Sustainable Development in Red Hook
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn wrote an interesting profile of sustainable development group Added Value yesterday. The Red Hook-based organization grows “fast crops” in their garden atop an old baseball field in Coffey Park. They train youngsters in farming and environmental issues, selling the fruits of their labors at the Red Hook farmer’s market. Funnily…
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn wrote an interesting profile of sustainable development group Added Value yesterday. The Red Hook-based organization grows “fast crops” in their garden atop an old baseball field in Coffey Park. They train youngsters in farming and environmental issues, selling the fruits of their labors at the Red Hook farmer’s market. Funnily enough, the group’s gardens are right across the street from where the Ikea store will be.
Sustainable Future [OTBKB]
Homepage [Added Value]
“what does “sustainable” mean, and who gets to determine that?”
Good Question.
Sustainability is a very important concept that’s largely lost on our consumer society where products magically appear on shelves out of thin air. Basically, it means that that rate at which you’re harvesting resources is less than or equal to the rate at which they’re being replenished. Who determines it? In theory, then, sustainability is something that can be determined objectively by looking at the practice as a closed system. For example, if you’re cutting down forests faster than they’re growing (we are), or if you’re putting CO2’s in the atmosphere faster than the planet can filter them (we are), or if you’re cathing fish faster than they can reproduce (we are) you’re not engaging in sustainable practices.
This work in RedHook would be “sustainable” if it can –literally—sustain itself. Which is to say, it’s self-supporting without having to draw upon external resources (fertalizer, gas for gas-powered machinery, etc).
Imagine if food supplies to New York City were cut off for some reason. Practices like theirs would suddenly be transformed from a useful and interesting project to an absolutely vital beacon of suvival. (I’m not suggesting this is their motivation for the project.)
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable
it’s not Cumberland St. it’s on Columbia + Beard St.
It’s a great little market, delicious and inexpensive food and there’s not much fresh anything around here so it’s a very welcome site. I don’t know what will happen after ikea comes as it’s literally across the street from what will be the parking lot.
Cities are going to need a lot more of this in the years to come.
http://www.energybulletin.net/4856.html
I think this is Cumberland St. My sister lives on this block.