#yemi amu

[bumblebeeappletree]

There are so many barriers in place when it comes to growing food in cities, but education and lack of access to space are the hardest to overcome. Yemi Amu has dedicated her life as a farmer to solving this problem, by starting the only Aquaponics farm in NYC. Oko Farms in Brooklyn is both a working farm which provides fresh food to surrounding neighborhoods, while also actively engaging the public in education on how to grow food for yourself in urban environments.

[yasbxxgie]

How This Aquaponics Farmer Is Reinventing Urban Agriculture (PBS Terra, 6/29/23)

[valeryrizzo]

Yemi Au, Oko Frams, WELL + GOOD Longevity Project in Partnership with Lexus.

https://www.wellandgood.com/longevity-project-food-lexus/

[nedsecondline]

‘They’re sentient beings’: a new way of raising fish – and vegetables – in New York

Sophia Herring in Brooklyn Yemi Amu, founder of New York City’s first outdoor aquaponics farm, combines growing fish and growing plants without soil,…‘They’re sentient beings’: a new way of raising fish – and vegetables – in New York

[seedkeeping]

Waterleaf // Gbure. This winter our friend Yemi Amu from @okofarms sent us some seeds for this beautiful plant (as well a few Ugwu or Fluted Pumpkin seeds) so we could cultivate them and attempt to make them more available to Nigerians who live here. On Wednesday we harvested our first Gbure seeds! We harvested the whole branch and laid it out to dry so that the seeds would collect on the fabric below. Several people including my coworker Amirah and my partner Chris remarked that they were similar to Purslane. They were once considered to be in the Purslane family (but no longer) and apparently one of their names is Surinam Purslane. Like purslane, they are succulent with brittle seed pods that bursts open, they grow like a weed, and they are packed with vitamins and minerals. From watching lots of YouTube cooking videos, including one by @ndudu_by_fafa, I learned that it’s often made into a soup with other vegetables like Ugwu leaf and Egusi seeds, as well as fish and sometimes shrimp powder. I am very new to this plant, so I’d love to hear how you grow and eat it if you’d be willing to share! We hope to be able to offer seeds from Gbure, Nigerian Spinach, Egusi, and Ewedu next year. Crossing fingers we also get seeds from our Ugwu plants! #talinumfruticosum #gbure #waterleaf #philippinespinach #cariru #surinampurslane #nelabasale #seedkeeping #nigerianfood (at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDkoRl7A5s-/?igshid=1qg6u1atumaym

[sustainablesabs]

Meet Yemi Amu, she’s the co-founder and farm manager of @okofarms, an aquaponics farm in Brooklyn promoting environmental stewardship, and this week’s #companiesthatactuallygiveashit highlight. Through educational workshops and community building, Oko Farms has been able to promote sustainable urban farming, and Yemi has helped to create dozens of edible spaces throughout NYC! How freakin cool is that? You can learn more about @okofarms and the amazing educational work they’re doing on their IG page and through the link in their bio 💕 [image description: Yemi wears a headwrap, scarf, and denim jacket, and smiles as she carries a red bucket full of what looks to be tat soi. She is standing at Oko Farms.] • #companiesthatactuallygiveashit was started back when there was a lot of controversy around Package Free, and people were looking to find #sustainable and #POC-led brands. Inspired by @zerowastehabesha’s #RepresentationMattersinSustainability series, the goal is to highlight brands that we should all be supporting, and show that this movement isn’t exclusively for white, upper/middle class women. I have a lot of privilege and want to lend my platform to uplifting brands and voices that have been and continue to make a difference in the world. If you know of any brands you’d like to see highlighted, please tag them in the comments below and I’ll add them to the list 😊😊 • • • #doyougiveashit #representationmatters #lowimpactmovement #zerowaste #ethical #sustainableliving #gogreen #reduce #reuse #recycle #repurpose #nowaste #notrash #noplastic #wastefree #trashfree #plasticfree #stewardship #sustainable #ecofriendly #vegansofig #ethical #slowliving #aquaponic #farm #urbanfarm (at Brooklyn, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B29SXOzHMCL/?igshid=77mywvbpe042

[karingudino]

How Can ‘Aquaponics’ Farming Help Create Sustainable Food Systems?

Why World Residents Ought to Care

Thousands and thousands of individuals world wide go hungry yearly, on account of lack of entry to wholesome meals and the results of local weather change on agricultural improvement. Aquaponics is a sustainable rising methodology that has the potential to place meals manufacturing into the fingers of the individuals who expertise meals insecurity, giving them autonomy in controlling their entry to protected and nutritious produce. Be a part of us by taking motion to strengthen our meals programs and shield the planet here.

World Residents in all places are more and more recognizing the necessity for extra sustainable profession choices to extend international meals safety.

