Introduction

1. Problem Identification
2. Investigation/Scouting
3. Research and Interviews
4. Initial Ideas
5. Testing

Urban Farming

How can you enhance access to locally grown, healthy food options within a neighborhood by utilizing existing structures.



Where does your food come from? Food, Inc

List the meals and ingredients that you ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner this week. For each meal component, categorize it as GMO, local, whole, conventional or organic. Justify your thought process.

Answer the following:

1. Does organic necessarily mean whole and local? Why or why not?
   
   
2. Can a food be both organic and whole? Organic and local? All three? Can a food be GMO and organic?
   
   
3. How can you tell whether a food is GMO?
   
   
4. What are the pros and cons of GMO foods? Of organic foods? Of local foods?

A numerical system was developed by the Produce Electronic Identification Board. Look for the labels (stickers) stuck on your fruits and vegetables:

• A four-digit number means it’s conventionally grown.
  
• A five-digit number beginning with 9 means it’s organic.
  
• A five-digit number beginning with 8 means it’s GM
  

Another way to determine whether a food contains GMOS is by looking for certain ingredients listed in your food-product’s label. The majority of corn and soy in the USA is GMO. The presence of ingredients derived from corn and soy on a food label indicates that there is a good chance their food has come from GM corn or soy, unless it's listed as organic.

Fact: 95% of the food consumed in NYC is transported by trucks

1. Creates congestion
   
   
2. taxes our aging infrastructure
   
   
3. obfuscates the origin and manner of production
   
   

One solution is urban farming, a practice that involves growing food in an urban environment such as abandoned ball parks, rooftops, undeveloped lands, or parks. Some of the benefits are:

Urban farming:

• provides more control over what kinds of foods are available (i.e seasonal, whole and organic )
  
  
• eliminates unwanted chemicals in the food supply
  
  
• allows for the composting of organic waste
  
  
• eliminates the need for food to be frozen, processed or shipped
  
  

Another benefit to urban farming is the role it plays in reducing soil erosion and storm water runoff. Pavement reduces the soil’s natural ability to soak up rain and allow water to seep through its layers to clean and replenish the ground water supply. Preventing this natural process from occurring, results in flooding and storm water runoff. Chemicals and litter on city streets wash off into neighboring ecosystems, which in turn endangers wildlife. NYC’s proactive solution to this is the installation and support for Green Infrastructures. As part of the NYC DEP Green Infrastructure program, storm water retention and mitigation infrastructures called “Green Infrastructures” are installed throughout the 5 boroughs. Examples of some of these infrastructures are:

• Bioswale, landscape elements consisting of trees, rocks, vegetation and soil designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff. A natural filter built around storm drains. Storm water passes through the Bioswale before entering the sewers.
  
  
• Blue Roof, roof design that is explicitly intended to store water.
  
  
• Bluebelt, large scale system of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) that includes structural and nonstructural stormwater management control measures taken to mitigate changes to both quantity and quality of runoff caused through changes to land use.
  
  
• Cisterns, enclosed containers sitting outside a house or placed underground that is used to collect rainwater
  
  
• Constructed Wetland, roots, stem and leaves are mixed in with native soil so then microorganisms can grow as they break down the organic material. These microorganisms remove and break down 90% of the pollutants. Aquatic plants remove the remaining 10%.
  
  
• Gravel Beds
  
  
• Green Roofs, or living roofs are roofs that are partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems.
  
  
• Perforated Pipes, pipes with small holes in them that relieve yards, big fields and farms from flooding. This helps baseball fields and lawns remain dry and not flood. Prevents water from leaking into basements by absorbing extra water.
  
  
• Pervious Pavement, is porous concrete that captures stormwater and allows it to seep into the ground. It is instrumental in recharging groundwater, reducing stormwater runoff, and meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stormwater regulations.
  
  
• Rain Barrels, captures runoff from your roof and stores it for future activities like watering a lawn or washing a car. The rain barrel connects directly to your existing downspout so that as soon as the barrel is full, excess rainwater drains normally into the city’s sewer system.
  
  
• Rain Gardens
  
  
• Rainwater Reuse Systems
  
  
• Storm Chambers
  
  
• Tanks
  
  
• Tree Pits
  
  

NYC Green Infrastructure Locator Map




Also see Green Infrastructure Grant Program
green infrastructure
Types of green Infrastructure

Public Art

How can you create encouragement for people to express themselves?

How can you use public spaces to provide serendipitous moments that make people smile?



Air Bear

What is public art and where can it exist?

• Artists transform the landscape
• transform the ordinary to the extraordinary
• create unexpected interventions
• site-responsive

• murals
• dynamic light projections
• sculptures

• Public spaces
• fences
• barriers
• footbridges
• sidewalks

Organizations or organization-artist teams are invited to apply to one of the three Urban Art Program tracks: pARTners
Barrier Beautification
Arterventions

Other Concerns

• How can you create a supportive environment for an aging population?
  
  
• How can you create new ways to share knowledge within communities?
  
  
• How can you create new ways to communicate between the different stakeholders within a community?
  
  

Crowdsourcing a City's Quiet Corners by ERIC JAFFE