Curtis my six year old granddaughter was just listening to this with me, and when you got to the end and mentioned your book, she yelled out, "We have your book!". We have been planning our "urban" garden down here in lower Alabama for some months now, getting the pieces in place. She is so excited!!! She enjoys your videos almost as much as I do. You are impacting multiple generations by sharing your knowledge with us all; four generations in my house alone.

Curtis, I would say that the only person you can change is yourself. Many times people think they are going to change the world when in reality we can only change ourselves. Thank you, for your work and the great videos.

I appreciate you blatant honesty. Thank you for mentioning this is a "business". One must be level-headed. Every business has a culture and you explained this:) Thank you for mitigating some disappointment. You are totally "on base" for bringing us the truth. This is what makes you special:)

Totally legit comments. That's one of the things I love about your channel - you're excellent at thinking critically and sharing nuanced thoughts/ideas with people, instead of what we see too often with some people where dogma takes over / "one size fits all" answers. Loving your efforts with your youtube channel, much admiration and respect.

Thank you for this. I'm on Ile Perrot (Montreal area) and find that most of my entourage does not care about organic foods/farming, and I'm not even in the center of the city. Honestly, only my daughter has my view on it. So I understand the commentary about wanting to save the world and they won't pay you any mind. I do have to say that a neighbouring city, Vaudreuil, did a project last summer where they planted a bunch of vegetable plants in their parks and when crop was ready, published info to citizens to come and get the crops for free. So people understand the attraction of free. So maybe the cities should invest in food-feeding plants instead of flowers and green grass (and its maintenance) and the neighbourhoods will take notice and appreciate the effort. Find the common ground and language that speaks to them. My 2 cents. Keep your great videos coming. I learn somethign every time. Tx.

having no access to non process foods means that one has to learn what to do with it. it takes time, and efforts. I volunteer in a Harlem school where we build an indoor aquponic system, after 10 weeks, most students don't want to taste what they grow, because they never had it at home. these kids are often from monoparental families, with a mom that either works 2-3 jobs. it's a really complicated dynamics, but with time, things eventually change. in the Bronx, NY, there are community farms/gardens that are used by the people (low income) in the neighborhood to grow food, but these gardens already have a long history and part of the community.

Your sensitivity in sharing your opinion based on what you have seen only makes me want to meet you in person even more. You're a great person Curtis, thanks for all of the info. I can definitely back you up with the whole social rejection thing. It is not major in my town, but there are a lot of people who will tell me that my tomato prices (and other prices) are to high and this and that, when they are pristine heirloom tomatoes. I charge $2.50 a pound for tomatoes, and I have seen higher prices (and lower) in Walmart for produce not comparable in quality. It's not that my prices are bad, it's just that some of the people don't care about what it is, they just want to get almost free food. Finding a good market to sell, for me at least, seems to be the biggest battle in my situation. I could spend 24 hours a day in the field if I knew I had a place to sell my produce for a reasonable price.

Thank you for your thought! I find your videos valueble and I support you both mentalt and financially. Love the "kit" of info i bought. There are so much there...

Great stuff once again, your straight forwardness and realistic viewpoints are golden!

Really great video with such honest information. That part about people you're trying to save by providing them with fresh lettuce is all too true. Even from an nutritional standpoint I can't get my own friends and family to stop eating burger king and other junk and incorporate fresh veggies into their diets. I even GIVE them bags of fresh produce from my own garden and much of it doesn't get eaten before it becomes compost... too many addictive foods with salt sugar and fat take precedence.

Nothing like a cold hard dose of truth with your morning coffee. Great to see you don't just highlight the perceived positives and ignore their flaws. Great job, keep it up.

Curtis, you should check out the book "Farmacology" from Daphne Miller. She has a whole chapter on the impact of the farm "La familia verde" in the Bronx, on the community there. She explains all the benefits that the people from the neighborhood get from that farm. It's overall a great book to learn more about the relationship about farm, food and health, highly recommended!

Certainly, one issue with new businesses is looking at their reasons for starting a business in the first place. It's important to not assume that people share your values or methods. Thanks for pointing that out. Also, I like the information you shared (off the cuff, no less!) about how much it would realistically cost to "renovate that space. Most of us see a grassy spot, perhaps unused in a city and assume that because you have grass and soil, you have a clean spot in which to grow food. It is important to start looking at what was there before, as you said perhaps a gas station, etc.

