Urban Farming

As the price of oil continues to rise, several stories have pointed out that more and more people are taking up gardening (see here, here, and here). Presumably we'll start to see more of the urban farming described here. Also of interest is an urban artisan cheesemaker in Atlanta; note all of the obstacles that she faced in even getting off the ground:

Under the flight path of the world's busiest airport, one of the world's oldest crafts takes shape in curds and whey.

Georgia's newest artisan cheesemaker, Mary Rigdon of Decimal Place Farm, turns out creamy chèvre, feta and tuma, a mozzarella-type cheese. Rigdon's dairy, supplied by a small herd of Saanen goats, received state certification earlier this month.

For Rigdon, it's the culmination of 13 years of dreaming and working to meet the state's rigorous standards for dairies, printed in a book more than two inches thick.

I predict that there may be some pressure to reduce such anti-competitive regulations in the future, if food prices continue to rise.