Rahm Emanuel: Turn Eyesores Into Urban Farms (food deserts & the food justice community)

Chicago.CBS local ^ | 7/26/11

[Libloather]

Emanuel: Turn Eyesores Into Urban Farms
July 26, 2011 1:55 PM

CHICAGO (CBS) – Green acres could be sprouting up all over the city of Chicago if Mayor Rahm Emanuel has his way.

As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Bernie Tafoya reports, Mayor Emanuel on Tuesday stood in an urban farm, in what was once an abandoned truck depot at 33rd and Iron streets in the Bridgeport neighborhood.

He says he wants city ordinances updated so abandoned land all over the city can generate new jobs, and food for those in and around neighborhoods that are called food deserts.

“Our ordinance will deal with the ability of turning a plot like this, that was an eyesore, into an economic engine in the neighborhood – that’s one creating hundreds of jobs just here in this one site, and there are thousands of sites like this throughout the city,” Emanuel said.

[patton]

3 days, not a few months.

But, it occurs to me, you could plant dent corn for ethonol on these plots - humans can’t digest dent corn, and who cares how polluted the soil is?

[tbw2]

Gardens are a visible “see, we did something about high food prices” answer.
The problem is where they will get the workers, since most people on food stamps are not willing to work or working under the table.

[EBH]

Google urban food gardening and you might find it a bit uncomfortable to consider the possibility that this is all a set-up to establish subsistence food security.

These are already widely used in Cuba, Venezuela, Congo, Ghana, China etc. all supported through the UN.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38691&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo

Now don’t forget about that change in the farming laws that we were all up in arms about. You know, The Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), which ramped up regulation of small farms. 0bama signed that on 1/4/2011.

This regulation will establish mandatory, science-based, minimum standards for the safe growing, harvesting, sorting, packing, and storage of fresh fruits and vegetables. “This will be a monumental shift in food safety,” says James R. Gorny, Ph.D., FDA’s senior advisor for produce safety. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm262031.htm

Almost sounds like it is going to be too costly and create food shortages due to regulation and farmers refusing to farm. Growing local will become the norm not the exception.

[GonzoGOP]

3 days, not a few months.

They may last a lot longer than you think. No siege carried out by guerrillas could be air tight, so some supplies would get in. One Handymax size bulk freighter of grain slipping into New York would bring in 50,000 tons of grain. Distributed over the population of 8.2 million people that is 12.2 pounds of grain per person. Using wheat at 1,645 calories per pound that one freighter will feed the city for a week and some change. Use rice, with its higher calorie content, and the time gets even longer.

Then there are the dogs, cats, zoo animals, rats and such. Those will stretch the food supply for a few more days. Also it takes time for a person to starve. Even with no food at all a person can last a least a week before they can no longer function.

Leningrad is probably the best example of a modern city under siege. They got down to eating two slices of sawdust bread a day at one point. And despite the fact that over a million civilians died (in addition to over a million red army soldiers) the city did hold out until relieved 900 days later.

[patton]

Oh, I didn’t mean until everybody starves to death - I meant how long until the grocery stores are empty.

After that, it gets interesting.

[Terry Mross]

City now growing pot for the hood.

This is simply another way of taking property. Agenda 21