"At Vacant Homes, Foraging For Fruit" in the NY Times

On Sunday, August 14, an article about foraging at Atlanta's foreclosed homes appeared in the New York Times. The article, written by Kim Severson, offers an interesting perspective on foraging during economically trying times; you can decide for yourself what you think about this practice, and the ethical questions therein.

Click here for the full article.

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts: Summer of Smart

 

 (Screenshot taken from the GAFFTA, SoS website)

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) is a San Francisco-based foundation that seamlessly integrates the work of designers, coders, urbanists, and artists. They work at the intersection of these various disciplines, producing provocative work that engages people from disparate fields.

Here is a bit about their work, in their own words:  " GAFFTA brings together the best creative coders, data artists, designers, and makers to create experiments that build social consciousness through digital culture. We fund programs aimed at the production, research, and dissemination of digital culture where art, science, technology, and society intersect. We bring diverse communities together to incubate ideas, and we support and showcase the projects they create. We host classes, workshops, seminars, and symposia taught and attended by the very people that are transforming today’s digital age.


This weekend, GAFFTA is organizing the third and final Summer of Smart: Public Health + Food + Nutrition + Urban Agriculture. The event, which is open to the public, is a weekend-long affair whereby teams of attendees will work together to create mobile applications that address urgent needs at the nexus of planning, food systems, and public health. The most promising projects will have an opportunity to present their work at the San Francisco mayoral forum, as well as become researchers-in-residence at GAFFTA this fall.  Click here for more information about this dynamic event.

I'll be there, and I hope to see you, too.

-Asiya

Boskoi: New Foraging Mobile App

(screenshot pulled from the Boskoi website)

Urban Edibles, an Amersterdam-based harvesting group, has released a new mobile foraging application whereby users can search for any number of fruits, nuts, fungi, herbs, and reeds, among other forage-ables. The new application is based on an opensource Ushahidi platform and is called Boskoi, which means 'browser' in Greek. The application is currently available in beta form for Android phones.

Download the free application and contribute to the crowdsourced list of edibles.