Year: 2017
Return to the Guide to Urban Farming Table of Contents>> Urban farms require community participation and buy-in to survive and thrive. Without community buy-in, community and commercial farmers can be vulnerable to vandalism or more organized forms of community resistance. More importantly, community engagement helps align farm services with the needs and desires of neighborhood…
Back to the Guide to Urban Farming Table of Contents>> Sustainability Plans Cities across New York State have developed sustainability plans to address climate change, food insecurity, and other challenges confronting governments today. The Sustainability Plans for the ten regions of New York can be found at: http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/Programs/Cleaner-Greener-Communities/Regional-Sustainability-Plans. Some examples of city-wide plans are: New…
Back to the Guide to Urban Farming Table of Contents>> Codes and Regulations Until recently, city codes, zoning laws, and other regulations have largely ignored urban agriculture. However, these codes and regulations can intentionally and unintentionally regulate urban farming activities in a myriad of ways, such as by regulating the construction of structures, including chicken…
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Dairy Farm Profit Benchmarks A Farm Business Educator once used the analogy of barrel staves as a way to describe portions of the dairy farm business. If the whole farm was a barrel, then the staves would be represented by: Milk production, Animal Husbandry, Crop Production, Business efficiency, etc. He said that a farm could…
by R.J. Anderson Malting barley is an essential ingredient for brewing beer. And since its very recent reintroduction to New York agriculture after several decades of prohibition and disease-induced dormancy, it has also been very challenging to grow to market grade. Those challenges, paired with the rising demands of the state’s three-year old farm brewery…
by Kyle Dornich A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a tool that creates visual representations of data and performs spatial analyses in order to make informed decisions. It is a technology that combines hardware, software, and data. The data can represent almost anything imaginable so long as it has a geographic component. The hardware can…
New Reference Promotes Indoor Yields and Profits by Sharon Tregaskis For organic growers facing an increasingly uncertain climate – ecologically and economically – Andrew Mefferd offers a 245-page compendium on the best practices for managing eight high-profit crops in The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook: Organic Vegetable Production Using Protected Culture. Published in February by…
Farmers weigh in on the benefits of CSA’s for farm and community by Elizabeth Henderson Similar to what happened in Japan after 30 years of Teikei, CSA in the US is facing something of a crisis. Across the country, CSAs that once had waiting lists are now having trouble finding enough members. So, individual CSAs and…
