digitaldeities

mine-sniffing plant (inspiration)

I would like to sketch and make some graphics about this idea of BioSensor plants that change color when they grow over buried land mines.

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Aresa – changing the strategic focus to investments in and development of mine-affected land - still with a humanitarian scope - read the press release

Aresa has been working within plant biotechnology. The company was founded in 2001 by Carsten Meier, who is presently the Chief Scientific Officer. Aresa has its scientific outset from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Physiology, Copenhagen University, that has supported the company since its foundation with consulting, facilities and scientific staff.

By February 2006, Aresa was listed on the First North listing of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange (currently Nasdaq/OMX-group).

Aresa A/S is situated in Symbion Science Park in Copenhagen. This Science Park houses approx. 100 small companies primarily within Biotechnology and IT.

As of January 2008, Aresa has 11 employees.

Aresa has been working on the BioSensor patent protected technology
Since its establishment Aresa has developed plant based technology platforms, and in 2002 we filed two international patent applications. 

The use of the the Company’s BioSensor technology, in the shape of the product candidates RedDetect, RedDetect UXO and RedScreen have been selected to be among the most innovative ideas in the World in 2004, by the New York Times. In 2005, the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Carsten Meier was awarded the Annual Innovation Price of the Carl Bro Group (Danish Consultancy Firm) for the efforts in developing the Company’s technology.
For a description af the Mine Action Plant and the technology behind it, please see the Landmine Plant section.

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the first article about this subject found here

XM Satellite Radio: 4/30/06
The Osgood File (CBS Radio Network)

Scientists are engineering plants to change color when they grow over buried land mines.

Left-behind landmines kill or injure about 10,000 people per year world wide, according to U.S. State Department estimates. Landmines also keep people from using large expanses of arable land. The United Nations estimates that nations spend $200 - $300 million each year on de-mining efforts. Getting rid of the mines is dangerous work; some crews probe the ground with sticks or rely on metal detectors or dogs to find the buried mines. A Danish biotech company may have a better solution: a plant that changes color when it grows over buried mines.

The plant in question is a small weed called Arabidopsis thaliana or thale cress. One of the most-studied plants on Earth, it is a member of the mustard family and grows wild everywhere in the world except the poles. It's an annual plant and a thale cress seed can sprout and grow into a mature plant in just six weeks. In some regions, there can be two or three generations in a single summer. In nature the green leaves turn red in autumn, or when the plant is subjected to stress such as cold or drought.

Danish biologists Carsten Meier and Simon Østergaard, co-founders of Aresa Biodetection in Copenhagen, are re-engineering thale cress to turn red when exposed to the presence of a land-mine in the soil. Researchers chose natural mutants of the plant that do not turn red in response to these natural stimuli and then re-engineered the mutant's genetic make-up so that it turns red only when the roots come in contact with NO2 (nitrous oxide)—a compound that leaks out of buried land mines.

So far, the team reports they have produced a plant that changes color in greenhouse lab experiments where NO2 is applied to the soil in solution. Aresa says this may be too general a signal (NO2 is often naturally present in the soil), which means there might be the risk of false positives, so they are working to make it more selective in its responses. The next step will be more realistic field trials with actual land mines (mines that lack detonators, however). In actual de-mining applications, researchers anticipate that seeds could be sown over a suspected minefield from an airplane, or spread with a handheld seed sprayer as workers walk along in de-mined corridors

Sean Burke, Program Manager at the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program, says the challenge is how high the stakes are. You have to have a hundred percent detection with the lowest possible false alarms. He says if you miss one mine that could be somebody's life.

Some scientists are also concerned that bioengineered plants could "escape" into the wild and confer undesirable traits on wild plants. In response Aresa has taken these concerns into consideration and has manipulated their plants so they can't sprout unless a growth factor has been applied to the seeds. In addition, they have created plants can’t set seeds unless supplied with another growth hormone. In addition, this plant naturally is a self-pollinator, so it doesn't cross-pollinate with plants growing wild nearby.

Buddha Pears!

I am in love with these little buddha pears! this concept is really inspiring and makes me want to try it out myself! i am reposting this from the cakehead loves evil blog, check out the full post here.

first PARSONS paper .September 1

here is my first assignment

Download NectarCorridors_CarrieMaeKreyche.pdf

exchange //compensation //award //recognition //money

Here is a list of a few of those who would give me an exchange or compensation, an award, recognition or money to do my work?

