Tips on today's urban farmer – Agweek

St. Paul – The Minnesota Farm Bureau Föderation welcomed a large number of farmers and organizations at its second annual Urban AG conference on February 22nd on February 22nd on February 22nd.

Rachel Reisig, Communication Director of Minnesota Farm Bureau, said that the lesson from the first year of the conference was that the space for the city agricultural discourse in Minnesota must be larger.

“There was so much energy and enthusiasm and excitement for this event that we learned that we had to move to a larger place,” said Reisig. “We were able to have more participants, more networking and more resources to connect with urban farmers and only offer a better event location and a better room and a better experience for everyone involved who would like to be part of it.”

The participants who were linked to the topics and opportunities for agriculture in an urban environment, and the heads of state and government, including the government of Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, Senator Aric Putnam, deputy commissioner of Sen. Aric Putnam, Patrice Bailey, and MfB President Dan Glessing.

The municipal agricultural conference came from members of the Minnesota Farm Bureau board member who toured in the Twin Cities, and Reisig has only since expanded.

“What I have learned is a spider web. You learn a person and then you are like” Hey, did you meet this person? “And it simply deletes and expands and is built into this amazing network,” she said.

Together with a former city council member, Kelly Rae Kirkpatrick is a resident of Rochester, urban farmer and lawyer for nutritional security. It seriously encouraged the participants with urban agriculture to apply for a USDA farm number if they wanted to start food production to a greater extent.

“A farm number is really important, because that brings you into the door as a farmer, justified and regarded as a place that produces food or produces special cultures, and the ability to do agritourism,” she said. “But urban farms have to meet these guidelines for public health for every district in which they sit.”

Kirkpatrick said that obtaining a farm number was “no problem” at all, but it was time -consuming, and those interested should contact their local FSA office.

She dipped upside down in the securing of grants and other financial resources for nutritional security, but Kirkpatrick said that she would like to see more products in the city of Rochester that supports nutritional security.

“It was interesting to see that it is developing for people who receive grants and subsidies for already processed food and or fresh food, but they don't grow themselves,” said Kirkpatrick. “The people who want to grow food and teach people to breed food seem far less than the people who only want to donate and want to give money, which is also good.”

Post / Kelly Rae Kirkpatrick

Kirkpatrick said that it is not the answer to the solution to a complex problem if one is not the answer to those who experience the uncertainty of food such as macaroni and cheese or other non -culturally adequate objects.

“It's not just about giving food to others – like this old sentence, if you give someone a fish, feed them for a day. If you teach them when fishing, they feed them forever,” she said. “I think our programming has to bend to teach people how to grow.”

Kirkpatrick said that it is much easier to learn to grow her own meal than you would think.

“You don't need much of the unusual lubricating tools. You don't have to buy into every little kitschy material consumer that is out there,” she said. “The farmers have grown food for tens of thousands of years by simply putting a seed in the dirt. And that is exactly what it is about.”

Would you like to start urban agriculture today? Kirkpatrick gave these tips, especially for Olmsted County:

“I would start with cardboard boxes and start with Olmsted County Compost from our compost device. Put these cardboard boxes down. Make sure there is a lot of overlap. Make sure you have four to six inch compost.” Just do not break this cardboard barrier, and you have an immediate garden within 24 hours, and none of the weeds will grow underneath. No grass will get mixed up because they basically examine them and cover them, and they interrupt this chlorophyll, which has interrupted the Photosynthesis cycle. Free garbage container. “