Dive into the archives.
- Sea Dust, pt 1
[Salt mounds at the Toronto port, near Cherry Beach. photo by katalogue on flickr.]
On January 21, Thomas L. Viola was charged with the theft of some 135 tons of road salt in Aurora, Illinois. Viola had (intentionally) sold the road salt, which did not belong to him, on October 1 at the bargain price of [...]
- Methane Capture: Agri-Alchemy
[Estimated aggregated distribution of pigs, poultry, cattle, and small ruminants. Source: FAO, 2006g.]
In a recent summary report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Livestock’s Long Shadow), trillions of farm animals across the globe were found to generate a whopping 18% of CO2 emissions. That is more than cars, buses, and airplanes. [...]
- The Toxicities of Fungiculture
[Mushroom Farm in Taichung, Taiwan.]
Three employees of Farmers Fresh Mushrooms in Lagley, British Columbia died last week as a rush of compost fumes flooded a pump house at the mushroom farm. Fungiculture is centered around no light and robust soil – robust as in manure-laden robust. Thus the composting and thus the toxicity.
[Fresh manure bags [...]
- Student Works: Büroland(wirt)schaft
[Agro-office Parks with a nod to Andrea Branzi. All images by Tomer Diamant]
Picking up on the intermittent series of student projects, included is a project by University of Toronto M.Arch graduate Tomer Diamant titled Büroland(wirt)schaft. Tomer began his research on speculative development and the hyper-efficiency of (spec) office buildings. Looking closer at the siting of [...]
- Aquacultural Hubs
[Cabling network system of the Kona Blue aquaculture Sea Station.]
Resembling something out of the portfolios of Frei Otto or Cedric Price, the Kona Blue Sea Stations off the coast of Hawaii are open sea offshore 3,000-cubic-meter submersible fish pens.
Kona Blue’s premiere achievement is Kona Kampachi®, a premium sushi-grade Hawaiian yellowtail species.
Currently, four open ocean aquaculture [...]
- Farming the Desert
[In Toshka farm,near Egypts border with Sudan, the Egyptian goverment hopes to grow 2 million acres of wheat, alongside fruits such as the grape fields as above.]
As recently chronicled in the NY Times, Global food shortages have placed the Middle East and North Africa in a dilemma: grow more crops to feed expanding population or [...]
- Fertilizer Factor
[Potash mine for Mosaic in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan.]
It seems only logical, with the increased frenzy of food shortage, biofuels, and other increased agriculture interests, that there would be a significant increased interest in fertilizer. Saskatchewan’s potash production has emerged as the global leader of potash exports. PotashCorp is the leading producer in the region, which has [...]
- Catfish, Waffles, Cods, and Kiwis
[a drained pond in catfish country Mississippi]
Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Last year, Britain both imported 14,000 tonnes of waffles, and exported 15,000 tonnes. In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy [...]
- Vert.Farms
08_07_15_vert_farms
Vertical Farms get coverage in the New York Times science section, curiously enough. Not in the Architecture section, nor in the Food section. Apparently when architecture meets food (agriculture) it becomes science. Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University arguably claims authorship of farms in the sky, though that could be attributed [...]
- Edible Village
[The increase of grain prices and the decrease of crop yields as displayed in a recent feature in the Economist.]
With the recent food crisis, one need look no further than Vancouver … and Cuba for responses.
Vancouver’s Olympic Village is set to include urban agriculture; rainwater management systems; green roofs; and neighbourhood energy system. The urban [...]