LAND views

Our mission is to strengthen connections within the eco-creative community by building awareness of ongoing projects, events, educational resources, and collaborative opportunities.

www.landviews.org

We encourage submissions to our online journal. Please submit a brief abstract for our review. We will contact you with our comments and/or decision based on your abstract. If we accept your proposal, please conform to our submission guidelines.

Submit an abstract

Submission Guidelines

---

Contact Information

from article Planting Seeds of Inspiration
What is community wildlife habitat?
To spread this message, Elaine turned to the National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Community Wildlife Habitat (CWH) program. I’m a big fan of creating backyard wildlife habitat. It’s a great way to rebuild the damaged web of life while healing ourselves through the company of birds, butterflies, and other critters. A CWH project embraces backyard habitats, schoolyards, businesses, community gardens, and parks. It literally helps whole towns create space for birds, butterflies, and other critters by establishing broad areas and migration corridors that welcome wildlife to feed, drink, set up housekeeping, and raise their young.

NWF guidelines for developing and certifying a community project use a point system based on the community’s size. In Forestville, this means certifying 100 gardens as backyard wildlife habitats. In addition, a town must accumulate points in several categories, including education and community projects such as stream cleanup, invasive plant removal, and plant and wildlife rescue. The NWF website provides step-by-step instructions at NWF.org/BackyardWildlifeHabitat.

ASCI

Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) was one of the first art-sci-tech member organizations in the USA.  Established primarily as a network for artists who either use or are inspired by science and technology, ASCI has become a magnet for some of the best examples of this type of contemporary art and for scientists and technologists wishing to collaborate.

www.asci.org


OntheCommons.org

OntheCommons.org is dedicated to exploring ideas and action about the commons—which encompasses natural assets such as oceans and clean air as well as cultural endowments like the Internet, scientific research and the arts.

The aim of OntheCommons.org is to advance public understanding of the commons and uncover new strategies for protecting and expanding it. Through stories, blogs, news, profiles of movers and shakers, accounts of local commons projects and—most importantly—your participation on the site, we provide an expansive look at what’s happening on the commons all over the world.

The first OntheCommons.org website was launched in March 2004 by Tomales Bay Institute, recently renamed On the Commons. The site has become a showcase of ideas and commentary from a wide range of thinkers, activists and citizens interested in the potential of the commons to reshape society. All that material—more than 1000 articles, blogs and resources—can be easily accessed on our new site. They are arranged by both topic and author.

 

Andrew Faust .phone interview.

Sunday August 17 - ended at 4:22 after speaking for 28 minutes (checked my cell phone)

I had a very energizing and helpful conversation with Andrew Faust who is offers Permaculture Consultation and Ecological Design Services in NYC and currently is teaching a Permaculture Design Certification through the Open Center.  He lives in Brooklyn and is passionate about biodiversity and urban environments and sharing his knowledge with a wide variety of urbanites.  I found him via the internet and made a previous posting about his website www.homebiome.com This feels like just the beginning of collaboration and communication.
 
Here are my revised and short notes/ fragmented synopsis of what we talked about and the questions I asked .. that will soon be turned into part of my first writing assignment on Sept 1 .. that documents and describes my summer thesis research.

 Can you tell me more about the lecture you offer Regenerating Urban Centers:  Bringing in Nature
and the course that you cover – zone 5 wilderness & wildlife corridors?  
in urban areas he looks for the path of least resistance and less layers of complication - meaning where is the land that is not being used or public land 
there are currently 4000 acres of brown fields in NYC area – 60% is in proximity of water
rooftop gardens, ground street treas
wants to create riparian buffer zone, reclamation of shore edges …
guanas canal ?
new town creek ?
inspired by John Todd –living machine project- anchored floating garden
old Clorox bottles anchored and floating in stream to begin bringing back pollinators
into low-tech more ecological systems.
Engineers begin to think about pumps and electricity when you can use gravity and gray water systems
Rain / plants / cisterns
pollution cleaners increase biodiversity

What do you think about the idea of Vertical Farming?
doesn’t like ‘flash in the pan’ architectural development or proposals
believes in retrofitting
embodied energy in buildings needs to be re-used not more toxins used up from travel, materials and labor
eco-design
has been taking pictures of buildings and wants before//after amended photos
he is looking for or to create visual compelling representations!!  (**this is the area we can collaborate in)
Before and after shots of retrofitting abandoned factories.. reworked digitally

Have any local NYC businesses/ institutions been especially receptive to your work?
NYC botanical gardens
Brooklyn Children's Museum
Open Center
...he freelances around NYC and Brooklyn area

I mention Arboretum America and he said it was a great book.  I told him about the current art exhibits happening around the city and we decided to  met up and continue our discussions.  I feel he is a wealth of knowledge about  NY ecosystems and has done plenty of research and has many many books and magazines and helpful articles.   I look forward to meeting up in person when I return to NYC.

