Goodness knows we are a huge fan of urban farming — we’ve been meaning to start a veggie patch on our terrace for literally about three years now, but the thought of hauling all that soil up three flights of stairs makes us think fondly of the produce section at Whole Foods. So we’re happy when other people take up the mantle: Chi-Town Daily News reports that Daley College’s West Side Technical Institute is planning to launch an urban agriculture program:
Working with the Chicago Botanic Garden, students in the program would get six months of hands-on training in greenhouse agriculture, followed by a three-month paid internship in the field, says Patsy Benveniste, a vice president at the botanic garden.
“We and lots of other folks who are in sort of the sustainable landscaping and urban agriculture movement think that we are sort of at the beginning of a wave,” Benveniste says.
…The produce grown in last year’s pilot program was sold to several restaurants in the city and at farmer’s markets. Those aspects are ones that the new program will expand on.
And with the skills students gain, the program’s backers envision graduates doing everything from designing urban streetscapes with native plants to creating rooftop gardens and greenhouses to feed nearby residents.
“It’s going to have to be a way of life, that’s my personal opinion, so that we all are able to grow our own food,” Johnson says.
Yaaaaay! We love stuff like this.
Urban agriculture course poised to launch at Daley College [Chi-Town Daily]