In keeping with a 2020 report from UNICEF on the state of meals safety and diet on this planet, virtually 690 million individuals went hungry in 2019, or 8.9% of the world inhabitants. That is due, partly, to the excessive prices related to consuming nutritiously, the shortage of entry to wholesome meals, and the results of local weather change devastating agricultural manufacturing programs.

As extra authorities leaders decide to turning into carbon neutral by 2050, and extra individuals select to alter their habits (like eating less meat) to cut back their carbon footprint, strategies of meals manufacturing that promote a harmonious relationship between people and the setting have gotten extra frequent.

One in all these strategies entails fish.

Aquaponics farming is a technique of sustainable agriculture that varieties a symbiotic relationship between fish and vegetation. It entails the usage of a fish tank positioned under a develop mattress for vegetation, the place the primary enter to the system is fish meals.

When the fish produce waste, it’s cycled out of the fish tank into the develop mattress, the place micro organism rework ammonia into nitrates that vegetation have to develop. The water is then filtered and returned to the fish tank, aiding within the extremely optimized, zero-waste technique of farming fish and vegetation collectively.

Yemi Amu, founder and director of Oko Farms in Brooklyn, New York, engaged on the out of doors aquaponics farm. Picture courtesy of Oko Farms.

The follow of aquaponic gardening will be traced again centuries. In central Mexico round 1000 AD, the Aztec individuals developed a method often called chinampa to develop their rising efforts to the floor of lakes and ponds, in keeping with the Permaculture Research Institute. By weaving collectively logs and sticks to create a “floating farm,” the Aztecs used water from the lakes and waste produced by fish to nourish crops.

Aquaponics additionally has roots in Southeast Asia, the place farmers cultivated rice and fish concurrently, in keeping with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The follow of elevating fish in rice fields grew to become top-of-the-line examples of polyculture farming as a technique of sustainability.

Picture courtesy of Oko Farms.

Lately, aquaponics has more and more been chosen as a rising possibility for city farmers, or those that follow agriculture in cities and should depend on vertical farming methods when confronted with much less land space. Many of those aquaponics farmers select to provide meals for his or her communities, significantly in areas the place financial inequalities threaten family meals safety.

World wide, the environmental impacts of climate change are stopping low-income individuals from accessing adequate, protected, and nutritious meals. To enhance international meals programs and reduce meals insecurity, it’s extra essential than ever for individuals to follow sustainable agricultural improvement.

Associated Tales Nov. 18, 2020 5 Countries Where Women Play a Vital Role in Agriculture

To study extra about how aquaponics can assist within the manufacturing of sustainable meals programs, World Citizen spoke to Yemi Amu, founder and director of Oko Farms, an aquaponics farm and studying heart in Brooklyn, New York.

World Citizen: Inform me a bit about your background and the way you grew to become taken with agriculture.

Yemi Amu: My background is in diet and habits modification. I spent numerous my time firstly of my profession actually utilizing a hands-on strategy to guiding individuals to adopting wholesome dietary habits and making an attempt to know what the limitations are. Issues like figuring out the best way to prepare dinner … is usually a barrier for individuals, and figuring out what meals to purchase from the grocery retailer.

I additionally occurred, at one level, to be working with a previously homeless inhabitants, and for that specific group going out into the world — like leaving the neighborhood, going to the grocery retailer to buy — it was not sensible for them. They’re coping with anxiousness, and [going from] being chronically homeless to dwelling in an residence [is] an enormous adjustment that most individuals don’t perceive.

After working with them, I discovered that they had been solely consuming nicely after I was making ready the meals for them. After I wasn’t concerned, they weren’t happening their very own to get wholesome meals. And so after going backwards and forwards with my colleagues, who had been social staff, we determined, hey, what, the roof of the constructing the place the residents lived can be an ideal place to develop meals as a result of it was meant to be a inexperienced roof. We determined, “Why not flip that right into a farm?” and actually that’s how my farming profession began.

Associated Tales Feb. 19, 2021 Why I’m Working to Save the Congo Rainforest and Its Indigenous Communities

So how did your curiosity in aquaponics particularly come about?

I found aquaponics whereas I used to be on the roof. I realized the best way to farm together with the residents and needed to study seasonal rising, what it’s wish to develop in a soil-less setting, and the best way to develop in raised beds. I’m from Nigeria. I grew up in a metropolis, in Lagos, and so the thought of individuals farming in a metropolis wasn’t bizarre. However farming in New York Metropolis? It appeared so completely different, and so studying about aquaponics and the way you don’t have to fret about watering vegetation, I simply discovered it fascinating.

I began visiting farms across the nation simply to see how aquaponics works in follow and make sense of it. I noticed the way it might play a extremely large function in not simply feeding individuals but additionally elevating consciousness about different agricultural strategies. Round 2011, hydroponics [using nutrient-rich water for agriculture instead of soil] was turning into fashionable, and I believed it was so nice to throw aquaponics within the combine. The system can work indoors or outside, it saves water, and Oko Farms was constructed a few years later.