On his website he offers Workshops he offers this one which also resonates with me.
I feel it is a delicate balance to not talk and share with a certain dogma that might not be accepted or understood my a broad range of people.  So I believe my role to to educate the masses or market and promote through slick or provocative images that with surprise people.  I am TOTALLY all about making compelling visual images ..  this is my forte.   

Ecological Consciousness:  Exploring Our Sense of the Sacred, Learning to Live Well with the Earth
We will explore the spiritual, ethical and moral aspects of a deep appreciation for the Earth, and the spiritual relationship between human beings as biological organisms and their ecological environment, the Gaia organism.  The ecological crisis is interrelated with our spiritual crisis and comes from an absence of a sense of the sacred and from a lack of awareness of the fact that our own well being is intrinsically inseparably interwoven with the well being of the Earth.
Becoming responsible stewards of the Earth can begin to heal human communities, spiritually and ecologically. We can create ways to live with vitality and abundance that cooperate with the health of the Earth and her ecosystems, ecologically sound, locally adapted, biologically and community powered infrastructures, and educational models that enhance the evolution of ecological consciousness.

ARBORETUM AMERICA by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

I found this article today in the NY Times.  Quite interesting!

Advocating an Unusual Role for Trees

Colin Rowe for The New York Times

Diana Beresford-Kroeger

 

By JIM ROBBINS

Published: August 11, 2008

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12prof.html?ex=1376452800&en=94a6911aa41463df&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Diana Beresford-Kroeger pointed to a towering wafer ash tree near her home.

The tree is a chemical factory, she explained, and its products are part of a sophisticated survival strategy. The flowers contain terpene oils, which repel mammals that might feed on them. But the ash needs to attract pollinators, and so it has a powerful lactone fragrance that appeals to large butterflies and honeybees. The chemicals in the wafer ash, in turn, she said, provide chemical protection for the butterflies from birds, making them taste bitter.

Many similar unseen chemical relationships are going on in the world around us. “These are at the heart of connectivity in nature,” she said.

Ms. Beresford-Kroeger, 63, is a native of Ireland who has bachelor’s degrees in medical biochemistry and botany, and has worked as a Ph.D.-level researcher at the University of Ottawa school of medicine, where she published several papers on the chemistry of artificial blood. She calls herself a renegade scientist, however, because she tries to bring together aboriginal healing, Western medicine and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees.

She favors what she terms a bioplan, reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions.

Wafer ash, for example, could be used in organic farming, she said, planted in hedgerows to attract butterflies away from crops. Black walnut and honey locusts could be planted along roads to absorb pollutants, she said.

“Her ideas are a rare, if not entirely new approach to natural history,” said Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist who wrote the foreword for her 2003 book, “Arboretum America” (University of Michigan Press). “The science of selecting trees for different uses around the world has not been well studied.”

in the beginning ... NC diagram #2

Since I am most familiar and interested in Desert Landscapes and flora + fauna ... I will begin my brainstorming and iteration ideas there.  Then I can see expanding to other locations and environments where bats pollinate fruits in Florida and New Guinea and then research which bees and beetles and plants are native to NYC.  I love the west and I can see this project returning me to the desert.  The environment is so dramatic and all the animals and plants have adapted to the extremities - a whole new level of adaptation is about to take place.  Chad at the DBG can be one of my interviews.  How brilliant to be able to see all my connections and explorations from a new angle and have a starting place to do research.

Today I was going to make another quick Venn diagram about my thoughts .. instead I had fun making a more detailed chart/image of how the different parts of the project ideas interact and how some of the pieces fit together.  I am sure it will grow and morph and change again as I consider new pieces. 

so all the synopsis writing is in one place - I copied and pasted them here.

Nectar corridors offer local plant pollinators a designed route to follow in an urban environment.  This corridor allows for a maintenance of healthy balance of flora and fauna in rapidly expanding urban areas.   Many species of insects, bats, butterflies and birds feed off of nectar  and pollinate myriads of food producing plants.  As US cities reach unprecedented high population and more people now live in urban areas than rural areas, it is up to urban planners and informed city dwellers to keep plant and pollinator diversity alive and thriving. 