Curtis, great taste in music you choose for your videos. You have a good outlook and realistic view on things. I enjoy these videos alot. Thank you

Great video, Curtis! Thanks for sharing these tips and your honesty in doing so. Greatly appreciated! Peace, Drew

People dont forget aquaponics and hydroponics for top of roofs etc. Its not always the best choice but it will save you having to ship in heaps of dirt .

You nailed some inconvenient truths there Curtis. Good job.

I thought it was just an issue in the USA? I try to make regular stops at the Food Pantry [free food distribution center for the poor] in the city and pickup 100s of pounds of food that is being thrown away - each working weekday Monday thru Friday. By far, the majority of the poor that get free food at the Pantry will NOT take the free organic vegetables, fresh baked organic bread, etc.... If it isn't already sliced white bread or it can't be easily heated in a microwave oven or it can't be eaten straight out of the package - the majority of poor people do not want it - even when it's free. I take the food to my Amish friends who separate the food from the packaging and feed it to livestock (and eat it themselves - but we have to officially deny this) and anything that is actually in too bad of shape to eat or feed is put into the composting piles for their gardens. The point is - if I tried Urban Farming in a neighborhood with this same social attitude about food that exists at the Food Pantry (for whatever reason it exists), it would fail without the ability to transport that food outside of that area with that social attitude. I should point out that fresh strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries fly off the Food Pantry shelves and I suspect that if you Urban Farmed in the same social attitude areas and grew fresh berries that such berries would magically disappear, even with good fences. P.S. When my Amish friends know in advance that I'm stopping at the Food Pantry they send farm fresh eggs as a donation.

I love your positive think ...

Excellent analysis!This is not exactly the same issue as soil contamination, but on my lot, there is only so much soil : when you dig, you soon reach a 2-3 feet high layer of compacted rubbish material they put here when they built the houses. The roots can't grow through that. To plant fruit trees, I excavated this layer in several places, but it's a titanesque job, plus then you have to get rid of the excavation material! And shade can be an insurmountable obstacle, especially during early and late vegetable season, when the sun is not as high in the sky and shadows are more oblique. You nailed the urban farming issues in this vid. Curtis, this channel is so amazing, there is so much content in each vid, lots of thanks! Julien

spot on curtis.

family farming should replace mass farming , to recycle organic waste to the soil

Thank you, Curtis, for sharing this video, your personal experience and brutally honest comments. I'm taking good notes. I live in Riverside CA, an urban/ peri-urban region of inland Southern California that faces a number of social-environmental challenges that could potentially be addressed through UA. Both WWT biosolids and local dairy wastes are being hauled to Arizona. With high obesity rates and 1 in 6 children living in poverty, the county is looking for programs to improve healthy eating, active living and other quality of life elements. Homelessness and affordable housing are intractable challenges in need of a solution. Using your $80k soil building cost on 1/3 acre, how much of that should be priced into a unit of specialty crop (e.g. a head of lettuce) and how much should be accounted for as social impact? Who is doing work on these economics? If we can't make the overall economics to work (proper transfer pricing and recognition of impact metrics), we need to move on to some other strategy pretty quickly (perhaps another warehouse and distribution facility). Curious about your thoughts. Thank you for the great work you do!

Thank you for honesty Curtis. You don´t have to be afraid to tell us the truth. Even if it´s harsh. :) Regards from Czech Republic.

Love the videos could you do a video on your prices of your crops

wow, Crutis, bro..is that very very very dope beat in the intro actually yours?? that's one of the best rap beats I've ever heard ! You're a master-mind ! Love&Respect brother

If planting in that area is really something that you wanted to do. then maybe a partnership with the town or school district could be a solution. maybe get the land rent free as long as you teach classes .

I have experience in aquaponics and in urban farming aquaponics is a great option. Also certain things people don't think about with aquaponics is how much easier it is on your body. In a sense it takes more brain less brawn. Since I experimented with aquaponics I have never wanted to do traditional farming just because of how much less physical labor involved. Keep pushing it kurtis thank you

I totally understand what Curtis is saying ( While trying not to say it. ) regarding people that live in the shitty areas of cities.

This is a great video. Thanks for the info. Drives home the point: don't try and "save" ppl, especially if you are not from that community/of those ppl. If a community really wants farming/gardening/produce, they'll probably figure out a way to get it done.

Of course it would take a lot of energy and inputs to altered the urban land to be productive, but that would be some what fixed amount only at the beginning. You still need to bring inputs in yearly but the same goes to rural or commercial farms.

just wondering what the mounds are? when they cleaned up my former community, uranium downs, they only removed the radioactive dirt within approx. fifteen feet of the occupied structures.

Good information. It's good for idealists to know that not every community has the same values. Poor people often need less expensive food, not higher quality food. Their priorities may not match outsiders expectations.

In Texas there would be lots of trash coming from that road. I don't understand people who throw trash out of the car but, we sure have them in Texas.

I was hoping you would talk about Kelowna.

I ive in Eugene and i have brand new tomato and squash flowers without protection.

really great info, I tend to agree with all you said. just one thing I missed is; how do you feel traffic affects pollution levels? I mean.. that's a pretty big bridge right next to the plot aswell.. I'm sure lots of traffic.. Lots of pollution from that no?

I ride my bike by these places every day.

hey Curtis how do you get rid of slugs in the garden

I know a few people who know or profess to talk about the dangers of heavy metals, yet when presented with evidence of just as risky food choices that have the same outcome (ill health), whether by heavy metal ingestion or other carcinogens, they ignore it. Consumption of seafood - those animals that bioaccumulate heavy metals, fish at the top of the food chain, are huge health concerns. In addition, many people are still failing to appreciate the health risks of eating animal based products and the direct link to cancer among other issues.

Curtis - I just started following you. Would love to chat on this topic, how your thought process was, what you’ve learned since, etc. Can I email you?

sorry Curtis didn't mean to put that k in there

Can anyone explain how one determine if their plot of land is eligible for urban farming? Every cities has zones and one cannot simply just go right away and farm in their plot. However, I' m very confuse how to determine that.

15:26 I don't agree that the poor and disadvantage don't share our values of eating healthy. Your are correct it isn't a priority for them but they do care. Why these farms often fail is that the don't employ members of the community and don't make the effort to educate the populace on the benefits both economic and health wise to eating healthy locally sourced sustainable food.

How do you feel about government coupon programs for lower income families that can only be spent at farmer's markets? From what I can tell you're as libertarian as they come, but in my area (Massachusetts) it's made a huge difference in getting inner city people into farmer's markets, which is good for them and expands the market for local farmers. In my area there is so little interest in farmer's markets from what I've seen that market farms around here rely on WIC recipients for a huge portion of their business.

Curtis how many people live in your city? I'm in a low density rural area (10000) people but 25 mins away from a city with 100,000. Just curious.

only thing you got wrong curtis is that you devalued the beneficial effect of your farming in terms of its benefit to the environmemt. the biggest cost besides labor is transportation and the more food that isn't going on a semi and being shipped to California the better; And that's no small contribution considering that the average meal has traveled 2000 miles to get to you or whatever it is. *don't sell yourself short* this is the best model we have yet.

