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How an earthquake and a farmers market brought the San Francisco community together.

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In 1989, a large earthquake destroyed part of a San Francisco freeway that ran by the ocean.

The local community, however, managed to find a silver lining in the rubble — all thanks to a seemingly unassuming development: a farmers market.

Just a few years after the quake, they took what had once been a roadway in front of the historic Ferry Building and turned it into the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Today, it's one of the top farmers markets in the country.

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. All photos via CUESA, used with permission.

Aside from that, what makes the market particularly special is the organization that backs it — the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. They're all about cultivating a sustainable food system through community-based events, such as farmers markets and educational events.

And these local efforts are addressing a major, lesser-known challenge: food accessibility, particularly for those living in food deserts.

A boy grating a lemon at the farmers market.

Farmers markets like the one at Ferry Plaza bolster communities by bringing together those who actually make and grow food and the people who buy it. That, in turn, helps us learn more about where our food comes from and what it takes to keep it coming.

These markets also offer Market Match, which helps make fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable for low-income families by doubling their food stamp benefits at the farmers market. This may act as extra incentive for families living in food deserts to make the trip for healthier, locally sourced food.

But for CUESA, saving the planet starts with educating the next generation about sustainability.

A kid in the Foodwise Kids Program.

"Education is at the heart of our work," writes communications director Brie Mazurek in an email. "We aim to inspire and empower people of all ages to become informed eaters and co-creators in a healthy food system."

They offer market-to-table demonstrations at their markets as well as farm tours where people can learn from the growers themselves and discover cool new recipes.

And if you're a kid, you can get even more involved with two awesome programs.

Students in the Schoolyard to Market program.

Foodwise Kids is a free experience for elementary students where they go on a field trip to a farmers market. They get to meet farmers, taste local foods, and prepare a meal together, picking up basic kitchen skills along the way.

Meanwhile, high schoolers have Schoolyard to Market — a semester-long garden and youth entrepreneurship program. They start a garden at their school, learning about the importance of sustainability and nutrition and how to run a successful food business. At the end of the semester, they actually sell their garden produce at a farmers market.

Kids leave the program with a much better understanding of how food systems work, and growing their own produce reminds them that fruits and vegetables can actually be delicious.

Sellers at one of CUESA's food markets.

CUESA's certainly done their part for sustainable food systems over the last 25 years. Now it's time for every one of us to step up.

Some grocery retailers are already ahead of the curve. The Kroger Family of Companies, for example, makes it a priority to source locally, reducing their carbon footprint. They're also working on reducing waste with the Food Waste Reduction Alliance and helping improve the food supply chain, which has an overwhelmingly positive impact on the economy and environment.

And there are many ways that you can support the growth of this vital food movement, even if you don't own a grocery store or like digging in the dirt.

You can support local farmers and growers by doing your research and knowing where your food is coming from. Or you can go political and put pressure on your policymakers to support programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

SNAP brings nutrition assistance to millions of low-income individuals and families. It also provides economic benefits to communities and works with educators and state agencies to make sure people are aware of the food benefits available to them.

Volunteers at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

If communities everywhere start supporting the sustainable food movement, our world's food future will look much brighter.

The next time you're planning a big dinner — or just a Tuesday night family dinner, for that matter — take a moment to consider where you're getting your food. Deciding to choose a place that supplies products from local farmers may not sound that heroic, but over time, it absolutely makes a difference.

Whether it's farmers markets or sustainability-conscious grocers that get your business, you'll be putting money toward better food for future generations and a better life for food producers today.

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Urban Growers Collective converts Chicago city buses into mobile produce stands for city food deserts. - Upworthy ›

Matt Nuckols wants you to know a thing or two about dairy farm life.

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This is Cinderella. But she's not a princess — she's a cow.

And not just any cow; Cinderella happens to be one of the most popular cows in all of Virginia.

Matt and Cinderella on the farm. Photo courtesy of Matt Nuckols/Eastview Farm.

Cinderella and her owner, dairy farmer Matt Nuckols, make regular appearances around the state. They’ve been to schools, agriculture clubs, competitions, state fairs, and more. Cinderella has even met the past five Miss Virginias and the governor's wife.

Matt and his cows are on a mission to show people, firsthand, what it's like to live and work on a dairy farm.

Eastview Farm has been in Matt's family for decades. It started as a more traditional operation in the mid-1940s — "kind of the Old MacDonald-type farm," Matt says — before his grandparents started the dairy portion of the business in 1955. The farm was passed to Matt's dad, F.C., and uncle, Wayne, who then passed it on to Matt and his cousin Taylor.