The development of urban nectar corridors to re-establish endangered plant species, help reduce rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and enhance the production of food in urban areas.  To achieve this goal, residents of New York City can adopt a pollinating animal/insect species to be housed in their apartment or on their rooftop to facilitate pollination of the new corridors.  If a resident is not interested in housing an animal or insect (fauna) they can become a grower of desired endangered or food-producing plant (flora), which fit the designed corridor they reside in.  The establishment of the nectar corridors would introduce much needed natural environmental systems into our city to help maintain plant diversity, reduce pollution and enhance food selection and lower costs of shipping.

green belt - greenways - and soon to be nectar corridors

nectar corridors will soon be as familiar a term as these below.

I first interacted with greenways in Scotttsdale, Arizona .. and the concept was first introduced in my environmental biology class at Yavapai College back in 1998.  We talked about isolated islands of animal species that change when they have no possible way to reach other groups throughout a region.  As urbanizations spreads .. greenways leave small spaces for these species to keep their gene pools larger and then have a better possible chance of surviving through diversity.  This simple concept left a strong impression upon me years ago. 

Nectar corridors offer local plant pollinators a designed route to follow in an urban environment.  This corridor allows for a maintenance of healthy balance of flora and fauna in rapidly expanding urban areas.   Many species of insects, bats, butterflies and birds feed off of nectar  and pollinate myriads of food producing plants.  As US cities reach unprecedented high population and more people now live in urban areas than rural areas, it is up to urban planners and informed city dwellers to keep plant and pollinator diversity alive and thriving. 

**side note about my interest in this project and concept**
I am not into the nuts and bolts of the engineering of this project and how exactly the balance would be struck in urban environments.  I am interested in the poetry in motion and the images and marketing of this concept.  I love that nectar is the drink of the gods and it helped them overcome death.  It is perfect to keep alive the pollinators and their diversity.  I want to make images galore ((maybe even mandalas)) of birds and bats and bees and flowers and nectar and honey and pathways through cities and streets and porch gardens.  I can make circular routes that take viewers on an inspired journey through my thesis visions.  hhmmmmm.... so how does that equate into prototypes and papers?  I guess I have to do a bit more experimenting this week.

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NECTAR Etymology (nek- death, -tar overcoming)

Nectar is derived from Latin nectar "drink of the gods", which in turn has its origins in the Greek word νέκταρ (néktar), presumed to be a compound of the elements nek- "death" and -tar "overcoming". The earliest recorded use of its current meaning, "sweet liquid in flowers", dates back to 1609

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Green belt

A green belt or greenbelt is a policy or land use designation used in land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighbouring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges which have a linear character and may run through an urban area instead of around it.

Purposes

In those countries which have them, development in green belt areas is heavily restricted. The stated objectives of green belt policy are to:

• protect natural or semi natural environments;
• improve air quality within urban areas;
• ensure that urban dwellers have access to countryside, with consequent educational and recreational opportunities; and
• protect the unique character of rural communities which might otherwise be absorbed by expanding suburbs.

The green belt has many benefits for people:

• walking, camping, and biking areas close to the cities and towns.
• habitat for wild plants and animals.
• cleaner air and water
• better land use of areas within the bordering cities.

The effectiveness of green belts differs depending on location and country. They can often be eroded by urban rural fringe uses and sometimes, development 'jumps' over the green belt area, resulting in the creation of "satellite towns" which, although separated from the city by green belt, function more like suburbs than independent communities.

See also

• Land use planning
• Community separator
• Urban rural fringe
• Urban growth boundary
• Open space
• Urban sprawl
• Prime farmland
• Development Supported Agriculture

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Greenways

A greenway is a long, narrow piece of land, often used for recreation and pedestrian and bicycle traffic and sometimes including multiple transportation (streetcar, light rail) or retail uses. The land may be newly developed, but usually it is redeveloped, having been formerly occupied by a railroad, highway, or other transportation route. Many greenways in urban centers or developed areas are linear parks. Greenways often are defined by municipal governments as having the following characteristics: vegetated, linear, and multi-purpose.^[1]

The term greenway comes from the "green" in green belt and the "way" in parkway, implying a recreational or pedestrian use rather than a typical street corridor, as well as an emphasis on introducing or maintaining vegetation, in a location where such vegetation is otherwise lacking. Some greenways include community gardens as well as typical park-style landscaping of trees and shrubs. They also tend to have a mostly contiguous pathway, allowing urban commuting via bicycle or foot.

Greenways are located internationally such as the Trans Canada Trail in Canada, the East Coast Greenway in the United States, the Vías Verdes in Spain, the Gold Coast Oceanway in Australia or the EuroVelo cycle routes and the European Greenways Association routes throughout Europe.

