Rael Clarke, the 24-year-old owner of LOFT LIC, transformed a Long Island City office into a laboratory where organic vegetables and fish are grown using an eco-friendly aquaponics system.
Why is a Monsanto lobbyist serving as the FDA's Food Safety Czar?
Why is the person appointed by President Obama to oversee protection of our food a former lobbyist for Monsanto?
Food Safety Czar Michael Taylor is the second highest ranking official at the FDA and is responsible for implementing the day-to-day policies that govern the food safety laws for the U.S.
Under Taylor, factory farm operators are getting away with serious food safety violations, while raw milk dairy farmers and distributors across the country have been subjected to armed raids and hauled away in handcuffs.
Rather than allowing consumer to know what we are eating, FDA has approved new GMO crops and prevented labeling of GMO foods.
This is no way to keep our food safe.
Please ask President Obama to fire FDA Food Safety Czar and former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor. Click here to sign the petition.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/fire_michael_taylor/?r_by=-5139020-rqpnV8x&rc=paste1
We got the herb starts pictured from the local Union Square Farm’s market for about $2 each (the Rosemary was $6 because we got a big one). While there we discovered the answer to a mystery that had us stumped for quite some time. The tall leafy green pictured, was given to me by a class mate in Farm School NYC. She didn’t know the name, and we couldn’t seem to figure it out. We knew it had a very strong aroma of oregano and lemon. Then there she was at the farmers market! Arturo, the farmer there, told me the name was Oregano Brujo, a puerto rican cooking and medicinal herb. How fitting! So funny, because the town I was born in, Guayama, PR is referred to as the city of witches (brujas). We were so glad to have finally solved the mystery. In addition, we picked up parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, dill, basil, and mint. We will be repotting them today so they will grow very big and spread out. We’re using recycled 2.5 liter containers found in our basement. We cut off the sides and used it as a drip tray so nothing was wasted. We got this idea from a project I did for my environmental ethics class last semester, Seeds for $aving. I’ll post pictures in a bit. We bought soil from the Lower East Side Ecology Center for $12 for 20Lbs. We wanted to support a local business, plus they make their potting soil on site which means it’s super local! We are using compost from our worm bin in the kitchen. I’ll post pictures of that too.
Seeds for $aving! This was our final project in our Environmental Ethics course. The project was an awareness campaign to bring awareness about an environmental issue, ours was growing food at home to cut costs at the grocery store. It was a huge hit, and we had a lot of fun doing it. We’re hoping to keep in touch with the organization and maybe even start some green spaces at their location. My group was amazing!! I had a wonderful time working with these ladies.
What I’ve Learned
After taking a class with Farm School NYC (Season Extension) I decided to grow some vegetables at home. I thought, well I get a ton of light and my window sills are empty so why not. I knew that it wasn’t exactly the best time to start sowing seeds, but I took my chances anyway. I ordered my seeds from Johnny’s Seeds and began sowing them September 13th: I felt ambitious. I sowed herbs, spinach, beets, and egg plants: all heirloom and organic varieties. When they started to sprout I was super excited especially since it was still mid 80s through mid October. I had no fear, I thought that despite all the rain there would be sun. My jolliness came to a halting stop when one evening NYC suddenly dipped into very cold temperatures. The egg plants reacted immediately. I panicked and read everything I could find on the internet. What I found was that it’s pretty unheard of to grow egg plants indoors, and they’re very responsive to cold temperatures. They love warm sunny days. So as you can imagine, they were the first to pass. Despite my countless efforts to save I could not produce the one thing they desired most, sun light. They went to a better place this past week. Through my research and experiment, I also discovered that the egg carton idea was terrible idea (even though it came highly recommended online). Turns out the tap roots of all my seedlings were telling them to stay mini because the bottom of the egg carton was only an inch or two from the top. As soon as I made this discovery I immediately arranged for the transplanting of Spinach and the Beets. Through more research I found out that neither spinach nor beets should be transplanted, they should be directly seeded. Growing anything is certainly trial and error. An early discovery was that although the directions on the seed packets say to sow the seeds to a particular depth, this also turned out to be off. I sowed the spinach according to the packet instructions and quickly learned that it was a better idea to just pat them slightly into the soil.
Watering! So it seems I am an over waterer. What can I say I am an overbearing mother, as I always thought I would be. Well, at some point I noticed some white fuzzy stuff growing on top of the soil. I ignored it for a while, until I recently googled it. Turns out that the white fuzzy stuff is MOLD, ugh… So I read that it happens in soil that contains organic matter, which mine does since it is a special mix of soil containing compost. I also read it happens from over watering. The solution was… that’s right STOP watering. Apparently, some plants need to completely dry out before being watered again. WOW, I had no idea… That problem had been addressed, I now fight all urges to grab my watering can.
There have been quite a few obstacles, but despite the challenges the spinach, radishes, herbs, and beets are coming along. Slowly, but they’re progressing.
What’s next? Well, Nic and I have decided to turn out hallway closet (1 of 3) into our “Projects Closet.” That means, I will be installing a small growing light to help future seedlings pull through. Which ALSO means I will be able to start next growing season much earlier than outdoor growers. I’m super excited because my goal is to convince a nearby neighbor to let us grow some crops in raised beds on their never used back yard which is certainly enough to grow for our building and theirs! We’ll see… We have our fingers crossed…
The most important thing I’ve learned is that your plants will always tell you what is going in with them: brown leaves, yellow leaves, or mold. With a little patience and some research all can be rectified.
Materials for Urban “farming”
Here is a list of materials I’ve used to far:
left over Egg Cartons, Plastic bags (from veggie aisle at store), soil (from Lower East Side Ecology Center), seeds (from Johnny’s Seeds), wine boxes (free from local wine warehouse), water, and lots of sunlight.
That’s it! Simple I know. I wish more people would take advantage of their window sills especially during the summer.
