Agriculture A s tud y of Philad elp hi a’s agron omi cs
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Photojournalism 2013
Agriculture
Cover: Hua Zong, Photo: Alisa Miller
Table of Contents Preface 7 Farmer’s Market 8 Veganism 16 Sustainability 24 Pumpkin Inferno 32 Local Market 40 Community Gardening 48 Local Farm 56 Monsanto Protest 66 Industry 72
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P r e fa c e From the ground, to the plate, to the trash, agriculture reaches every aspect of life. Our fragile ecosystem is created by a complex web of factors, spanning everywhere from the farmers to plant the seeds, and the landfills that collect its processed remains. At a time where our planet is vulnerable, the processes within our agriculture are more important than ever. Agriculture is an exploration of the many layers to our agricultural system, and its many factors that we all participate in everyday.
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Farmer's Market Headhouse Farmers’ Market, the largest outdoor market in Philadelphia, opens every Sunday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Headhouse Square in Old City. Established in 2007, Headhouse Market is one of The Food Trust’s largest farmers’ market. The Food Trust operates 25 farmers’ markets in Philadelphia, including this market, Headhouse, and Clark Park Farmers’ Market, Philadelphia’s oldest year-round market. The Headhouse Market includes many family farms, like Beechwood Orchards, a fifthgeneration family owned farm that has been operating in Adams County, PA over a century. Dave Garretson, the current owner of Beechwood Orchards, says they offer the deliveries twice a week around Philadelphia area. Garretson’s son, Shawn and daughter, Melissa Allen, recently joined the family farm. Savoie Organic Farm is another family owned farm in Williamstown, NJ. It has been certified organic by the New Jersey Department of a] Agriculture since 2007. It produces a wide
variety of heirloom vegetables. Barry Savoie, the owner, says the price of his products are higher than others due to organic growing. The Headhouse Market normally opens on 10:00 am, but the farmers from outside Philadelphia arrive around 8:30 in the early morning to set up the booth. Dave Garretson and Barry Savoie are always the earliest arrivers to the Headhosue Market. Usually around 1:00 pm, Savoie’s products are soldout. Hua Zong
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Vendors sell fresh produce to local shoppers.
10-13 Headhouse Farmer’s Market offers fresh, local, in-season produce.
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Veganism Vegan Treats, located at 1444 Linden street in Bethlehem, PA, is a bakery that churns out delectable baked goods without the use of any animal products – cow’s milk, butter, eggs, gelatin or honey. The owner, Danielle Konya, started selling homemade treats out of her house in 1998 soon after going vegan herself. In October 2005, she turned her passion into a business and Vegan Treats was born. The store front is located in the Lehigh Valley and serves Philadelphia, DC and New York. Being in such a niche market has earned Konya several magazine articles including VegNews Magazine, Satya, Lehigh Valley Style, Vegetarian Times, Brides Magazine, The Washington Post and timeout New York Magazine. She has become a leader in vegan baking and has won several awards including a PETA Proggy, Best Company from VegNews in 2006 and Favorite Bakery in 2007, 2011 and 2012, Best Dessert in the Valley from ’ “Feast of Sweets,” and last year Vegan Treats was named one of the Top Ten Bakeries in the World by American Express’ luxury travel website Departures.com. She’s
also baked for several bands and musicians including Alkaline Trio, AFI, Moby, Fall Out Boy, the Bouncing Souls and Bright Eyes. Konya’s bakery offers cupcakes, cookies, brownies, cannolis, cinnamon rolls, pies, sticky buns, danishes, doughnuts, whoopee pies, , truffles, ice cream and whole wedding cakes. She also has many options available. Randi Fair
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Vegan Treats has won a multitude of culinary awards, proof that vegan food can stand up to its carnvorous counterpart.
18-21 Wide array of sweets at Vegan Treats to satisfy any pallete.
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Sustainability Sustainability is on the forefront of the global agricultural discussion. Transforming into a greener, more environmentally responsible citizen can seem daunting--the litany of greenwashed words thrown at the American public on a daily basis causes avoidance of the topic all together. In urban cities across the world, people have found a simple way to participate in sustainability--biking. According to Bicycling Magazine, Philadelphia ranks in the top 50 bike-friendly cities in America. With over 200 miles of bike lanes across the city, Philadelphia has fostered a safe home for the cycling culture to grow. Urban biking has soared in the past decade, as the numbers of cyclists across the globe’s major cities skyrockets. Biking has become much more than an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation—it has become an image, a lifestyle, and a culture all of its own. Non-profit organizations, like the Coalition for Bicycles in Philadelphia have formed to give
voice to this growing group of cyclists. Groups such as these host events like bike saftey classes, matienece classes, and social bike rides. In Philadelphia the bike trend is only growing. Thousands of bikes take to the city streets day after day, finding a healthy, negative-emission way to travese the city blocks.
