Last Week I went to Living Concrete/ Carrot City, an art exhibition at The New School. It is an exhibition that shows in-depth the rise of urban agriculture.

With the Obama’s in office and organizations like Slow Food popping up around America more people are caring about the way they eat and what they eat. It is becoming hip and cool to participate in a community garden and to work out. It is a style and is a gratifying choice to many.

Living Concrete is  an element of  The New School that includes design studios, curricular and research projects that map the scholarly and creative connections across the university.*

Carrot City explores the relationship of design and urban food systems, examining how urban agriculture and issues of food security influence architecture and planning, and how design can enable the production of food in cities.*

The exhibition shows how the city is affected by people’s desires to plant. ‘The project installed…demonstrate the potentials and challenges in the links between design and civic agriculture, the ways in which the networks of food and community can be mapped and visualized…”*

There were some video clips of interviews of the farmers and farm-sharers. One of the clips that I thought was very interesting was the clip about the Hunts Point Alliance for Children. I knew a little bit about the Farmer’s Market so when I was viewing the exhibition and saw something familiar, I felt good watching it and learning a little more. I am not sure if the Farmer’s Market and the Hunts Point Alliance for Children are connect but they sound similar.

The Hunts Point Alliance sells organic foods that are fresh and healthier than the local supermarket because they get the food straight from the farm without pesticides being sprayed onto the food which also means that the veggies last longer. In addition, they sell a better variety than the supermarkets which allows the buyer to try different foods. And when you do buy something new, the farmers provide recipes and booklets about what you are buying. The interviewee said that she not only lost weight when she started buying her fruits and vegetables from the farmers but she also knocked out diabetes!

Community supported agriculture projects represent compacts between farmers and members who agree to share the risks and benefits of the harvest by paying the farmers for a weekly share of food up-front. The Carbin Hill Road Farm share takes the agriculture business to a new level by providing access to low-income individuals in the Hunts Point neighborhood and involving organizations that reach out to the community to encourage participation.*

You can join Crop Mob on facebook for a little bit more infomation.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=329782632114

*I received most of my Information from the exhibition