plant peppers! That was fun.

Unfinished bed of peppers!

Finished bed of peppers!

We got down and dirty really quick. But Superman can take on any job! A little while later another teen came in and watered the beds. While we were finishing up a man approached Hannah. He was a resident of the housing next to Chicago Lights and he was locked out since his wife went shopping. He asked Hannah if he could help her out in any way and she let him shovel some of the dirt onto the top of the beds. 

The reason I paid so much attention to this small interaction is because it was a personification of what exactly urban agriculture sites like Chicago Lights aim to do. They build relationships within local community. It's the let's-help-each-other-out mentality that I particularly like about urban agriculture sites. This man was so adamant in helping her even though she wasn't a staff member in anyway. It was his first time at Chicago Lights and he wanted to help out as much as he could. I found this interaction very meaningful.

Superman!

Probably should get my nails done?

After we finished with the hoop house, we were asked to rearrange some of the ables of the greenhouse so we could move the papaya trees around. Well, at least, I think they were papaya trees. After we finished moving the trees (which was really hard, by the way), we found these guys in bundles where the tree pots had once been. I wanted to scoop some up and take them home to my garden but I contained myself.

Worms we found underneath the papaya trees!

Papaya trees!

Closer to the end of our three hour shift, Hannah watched as one of the staff set up a moving sprinkler. Hannah discussed that this was something UFarmIIT should do and add to our farm. It would streamline watering duty which is often difficult when watering by oneself.

I loved running through sprinklers as a child!

Filming for Video

Tongue update: Saw a doctor. I have lesion on my tongue. I basically have to keep my mouth clean 24/7 in order for it to heal properly and quickly. The swelling has gone down significantly. I can proudly say that I was able to eat a full meal finally. Talking is a little strained, but I managed.

Today in class I filmed a couple of the members for the video since I wasn't able to do it on Tuesday due to my absence. I had a lot of video to work with. It's nice to see that my team mates had a lot of good things to say about their projects. It was difficult to to choose what to put in the final video and what to leave out.

Video content!

Class Absence Due to Sickness

Today I didn't go to class. Since Monday morning my tongue has been slowly enlarging and becoming more swollen. Today I could not move my tongue at all without being in severe pain and couldn't even eat. What's more my ear ached from all the pain caused by my tongue. I took a picture of it because I couldn't seen into my mouth that well.

I'll spare you from that photo, it wasn't pretty.

The United States' Failing Food System by Alternet.org

Link to Article: (link)

This article was actually a transcript of an interview between writers of Alternet.org and Anuradha Mittal who is "an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights, democracy, food security, and agriculture issues". In this article, they discuss the major issues the US food system faces. Among these issues were tthe proliferation of genetically modified organisms, the domination of industry by corporations, and its affect on family famers. A large irony that Mittal points out that the agriculture industry imports crops that we also export. He encourages local buying as well as buying organically.

I liked this article because Mittal was very knowledge in what he was discussing. He provided many examples for how the food system fails and contradicts itself. Particular I was intrigue to learn that the crops being grown through industrial farming is eventually exported and sometimes not even consumed by the US. It brings to light the abuse of land that large scale farming brings. This should serve as a signal that local farming should be encourage more and supported.

Public Health Article by sustainabletable.org

Link to Article

"[T]he surrounding community deteriorates, the local economy stagnates, property values plummet, and the oppressive odor permeates everything..."

This article is titled Public Health by sustainabletable.org and it talks about the consequences of factory farms that raise livestock. When factory farms are introduced to rural communities the obvious issues of community detonations, economic stagnation, and plummeting property values are brought to light. One issue that is not entirely obvious at first is the hazard to human health and safety. The hazards brought on by factory farms are so large that the American Public Health Association (APHA) issued a resolution regarding these farms. The three consequences and health hazards brought on by these farms that are discussed in this article are antibiotic resistance, water pollution, and air pollution.