From left to right: Matt, Taylor, Elsie, Wayne, and F.C. Nuckols standing on their family farm in Beaverdam, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Eastview Farm.

The cousins have been working on the farm for as long as they can remember. "I started feeding calves as the first job I worked," Matt says. "I was about 5 or 6 years old."

Technically, F.C. and Wayne are retired now, but that doesn't really mean much. "My dad only works about 13 hours a day," Matt laughs. "They're cutting back."

This connection between family and farming is actually pretty common across the country. According to the 2012 census of agriculture, 98% of farms in America are family-owned and -operated.

Eastview Farm is a beautiful place to live, both for the Nuckols and for their cows. Photo courtesy of Matt Nuckols/Eastview Farm.

Matt also attends events so he can show people what a living, breathing farmer is like.

He aims to combat some of the stereotypical ideas about farming he hears from people, many of whom have never met a dairy farmer or been on a farm themselves.

Some of the places he and Cinderella go are full of other farmers, like fairs, competitions, and cow shows. But they also go to schools and colleges to talk about dairy farming.

Matt often takes cows out into the community to teach adults and kids alike about farming. Photo courtesy of Matt Nuckols/Eastview Farm.

"A lot of it is just getting to meet a farmer," says Matt. "People see we actually come in different sizes and shapes and accents and musical preferences."

Matt also lets the people he meets know his strong opinions on the way he runs his farm with respect to how milk is made, how it's shipped, and how the cows are treated.

One of the ways that Eastview Farm holds itself accountable for the animals' well-being is through the National Dairy FARM Program — a third-party reviewer that makes sure participating dairies handle their cows with care. And Matt isn't alone in that — 98% of the milk supply in the United States comes from dairies enrolled in FARM.

He hopes to be able to get those messages across whenever he can — but of course, it depends on the audience. "Young kids mostly just want to know how much the cows weigh and how old they are and stuff," Matt says.

The Nuckols often participate in events and interact with people who are curious about dairying. Photo courtesy of Matt Nuckols/Eastview Farm.

But with the parents and teachers who accompany them, Matt can open a direct dialogue about dairy practices, from antibiotics and organics to the size of the farm and beyond.

As long as people are willing to listen, Matt's going to keep talking about what he does.

"People want to know so much more about their food — where it comes from, how it got to the store, and how the cows are treated," Matt says. "And I know they're gonna get information from somebody. So we really want to get out there and give them the information ourselves."

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This free Q&A platform is the game-changer that global food access needs.

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It feels like any question is answerable online. But for small-scale farmers around the world, it's not that simple.

Take the story of Kenyan chicken farmer, Kepha. "There was a disease that was ripping through his flock," says Kenny Ewan, CEO of agricultural startup WeFarm. "He had something like 52 chickens that he kept and half of them had died within the space of a few days."

Kepha's entire livelihood depended on those chickens. And if he couldn't figure out a fix quickly, they were all going to die. "That paid for his kids to go to school," adds Ewan. "To put food on his table."

Image via Pixabay.

In the past, farmers like Kepha had to rely on visits to the local market to ask fellow farmers for answers to tricky farming problems. If that didn't work, they could ask local extension officers, agricultural experts funded privately or by the government. But these officers work with up to 20,000 farmers, so farmers getting face time with them is extremely rare.

Luckily, Kepha didn't have to use any of those routes. In fact, he didn't even have to step outside his own farm.

WeFarm provides a simple question-and-answer platform for farmers in developing nations.

"What we do is crowdsourcing of vital information for small-scale farmers, primarily that don't have access to the internet," says Ewan. "They can ask a question on anything that’s happening on their farm, and we get them the right answer from somewhere else in the world without them having to leave their farm, spend any money, or have any access to the internet."

A WeFarm ambassador showing a local farmer the ropes. Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

All any farmer has to do is text their question to a local WeFarm number, which is free. From there, WeFarm's tech automatically analyzes the message based on location, keywords, and theme to find and notify the best farmers in their network that can answer the question. Once those helpful farmers reply with an answer, it goes straight back to the farmer in need.

"It's a really great service," said Kepha on the WeFarm website. "You ask a question and in less than 10 minutes you have an answer. It has also motivated me in farming knowing that other farmers are out there doing similar things."

To date, over 147,000 registered farmers have shared over 19 million messages. And the effects have been life-changing.

Just look at how WeFarm helped Kepha. "He got advice back really quickly from another farmer that had the same disease, recommending things he could do and medicine he could use," says Ewan. "He managed to save just under half of his chickens and keep his flock going."

Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

Granted, Kepha is just one farmer with a small batch of chickens. But when you focus on the grander scheme of things, what WeFarm is doing has the potential to affect agriculture worldwide.

"Statistics suggest that up to70% of all the food we eat on Earth is grown by small-scale farmers," adds Ewan. "With our hugely expanding population, that’s only going to get tougher."

Plus, with roughly 500 million small-scale farm families around the world living on less than $1 a day, providing them with meaningful solutions that cost nothing is crucial.

Image via iStock.

WeFarm's next big step? Reach a network of 1 million farmers and become the world's go-to agricultural guide.

Currently, WeFarm is only available in Kenya, Uganda, and Peru. But they have their sights set on Tanzania, India, and Brazil next. In time, WeFarm hopes to be available in every country.

But more than just a Q&A platform, WeFarm is also aiming to build stronger and more personal relationships. "If a farmer asked us about planting a specific crop," adds Ewan, "we can automatically compare their location to a weather report to tell them, 'Actually, don't do that tomorrow. Do it next week.'"

A WeFarm training session for local farmers in Uganda. Image via WeFarm, used with permission.

"That would be the ultimate vision. To be the ultimate source of agricultural information."

Unlocking this untapped wealth of grassroots knowledge could make a huge difference in improving global food access.

In fact, the world has already taken notice. WeFarm was one of the grand prize winners at the prestigious Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. They've also been tapped as one of the world's most innovative companies by Fast Company.

Image via iStock.

As amazing as these honors are, WeFarm's greatest achievement is still the work they do. "As we face new challenges like climate change and diseases and things that we've never seen before starting to affect crops all over the world," explains Ewan, "unlocking the knowledge that can deal with that on a practical grassroots level is fundamental in making sure that we can keep food sources available."

"That is going to be crucial in helping to feed the world."

Heroes

Climate change could change what we eat. It’s already happening in Africa.

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If your livelihood depends on crops, which need water, and there isn’t any water ... what do you do?

Borrie Erasmus struggled with this very problem just this year in South Africa.

His family has lived on the same farmland for 50 years. It usually rains between October and April in the region, but in 2015, El Nino weather patterns caused a drought that lasted through late February of 2016.

“On our farm, there has never been a time when there has not been any maize in December,” Erasmus told Aljazeera. “We could not even try planting seeds. It has been drier than ever.”

‌Weeds grow in a maize field in Malawi, which is one of the areas affected by drought earlier this year. Image by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images.‌

Over the last 40 years, Africa has suffered seven major droughts like this one that have dramatically affected food supply, crops, and livestock.

Philip Tioko, a villager in the northwestern Turkana region of Kenya, told the Washington Post that he lost all his livestock — including some 200 goats — in the span of just 20 years after repeated droughts dried up the rivers and caused the nearby lake, Lake Turkana, to recede. Now he survives by fishing, but even the number of fish are dwindling as water levels continue to fall.

‌A fisherman carries a caught fish at Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. Photo by Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images.‌

These dangerous droughts are likely to become more common if trends in climate change play out as predicted by scientific studies.

Many of the world’s important food crops, as well as its livestock, are sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall. Many simply won’t be able to survive in certain regions if it gets too hot or too dry. This problem will affect what local farmers can grow across the globe, as well as their everyday diets — especially when they rely on what they farm in order to eat.

‌A man cuts what is left of his yield to feed his livestock in Lesotho after a year-long drought devastated crops in the region this year. Image by John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images.‌

The good news is, people around the world are already starting to figure out ways to adapt their diets to the changing climate. To see some of the changes a warming world has had and will have on how people eat, take a look at Africa.

Here are five ways climate change could affect how Africa — and the world — will eat in the next century:

1. Corn might become less common.

Maize — a type of corn — has become an important staple food throughout the African continent over the last century. It's actually a pretty popular food all over: It’s the world’s third most important cereal crop (after rice and wheat).

A woman prepares the maize she raised inside her hut in Malawi. Photo by Kate Holt/Africa Practice/Flickr

‌In Africa, maize is often eaten by itself — roasted over a fire — or it is featured as a prominent ingredient in a lot of local dishes, such as the common mealtime starch ugali (a thick, stiff porridge) or the popular Kenyan githeri stew.

However, according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature, as much as 41% of the land in Africa devoted to growing maize could stop being productive by 2050.

2. Other staple foods might disappear too.

A banana harvest in Arba Minch, Ethiopia. Photo by Rod Waddington/Flickr.