Aquaponics can also be a throwback to different cultures which have used it up to now. In Peru, in China — so many cultures world wide had these fashions that had been rooted within the concept of elevating animals and vegetation collectively. It was industrial agriculture that noticed individuals not elevating animals and vegetation in tandem, so it’s nice that we are able to carry this centuries-old mannequin again to the city setting.

Associated Tales Oct. 20, 2020 These Homeless Men in South Africa Turned Lockdown Into a ‘Life-Changing’ Agricultural Project

For individuals who expertise drought, or stay in an city setting — can aquaponics enhance meals entry, or be used along side different strategies of sustainable agriculture?

I imply, this is not a one-size-fits-all mannequin. Aquaponics can completely be utilized in conjunction [with other methods of sustainable agriculture]. 

It’s not that there’s something unsuitable with soil, however we live in a really advanced setting. There are limitations for a lot of communities to entry meals, like not having house to develop meals, and aquaponics programs will be set as much as handle these limitations and ecological points.

Aquaponics, in my expertise, lends itself higher to small-scale manufacturing. And I believe that we are able to finally assure meals safety for these of us that stay in city areas. It doesn’t require numerous land, it saves water. Water entry is restricted for lots of people world wide, and we use numerous water in agriculture particularly. Aquaponics can handle this drawback as a result of it requires little or no enter of water.

Associated Tales March 17, 2021 1.4 Million People in Kenya Are Facing Starvation: Report

Your work at Oko Farms emphasizes training, particularly round serving to individuals study to develop their very own meals, in meals sovereignty. Are you able to communicate to why that’s essential within the manufacturing of sustainable meals programs?

I haven’t seen our present system help individuals, empower individuals, or guarantee meals safety. Giving individuals the instruments to [control their access to food] is essential. Our workshop mannequin helps individuals in constructing their very own aquaponics system, and in an city setting it’s important for us to have an area to show the general public about meals programs.

At Oko, we donate a few of the produce we develop, after which we promote a few of it at farmers markets within the space. Typically individuals come to the farm and purchase produce off the farm — they understand it’s grown right here. Aquaponics has helped us develop that system as we glance to feed ourselves sustainably, or simply feed ourselves, interval.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

Source link

source https://fikiss.net/how-can-aquaponics-farming-help-create-sustainable-food-systems/ How Can ‘Aquaponics’ Farming Help Create Sustainable Food Systems? published first on https://fikiss.net/ from Karin Gudino https://karingudino.blogspot.com/2021/04/how-can-aquaponics-farming-help-create.html

[bumblebeeappletree]

At Oko Farms, produce is grown through a process called aquaponics, where freshwater fish are raised in one tank and their waste is transported to another that contains crops, fertilizing them. The plants clean the water as they absorb the fertilizer, and the clean water is then recycled back into the fish tank.

'Aquaponics is biomimicry,' explains Yemi Amu, the founder and director of Oko Farms. 'We're copying what nature does.'

The cyclical process doesn't let anything go to waste, and some crops end up growing up to 3 times faster than if they were planted in soil.

Aquaponics places producers closer to consumers, allowing farms to feed urban communities, while conserving water and protecting the planet. At Oko Farms, the team uses approximately 80 percent less water than traditional soil methods.

To learn more about Oko Farms and their community initiatives please visit: https://go.nowth.is/373cq4b

[toocute4ux]

Knowledge is Power

If knowledge is power, then educational spaces --classrooms, campuses, conferences, etc--  are sites of empowerment. Educational spaces empower students by supplying them with necessary tools of knowledge. With these tools, students can aspire to become any being they choose to be. Despite this purpose of education, I’ve come to realize that my educational spaces have not always been sites of empowerment for me. On the contrary, they have been sites of suppression, self-degradation, and discomfort.

I have gone to prestigious private schools since the age of five. I went through middle and high school feeling I didn’t quite fit. By senior year, I was more than ready for college. I would finally start taking courses that mattered to me, and what mattered to me was the environment.

I always knew that I cared about the environment. In the second grade I learned about global warming. That day, my mom came home from work to find all of her kitchen appliances unplugged and stowed away in my first attempt to save mother earth. “I’m saving you, and the planet!” I remember telling her. My career path has been clear to me since then. “I’m going to save the planet,” I’d say.

As college progressed, I became less sure. I sat in classes where students expressed they were looking forward to climate change for “the longer rock climbing season.” I was taught to value people like Aldo Leopold, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir as primary scholars of environmental rhetoric and imagery. The knowledge I was taught to value all produced a vision of an environment where I couldn’t see myself. Again, it felt like I didn’t fit.

