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With growing interest in all things green—and, in particular, urban farming and locally grown food—there's no doubt there will be plenty of demand from consumers lacking the expertise or time to handle all the gardening themselves. For talented amateur gardeners, it's a golden opportunity to earn a little extra cash.
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The local food movement in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place and is considered to be a part of a broader sustainability movement. Urban farming — the art of growing vegetables in cities has become increasingly trendy in recent years, led by health-conscious foodies coveting just-picked produce, as well as hipsters who dig the roll-your-own vibe.
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Urban farming or the art of growing vegetables in cities has become increasingly trendy in recent years, led by health-conscious foodies coveting just-picked produce, as well as hipsters who dig the roll-your-own vibe. Our world faces many food-resource problems, and a massive increase in edible gardening could help solve them. This has worked before. During World Wars I and II, the government urged city dwellers and suburbanites to plant food in their yards. The project, called victory garden worked: The effort grew roughly 40 percent of the fresh veggies consumed in the US in 1942 and 1943.
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Many consumers are increasingly alarmed about issues such as the genetic altering of food or the rising use of pesticides—commercial broccoli is treated with 35 pesticides, for example, and carrots with 22—it’s difficult to find fresh, organically grown produce. That’s because organic farming is a tough, labor-intensive business that struggles to make a profit. Few growers are willing to convert from toxic chemical fertilizers to piles of aged chicken manure or to use boxes of ladybugs instead of insecticides to control pests. And how many will hire workers to sit on their haunches in rows of escarole, painstakingly pulling every weed, instead of quickly dousing everything in herbicide?
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With rising grocery prices and a desire to be self-reliant, eating locally produced fresh food is the latest trend in sustainability. This urban agriculture movement has grown vigorously. Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that, like East New York. Local officials and nonprofit groups have been providing land, training and financial encouragement.
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Water resources in the world are scarce and unevenly distributed. In deserts, the only source of water is groundwater, often saline and of poor quality. This limits agricultural activities. In those places where farming does occur, groundwater levels have dropped dangerously due to overexploitation. However, a group of European scientists has come up with a method to green deserts. Gypsum, a rocky mineral abundant in desert regions where fresh water is usually in very short supply, could become a new resource out of which trillions of liters of clean drinking water can be extracted.
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In the agricultural fields of the US heartland, wheat straw and sunflower hulls are plentiful. These annually renewable materials, which can be made into particleboard and specialty panels, actually are byproducts and/or waste materials from local farmers. Also known as 'agrifiber particleboards', they are made from harvests residue fibers.
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Poor people don't have access to bank loans because they charge very high interest rates.
This makes it difficult for them to access funds and start small income generation activities like sustainable farming, recycling outfits or eco-friendly businesses
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