Maize isn’t the only crop in trouble. Beans, bananas, barley, and wheat are just a few of the crops that could all struggle to grow because of climate change in certain regions of the world. This means that these foods might become less prominent in local diets, or they will need to be imported.

In Africa, the effects could be profound for local farmers. According to the study in Nature, 60% of bean agriculture and 30% of land currently cultivated for bananas could stop being productive.

3. New grains might become more popular.

‌A man loads his cart with millet near the village of Simiri in Niger, Africa. Image by Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty Images.‌

If some crops won’t grow where they used to, local farmers will need to grow something else in order to survive.

In Africa, this could me

an that farmers grow varieties of millet or sorghum instead. Both of these grains are actually native to Africa — unlike maize — and they are expected to maintain their production levels in the region despite climate change through 2100 because they are more resilient to drought. (Red millet also makes for a delicious and nutritious substitute to maize in ugali.)

4. We might eat different kinds of meat.

‌Image via iStock.‌

If it becomes too difficult to grow certain crops, some farmers might swap crop agriculture for livestock farming. Other farmers might change what animals they raise entirely.

In Kenya, camel rearing is catching up with cattle farming, reports Reuters News, because camels can withstand drought situations better than other animals.

While cows (and goats) require daily access to water and pasture, camels can survive without food or water for up to three weeks because their hump stores fluids to keep them hydrated.

5. We might start eating new veggies.

‌A man drying cowpeas in Ghana. Cowpeas grow in dry areas because they are able to survive high temperatures with little water. Image by Tree Aid/Flickr.‌

Several organizations, including the World Food Programme, are working to help local farmers in Africa become more resilient to climate change and “climate shocks” — like droughts — by diversifying what they grow. Instead of growing just one crop, farmers grow a variety so that even if one crop dies, others might survive.

Grain legumes, such as cowpeas, are often a great choice for this in Africa. These legumes are more drought-resistant, can provide protein, and they can even help restore the farmer’s soil because their roots "fix" nitrogen from the air, which then helps grow future crops. The stems and stalks of these plants can also be used to feed livestock.

While it is true that climate change could cause certain crops to disappear altogether, scientists, organizations, and farmers are working hard together to adapt and prepare for the future. It might just change what foods we all eat.

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Heroes

See 9 stunning vertical farms that could solve the planet's food crisis.

For as long as most people can remember, horizontal farming has been the only way to go.

But now, farmers are discovering that while horizontal fields of crops are beautiful, they might not be the best use of space.

As roots spread out across the ground, they leave a lot of unused real estate overhead. So what's stopping us from stacking our crops like densely-packed cities? Well, sunlight, for one. And gravity. Soil too.

But once that's all figured out? Perpendicular planting could be a much more efficient way to grow food.

What does vertical farming look like? Here are nine farms that are going above and beyond with their indoor produce systems:

Photo via Kirsten Dirksen/YouTube.

1. VertiCrop

VertiCrop was the first big company to kick off the vertical urban farming trend, stacking shelves upon shelves of delicious greens that could produce up to 20 times the crop yield with only about 8% of the water of a comparable horizontal garden setup. Time magazine even named it as one of the world's greatest inventions in 2009.

Though the company had some financial trouble, they definitely set a high bar for the power of this kind of sustainable farming.

Photo by Valcenteu/Wikimedia Commons.

2. Growing Power Aquaponic System

This aquaponic system takes advantage of the existing symbiotic relationship between plants and animals.

The pump pulls water from a five-foot-deep pool to feed multiple layers of plants — in this case, watercress and tomatoes — then drips back down into the pool again, where the fresh oxygen helps to feed the tilapia in the tank below. It's like a little self-contained and portable ecosystem! (Also, the fish poo works as fertilizer.)

Photo by Ryan Griffis/Flickr.

3. Wigan UTC Hydroponic Vertical Farm

This is believed to be the world's first educational vertical farm, where curious students can study, train, and experiment in farming progress.

At Wigan, a British university, the setup boasts a rotating soilless conveyor belt system, temperature and lighting controls, and even a state-of-the-art kitchen where students can actually start to develop recipes for the future (which may or may not include the delicious aquaponic fish they're raising as well — mmmm, space salmon).

Photo via Wellcome Trust/YouTube.

4. DIY Windowfarms

These vertical windowfarms are catching on in major cities where everything is already stacked up tall and tight — 'cause hey, if it works for people in a city, why can't it work for plants? There are plenty of online communities offering tips, tricks, and instructions, but the basic idea is that you can set up rows of recyclable drip-water systems in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a window, some old plastic bottles, and string.