  Notable greenways

• Capital Area Greenbelt, a twenty mile greenway connecting neighborhoods, parks and opens spaces in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Carrall Street Greenway, currently under development in Vancouver
• The River Ring, a system of connected greenways encircling St. Louis, Missouri
• East Coast Greenway, a trail being constructed along the Atlantic coast of the United States
• Ohlone Greenway, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area
• Greater Grand Forks Greenway, large public park on the banks of the Red River and Red Lake River in Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota
• The Greenway, foot and cycle path in East London, England
• Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, a circumferential foot and cycle path around Manhattan Island.
• Maryville Alcoa Greenway, an eight mile long foot and cycle path extending from Maryville Intermediate School in Maryville, Tennessee to the end of Springbrook Park in Alcoa, Tennessee
• Midtown Greenway, five-and-a-half mile pedestrian and bicycle path through Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Mountains to Sound Greenway, a 100-mile stretch of Interstate 90 between Seattle and Thorp, Washington protected from logging and development
• Rose Kennedy Greenway, a series of parks and open spaces in Boston, Massachusetts
• Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, 50 mile trail in southwestern New Hampshire
• South East London Green Chain, a set of connected parks and open spaces in London, UK

 See also

• Cycleway
• Esplanade
• Foreshoreway
• Oceanway
• Riverwalk
• Trail
• Rail trail
• Right-of-way (railroad)
• Towpath
• Segregated cycle facilities
• Greenbelt
• Landscape architecture
• Landscape planning
• List of municipal parks in the United States
• Park system
• Public park
• Urban park

References

• Smith, Daniel S. & Hellmund, Paul Cawood. (1993) Ecology of Greenways: Design and Function of Linear Conservation Areas. University of Minnesota Press
• Fabos, Julius Gy. and Ahern, Jack (Eds.) (1995) Greenways: The Beginning of an International Movement, Elsevier Press
• Little, Charles E. Greenways for America (1990) Johns Hopkins University Press

 

Visual Map

*click for larger image*

www.homebiome.com

I would like to be in charge or take the initiative of social marketing of the idea of vertical farming or into my further niche ... saving the pollinators.  They are quite amazing creatures and NECTAR is from the GODS .. so I will be combining my skills of technology, my love of nature and sacred things.  My biggest inspiration in this world has been the perfection found in nature.  I want to help urbanites to say - YES, I WANT THIS IN MY BACKYARD - OR CITY BLOCK!!  I will contact Dr. Despommier below .. soon.  This week after I have had more brainstorming and clarity by answering my list of thesis questions.  Exactly what direction I want to promote.

This evening I had a brief chat over dinner with a lady from SF who, after I started talking about this idea, mentioned the Natural History Museum in San Francisco is just completing a rolling green roof top.  I will research and look it up. 

article in previous posting in NY Times:
Architects' renderings of vertical farms — hybrids of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Biosphere 2 with SimCity appeal — seem to be stirring interest. "It also has to be stunning in terms of the architecture, because it needs to work in terms of social marketing," Dr. Despommier said. "You want people to say, 'I want that in my backyard.' "

Tonight I am working on my VENN diagram to answer the thesis question: Make a Visual Map the domains/fields of study that your thesis exists in. I just went back and looked on the posting of the pdf pamplet that I made for Nectar Corridor final presentation to see who was the presenter of the workshops that I listed.  It is Andrew Faust.  I just went to his website and WOW.  Quite a resource!  I will write him tonight and share my ideas and project.  He feels like a great city contact .. and he homesteaded in West Virginia, how about that.  Those are my roots. 

INFO from his website below:

The Center for Bioregional Living
                       The Center for Bioregional Living
                       302 Bedford Ave. PMB#22
                       Brooklyn, NY 11211
(917) 584 -4588

www.homebiome.com

  Links

 

                                                                                 Permaculture Activist Magazine
The Ecologist Magazine
Earth Island Institute
The Weston A. Price Foundation
Adbusters Magazine
      Worldwatch Institute
Gaia University
New Internationalist
International Society for Ecology and Culture
Organic Consumers Association
Third World Network
Whole Earth
World Nuclear News
Microwave News ~ EMF/EMR Directory
Trinity Atomic Web Site
The National Academies Advisors to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine
                              

                                                                      

                                           Articles & Essays

 

                                            Articles and Essays from the Center for Bioregional Living on Educational Philosophy, Bioregional Design, Permaculture, Regenerating Local Ecologies and Economies.
                                       
                                        Artistic Ways of Living by Andrew Faust

                                        Bioregional Design:  Regenerating local ecologies and economies by Andrew Faust

                                          Cultural Perspectives and Land Use:  Bioregional Permaculture Designs                                           by Andrew Faust

