How do you break the world record for largest sculpture made of recycled materials? Get a bunch of kids to do the work for you! Inhabitat reports on 5,000 Spanish elementary kids collecting 50,000 containers to make a record-breaking castle of milk cartons. You've seen Simon Christen's stunningly epic time-lapse portrait of San Francisco. Now check out a similarly amazing video that......read more
Getting your first backyard chicken is a big step, one of life's key milestones rivaled only by losing your virginity and getting your first car. So you better go in prepared. With spring around the corner, fuzzy chicks are showing up at pet and feed stores, waiting for someone to take them to their new backyard homes. With amazing names like Black Austrolorps and Buff Orpingtons, how do you know......read more
For a nice example of an economic slump yielding positive results, check out this ingenious urban farm that has popped up in midtown Manhattan, where the recession halted development of the Alexandria Center, a bioscience complex just east of FDR Drive. When the project stalled, the developer leapt on the opportunity to use the space to grow fresh produce for Riverpark, the Tom Colicchio......read more
By standard definition, "local food" is that which is produced within 100 miles of where it's sold. BrightFarms wants you to forget that. The New York-based greenhouse company aims to shift our understanding of local-ness by bringing rooftop gardens to the place where consumers buy food: the supermarket. Launched in January 2011, BrightFarms' vision is to convince grocery retailers to grow......read more
At an empty storefront in East London, a group of designers led by the crew from Something & Son have opened what must be the world's first farm in a shop. The disused shop has been transformed into productive urban farm with hydroponic and aquaponic plants, a backyard garden, a rooftop chicken coop, and tilapia in the front room. Meanwhile, the bottom floor dishes out......read more
Young Farmers, the latest original web series from SHFT and Lockerz, explores the growth of 'farm-to-table' values among young people today. In the first episode, we visit with Morgan and her abundant urban farm plot. Morgan's mindset about food was shifted by her experience living in France, where knowing where your food comes from -- and how it was raised -- is a normal part of life.......read more
Corbett, our newest Young Farmers subject, comes by his interest in gardening honestly. Raised until the age of six on a farm near Lake Tahoe, the teen green thumb was exposed to the practice of growing food at an early age. Now living in Los Angeles, he tends to a community farm plot right off the freeway that produces everything from corn and peppers to zucchini and tomato. Check out......read more
We're big fans of school gardens around here. They're a great way to use the schoolyard as a classroom and teach students valuable concepts about food and agriculture. Katie, our latest Young Farmers subject, leads a gardening program at an extension high school in Claremont, California, where at-risk students get a chance to grow their own veggies. By literally getting their hands dirty,......read more
Lockerz and SHFT present Young Farmers, an original web series exploring the growth of 'farm-to-table' values among young people today. In the videos, we visit with 10 budding gardeners, taking a personal look at their lives and the things they grow....read more
Is gardening an art form? Well, it's a form of creation, so it should be. The difference between growing food and, say, playing in a symphony, is that a gardener's collaborator is nature itself. In this episode of Young Farmers, we meet Aileen, a high school cellist who likens gardening to music. You work hard at both, and in both cases, something eventually clicks, and the next thing you know......read more