Do you need license or any paperwork to sell your crops

Great advice Curtis! Your not off base...it's what I witness as well. I don't like to make blanket statements, so take what I say here with a shaker of salt...plus I deleted one long diatribe yet I see once again, I see diarrheaboard, oh well, it to could prove to be helpful so It makes the cut... Some People with money pay for better things. But they also like their peace and quiet, mostly because they need it to manage their affairs to get shit done right, got be up at 5 so I can hit the gym and be at the office by 7....but on the other hand, maybe they don't want to see a gardening operation in their neighborhood and what or who it might bring into them...so it's good to have the variety that cities bring I guess. But really it's just poor planning in mostly a reactive society! I had a friend who sub divided his land and sold off a portion, he was a master carpenter, so had table saws and such running out of his shop. The people in question knew it...yet after they bought and moved in they asked the guy to stop using power tools as it interrupted their peace and quiet, go figure right! There are Things that both of them should have thought of before I guess...like having the cash to finance the business comes at a cost, and then moving into a tranquil area wasn't so tranquil after all. And honestly who is to say who is right? I see both sides have a point! One never knows what change may bring? As you are trying to educate and are doing such an amazing job, your impact is increasing the planets conscious awareness big time and you are having a huge impact in shaping your world by being the change you ask for rather than asking others to change. I love how your doing what you do! That in itself is very powerful! I appreciate your first hand experience and wisdom you share saves those interested so many hours! I view your information from the eyes of a carpenter and know what things take from a physical perspective. Your info is so powerfully helpful! It seems obvious once you have revealed what to watch out for but honestly there is a lot to be cognizant of so having your wisdom is huge! So thanks!! It would be better to have spaces for gardens in each community and it's coming..as some of your future videos indicate...societies do in fact learn, ha ha! But as you say the land I am speaking of did as you say have to be remediated at huge costs! I see now that life can be a struggle and priorities change as life gets easier and money becomes more available and we make better life choices, like where to live, as maybe there is less drama. What we do, as it's probably better than what we did in our party years. But some never grow out of those weedy gardens or it just works for them because maybe it is still fun or is all they knew. It's just perspective right, or they just don't get a chance to break out of those patterns or don't want to. But is it more than that? The research tends to say so. The proof is in how we age. Did something serious happen in your life and it's too late to do anything about it, or can we foresee that if we don't start taking care of ourselves we will be dogged by health issues. Hello! What does it take to break addictive behaviors? Addictive you say! I am not addicted! Oh no not me... We tend to change and improve our lives after something major happens, like a health challenge or life threatening incident or both, but too often I hear from others and see for myself we wait until it's too late. But if we are lucky and change does come, it tends to bring some conscious awareness with it and with that we see that food is the source of most of our problems and also limiting the damaging effects of acidic things. What else could it be? But thank to the internet we can do our own independent research and some of us eventually see the damaging and addictive effects of most of what we consume. Why do we need someone else to point this out to us? Same reason your pointing out your wisdom to us Curtis! It's because wisdom has been forgotten and lost! How do I know, because my Mom use to garden, and can and preserve and store heaps of food. Yet in my lifetime that wisdom is lost for the most part. She didn't share or drive home the importance of having a garden, and I didn't make it a priority or pillar in my life to build around! I think there is more that we have lost along the way like; I think we knew what consisted of acidic foods and avoided them or at least had a lot more balance and had better health in general, so no I don't think we are evolving. I think we are lucky for people like yourself who see the value in greens and micro greens and crops that are high yielding both in quality, income and most likely because they are just good for us! The market truly does regualate itself, If people are paying top dollar for something it's for good reason! Some don't ever see that there could be something better, and can't give up what is keeping them tethered to experiencing that...we have an addicted society I have come to pull myself out of...at every level. it's all metabolic stimulation...the mouse clicks, the phone messages, the coffee hits, the holiday feasts, the weekend binging, the cooked food sometimes three times a day...it's all spikes of adrenaline pushing us along a conveyor belt to the final resting point and ultimate addiction of an old folks home and pill box. All tucked in nice and cozy wired up into the retirement home and all it's bells and whistles! It's what we worked so hard for! Our lives have been nothing more than increasing intakes of acids that put stress on the kidneys and adrenal glands and once we reach that critical point where youth can't help us anymore and our bodies have reached unmanageable levels of lymph toxicity, we begin our real fall and we haven't a clue what's causing it, and so we put our trust in mainstream medicine or Allopathic medicine, and once we make that choice rarely do we escape it's death grip which is by design! Most people anymore don't have long attention spans also by design so don't research it or can't because the system is designed to keep them distracted...are you still with me? Remember It's not a blanket statement...Have I pushed some buttons? I hope so because I didn't make up any of what I write. It can all be researched and is well documented! We live in an acidic world strangely enough...the land site that you are on Curtis is acidic. I will guarantee it. Salty so close an overpass...it's everywhere... We watch the movies as well and see it on the news..it's everywhere. Stressful situations...And Mothers are having children laden with lymph at the get go! Kids are born with compromised and weakened DNA, Doctors are finding levels of plastic in carrying mother placentas...What else is there? It's all acidic...Take a burger for instance...with a beer, mustard, ketchup, relish, uncooked onions, bar b que sauce, and a bun mostly likley wonder bread buns as they go well with burgers....Believe me, I love a good burger, but I have to say after looking at the evidence, it makes sense that most of that is just not good for us. Let's hope there is at least some lettuce on it...tomatoes though? I don't know how many night shades we should be eating. I am still on the fence witht that one. Once in awhile maybe, but it's still not good for us. It's acidic is all, and creates lymph, and if it gets too bad, it effects everything we do! Our traditions and what we all love is killing us en masse! But we learn right...or we don't! I see your advice Curtis about choosing as paramount, as it could make or break you...yet how many families don't get that choice right. If each person was a plant in their families garden, how many gardens start out toxic and never leave those toxic conditions? I hope you can see the metaphor here that is really quite relevant to what you are sayin...well at least it is to me.. We all tend to hang out with who we perceive as 'like us' so...it's why we have neighborhoods, or hoods right! Gurus say it's frequency or energy, Dr. Morse says it's levels of lymph...but it's all of that...our conditioning, our programming, both initial and ongoing as it's relentless! Where we live and what we eat all hold frequencies, our food; is it acidic mostly creating that internal time bomb...when we are young we can withstand a lot but more and more I see younger people getting sicker soon and more often....too much crappy food, tech, wifi exposure, bad work environments, not enough time in nature, and so on...it all adds up. Hell even the spiritual class separate themselves from society...those dam gurus...what do they know anyways, ha ha! Even they don't eat right for the most part! Life can be a tough row to hoe right...especially without a hoe or the dirt to sink it in....Thanks for your... what I think is the most valuable info on the internet!