ANTBIOTIC RESISTANCE

The environment that these farms raise their livestock often stresses the animals making them prone to sickness. To combat this, farms began to introduce antibiotics into animal feed rather than improving the animals' environment and quality of life. As a consequence of the introduction of antibiotics is the evolution of antibiotic resistance bacteria. These bacterial species are easily and directly spread from humans to animals. It is especially easy when manure is used to fertilize ground. The antibiotic resistant bacteria can then infect water ways and ground water. As antibiotic resistant bacteria spread, the effect of medicine to combat them is less. In turn, the cost of health care increases.

WATER POLLUTION

Like mentioned before, factory farms are responsible for polluting surface and ground water. This pollution is a threat to public health. Infected water could contain nitrate which causes infants to develop methmoglobinemia cause decrease carrying capacity of oxygen. Multiple conditions can affect adults.  Water can also contain pathogens with are harmful microorganisms that cause disease. E. coli and Salmonella are examples of these types of organisms. The most vulnerable populations are children and elderly persons. Pathogens can remain in manure, soil, and water for weeks and thus are ongoing threats to public health.

AIR POLLUTION

Factor farms emit hydrogen sulfide which is the most dangerous emitted by factory farms. Even low concentrations can cause health problems. Long term to low levels  of exposure are associated with anosmia--inability to detect odors. Hydrogen sulfide can also affect balance, visual performance, color discrimination, hearing, memory, mood, and intellectual function. Factory farms also pollute the air with ammonia which is readily absorbed in upper airways. Individuals can develop severe cough and mucus production. Airways can also become scarred.

I know the article is not about "urban farming" but factory farming is still apart of the food system; the factory farm is the producer and the people in grocery stores are the consumer. Similar to produce, livestock been affected by economic ambitions of corporations. Large scale livestock farming produce a number detrimental consequences especially towards public health. This article depicts very clearly these issues and cites many sources for its research. 

I think this article is very relevant to what our class is doing because it is a commentary on the consequences of prioritizing economic gain over health. Our agriculture project aims to educate and develop on urban agriculture site as it relates to the immediate local community. The benefits are social (building community relationship especially between the producer and consumer), economic, and educational (sustainable methods and about food system).

As a society, would should find a responsible way and provide alternatives to factory farming just as urban agriculture sites act as alternatives to industrial farming. We all should have a social responsibility to one another and thus should actively seek to find solutions to hazards of public health.

Monday Garden Duty: Watering is a Serious Business!

Garden duty was pretty average today. Hannah and I have been switch off weeks because I've been having to go to doctor's appointments and such. I'm trying to get all my stuff in order before I fly home (to LA!) on the 27th. I'm really quite entranced by how much everything has grown compared to the beginning of this summer. The peppers look amazing! When are these bad boys ready for harvest?

I love the color! This guy was huge!

 I did basic watering today. Watering is hard with one person. My soaked shirt is a testament of that.

Watering is a serious business!

The sun kept me warm, so that was good. I really liked how the sun was hitting these marigolds and making them look so vibrant.

Beautiful marigolds! I just want to take them home with me!

I mentioned that I like to cook in one of my earlier posts. Here's a picture of what I made tonight: Cajun Chicken Pasta. I was pretty proud of myself because I only own one very dull knife and no cutting board. I had to dice tomatoes, garlic, and onions. I used the onions we harvested during class time last week for this dish. Also, the scallions we harvest a few days before that I topped the pasta with. I was kind of annoyed that I still had to buy garlic and some Roma tomatoes; hopefully next year I'll a pretty good garden started up so I won't have to spend $2.00 on a few things of garlic.

It was yummy!

Composting

Since I've started this class and learned more about different methodologies used in urban agriculture I've been begging my boyfriend to buy my a compost bin that can kept inside. Sadly, I have not been able to convince him as of yet. But I did start composting this week. This actually happened on accident. I had been saving this milk gallon to transplant a different plant but hadn't bought soil for it yet. So, this empty gallon was just sitting in my container garden, acting as a make shift green house for one of my other plants. One day I was getting rid of some dead parts of my plants and just threw them into the gallon because I didn't want to walk all the way up to my apartment just to throw them away. Then a few days later I had to get rid of one of my plants because it had completely died so I threw it into the gallon as well. That's when it occurred to me that I could still compost despite living in a apartment.