Photo by SparkCBC/Flickr.

5. The Land at Epcot Center

That's right, even the mouse himself is getting in on the vertical farming action. And they're actually doing lots of cool research and experiments too! Plus, sometimes they make hydroponic mouse-shaped pumpkins.

Photo by Paul Goings/Flickr.

6. Bright AgroTech Zip Farm

These innovators found a cool new way to make their vertical farming even more vertical. They're not just stacking horizontal flowerbeds upright: They use zip ties to create vertical planes that grow crops outward.

Photo via Bright AgroTech/YouTube.

7. Green Sense Farms

Whoa, is that pink?!Green Sense Farms uses specially-made red and blue diodes to amplify the actual light rays that help plants grow. 'Cause who needs a full spectrum of colors when two of them can do the job even better?

Photo via The Good Stuff/YouTube.

8. Pasona Group Urban Farm

While vertical farms are great for making optimal use of space, what do you do in a place as densely-packed as Tokyo, where there's no room to build from the ground up? Simple: Start growing food in office buildings, like the folks at Kono Designs have done.

Not only does it produce some delicious crops, but employees are generally happier with the fresh oxygen in the air and the affective lighting. It's like being outdoors, but in an office!

Photo via Kirsten Dirksen/YouTube.

9. AeroFarms

Last but not least, built inside a former laser tag arena just outside New York City, AeroFarms is known as the planet's largest indoor vertical farm to date, with the ability to grow 75 times more crops per square foot while using 95% less water.

Their system relies on an aeroponic mist instead of standard soil and uses concentrated LED lights, and — oh yeah — it's also being used to provide affordable food to underserved communities. Win.

Rendering from AeroFarms. Used with permission.

Vertical farming doesn't just look cool — it's solving some serious planetary problems, and not a moment too soon.

This kind of urban agriculture is innovative and beautiful, which is great. But it's also a major step forward in addressing our impending food and population crises.

Between climate change and our rapidly increasing influx, some estimates suggest farmers will need to nearly double their crop output by 2050 if our civilization expects to survive — all while more than a quarter of our available farmland is already falling apart.

And while that sounds like a scary situation, these vertical farms are making sure we move upward and onward, so these kinds of problems can go right over our heads.

farms

In 1989, a large earthquake destroyed part of a San Francisco freeway that ran by the ocean.

And these local efforts are addressing a major, lesser-known challenge: food accessibility, particularly for those living in food deserts.

But for CUESA, saving the planet starts with educating the next generation about sustainability.

CUESA's certainly done their part for sustainable food systems over the last 25 years. Now it's time for every one of us to step up.

If communities everywhere start supporting the sustainable food movement, our world's food future will look much brighter.

This is Cinderella. But she's not a princess — she's a cow.

Matt and his cows are on a mission to show people, firsthand, what it's like to live and work on a dairy farm.

Matt also attends events so he can show people what a living, breathing farmer is like.

Matt also lets the people he meets know his strong opinions on the way he runs his farm with respect to how milk is made, how it's shipped, and how the cows are treated.

As long as people are willing to listen, Matt's going to keep talking about what he does.

It feels like any question is answerable online. But for small-scale farmers around the world, it's not that simple.

WeFarm provides a simple question-and-answer platform for farmers in developing nations.

To date, over 147,000 registered farmers have shared over 19 million messages. And the effects have been life-changing.

WeFarm's next big step? Reach a network of 1 million farmers and become the world's go-to agricultural guide.

Unlocking this untapped wealth of grassroots knowledge could make a huge difference in improving global food access.

If your livelihood depends on crops, which need water, and there isn’t any water ... what do you do?

These dangerous droughts are likely to become more common if trends in climate change play out as predicted by scientific studies.

Here are five ways climate change could affect how Africa — and the world — will eat in the next century:

1. Corn might become less common.

2. Other staple foods might disappear too.

3. New grains might become more popular.

4. We might eat different kinds of meat.

5. We might start eating new veggies.

For as long as most people can remember, horizontal farming has been the only way to go.

What does vertical farming look like? Here are nine farms that are going above and beyond with their indoor produce systems:

1. VertiCrop

2. Growing Power Aquaponic System

3. Wigan UTC Hydroponic Vertical Farm

4. DIY Windowfarms

5. The Land at Epcot Center

6. Bright AgroTech Zip Farm

7. Green Sense Farms

8. Pasona Group Urban Farm

9. AeroFarms

Vertical farming doesn't just look cool — it's solving some serious planetary problems, and not a moment too soon.

Learn more about the future of our plants and our planet in the video below: