>Gun-toting youths watch over a street in a Rio de Janeiro slum hit hard by drug trafficking, but walk a bit further and this rough area also boasts the largest urban vegetable garden in Latin America.
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>This success story is unfolding in a favela called Manguinhos in the north of Rio, and thrives as the rest of the country frets over rampant inflation and worries over Russian fertilizer, a major concern for Brazil's powerful agriculture sector.
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>These days the garden feeds some 800 families a month with produce that is pesticide free and affordable, two features that do not always go hand in hand.
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>This particular garden is the size of four football fields and every month it produces 2.5 tons of yuca, carrots, onions, cabbage and other vegetables.
Anyone doing this?
As inflation bites and dollar hegemony crumbles, more and more of us in "The West" are going to be pushed into the favela-dwelling underclass.
Now might be a good time to get your farm started.
The only edible food anymore is either expensive (luckily I'm well off), highly local (apples are shit in CA, lettuce is shit in PA), or home-grown.
Personally I aim long-term to have a energy-neutral (if not independent) home with a goat or two, some chickens, and a cabbage garden (the Romans were right about cabbage). Water is a major issue and ideally I'd have my own well. Perhaps I could find someone to pay for the records of the well existing to be lost, so when the Feds inevitably come for everyone's water, it's not on the hit-list.
I like this thread. I've been reading about crispr. Coming into communication with the code that makes life seems really cool to me, and I think it could be a step toward permaculture and more difficult but more sustainable farming practices. But obviously it's also a tool for harmful GMO practices. What do you think of gene editing? Is it a healthy extension of normal breeding, cross pollination and etc techniques, or is it a pandora's box?
Has anyone stratified seeds before? I tried it a few years back. It's really rewarding when little trees start sprouting, but sadly I neglected my little trees while in college and they all died. ;_; maybe I'll try again, but I hear fruit trees from seed actually dont work that well.
IDK if it counts as urban farming, but there are a couple of apple trees in our garden.
The year we moved in they were overflowing with delicious, healthy apples, but I don't know how to look after them properly.
The last couple of years they've been rotting on the branch and getting eaten by worms.
I pruned the trees in January and there are maybe more apples than previous years, but they're still not too healthy.
Anyone have any tips for looking after them, preferably avoiding toxic chemicals?