                                          Trading 'standard of living' for quality of life The Pocahontas Times

                                       

                                                                    

   
             Suggested Reading

 

                                                                                    Pfeiffer, Ehrenfried.  The Biodynamic Treatment of Fruit Trees, Berries and Shrubs.
    Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins.  Natural Capitalism:  Creating the Next Industrial Revolution.
    Lowdermilk, W. C.  Conquest of the Land through Seven Thousand Years.
    Bolgiano, Chris.  Living in the Appalachian Forest:  True Tales of Sustainable Forestry.   
    Nearing, Helen and Scott.  The Good Life:  Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living. 
    Huggett, Frank E.  The Land Question and European Society since 1650.   
    Ward, Diane Raines.  Water Wars:  Drought, Flood, Folly and the Politics of Thirst.
    Magazine articles from:  New Internationalist, The Last Straw:  The International Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building, The Whole Earth Review, and Third World Resurgence.
     Meyers, Norman.  Gaia:  An Atlas of Planet Management.
    Diamond, Jared.  Guns, Germs and Steel:  The Fates of Human Societies.
    McNeil, J.R.  Something New Under the Sun:  An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World.   
    Hillel, Daniel.  Out of the Earth:  Civilization and the Life of the Soil.  
    Mcluhan, Marshall.  The Medium is the Massage and The Gutenbery Galaxy.
    Jung, Carl.  Man and His Symbols.
    Illich, Ivan.  Deschooling Society.
    Krishnamurti, J.  On Learning and Knowledge.
    Kahn, Hazrat Inayat.  The Music of Life.
    Pearce, Joseph Chilton.  Evolution's End:  Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence. 
    Mander, Jerry.  In the Absence of the Sacred:  The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nation.
    Magazine articles from:  Adbusters:  Journal of the Mental Environment, Earth Island Journal:  News of the World Environment,
    Mollison, Bill.  Permaculture Designer's Manual,
    Fukuoka, Masanobu.  The One Straw Revolution. 
    Pfeiffer, Ehrenfried.  Compost and Preparations.
    Storl, Wolf.  Culture and Horticulture. 
    Shiva, Vandana.  Stolen Harvest.   


                              

                                                                    

   
             Maps & Data

 

                                            Links to find out about the ecological impact and true costs here at home of the industrial war machine economy.

                    U.S. Environmental protection Agency
                                  West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
                                   U.S. Food and Drug Administration

   Links for physical characteristics of an area you're interested in.                                   

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
                                   U.S. Geological Survey
                                                                         U.S. Department of Agriculture

Contact

               We'd love to hear from you!

Send us an e-mail:

   

Contact at Homebiome.com

 
or give us a call:    (917) 584-4588    

VERTICALFARM.COM

ALL THIS INFORMATION IS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM www.verticalfarm.com

        The Problem
   

   

        By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban         centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends,         the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim.         An estimated 10⁹ hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is         represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed         them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At         present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising         crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been         laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this         impending disaster?    

   

        A Potential Solution: Farm Vertically

   

        The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes,         a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What         is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3         billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented,         employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap         to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be         situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented,         they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and         varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of         ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

   

        It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take         for granted. Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often         turning verdant, natural ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Within that same time         frame, we evolved into an urban species, in which 60% of the human population         now lives vertically in cities. This means that, for the majority, we humans are         protected against the elements, yet we subject our food-bearing plants to the         rigors of the great outdoors and can do no more than hope for a good weather         year. However, more often than not now, due to a rapidly changing climate         regime, that is not what follows. Massive floods, protracted droughts, class 4-5         hurricanes, and severe monsoons take their toll each year, destroying millions         of tons of valuable crops. Don't our harvestable plants deserve the same level         of comfort and protection that we now enjoy? The time is at hand for us to learn         how to safely grow our food inside environmentally controlled multistory         buildings within urban centers. If we do not, then in just another 50 years, the         next 3 billion people will surely go hungry, and the world will become a much         more unpleasant place in which to live.

Contact

                                                

Dr. Dickson Despommier, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Email ddd1@columbia.edu     Phone (212) 305-1494     Fax (212) 342-1952     Mail Attn: Dr. Dickson Despommier   Environmental Health Science            of Columbia University     60 Haven Ave. Room 100   New York, NY 10032

Taking the Plant's Point of View

If I was in town I would attend this event at PS1. 