Currently in my compost: dead plants, left over lettuce harvest, and eggshells.

I cook a lot. I cook every day and I like to include vegetables. Sometimes I have too many vegetables left over that I don't use right away that I used to end up just having to dispose of. But now I can use them in my compost. I added some leftover lettuce harvest to my compost. I also included egg shells. I'm a big egg person. I love over-easy eggs in the morning when I have the time to make them. Maybe not the most legitimate source, but I feel like it's information is similar to what we've learned in class, is this infographic I found on Pinterest. I've been using it as a guide to my composting. Here take a look:

If you can't read it here's a link to the actual image.

Composting is awesome! Seriously, it's like the ultimate form of recycling--and what's cooler than recycling? Nothing.

My Container Garden and Monticello Ave Community Garden

Monticello is a street next to where I live. I've driven up and down it many times. For some reason, the other day I was looking up community gardens around my area. I was surprised to find out that Monticello had a community garden literally around the corner from where I live. Seriously, it's like a 3 minute walk. It was a surprise to me because I had never EVER before seen a garden where Google maps was telling me it was located. I had driven past that way millions of times (ok, maybe not millions), and not once did I see this mythical garden. By some stroke of luck, as I was returning home after driving my boyfriend to work, there was no parking on the street in front of where I live because it was still an early and ungodly hour. So I had to drive around the block--which forced me to drive down Monticello again. This time, I noticed an area with no cars parked in front of it and a ton of greenery. I parked my car and much to my surprise, I had found it.

Monticello Ave Community Garden

The Welcome sign.

I actually entered the garden later on in the day after taking a lovely walk with my boyfriend. It looks very different compared to UFarm. I like to think that UFarm seems a little more lively, probably because it's maintained everyday. From the look of Monticello's community garden, it wasn't being maintained on a daily basis. So there's room for growth and improvement. Here are a few pictures I took from the inside of the garden.

One of the beds in the community garden.

The pathways were pretty narrow.

They had a pretty large raspberry plant growing which I thought was really cool!

Finding the community garden was pretty lucky for me because I recently started my own container garden. I've found that its hard to grow fruiting plants in containers if the container is too small for them. Even if you think a container is large enough, sometimes it isn't. This would be a good think to research before you decide you're going to arbitrary plant it.

My container plants, which were smashed to some degree by an unknown entity. :(

Overall, the container garden started alright despite most of my plants being planted in things too small. I actually had them originally growing on my window sill but they didn't get enough light so I moved them outside next to my landlord's patio, praying that he wouldn't ask me to get rid of them. It's been almost three weeks now and nothing yet! Around week two after starting my container garden, I noticed my plants getting eaten by some unknown pests. One night, I was returning home from having dinner out with friends and I went to the back to check my plants. On one of my poor plants were EAR WIGS. They were EVERYWHERE. They were just assaulting my plants. They covered it's leaves like you couldn't even tell they were leaves anymore. Just a black glob covering my poor plants.

This is the poor plant that was assaulted by ear wigs.

And if you don't know what ear wigs are, here's a picture:

They're ugly little pests.

Anyways, I must now scour the internet for some sort of solution to my ear wig infestation. Here's a panoramic I took Monticello. 

Look, my boyfriend's enraptured by the sunlight.

