Urban Farmer
Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land
(Sprache: Englisch)
- Features offered to Small Farm Canada, Municipal World, Urban Farm
- Excerpts offered to Mother Earth News, GRIT, The Tyee , Hobby Farm, Permaculture Activist, Countryside, Growing for Market ...
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Produktinformationen zu „Urban Farmer “
- Features offered to Small Farm Canada, Municipal World, Urban Farm
- Excerpts offered to Mother Earth News, GRIT, The Tyee , Hobby Farm, Permaculture Activist, Countryside, Growing for Market
- Advertising in Mother Earth News, Urban Farm
- Promotion targeting urban agriculture advocacy groups, CSAs, small business enterprise centers and agriculture management and community development organizations.
- Promotion on the author's website www.urban-farmyard.com
- Publicity and promotion in conjunction with the author's speaking engagements
- Galley available on Edelweiss
- Simultaneous ebook release and promotion
- Promotion on New Society Publishers social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest
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.
Klappentext zu „Urban Farmer “
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:
- Low capital investment and overhead costs
- Reduced need for expensive infrastructure
- 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.
Lese-Probe zu „Urban Farmer “
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's around 8,000 square feet.2
Using land without owning it removes the idea that one must own land in order to be a farmer.
All of that land sitting in lawns now becomes a great place to farm.
What if we could repurpose the suburbs to be the new frontier of localization? What if all of these suburban streets
... mehr
turned into areas for transition, reeducation and abundance? I believe this is not only a possibility but an inevitability.
There are a number of reasons why farming in the city is not only more profitable, but there are also a variety of reasons that make it very advantageous: access to markets, low start-up and overhead costs, better growing conditions with warmer climates and easy access to water. Advantages of Being Urban:
Market Access
Market access has to be the single greatest advantage that benefits urban farmers. When you live and work in the city, you live and work in the market that you're supplying. You don't have to travel very far to sell your product, and for the most part, your product will sell itself. When I deliver to restaurants in the downtown core, I am a five-minute bike ride away from them. Not only is that a talking point that those chefs will boast about to their customers, but it is also a huge advantage to me as far as saving time and energy in transport.
Delivering product that was harvested just blocks from where it is consumed has huge marketing appeal. Our farmers market is a five-minute drive or ten-minute bike ride from our base of operations. One advantage to this, besides bragging rights, is that, if I sell out of one particular item during the market day, I can buzz home quickly on my bike and get more. I call this topping up, and I've done it many times. From my proximity to the market, in 30 minutes, I can ride home, harvest some greens, bring them back to the market and bag them up there. What other farmer has the ability to do that?
Low Start-Up and Overhead
Farming in city greatly reduces the barriers to entry because you no longer need to think about buying land: it's available everywhere. If you can make enough income on small lots, you don't need the heavy machinery and infrastructure that is required for farming in the traditional sense. Infrastructure is
There are a number of reasons why farming in the city is not only more profitable, but there are also a variety of reasons that make it very advantageous: access to markets, low start-up and overhead costs, better growing conditions with warmer climates and easy access to water. Advantages of Being Urban:
Market Access
Market access has to be the single greatest advantage that benefits urban farmers. When you live and work in the city, you live and work in the market that you're supplying. You don't have to travel very far to sell your product, and for the most part, your product will sell itself. When I deliver to restaurants in the downtown core, I am a five-minute bike ride away from them. Not only is that a talking point that those chefs will boast about to their customers, but it is also a huge advantage to me as far as saving time and energy in transport.
Delivering product that was harvested just blocks from where it is consumed has huge marketing appeal. Our farmers market is a five-minute drive or ten-minute bike ride from our base of operations. One advantage to this, besides bragging rights, is that, if I sell out of one particular item during the market day, I can buzz home quickly on my bike and get more. I call this topping up, and I've done it many times. From my proximity to the market, in 30 minutes, I can ride home, harvest some greens, bring them back to the market and bag them up there. What other farmer has the ability to do that?
Low Start-Up and Overhead
Farming in city greatly reduces the barriers to entry because you no longer need to think about buying land: it's available everywhere. If you can make enough income on small lots, you don't need the heavy machinery and infrastructure that is required for farming in the traditional sense. Infrastructure is
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Inhaltsverzeichnis zu „Urban Farmer “
Foreword, by Diego Footer Preface
1: A Farm in the City
- Why Urban Farming?
- Connecting the Dots: An Urban Farmer's Place in the Community
- Quick Breakdown of Economics
2: A Viable Farming Business On ½ Acre Or Less
- The Zones of Your Farm and Your Life
- Crops Better Suited for the City
- Introdution to Urban Infrastructure
- Start-Up Farm Models
3: The Business of Urban Farming
- Starting Small
- Market Streams
- Working with Chefs
- Labor
- Software and Organization
- Self-Promotion
- Finance Options
4: Finding the Right Site
- Scouting for Land
- Urban, Suburban and Peri-Urban Land
- Multiple or Single-Plot Farming
- Urban Soil
- Land Agreements and Leases
- Urban Pests
5: Building Your Farm, One Site at a Time
- Turning a Lawn Into a Farm Plot
- Choosing A Site
- Garden Layout
- The Perimeter
- Irrigation
6: Infrastructure and Equipment
- Base of Operations
- Tools
- Special Growing Areas
- Inexpensive Season Extension
- Transportation
7: Operations
- Work Smarter not Harder
- Harvesting
- Post-Harvest Processing
- Portioning and Packing
8: Production Systems
- Beds for Production
- Planting
- Microgreens
- Extending the Season
9: Basic Crop Planning
- Determine Your Outcome
- The Base Plan
10: Crops for the Urban Farmer
- Parting Words
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Endnotes
Index
About the Author
Autoren-Porträt von Curtis Stone
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. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers. Curtis Stone lives in Kelowna, BC.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Curtis Stone
- 2016, 240 Seiten, 75 farbige Abbildungen, Maße: 18,6 x 23 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: New Society Publishers
- ISBN-10: 0865718016
- ISBN-13: 9780865718012
- Erscheinungsdatum: 06.11.2017
Sprache:
Englisch
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