Lecture Aug. 8: Michael Pollan: Taking the Plant's Point of View

Date: Friday, August 08, 2008
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

                                                                                                                                                        P.S.1 courtyard
Doors open 7 p.m., $5 suggested donation
Rain or shine

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with The Horticultural Society of New York, presents a lecture by the revolutionary food journalist Michael Pollan. For the past twenty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where civilization and the natural world intersect. He is one of today's most influential investigators of what we eat and how plants impact our daily lives and culture. A long-standing supporter of The Horticultural Society of New York, the award-winning author will lecture on-site at P.F.1 (Public Farm One), a quarter-acre working farm currently installed in the P.S.1 courtyard. P.F.1 is the vibrant creation of WORK Architecture Company, winners of this year's MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program competition. With this productive urban farm as a backdrop, Pollan will discuss the power of taking the plant's point of view, what that does for us, and why it is important to solving our environmental problems.

Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by The New York Times and The Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author A Place of My Own (1997) and Second Nature (1991). A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine among other prestigious publications, Pollan is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. His most recent book is titled In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008).

Founded in 1900, The Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY) is at the forefront of New York City's environmental well-being, providing resources for urban gardeners, plant enthusiasts, visual artists, and green technology professionals. HSNY promotes the art and science of horticulture and its vital role in contemporary life to diverse communities throughout New York. HSNY's outreach programs bring environmental literacy to public school children; gardens and urban agriculture to seniors and special-needs individuals; and vocational training to men, women, and adolescents incarcerated on Rikers Island. Coinciding with P.S.1's courtyard presentation of P.F.1, The Horticultural Society of New York Gallery will feature architectural models, live-plant sculptures, preparatory drawings, photo-documentation and ephemera from the project. Through September 5, 2008.

...and when I return I will stop by and see the plant and architecture display!

                                        

                           

                               

                                    

                                       

                                                                                   

Winner of the ninth annual MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program

                                           

WORK Architecture Company's P.F.1 (Public Farm One)

P.F.1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept that evokes the look of a flying carpet landing in the P.S.1 courtyard. Constructed from large cardboard tubes, its top surface will be a working farm, blooming with a variety of vegetables and plants. The structure will create a textured, colorful, and constantly changing surface in contrast with P.S.1’s angular concrete and gravel courtyard. P.F.1 will work as an interactive bridge between outside and inside, creating multiple zones of activity including swings, fans, sound effects, innovative seating areas, and a refreshing pool at its center. The installation will be a living structure made from inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at P.S.1.

NECTAR CORRIDORS

For my SUPER NORMAL FUTURES course this past spring at PARSONS (taught by Jamer Hunt and Fiona Raby /of Dune and Raby Designers/) -- my group created a project called Nectar Corridors.  My group of 4 Parsons Students was/is :: 2  MFA architect students Hrolfur Karl Cela and Matthew Bissen and 2 MFA Design + Technology Students Dunja Pantic and me, Carrie Mae Kreyche.  We worked together over the entire semester and our project evolved from an iLash, to SPORE advertising and then finally culminated into Nectar Corridors.

Nectar Corridors support animal and plant diversity and keep local and exotic flora and fauna from going extinct through suppling pollinators for Urban Farming.  We primarily focused on bats and integrating them into NYC life, but bees, butterflies and birds are all possible pollinators too.

Here are some images that document our collective process and then the NY Times article I read recently about Vertical Farming and a how the Manhattan borough president is interested in promoting this idea in NYC ... I believe we do need some bats and pollinators to go with these towers! I think our group should send them (NY Times or borough president) a short synopsis of our project and get some publicity for our project and Parsons.

nectarcorridors.com coming soon

The development of urban nectar corridors to re-establish endangered plant species, help reduce rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and enhance the production of food in urban areas, in the future.  To achieve this goal, residents of New York City can adopt a pollinating animal/insect species to be housed in their apartment or on their rooftop to facilitate pollination of the new corridors.  If a resident is not interested in housing an animal or insect (fauna) they can become a grower of desired endangered or food-producing plant (flora), which fit the designed corridor they reside in.  The establishment of the nectar corridors would introduce much needed natural environmental systems into our city to help re-establish plant diversity, reduce pollution and enhance food selection and costs.

 

here is a final prototype of our Nectar Corridor tri-fold flyer - we distributed during our final presentation.

CLICK ON THEM TO MAKE THEM LARGER

the recent NY Times article ...

Country, the City Version: Farms in the Sky Gain New Interest

 

By BINA VENKATARAMAN

Published: July 15, 2008

What if "eating local" in Shanghai or New York meant getting your fresh produce from five blocks away? And what if skyscrapers grew off the grid, as verdant, self-sustaining towers where city slickers cultivated their own food?

