Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
For many years, people in American cities have
depended on farmers in rural areas to grow fruits
and vegetables. But now a new generation of farmers
is planting crops in urban areas. Sean Conroe is a
college student. Amber Banks is a teacher. They both
grew up farming and gardening. Sean Conroe and Amber
Banks wanted to start a farm in the middle of
Seattle, Washington. Amber Banks says: "There are a
lot of neighborhoods that don't have access to
healthy, fresh produce. And if they do, it can be
very expensive. So we see unused space as a great
place to grow food that will make it more accessible
for people."Sean Conroe created a website to get
volunteers and donations. Within a week, they were
offered a plot of land between two houses. He says
twenty volunteers worked for six weekends to turn
the grassy land into a farm. They call their project
Alleycat Acres. He says they are growing spinach,
onions, radish, lettuce and chard that are ready to
be harvested. There are also carrots, green onions,
peas, beans and turnips. And they are growing
broccoli, tomatillos, cucumbers and strawberries.
The Alleycats have harvested about ninety kilograms
of produce so far. They have donated most of it to
local food banks that feed hungry people in Seattle.
Bridget Barni was sitting in the dirt picking
lettuce. She is one of eighty people who are
volunteering at this urban farm. Like a lot of the
volunteers, she does not have much gardening
experience. One of the goals of the urban farm is to
show city people the joys of growing food. The
Alleycats invite school groups to the farm to help
out. And Amber Banks says they want the same people
who get food donations to learn how to work the
soil. Sean Conroe says Alleycat Acres is expanding
to other areas of Seattle. He says his group would
like to expand as much as possible where there is
empty land that has good sunlight, access to water
and a community supporting the project.Seattle has
declared two thousand ten "The Year of Urban
Agriculture." But the growth of these farms is
limited. That is because Seattle, like a lot of
other cities, has restrictions on urban farms. The
City Council is now considering changing those laws.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report. Support came from the Park Foundation, the
Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation and the
Great Lakes Fishery Trust.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