Introduction: Race and the Food System

Link to article: http://www.whyhunger.org/getinfo/showArticle/articleId/928

This article paints an alarming picture about hunger in the United States. It depicts a situation in which a large amount of Americans going hungry are of a colored race. It goes on to ask why this occurs then explains that the reason for this is because of a pattern that started long ago that still repeats itself today. This pattern was seen in the early years of U.S. primarily through slavery and conquest of the nation. Historically, Africans in history were discriminated against and seen as inferior which resulted in their poor treatment. With the expansion of the U.S. to the west many Native American communities were taken advantage of. This tradition of exploitation is still alive today through industrial farming. Industrial farms are looking to conquest the economic frontiers. Similar to how the early settlers of the nation took advantage of the people's lands, industrial farms continue to exploit and take advantage of Americans today, especially those located local to industrial farms. This pattern, I feel, is an important topic to focus on. It is not until we learn to break this pattern that our nation can focus on issues such as hunger that is destined for certain races. With urban agriculture now apart of the food system, it is important that we watch what kind of contribution it makes not only at a local setting but at a national setting as well.

Our Failing Food System: Promoting Pesticide Resistance.

I stumbled upon this very informational website with it's own section about food and agriculture (link). It's the Union of Concerned Scientists. I think this site is very interesting because it's more applicable to me from a science perspective on the issues about food and agriculture in our society. In that section I stumbled upon the article: "Our Failing Food System: Promoting Pesticide Resistance." Here's the link to the original article: (link)

The article talks about the pitfalls of large-scale industrial farming that uses herbicides. The crops grown by these farmers are genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide developed by the same company. While at first effective, it was found that long term use of this herbicide encouraged the development of weeds that were resistant to it. The consequence of this was that once the weeds were resistant, they spread in a manner that could not be controlled. Farmers would then have to resort to using more herbicide and even heavy tilling--both unsustainable practices. The author mentions that the resistant strains could be avoided by alternation of herbicides; however, this practice is not promoted because it effects the financial gain of the company who both genetically modifies crops and produces the herbicides to treat them. Similarly, the situation with pests and pesticides has developed in that pests are becoming more resistant to pesticides. 

I think this article is interesting for a number of reasons. It addresses the issue of genetic engineering crops and the consequences of use of herbicide from a scientific perspective by listing different references and sources to support its claims. I feel like this issue can be applied to any sort of farm--even an urban one--because weeds and pests are not an isolated issue to industrial farms. My garden at home has a pest problem--these tiny pincher bugs keep eating my flowers! UFarmIIT has pests, though I don't believe it's become a problem yet. But the lesson that should be taken away is that practices should be taken to ensure sustainability. These types of farms grow crops on large scale and thus have to resort to large scale solutions to their pest and weed problems which may not always have our health in the best mind. The reason I bring up health is because I like the fact that our farm doesn't use herbicide or pesticides. For the most part, we have natural ways to ward off pests such as planting specific flowers. It's nice to know that food we're growing doesn't have any unwanted chemicals in it. That means our food is healthy and we're healthy.

I saw this in a pin on Pinterest and thought this was a rather neat trick. Here's the link to the source site. But it's a mixture of water, vinegar and some liquid dish soap that creates a weed killer mix. For a small scale farm or garden, this is a pretty easy way to get rid of weeds because every home has dish soap and water. Personally, I don't cook with vinegar, but I'm sure a lot of people other people do. So this could be a solution to weeds. Could large scale farmers use this method? Probably not unless it was executed correctly.

Volunteering at Chicago Lights Urban Farm

Hannah and I taking a break from weeding at Chicago Lights Urban Farm!

On Saturday I volunteered at Chicago Lights Urban Farm (link). It's located at the corner of Hudson and Chicago, not too far from the Brown line stop. I live in the north west part of the city so it was a pretty convenient location for me and didn't take too long to get to. When I got there, I filled out some paper work and Stephanie, one of the staff members, gave us a tour of the farm. She told us the history not only about the farm but about the community around the farm as well. It was very interesting how the history of the community was very much a part of the history of the urban farm. 

The farm is divided into four main parts--at least that's how I was dividing them. The first part was the community plots where residents of the immediate neighborhood were given a plot of land and could grow whatever they wanted. The second part consisted of two hoop houses and the green house. I like to call this area indoor growing area. The third part was a larger area with lots of beds. This was the area specifically used for growing produce for sale. The fourth area consisted of a few small beds where children participating in the summer camp program could plant as well.