SOA Architects

 

Multimedia

Slide Show

Towers of Food

Gordon Graff

COWS AND PLOWS? Prototype designs for vertical farms, a concept created in 1999 by Dickson Despommier of Columbia and his graduate students. More Photos >

   

Readers' Comments

What do you think about the idea of "vertical farms"?

     

Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, hopes to make these zucchini-in-the-sky visions a reality. Dr. Despommier's pet project is the "vertical farm," a concept he created in 1999 with graduate students in his class on medical ecology, the study of how the environment and human health interact.

The idea, which has captured the imagination of several architects in the United States and Europe in the past several years, just caught the eye of another big city dreamer: Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.

When Mr. Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a "food farm" addition to the New York City skyline. "Obviously we don't have vast amounts of vacant land," he said in a phone interview. "But the sky is the limit in Manhattan." Mr. Stringer's office is "sketching out what it would take to pilot a vertical farm," and plans to pitch a feasibility study to the mayor's office within the next couple of months, he said.

"I think we can really do this," he added. "We could get the funding."

Dr. Despommier estimates that it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make a prototype of a vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30-story towers that he suggests could feed 50,000 people. "I'm viewed as kind of an outlier because it's kind of a crazy idea," Dr. Despommier, 68, said with a chuckle. "You'd think these are mythological creatures."

Dr. Despommier, whose name in French means "of the apple trees," has been spreading the seeds of his radical idea in lectures and through his Web site. He says his ideas are supported by hydroponic vegetable research done by NASA and are made more feasible by the potential to use sun, wind and wastewater as energy sources. Several observers have said Dr. Despommier's sky-high dreams need to be brought down to earth.

"Why does it have to be 30 stories?" said Jerry Kaufman, professor emeritus of urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "Why can't it be six stories? There's some exciting potential in the concept, but I think he overstates what can be done."

Armando Carbonell, chairman of the department of planning and urban form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., called the idea "very provocative." But it requires a rigorous economic analysis, he added. "Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise? My bet is that the investment banker will pay more."

Mr. Carbonell questions if a vertical farm could deliver the energy savings its supporters promise. "There's embodied energy in the concrete and steel and in construction," he said, adding that the price of land in the city would still outweigh any savings from not having to transport food from afar. "I believe that this general relationship is going to hold, even as transportation costs go up and carbon costs get incorporated into the economic system."

Some criticism is quite helpful. Stephen Colbert jokingly asserted that vertical farming was elitist when Dr. Despommier appeared in June on "The Colbert Report," a visit that led to a jump in hits to the project's Web site from an average of 400 daily to 400,000 the day after the show. Dr. Despommier agrees that more research is needed, and calls the energy calculations his students made for the farms, which would rely solely on alternative energy, "a little bit too optimistic." He added, "I'm a biologist swimming in very deep water right now."

"If I were to set myself as a certifier of vertical farms, I would begin with security," he said. "How do you keep insects and bacteria from invading your crops?" He says growing food in climate-controlled skyscrapers would also protect against hail and other weather-related hazards, ensuring a higher quality food supply for a city, without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

Architects' renderings of vertical farms — hybrids of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Biosphere 2 with SimCity appeal — seem to be stirring interest. "It also has to be stunning in terms of the architecture, because it needs to work in terms of social marketing," Dr. Despommier said. "You want people to say, 'I want that in my backyard.' "

Augustin Rosenstiehl, a French architect who worked with Dr. Despommier to design a template "living tower," said he thought that any vertical farm proposal needed to be adapted to a specific place. Mr. Rosenstiehl, principal architect for Atelier SOA in Paris, said: "We cannot do a project without knowing where and why and what we are going to cultivate. For example, in Paris, if you grow some wheat, it's stupid because we have big fields all around the city and lots of wheat and it's good wheat. There's no reason to build towers that are very expensive."

Despite its potential problems, the idea of bringing food closer to the city is gaining traction among pragmatists and dreamers alike. A smaller-scale design of a vertical farm for downtown Seattle won a regional green building contest in 2007 and has piqued the interest of officials in Portland, Ore. The building, a Center for Urban Agriculture designed by architects at Mithun, would supply about a third of the food needed for the 400 people who would live there.

In June at P.S.1 Contemporary Arts Center in Queens, a husband-wife architect team built a solar-powered outdoor farm out of stacked rows of cardboard tube planters — one that would not meet Dr. Despommier's security requirements — with chicken coops for egg collection and an array of fruits and vegetables.

For Dr. Despommier, the high-rise version is on the horizon. "It's very idealistic and ivory tower and all of that," he said. "But there's a real desire to make this happen."