What is a CSA? A food desert? Six 'urban agriculture' terms explained

Urban agriculture has been popping in metropolitan areas and cities across the world. But what does urban agriculture actually entail? Here are six key terms about urban agriculture that you should know.

4. Farmers' market

Heather Leiphar/News Herald/AP/File
Julia McCullough, owner of Ladybug Nursery, sells a plant to Steve Niblett on his birthday during the weekly St. Andrews Farmers Market on Saturday, June 14, 2014, in St. Andrews, Fla.

Farmers' markets are opportunities for residents to purchase produce and foods directly from local farms and gardens. In many communities, farmers' markets are held once or twice a week, although some communities may host farmers markets more frequently. 

Rules for farmers' markets have changed in recent years. In 2004, the European Union launched Farm to Fork, an initiative to promote food safety, the growing of nutritious food, and environmental concern as priorities for farmers. US farmers' market rules vary state from state. 

4 of 6

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.