The Appeal of Urban Farming

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish Old properties and empty lots in cities and towns around the United States are finding new life as urban farms. EcoCity Farms in Edmonston, Maryland, is located near shopping centers, car repair shops and homes. The neighborhood is a working-class community. People do not have very much money, and they have limited access to fresh food in markets. Over the past two years, the farm has attracted volunteers from the community like Marcy Clark. She schools her four children at home. On a recent day she brought them to EcoCity Farms for a lesson. Her children harvested rows of spinach, mustard greens, lettuce, Swiss chard and carrots. "It's important that the children understand the connection between the food that they eat, the soil, the air, the pollution, how all this is connected to their well-being," she says. Her son Alston agrees: "You connect with the earth, where your food comes from. You appreciate the food a little bit more." Margaret Morgan-Hubbard started EcoCity Farms. She thinks of it as a place where people can learn to live healthier lives. "Our view is that what happens in a community, influences the culture of that community. So our idea was growing food in a community and showing that you can have farms even in urban areas, redefines what's possible in that area, in that community and brings people together." "Every piece of what we do here is a demonstration to show people everything about how to have a sustainable community," she says. That means not only farming food and raising chickens and bees, but improving the soil with compost made from food waste. Sixteen wooden bins are filled with worms. Their job is to eat the food waste and help make it into compost. EcoCity Farms is an "off the grid" experimental operation. The farm gets its power not from the local electricity grid but from the sun with solar panels. In winter, the greenhouses are heated using a geothermal system. Buried tubes pump air at underground temperature -- thirteen degrees Celsius -- into the structures. Vegetables can be grown all year. So once a week, all winter long, neighbors can come to the farm and pick up a share of the harvest. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti. You can find two videos about EcoCity Farms -- including one about the composting worms -- at voaspecialenglish.com. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 06Mar2012)

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Michael Jackson: Man in the Music

Controversy and scandal marred Michael Jackson's reputation as the most influential entertainer of all time, however a new book about the King of Pop aims to change that. Joseph Vogel, a doctoral candidate in the University of Rochester's English Department, says he wrote "Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson" to fill a void left by all the books that focused on tabloid gossip rather than his music. Although Michael Jackson's legacy as an artist has received less attention in recent years, Vogel says his work puts him in the cultural pantheon of icons like the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

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Exotic Pets

Janda Exotics raises and cares for a variety of unusual pets from around the world. Produced by Matt Barnes for The University Star -- http://universitystar.com

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USC vs. Hawaii 2010

Matt Barkley and Ronald Johnson connected on three touchdowns to make Lane Kiffin a winner in his first game as Southern California coach. No. 14 USC beat Hawaii 49-36 on Thursday night to start the post-Pete Carroll era. Barkley passed for 257 yards and tied a school record with five TD passes while Johnson matched a USC mark with his three TD catches. Johnson also returned a punt 89 yards for another score in USC's first game after being hit with sanctions by the NCAA that include a postseason ban this season. Johnson's two scores in the third quarter, a 3-yard catch and the punt return, helped break the game open for the Trojans (1-0), who took a 42-23 lead into the fourth. September 2, 2010.

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