Meaghan Pogue
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Cyclists take to Kelly Drive, a popular bike trail from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to Manyaunk along the Skykill River.
25 Bike racks at Temple University fill quickly on an early Monday morning. 26-27 Blake Larson, member of Temple University’s Sustainability office teaches a urban bike saftey class. 28-29 Local Philadelphians gather to hear Major Nutter introduce a new bike lane in Port Richardson.
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Pumpkin Inferno What better way to celebrate the harvest of pumpkins during the fall season than to fill them with hot glass? Pumpkinferno is an event during the fall season at Temple’s Tyler School of Art. The event allows members of the glass guild to show off their glassblowing skills all while entertaining the audience. Glassblowing majors prepare for the harvest season by making glass pumpkins of all shapes, colors and sizes every Saturday morning during October. They sell the pumpkins and shirts to raise money for a class trip to a Chicago glass convention. Although, the glass guild is involved in other events, this one is something a little more unique. Pumpkinferno involves all of the glass guild members to dress up for Halloween, carve pumpkins, and blow glass into the pumpkins. The pumpkins were purchased by the guild from Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA. The glass kiln is about 2080 degrees Fahrenheit and the blowers are back and forth with hot glass,
so it was a small space to hold an event, seeing as they need to keep the spectators in a safe area. The audience crowded as much as possible around the professional glassblowers and flame-workers, watching the intricacy of their work. Guild members took turns being the “informer.” They explain stepby-step exactly what the glassblowers are doing. Possibly, the most exciting part of the production was when the each of the guild members climbed up next to the stack of carved pumpkins and poured hot glass down the center. So far the guild has raised over $1200 in sales from the handcrafted pumpkins and studentdesigned t-shirts. Emily Ganser
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Glass blowing students entertain an auidence while showing off their skills with the glass kiln.
33-35 Students stack, form, and fill pumpkins with glass. 36 Student designed t-shirts to sale to raise money for a class trip.
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Produce Markets The manager of Dosta Produce Market, located on Davisville Road in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, strongly believes in sacrificing profit to take care those in need. He understands the importance of creating relationships with the community in which he conducts his business. If anybody comes to his produce stand in need of something to eat, they will never leave empty handed. “They are hungry, desperate people. How could anybody turn them away?” Instead of throwing away fruits and vegetables that are expired, Dosta Produce Market sells them for cheaper or leaves them outside to be picked up for free by people in need.Customers are made aware that marked down food must be eaten the same day or frozen for later use. “In the summertime, we have so many bananas and many of them start to go bad. People come in and buy a couple bags for $1. I always tell them to take the peel away, chop up the bananas, and put them in the freezer and they can use them to make smoothies for their children. There is no need for them to go to waste.”
Dosta Produce Market donates food to different food banks in the area, including Philabundance. Fruits and vegetables that are no longer fit for human consumption are donated to Briar Bush Nature Center to help feed the wildlife there. In a world were profit is often given more importance than basic human needs, it is refreshing to meet someone who puts humanity first and his business second.
Alisa Miller
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Dosta Produce Market produce display.
42 Produce at Dosta Produce Market. 43 I.O.U’s left by some Dosta Produce Market patrons. 44 Manager of Dosta Market Produce.
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Community Gardening The Philadelphia Urban Creators was established in 2010 after 75 students, both from Temple University and other schools in the neighborhood traveled to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. The group of students and North Philadelphia locals spent 9 days in the Lower 9th Ward transforming vacant lots into urban gardens and community gathering spaces. Inspired by the experience, some came back to North Philadelphia and established the Philadelphia Urban Creators. Together they hoped to inspire their own community while dealing with local issues. The product was a sustainable urban farm located on 11th and Dakota street. Through grassroots fundraising, they were able to do what they have done thus far. Far from the trash filled lot that used to be in the space, the farm now has a large greenhouse and two micro-greenhouses. Among the greenhouses are quite a few plant beds growing tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, trees, and all types of herbs.
