Here's a sobering fact for all you folks living in the Big Apple: if food deliveries stopped, your store shelves would be empty inside of two, three days tops.

That's the bad news. The good news is that New Yorkers could produce all the fruits and vegetables its population needs simply be using all that rooftop space.

Awhile back, I did a post on a proposal to make the city of Detroit one of the largest urban farms on the planet – which would breathe new economic life into a devastated community that desperately needs it. I also did a recent post on a University of Iowa study demonstrating that by abandoning monoculture (the practice of turning millions of acres over to the production of a single cash crop) and diversifying, produce for 10,000 people could be raised on no more than a hundred acres – and a plot the size of one Iowa county could feed most of the people in the Upper Midwest.

The fact is that despite the gloomy prophecies about how we're running out of farmland, with a combination of new technologies, judicious land management and smarter farming techniques, we can get more from less and make our cities and communities more self-sufficient: which in turn, means greater food security.

Getting back to New York City, there are three pilot projects going on showing New Yorkers how they can grow their own. One of these is a "Science Barge" that's currently moored in the Hudson River. This is actually an old grain barge that has been converted into a floating "mini-farm"/greenhouse. The Science Barge is one demonstration of how urbanites in America's largest city can grow a variety of produce without too much effort or expense. Operated by New York Sunworks, the Science Barge uses a combination of hydroponics and alternative energy to show folks how to operate a sustainable urban farming operation with virtually no waste (yes, virtually everything on the Science Barge gets recycled).

"Window Farms" are the innovation of a couple of women who live in an apartment in Brooklyn. One of the great things about this idea is that it finally provides a practical use for those obnoxious plastic soda pop bottles along with a few other odds and ends. This idea has really been catching on in the Five Boroughs, and is starting to get some traction worldwide as people add their own ideas and innovations to the concept.

Finally, there's the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, which recently observed its first anniversary. Covering 6,000 square feet, this has actually become a profitable business, providing produce to local restaurants as well as people in the neighborhood.

If you are a big-city dweller, check them out; you may not be able to live on Green Acres, but you might be able to bring it your block.

You may remember a recent post (The Rewards of Diversification, 25 June) in which I pointed out the dangers of monoculture – that is, giving land over to a single cash crop – and how diversifying crops may very well turn out to be our salvation.

I got a comment from one of my readers, who points out that "most of us are just pretty much fed with corn [maize]... prepared in millions of different ways to make us think we're eating different stuff."  And that's pretty much true – next time you go to the grocery store, read the labels and find out how often a product contains "high fructose corn syrup," possibly one of the main culprits in America's obesity epidemic (though of course, the big corporate ag conglomerates deny it).

Well...the chickens – or more accurately, the moths – are coming home to roost in the Deep South, as if to prove my point. Whether it's because of global climate change or increased resistance to pesticides, or some other factor, the corn earworms are showing up earlier and earlier.

This insect, known to entymologists as helicoverpa zea, is actually the larva of this species of moth, and is also known as the cotton bollworm or the tomato fruitworm, depending on what it's feasting on at any given moment. This little bug is a nasty one; not only will it eat up a large range of crops, it will even eat its brothers and sisters.

The corn earworm has been a problem in the South, particularly the Mississippi Delta region, practically since Europeans showed up and started planting crops almost 300 years ago. Last year (2009) was one of the heaviest infestations of earworms on record – but farmers in the Delta managed to dodge that bullet, as the bug's season was over and done with before the corn started silking. However, Ryan Jackson, an entymologist with the regional office of the USDA, warned that farmers "can’t necessarily count on that happening again in 2010." And of course, before this little demon starts in on the maize, it's already been doing some heavy snacking on cotton and soybeans.

Pesticides have long been the first line of defense in the war on the corn earworm, but like so many pestilential creatures, they've adapted; these pesticides have been having less and less of an effect, and besides, they're expensive, difficult to apply – and none too good for the consumer.

There are some more environmentally-friendly alternatives in the form of natural predators that can be used. One of these is the insidious flower bug; its favorite food is the eggs of the moth. Other "natural" solutions include a bacteria known as bacillus thuringiensis, which lives in soil and produces a toxin that is fatal to insect pests. Unfortunately, because such pests can breed several generations over the course of a single season, the old evolutionary mechanism kicks in and they adapt. There are also some types of roundworms, or nematodes, that live in damp soil and have been used successfully – but these can cause problems of their own.

Naturally, our friends at Monsanto and Dow have offered a solution, which they call Genuity VT Triple PRO – a type of genetically-engineered seed that "provides multiple modes of action against above-ground pests" and has been shown to increase harvests.

But given what we know about the history of Monsanto, Dow and the others as well as their recent behavior, we should ask: "at what cost?"

Of course, if hurricanes this year blow BP's oil inland and spread it over cropland in the region, it could all be a moot point (but that's a whole other topic).

 The following guest blog commentary was provided via José van Gelder

Farmers are key to fighting poverty

It's strange that we give so little thought to farmers, yet our very survival depends on them. Is this because in the developed world we only spend about 10- to 20 per cent of our monthly income on food? Maybe. I believe urban people have simply lost their conscious connection with the food chain’s starting point. Otherwise, food production and worldwide food problems would receive more attention in the media.

Small farmers in developing countries play a crucial role in local food supply. But they've been overlooked by policymakers for the past 25 years. Many have been forced to stop producing, or fall back on self-sufficiency. Three-quarters of the people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition live in rural areas, and that's where the fight against poverty and hunger must start.

This fight needs to involve small farmers and their organizations. Farmers establish new enterprises that create employment opportunities for their children. Rural democracy, economic growth and income distribution benefit from their determined action. Heads of state and large multi-lateral donors agree. Since early last year, we've seen them pledge billions of dollars at every summit meeting on agricultural development in the developing world. But very little of this funding has trickled down to the farm level.

Farmers' organizations operate on the principle of democracy, with real farmers feeding their views into local associations, provincial, national, regional and even worldwide federations. As such, farmers' organizations are powerful machines to disseminate new ideas, new technologies and knowledge over vast areas. They reach the people who live on less than two dollars a day, and are themselves a form of social media, transmitting the voice of the poor to others.

To help, in some OECD countries agri-agencies are established, such as UPA-DI in Canada and Agriterra in the Netherlands. These are development cooperation organizations, with a mandate to promote farmer-to-farmer cooperation, through project ideas generated by farmers and cooperative organizations in developing countries. These agri-agencies have joined forces in AgriCord to better coordinate their work, and in 2007, they came together to implement a program called Farmers Fighting Poverty. It supports activities by 145 farmers' organizations in 59 countries, such as cultivation-technical aspects, starting cooperatives, setting up agricultural extension and training in lobby and advocacy.

It is paramount that the organizations supported by Agriterra become stronger to better serve their members and be enabled to deliver their contribution in the fight against hunger and poverty. The G8 last year in Italy promised US$20 billion for investments in agriculture worldwide, this can only pay off with the direct involvement of farmers and their organizations. So far, it’s only promises, the farmers concerned have seen very little happen. Something’s gotta happen! Agriterra asks heads of state to agree that only 0.2% of the billions of dollars pledged for aid should be dedicated to support farmers' organizations in the developing world.

If you support this position, please visit the Youtube wakeup call video, sign the petition at www.farmersfightingpoverty.org and send the link to those who also believe farmers fight poverty.

Author:

Mrs. José van Gelder

Head of communications at Agriterra (since 2002)

Living in Stokkum, the Netherlands

Born: August 20, 1964

Education: bachelor in public relations and communications