your observations are accurate, but what i think your missing, is that you are considering agriculture only from the perspective of capitalist's commodification of agriculture. I'm not trying to talk about hippy communes, or soviet communal farms when i say this. What i mean is that capitalism and industrialization has allowed for the hyper commodification of the products we consume everywhere we go, and this can be seen very obviously in agriculture. A farm, was historically a place were a household engage land to produce their own means, or at least the majority of it as much as they could, and only then would they consider what other products they may choose to grow or make to engage the surrounding marketplace. The means by which people decided how engage agrarianism, was motivated by the idea of creating food output, not capital output. Because of the past 100 years and the deconstruction and demolition of subsistence agrarianism by a coalition of Capitalist and Artistocraticly corrupt Nation State forces, we now think of farming and everything else solely through the lenses of Product to Capital Transaction as the key performance indicator of success. Urban agrarianism is the future, but not because it will produce the food to be sold to the urban populations, but because Urban Populations will choose to learn or perhaps find a necessity to learn, how to rebuild subsistence Agrarianism once again. The future form of this will be far more impressive, since crop diversity, knowledge, infrastructure capacity, and technology have all made so much progress since 100 years ago. With a diverse agrarian community in place, local markets will thrive with excessive produce and raw materials, fueling a socio-economic rebirth of society.

How do developers take advantage of urban farms/community garden tax breaks?

Rosemont is the only burrough that I know of that promotes gardens instead of grass, good on them. However, I can guarantee you the biggest difficulty in Montreal is squirrels! They are the biggest thieves by far. I get the shit kicked out of every heavily defended crop plant I have. I still believe some things can be done, like the roof top farms at Lufa. Anyway, thats why I have rented dirt in the south shore next year, no squirrels.

Curtis, would you say working with private homeowners/landowners would be a better bet in general than going with what looks like a public lot in this video? Thanks.

the truth is 3 out of 4 people were self subsisting before petrol was available. urban gardens make total sense whenveveryonebis foingbit as a side income, your style of farming is so successful because not everyone does, so your local market is not saturated. fyi you can farm in lead contam, just dont grow leafy veg because lead goes into leaves.

You're on the right track but consider Iceberg lettuce at a dollar a head, tomatoes at a dollar a pound, Spinach at a dollar a bunch all GMO offered at the local grocery or mixed organic greens at 4 bucks a pound, organic tomatoes at 3 to 5 dollars a pound, organic carrots at 3 dollars a pound versas 80 cents a pound and you have fifty dollars to feed 4 to 6 people this week. it's not an education or desire thing it's an economic thing.