Unlike other urban farms that I have visited, the Philadelphia Urban Creators’ farm is very raw and humble. They rely on volunteers and community help to maintain the farm. The farm has become an integral part of the community around it. While I was there, I volunteered for a few hours harvesting some peppers, spreading woodchips, and cleaning up debris to make way for more plant beds. On Tuesday I plant to go help Devon, the site and development manager, build another greenhouse. The Philadelphia Urban Creators have done a lot to energize, unite, and educate the community.
Phil Conine
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The Philadelphia Urban Creators green house.
50-53 On garden grounds during volunteer hours.
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Local Farms Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA was founded in 1914 by Arthur Linvill and his mother, Lydia, when they desired to have fresh milk and cream delivered to Philadelphia. Today Linvilla has expanded to a 300-acre family farm that focuses on healthy agriculture and people from all over the Delaware Valley travel for the freshness of its produce. It offers only homegrown and locally grown produce specializing in fresh apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, blueberries, squash, sweet white corn, and tomatoes. Linvilla’s goal is to provide customers with safe and healthy choices that contain no preservatives. Linvilla’s Garden Center incorporates the latest green technologies and construction practices that highlight their commitment to environmental responsibility by using
reclaimed rain water for irrigation, solar electric, energy efficient lighting, passive cooling, and geothermal hearing and cooling. Linvilla also uses their fresh produce to make homemade creations for purchase in their market such as salsas, guacamole, fresh squeezed juices, and seasonal soups. Chynna Mela
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Linvillas offers everything from fishing to fresh, locally-gorwn produce.
58 Patrons shopping for local goods. 59 Linvilla’s farm store, providing both fresh produce and prepared goods. 60-61 Fall specials, apple picking and hayrides at Linvillas.
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Monsanto Protest American cities have always been the center of grass roots political activism, and Philadelphia is no exception. In an age of unparalleled scientific and technological advancement, citizens of all ages have joined together to speak out against one such advancement that they believe jeopardizes the public safety of our nation. GMO’s, or genetically modified organisms, are laboratory grown and tested foods that are bred specifically for their increased yield. Corn, salmon, wheat, sugar, cows, and chickens have all had their genetic material changed so as to increase the rate in which they grow, or the amount of food they can produce. At the center of this debate is the multinational conglomerate of Monsanto, an agricultural industrial manufacturer responsible for creating much of the GMO seed stock that farmers now use. Critics of this new science believe that the research is not complete,
and that GMO’s may pose an unseen danger to those who unwittingly ingest them. While the science is still out, these protesters gathered outside Independence Hall to throw their support behind efforts to have GMO’s banned, or at least properly labeled on products. Over four thousand protesters turned out to have their voices heard, from college students, local farmers, and health specialist to lawyers, stay at home mothers, and taxi drivers, all of them agreeing that a future without GMO’s in their food is a bright future. Dan Pelligrine
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Protestors march down Market Street against Monsanto and other GMO’s.
65-69 March against Monsanto.
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Industry Despite years of progress and change Philadelphia still remains one of the most polluted cities in the country. At one point the city housed over 150 industrial sites, and was the main manufacturer of most of the worlds industrial products, lending to the name “The Work Shop of the World”.
yet according to the American Lung Association’s 2012 report; Philadelphia has the 10th worst air pollution of all the cities in the country. Their report states that the quality of air is so bad 1,536,471 people in the cities are considered at risk for developing health problems.
Though the city was productive, all the progress took a toll on the environment as well as the populace. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, Philadelphia would pour all of its raw sewage into the Schuylkill, and Delaware Rivers. Many cities factories dumped all of their waste into the two rivers. For a period of time, these waterways were devoid of oxygen, and held little to no life.
Although most of the factories in Philadelphia gone, the air in the city is borderline toxic. One only needs to travel to one of the active sites, such as Honeywell, or Philadelphia Energy Solutions to see these implications. The air around Honeywell’s phenol processing plant is sharp, burns your eyes, and smells poisonous. Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant holds 1,400 acres on the Schuylkill River, and tsmoke coming out of all the stacks can be mistaken for clouds. The problem is pollution is largely invisible and a product of our lives and habits.
It wasn’t until the 1970’s when regulations, such as the Clean Water act, were put in place to protect bodies of water. The 20th century saw the decline of company’s interest in maintaining factories in Philadelphia. The factories that once filled both North and South Philadelphia are now mostly gone, being demolished, abandoned or repurposed. Today very few factories remain active in the city,
Eric Sowin
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Abandoned relics of Philadelphia Industry along the Delaware River.
73-77 Old industrial sites along Philadelphia’s Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers.
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Photojournalism 2013
Agriculture A study of Phila delph i a’ s agron omi c s