It wasn’t until I read an article by Leah Penniman that I started to see a place for me within the environmental studies program. Penniman spoke of a farm where miracles happened. A farm where people were dedicated to bringing communities together through organic-sustainable agriculture. A farm where people  promoted health and environmental justice. A farm where people worked to reclaim people’s “collective right to belong to the Earth.” On top of all of this the founder of this farm, Leah Penniman, was a black woman; and so am I.

Penniman was the first of many women of color who assured my belonging within the environmental studies field. As I searched for representation, I learned about the history of the Gullah Geechee nation and resistance farmers in Detroit. I learned about the work of Karen Washington, Monica White, and Yemi Amu; the last of which I had the opportunity to work with.

The more I learned, the more I realized how much history was hidden from me. Black and Brown folks have a long history of their belonging to the land that is richer than bondage and slavery. Black and Brown folks have been endorsers of environmental justice since the foundation of this country, but have somehow been left out mainstream talk, media, and curriculums. The more I learned, the more I felt robbed; robbed of knowledge and robbed of my right to belong. With my newfound knowledge, I started to ask why. Why was the focus of my environmental studies courses predominately on white scholars? Why were certain historical facts, figures, and contexts hidden from me?

In classrooms, I’m the only black person and/or woman of color more often times than not. I’ve come to realize that in the past I’ve compromised myself trying to fit into the curriculum and culture of the prestigious private school, hence wealthy white culture. While race is a social construction, it’s important to pay attention to because it is fundamental to who we all are. This is true because race affects the way people, consciously or subconsciously, treat one another.  

This is my call to action:

To my professors, what teaching materials do you teach and why? What scholars are you choosing to idolize? Additionally, what representations of race are you allowing into your classroom? Are they images that serve to empower all students, or just some? Who’s knowledge and history are being reproduced in your classrooms? Are you utilizing teaching materials that are equally representative to the diaspora of identities involved in and affected by the environmental justice movement?  There is lack of representation within the environmental studies curriculum and you are in a position to change that.

Lastly, to all my students of color --especially women of color-- who are trying to find representations of themselves within educational spaces like these, I encourage you to speak. Don’t be passive. Speak your truth. Speak to your teachers and professors about representations of race and knowledge. Conversations are one of the most powerful mechanisms for making change. It won’t always be easy, but know that you are not alone. You are one of many and we are strong.  

[valeryrizzo]

Photographs of Yemi Amu, Oko Farms in an article about Aquaponics in Scholastic’s Action Magazine / April 2023 Issue.

[ellingtonboots]

These Young Farmers Are Overturning an Industry in Serious Need of a Facelift

Lucas Isakowitz interviews young farmers (including GRACE’s friend Yemi Amu) to explain why they decided to dedicate their lives to the soil, what makes them hopeful about the future of food in America, and what keeps them up at night. [Fusion]

from GRACE Briefs http://ift.tt/2j4aShs

from Grow your own http://ift.tt/2ibQDPC from Get Your Oganic Groove On http://ift.tt/2ibOT93

[thearnoldtully]

New York City could lose nearly 100 community gardens over contract dispute

Protestors hold up a banner at last month’s rally for a fair contract. Photo courtesy of New York City Community Garden Coalition

More than 350 of the 550 total community gardens in New York City are on GreenThumb land, and about 30 percent of them have refused to sign the new agreement.

By Scott Enman Brooklyn Eagle October 16, 2019

Excerpt:

Roughly 100 community gardens on city-owned land are in danger of closing or relocating due to a new licensing agreement from the Parks Department that gardeners are calling unfair and overly onerous.

The contract, created by the agency’s GreenThumb program and signed every four years, has several new changes, including an updated liability policy, a limit on the number of fundraisers and a rigid approval process for all events. It also prohibits any payment or requests for donations during tours, a rule in both the previous and updated agreement.

The license, with both its new and old regulations, has made it unviable for some volunteer-run institutions to exist, according to Yemi Amu, founder and manager of Bushwick’s Oko Farms, the largest and only outdoor aquaponics facility in New York City.

“They’re dictating how we can create resources to keep this space sustainable and micromanaging us,” Amu said.

Read the complete article here.

from Gardening http://cityfarmer.info/new-york-city-could-lose-nearly-100-community-gardens-over-contract-dispute/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[billgsoto]

These Young Farmers Are Overturning an Industry in Serious Need of a Facelift

Lucas Isakowitz interviews young farmers (including GRACE’s friend Yemi Amu) to explain why they decided to dedicate their lives to the soil, what makes them hopeful about the future of food in America, and what keeps them up at night. [Fusion]

from GRACE Briefs http://ift.tt/2j4aShs

from Grow your own http://ift.tt/2ibQDPC

[valeryrizzo]

Yemisi Awosan of Egunsifoods starting egusi seeds with Yemi Amu at Yoko Farms, Brooklyn, New York.