Event Cancelled! Screening of What’s Organic About Organic

 Chautauqua  Comments Off
Mar 222011
 

We regret that we must cancel the screening of What’s Organic About Organic scheduled for tonite at 6:30p at 61 Local as part of the Chautauqua Assemblies.  Community Cooking Club will honor all tickets at its next event on April 19, 2011.  Stay tuned for confirmation that the film will be screened as part of that gathering. We regret any inconvenience that this late stage cancellation may have caused you. And, we hope to see you at all the other Chautauqua Assemblies coming up during the next few months.  Thanks for your understanding!

 Posted by at 8:50 am

Urban Farm Business Initiative: Farmer Survey Results

 General, Urban Farm Business Initiative  Comments Off
Mar 172011
 
After our meeting on January 18, 2011 at 61 Local, the Planning Committee distilled the questions that were posed by the farmers and agronomists in the Work Group. In order to get clear understanding of the directions that we should take, we devised a survey to narrow our course of action.  Below, please find the Summary of the Survey.
Survey Conclusions:
We closed the Survey on March 11, 2011.  We got 21 responses.  Interestingly, only 11 respondents participated in our first focus group (as we distributed the survey to a wider group than our original focus group, e.g. City Farming Meetup).  Click here for an 8 page Summary of Responses.

(1) Workshop Topics represent areas of knowledge that urban farmers need but lack resources to share with peers.  Accordingly, outside experts may be required to teach these business skills.
We have drawn this conclusion comparing respondents who said “NO” when asked if they could GIVE a training versus respondents who said “YES” when asked if they wanted to RECEIVE a training.
The STRONGEST NEED for workshops is indicated in the responses with highest percentage of NO (I can’t give) coupled with the highest percentage of YES (I’d like to receive):
  • Urban Farm Business Planning 71% NO GIVE vs. 81% YES RECEIVE
  • Urban Farm Financing Options, 86% NO GIVE vs. 78% YES RECEIVE
  • Accessing, Leasing and Farming Land or Rooftops 81% NO GIVE vs. 76% YES RECEIVE
The survey results confirmed the impulse behind the Work Group meeting — Farmers need targeted assistance with business planning, accessing capital and accessing land.
(2) Urban Farm Association (UFA) - 62% of respondents said they would join a Work Group to develop and Urban Farm Association and 38% said Maybe with none saying No.  That’s a pretty strong indicator that we should proceed with this planning process.
(3) Urban Farm Association WEBSITE - All agreed that urban farmers need a central information site.  The most important areas to develop web-based tools are as follows:
  • Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Bank – Record Q and A for Future Reference = 81% in favor;
  • Resource Library – Categorized Documents & Sites for Urban Farms (Like Enterprise Budgets, etc.) = 95% in favor
  • Urban LandLink – Listing Shares, Rentals, Sales & Opportunities= 81% in favor; and
  • Funding Opportunities – Tracking Grants and Investment Possibilities = 86% in favor
(4) Collaborative Fundraising:  Of course, we all want services but we are not sure whether and how we are willing to pay!
However, 33% said Yes and 62% said Maybe (with only 1 definite No) to the question: Are you (or your organization) willing to provide staff or volunteers to help achieve some of the work described above?

Grants: When we asked if people were willing to collaborate on grants: 33% said Yes and 48% said Maybe.  That’s still a strong 81%  majority in the generally positive direction with one third ready to roll up their sleeves and help today.  A full 76% said “Yes” to providing Letters of Support with 19% saying Maybe.  Oddly, 81% said they were NOT willing to act as Fiscal Sponsor for grant applications, 0% said Yes and 19% said maybe.  Looks like we may have to form our own NonProfit for a UFA!!!
NEXT STEPS:
(a) Collaborations – Many entities are trying to find a way to help urban farms seeking a way to graft their own programs onto the future of urban farming.  We should share the results of our work with a clear understanding of how others will provide funding and programmatic support to NYC farmers and NYC farm organizations in our grassroots efforts to create our own local structure with resources to support this growing sector.
(b) Upcoming Workshops – Should we hold one workshop to draw more participation into the UFA and then fundraise for the remaining Workshops in the series? How should proceed? Should we approach Farm School to take this on with their already developing curriculum?
(c) Website – Who should develop this website? Should it be part of an existing organization or stand alone? What grants would help develop this site?
(d) UFA Work Group – If we call another meeting of those interested in developing the UFA, who should be invited? Only those who answered the survey? The survey respondents and the original group? What should our agenda be?
(e) Fundraising – How should we proceed? Should this be a new organization or should we pursue this as a program under an existing organization? Should each one of us elect to explore a different area for fundraising: (i) workshop development and production; (ii) website development and production; and (iii) UFA development and organization.
Please leave a comment to this posting if you have any ideas about next steps.  Thanks!
 Posted by at 2:58 pm

A New Look for FarmCity.US Website

 General  1 Response »
Mar 142011
 

After using a very stripped down site appearance for the last 9 months — essentially announcing events — we felt the need to bring some order and organization to the many diverse projects now being organized under the FarmCity.US banner.

For instance, we now have a special home for Chautauqua, our new event series sparking populist education that aims to create community through food and vice versa — hosted by 61 Local Public House.

We wanted to make sure that members of the Reading Circle could find out next month’s book title without too much trouble.

The Urban Farm Business Initiative now has a place to call its own and it will be built out even more over the next few weeks.

And, we are linked more prominently to our partner-project sites at Slow Money NYC Meetup, Brooklyn Food Coalition and TheGreenest.Net blog.

In short, the “Farm City Forum” is going to really help organize all the discussions, events and information related to FarmCity.US.

Stay tuned for even more functionality as we install interactive calendars and member message boards to track peer-to-peer communications for projects such FC Reading Circle, Urban Farm Business Initiative and more.

Please feel free to leave a comment to let me know how the new look, feel and organization is working for you.  We are always open to making improvements.  Thanks

Derek and FarmCity.US Team

 Posted by at 2:54 pm

Reading Circle Meets with Author Michele Owens

 Chautauqua  Comments Off
Mar 102011
 

About Farm City Reading Circle

On February 22, 2011, Farm City Reading Circle kicked off the Chautauqua Assemblies at 61 Local with a discussion with author Michele Owens about her new book: Grow the Good Life: Why a Vegetable Garden Will Make You Happy, Healthy, Wealthy and Wise (Rodale 2011).

Kerry Trueman met Michele at the NOFA-NY conference and found out that her book was coming out on February 15, 2011. Timely! Thanks for Kerry’s inquiries and the generosity of Rodale Press, the club was able to get advance copies. And then, we contacted Michele Owens and she agreed to join our discussion.  That was a pretty exciting way to start the Reading Circle.  All told, we had about fifteen people huddled around one of the long tables in the bar.

The discussion was lively and thoughtful. We highly recommend Owen’s book. We agree with Rodale’s assessment: A lively, passionate argument for the backyard vegetable garden, drawing on science, history, and stories from the author’s garden.

Fun fact: Owens used to be a politcal speechwriter.
To get your inquisitive juices flowing, please check out this interview of the author by her Publisher Maria Rodale: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-rodale/a-visit-to-my-kitchen-mic_b_824553.html

 Posted by at 6:46 pm