Weeding.

After a general introduction to the site, we were put to work. Hannah and I were both on site that Saturday which was nice to be working next to a familiar place. We were set to work on weeding the outer perimeter of the site. It is not easy pulling out weeds that have grown in between cracks in the side walk.

Chicago Lights Urban Farm has big worms everywhere!

I think the thing I like the most about Chicago Lights Urban Farm is how close the farm is with the community and vice versa. Almost every person who came into urban farm knew Stephanie and the other staff. The kids involved with the summer programs hang around the farm even outside of camp time. The neighborhood residents that were working on the farm were also friendly towards Hannah and I. They showed a general interest in us and were excited to hear that we were going to be continually involved in the farm for the coming weeks. 

Hopefully the heat won't pick up.

Childhood Hunger: No Kid Hungry

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am big advocate of human rights--specifically women and children's rights. I've volunteered at Lurie's Children's Hospital downtown for almost a year now in two very different departments: school services and the emergency department. I'm an active supporter for three philanthropies: the S. June Smith Center, Girls On The Run, and the Special Olympics. I also sponsor a child in the Philippines through Children's International. I care about kids a lot and I believe that everyone should have some sort of social responsibility to the children in our society.

When I started this IPRO and we were assigned the first required readings, I was very excited because the articles assigned to us talked about the social impact that community gardens/urban agriculture projects can have on a community. Our urban farm should not just be about "Are we able to maintain and grow produce?" or "Are we able to get the UFarm name out there?"; our urban farm's purpose should be "How can our urban farm make a social impact in our society, or even our local community?" Once a purpose is solidified, it's easier for a project to be developed. A purpose, in my opinion, is something that our IPRO lacks; and, that's just my opinion, so don't roll your eyes at me.

Doing a random Google search, I stumbled upon this website: No Kid Hungry (NKH) and started to peruse it's website. My original intention in doing a Google search was to find an article regarding social impact on hunger. I think coming across this website was a better find for me.

The website has a lot of resources for various groups to become involved in ending childhood hunger. Some of these groups include: the press, policy makers, corporations & foundations, educators, parents, and chefs & restaurants. It provides people with educational content on many different aspects on this issue of hunger such as its basic facts to its impact on a child's development. There are various programs for people to become involved as well to help families that face this issue of hunger.

Being the curious person that I am, I entered the zip code "60616" to see if there were anyways someone around the IIT area could become involved. (Disclaimer: I commute from a farther area code and just used 60616 as a reference point). I was honestly surprised that there weren't more opportunities to combat childhood hunger only because the Chicago-land area has quite a few low-income neighborhoods that I could see benefiting from NKH Programs. I did find this one opportunity rather interesting:

I have yet to watch the webinar, only because I am writing this up at work, but I do intend to watch this. It might be interesting because it could provide a way for our IPRO to become involved with the social issues of our community. A good question to ask when deciding to become involved in a social issue is "Is there a need in my community that necessitates me to be involved with this issue?" Most times, I find myself answering this question with an enthusiastic "Of course," because I like to think I can change the world despite only affecting a small portion of the world's population. But the fact of the matter is, even if I can't change the world, my involvement may impact someone else's world and in the end that's all that matters to me.

So, is there a need in my community that necessitates me to be involved with this issue? The answer is yes. Chicago recently decided to close 50 public schools (link) and one of the many consequences of this decision will be the overcrowding of schools where these children have been relocated to; not to mention the economic costs that it will have on families to simply get their children to school. Most of the schools closed were in low income neighborhoods. Ensuring that children have access to food could potentially have a positive impact on a child's performance in school. Especially with the change in schools, Chicago children need every resource possible to be as successful as they can be. Removing hunger from the picture can help children be more focused in school especially in a time such as this one.

This could be a way our IPRO can become more involved with the community at large and have purposeful give-a-ways for the produce we harvest. I will edit this post after I watch the webinar.