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| The welcoming entrance sign to the Pomona College Organic Farm... |
1.) Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?
- I plan to interview either Paul Huang, who works as a tech-consultant at International Polytechnic High School, or Rozanne Adanto, the supervisor for Pasadena’s Villa-Parke Community Center. Paul is a farming hobbyist who maintains a backyard-based urban farm of much acreage in comparison to his surrounding neighborhood in Arcadia. Rozanne heads a city-regulated center in northwest Pasadena so that the area’s inclination in being a ‘food desert’ is diminished. The center acts as a community garden in addition to teaching lessons regarding nutrition to those willing to listen and learn. In this way, Paul is a homegrown personal activist while Rozanne is a community catalyst of progress and a heightened standard of living.
2.) Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.
- How do you define urban farming and what ambition/interest of yours lead you to experiment with this field of science and of living?
- Farming has been defined as a rural pastime and culturally relevant way of life for rural communities in terms of modern society. How does its practices better benefit modern society by being in close proximity to city-living? How is the relationship between an urban farm and its urban environment more of a mutually beneficial relationship?
- To what specific kinds of issues can urban farming best be suited to treat and find solutions for? Care to share an example?
- How does urban farming define a community? Why would it be important for a community to treat urban farming as an outlet to the hustle and bustle of everyday life? Long-term results? Short-term results?
- How can urban farming become more readily accessible to the people of a community? How is the practice able to transcend socioeconomic backgrounds? What is the social value of urban farming?
- How is urban farming more of a concept that an idea? How can the conceptual aspect of urban farming act as a way for the idea to be implemented as a practice and reality? Define the reality of urban farming as you see it please.
- Is the practice of urban farming sustainable? How so? How do you define sustainability, and why does a future society of humanity need such a dose of supposed progress?
- What can urban farming contribute to science, and how can it act as a symbol of environmental stewardship? In what ways does maintaining an environmentally conscious urban farm aid in realizing the prosperity of one such farm?
- What are some stimulants behind the growing popularity of urban farming? How is this popularity helpful and troublesome? How can such momentum be harnessed for the implementation of urban farming and the design of its blueprint?
- What are some obstacles faced in establishing an urban farm plot? How can these be overcome? What makes the idea or urban farming so persistent, and a necessity?
- What is one argument that can be made to a city if one wishes to treat urban farming as a city-sponsored policy? What is an appeal of urban farming and its products that cooperative agriculture does not have?
- For what reason/s is organic farming a healthier farming method? How are its products healthier? What do you say to those who say there exists no scientific backing to this possibility of ‘healthier food’?
- How can the philosophy - define it as you see fit - forming the foundation of urban farming be applied to other political/social/environmental situations in daily life? How can such application better the standard of living for society as a whole?
- For those struggling financially, how is urban farming an alleviation to a burdensome socioeconomic background, and its consequences as lived out? Would you please focus on the consequences of tattered food security and living in a food desert?
- How do your first hand experiences with urban farming help integrate the practice into society and make the idea seem valuable? Valuable in what way/s?
- What are the first steps in convincing the public the relevance of urban farming? To what does said relevance mostly refer to (economic, environmental, etc.)?
- How is education a valuable tool in making urban farming a platform for a rekindling of connection between humanity and its planet? How is such re-connection imperative/beneficial?
- What is the simplest way for an average American to get involved in advancing urban farming? How would you define the ‘advancement’ of the practice?
- How can urban farming evolve in the ages to come? How will such evolution change the practice for the better? For the worse? What is your role as you see it in making such evolution possible?
- Do you think urban farming will eventually replace field agriculture as a primary source of food? Or is it more like a supplemental? What is the eventual goal of urban farming? How does it act as the means to achieving said goal?