Today, the truth about urban farming. Tomorrow the truth about who shot JFK. Curtis knows no boundaries!

Curtis, I watch your videos and go over your book daily...i have a plot i'm trying to prepare but its about 20 ft away from the roadway of a highway. I got a fertility soil test and I know its not like a lead or metals test....the fertility test came out good. Now i've been so paranoid about it just because it's close to a highway its slowed me down...but i'm starting anyways....i've got all the planning stage down...i've got funds to get the post harvest to start up....but should i ditch this plot because its so close to the highway? i don't want to make people sick either...but everyone i've talked to says just go for it now and see what happens...is that viable advice?

Makes me glad I have a very lenient landlord who lets me grow whatever I want, so long as it's legal.

If you're not in farming for profit, then it's just a hobby. If you want to change attitudes, maybe work with interns. I was in Grand Central Market in NYC yesterday. Conventional Heirloom Tomatoes....$9.95 a pound. That's rich people food. They have an attitude of their own.

Global warming/climate change's main contributor is animal agriculture. 150 billion animals raised and killed needlessly annually. Humans thrive on a plant-based diet. I'd love to see the demand for fruits and veggies increase for the planet and the animals. I appreciate your honesty and yes I think you are right, even though blueberries are popular the local u-picks don't do well or compete with mass produced, cheaper product from the coastal area. I would think urban farms stand a better chance in health conscious areas...

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Curtis, You are looking at that site from a very narrow point of view. From a short term personal profitability point of view, it is not going to work very well. The sustainable energy audit will not look very good in the short term but the longer time goes on the better the sustainable energy audit is going to look. Perhaps the site would be better run as a not for profit community garden to encourage the local community to develop a connection with soil and their food. When you look at potential sites it might be good for you to take those entrepreneurial blinkers off.

$80k/acre/3 = $5.50 per sq foot, which seems way too high of a budget to bring in soil. I can get compost delivered in 15 yard batches for $325, or $0.80 per cubit foot. Topsoil is cheaper. The peat/sand/compost "garden" mix (one third each part) is under $1.20 per cubic foot. If the soil is that damaged, I wonder if pure container gardening would not make more sense. Another "truth" which you seem to be blind to - Your model of high turnover, high price crops is not inherently "scalable" to the full dietary needs of the people. Also, the very high value crops - microgreens at $15/pound - are pure luxury items. This limits the scalability of your impact. How can urban farming deliver 2,000 calories per person per day - protein/carbs/fat + greens - to the average person? I love gardening, and I like and applaud what your are doing on many levels. Also, as you say, start small and expand. But, clearly, a difficult area of expansion will be to have economically viable urban farming that will cover the full "food pyramid" that is also affordable to the average person? I particularly appreciate your comments that many people just don't give a shit. That is just reality - I have learned (somewhat) that when I am interested or enthusiastic about something, I have to be satisfied with the reality that I may be the only one who cares. Having said that, I am interested and enthusiastic about what you are doing. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Or, in the words of Webcajun - "Lache Pas!"

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When are you visiting the southern Appalachian? Come check out Roots and Fruits market in black mountain North Carolina. rootsandfruitsmarket.com/

You are not off base and like David Duvall, I thought it was just a USA thing too because it seems like Kelowna has some sense. For example I have shared my campaign: www.indiegogo.com/projects/microurb-microgreens-in-south-jersey/x/9495621#/ with dozens of hipsters, web developers and others and they like it, but no donation thus far and as you know Curtis, just liking what we do doesn't pay the bills. At the farmers market I attend I saw one person from my old college and she didn't even buy from me, just looked at my microgreens like "oh ok". So it's never who you'd think it should be that actually supports what we do.

What I if told you You that read wrong and that

this is a very old, stale story. there is a huge difference between a market and a farm. regarding 'hunger,' in the USA in california good food is available on demand; it's called food stamps. i liked this broadcast but felt that Curtis went to far to accommodate "the other sides ideas." have a look www.agprofessional.com/article/commentary-urban-farming-urban-myth

People and their dogs & litter, stray cats.....

people are poor and stay poor for a reason. Sad but true.