URBAN AGRICULTURE

[Danielle]

We would love to hear from anyone involved in urban agriculture on any scale but particularly on a commercial scale.
One of the most important issues for us in developing this project is creating affordable housing, walk to work and job creation based on green. In addition, many inner city families do not have access to affordable, healthy foods. Our project wants to incorporate urban agriculture as a central business involving community members of both the affordable housing bracket and the market rate housing in the community.

I can't grow a house plant but, we have other members who are doing urban gardening for their families.

Another thing we are exploring is TRUFFLE FARMING, green house style. We are in Chicago, not exactly a temperate climate but there has to be a way. Some University agriculture project, please take up our challenge.

[marilyn miller karr]

danielle, i was just thinking about very urban agriculture. trees are among my favorite plants. do you remember a book/film called a tree grows in brooklyn? that tree is an ailanthus tree or the chinese tree of heaven. it is a weed tree, has faster growth than almost any tree in the u.s., will grow a couple of feet a year in the most adverse conditions and you have it in chicago. i think of this tree because it needs sun but otherwise will tolerate salinity (dog urine and salt used to melt ice), toxicities of various sorts, and seems to get water from nowhere. (it will, in fact, do damage to underground pipes and sewers to get water.)

the first thing i wondered is if one could use ailanthus as rootstock for grafting. if so, you could have a productive orchard in not much more than cracks in a parking lot. but i think the tree produces some natural chemicals which make it toxic and incredibly incompatible with anything you might want to graft. it might be worth checking with someone at the u of ill extension service to see if there's anyone who knows about ailanthus trees.

this natural toxicity kills off other plants. so then i wondered if you couldn't harvest urban ailanthus trees and produce a mulch which would keep down weeds. say to use on an urban pathway or on railroad tracks. better than putting down more toxins to kill off weeds. ailanthus trees are hard to actually kill, but their lifes pans are shortish, about 50 years, and the trees never get such huge trunks or such height that they are unmanageable.

the third possibility for use of an ailanthus tree is medicinally. the chinese use the bark for a number of problems. treatment of asthma is one of them and asthma is a growing problem for poor, urban american kids. it would be nice to find a treatment for these kids right in the neighborhood. chicago would have more than a few researchers working on pediatric asthma. at least a couple would have passing familiarity with alternative medicines.

not many folks would see ailanthus trees as assets, but you have them in center city chicago and you should be able to use them in some ways to your benefit.

[Matthew Dodson]

I would like to thank you for your time. I have been looking into urban gardening for the last year and a half, and have read a great deal on the subject. I would love nothing more than to use this knowledge to give people a chance to get involved with food production. One area of particular interest to me has been the construction of controlled climate enclosures, (solar green houses) that have no need for electricity or expensive solar panels. I would love to share more about this process if you are interested.