Window Farms

Window Farms is a project by two women, Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray, dealing with DIY farming in urban windows. The idea is that ordinary folks participate in experimenting with different hydroponic set ups in their windows to inspire creative thinking and innovation on how we can grow food in our windows.

Check the video!



...and check out the website too!

http://windowfarms.org/

The Science Barge

“The Science Barge is not only an invitation to ideas and learning, but to change.”

Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
and special economic advisor to the United Nations


The Science Barge is a prototype, sustainable urban farm and environmental education center. It is the only fully functioning demonstration of renewable energy supporting sustainable food production in New York City. The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff.
From May to October 2007, the Science Barge hosted over 3,000 schoolchildren from all five New York boroughs as well as surrounding counties as part of our environmental education program. In addition, over 6,000 adult visitors visited the facility along with press from around the world.

Click me to watch video!!

Proposed U.S. bill says designers must do their part to combat e-waste

From core77.com:





The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that "over 2 billion computers, televisions, wireless devices, printers, gaming systems, and other devices have been sold since 1980." A fair amount of those are now sitting in landfill, ready to leach their environmentally-poisonous flame retardants, lead, and other chemicals into the ground.

The U.S. Senate is currently fiddling with a bill to deal this ever-growing pile of "e-waste," and it looks as if a large part of the burden to prevent the pile from growing will fall to product designers:

[One of the] research aims of the bill [is] to "reconsider product design and assembly to facilitate and improve refurbishment, reuse, and recycling of electronic devices, including an emphasis on design for recycling." The bill acknowledges that the problem is endemic to current product design standards, and many designers will have to take into account the total life-cycle of their devices to help mitigate the gadget pileup.
The bill is called the Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act, or the more manageable S.1397, and it's been posted in its entirety online; click the link above if you want to wade through the legalese, and click the link below if you'd just like to read a summarization.

via ars technica

Urban Farming: Novella Carpenter

Obsessives: Urban Farming
BY MEREDITH ARTHUR, ERIC SLATKIN, AND BLAKE SMITH
Novella Carpenter started small, with some plants in an empty lot next to her house in Oakland. A couple of years later, she was tending to a full-blown farm, with goats, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and a robust garden. Her book, Farm City, details her experiences. As does this video, which tackles questions of neighborliness (which is more offensive: police sirens or roosters crowing?), environmental poisons (raised beds are key), and the all-important slaughter question. The answer: Yes, she does (and yes, there is some bloody footage).


From: chow.com
link: http://www.chow.com/stories/11911

Carbon Footprint Reduction

This is just very entertaining. A flow chart on carbon footprint reduction from The Onion
Consider what the things you are doing to help the environment are really doing to help the environment.

UGC

Re-purpose those troublesome shopping bags!

Are you like us and have no idea why you have been saving mountains of plastic shopping bags for god knows how long? Well the wonderful folks over at Etsy Labs have a great solution, turn your bags into a tough, flexible and useful plastic sheeting! You can find the tutorial on their blog, and it's quite simple, all you need it some paper and an iron and your already halfway there!


Now you can make all the stylish reusable shopping bags your heart desires, or if you do something creative why not reply with pics! We would love to post your great ideas of what to do with this eco-friendly material.

-UGC

Urban Agriculture: A Guide to Container Gardens

Found this cool guide for urban farming using appropriated containers. Its got some cool old photos and diagrams as well as factual information from studies and experiences.

Check it out!

open modular system

Cool site about open modular systems, basically, open source designing with simple physical structures. Honestly havn't been able to fully check out the site, but inspiring even with the little I saw! Makes me want to build something

The Joy of Riding Bicycles

Here is the 2nd zine in our series. It is on the joy of riding bicycles.

Bicycles are one of the best inventions. EVER. It gets you from point A to point B using only your own power and navigational intuition. You connect with the road you ride on and the city you live in and come to have a new appreciation for your own body and geography. One notices things a person in a car never would and further connects with their surroundings.

No copyright, no rights reserved. Print and disseminate!

Download here:

The Joy of Riding Bicycles

Activate!

We were really impressed with this website. It catalogs an exhibition of innovative solutions within areas of urban: agriculture, lifestyle, activism, architecutre, transportation, energy etc. All very inspiring, check it out!

1st post! - Urban farming

Hello!

This is the first post in our blog! We will be designing and distributing free zines. The PDF files will be available for free for you to help disseminate!

The first zine in our series is on urban farming.

URBAN FARMING 1

More to be updated soon!