Urban Farmer

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Farming is taking root in our cities. With only a small capital investment, and without the need to own land, you can become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer will help you learn the crops, techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing food intensively right in your own backyard.

Strategies and techniques for making a living with intensive food production in small spaces

There are 40 million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement.

The Urban Farmer is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Major benefits include:

Easy access to markets. Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production in small leased or borrowed spaces.

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Autorentext

Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm based in Kelowna, BC. Farming less than half an acre on a collection of urban plots, Green City Acres grows vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants and retail outlets. After five successful seasons, Curtis has demonstrated that one can grow an extraordinary amount of food in a backyard, and make a good living doing it. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.

Klappentext

Making a living with intensive food production in small spaces

"The Urban Farmer is simply the best guide out there for anyone wanting to grow vegetables for market."
-TOBY HEMENWAY, author, Gaia's Garden and The Permaculture City

THERE ARE 43 million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost - but they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement.

With only a small capital investment, and without the need to own land, you can become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer will help you learn the crops, techniques, and business strategies you need to make a good living growing food intensively right in your own backyard.

Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production, and making a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's).

"Curtis Stone is at the forefront of a stirring revolution. Urban farming will change what local food means and I know of no other farmer that is as successful at it as he is."

• JEAN-MARTIN FORTIER, author, The Market Gardener

"I have no hesitation in saying that The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone is one of the most important, and overdue, books on urban agriculture ever published."

• ROB HOPKINS, Founder of the Transition movement and author, The Power of Just Doing Stuff

CURTIS STONE is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm growing vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and retail outlets. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.

Zusammenfassung
Strategies and techniques for making a living with intensive food production in small spaces

Leseprobe
1 Why Urban Farming?

You've probably heard the term the end of suburbia before. In fact, a very well-known film was actually made about the whole concept. The basic premise is that as fuel prices increase, living in the suburbs will become less economically feasible for average North Americans; the cost and time it takes to drive into the city for work will outweigh the benefits of living in the suburbs, and this will cause their imminent collapse. Hence the term, the end of suburbia. You can look at that in two ways:

The decline of real estate values and mass exodus from the suburbs will turn them into ghost towns.
There is a huge opportunity to repurpose these places into modern day, self-reliant farming communities

This book will show you how option #2 is possible.

Let's look at some facts. Right now in the US, there are 40 million acres of lawn. Between 30% to 60% of the fresh water in cities is used to water those lawns, and 580 million gallons of gasoline are used to mow them.1 When we factor in all the costs it takes to maintain a lawn - such as watering, mowing, weeding and manicuring - it's easy to come to the conclusion that a lawn is nothing but a cost center, one that a lot of North Americans simply cannot afford.

But, what if we changed our thinking about lawns? We can tackle two huge problems

Lawns are unsustainable in many ways
Access to land is a major barrier for most young people who want to enter the agricultural sector

and create one great solution. Lawns, particularly in suburbs, offer great opportunity for new farmers because:

Land is abundant. The average home in the US has an average of .2 acres of land. That&ap…