Blogging the News

Mission Statement

Urban agriculture is a growing trend all over the world, and in New York City new spots are popping up every season. These organizations do a great job at spreading the word about the work they are doing, and have successfully been supported by their communities. Concrete Jungle Farming will provide local news stories highlighting the growth of agriculture projects around New York City and provide information for enthusiasts wanting to learn more about urban agriculture in New York City about where to learn, participate, or buy locally harvested produce.

Concrete Jungle Farming will bring news stories about new and interesting agriculture projects around New York City about how they started. There are also countless community gardens all over the five boroughs that do amazing work and are supported by their local community that can give ideas to others all over the world. New York City can take a huge step towards sustainability, and set itself apart if urban agriculture becomes a dominant part of city landscape.

Through original coverage, readers will be able to learn about some of the local agriculture projects. Urban Agriculture is just starting to get some media exposure, and there are many blog forums about starting your very own garden, there is no platform that talks about the local agriculture community. News about forums or studies, and how it relates to what’s going on in New York, legislative changes that relate to urban farming in the city, or new agriculture projects that are opening up. This blog will track the growth of urban agriculture in New York City.

This kind of site has a lot of potential to be a groundbreaking platform of information. New York City is largely untapped in its potential to support agricultural projects. Concrete Jungle Farming would like to see urban farms grow all over the city and have more people wanting to support local agriculture. As the trend grows in New York, as well as all over the world, this sight can become at the heart of the industry, providing a platform for some organizations to spread word as well as an outlet for people to come and learn.

Competitive Analysis

The closest website to competition would be fiveboroughfarm.org. Five Borough Farms is subsidiary project to Design Trust for Public Space and is actively trying to grow urban agriculture projects around New York City as well as to provide information. Concrete Jungle Farming will be an advocate for New York City urban agriculture but will not put forth any efforts into any projects itself. As an objective news blog covering the industry, Concrete Jungle Farming will highlight local farms, new farming projects, and general information about the benefits of urban agriculture. At no time will Concrete Jungle Farming advocate on behalf of a particular urban agriculture organization.

Concrete Jungle Farming Editorial Plan

I want to create a page that provides great interesting coverage of the urban agriculture industry in New York City. There is a lot to cover and I don’t think any local media has been really focusing on it. From the innovative farms in unique locations to markets and restaurants who buy their goods. There can be so many different articles to come out of this, I’m afraid my only limitation will be the weather. The articles are going to be more long form pieces that include original reporting and maybe some photography. I don’t have any lofty ideas for the blog long term, but I think it would be really interesting to see if any of my posts get shared through social media.

Types of Content:

Q&A- these would be shorter articles that would run more frequently, maybe once a week. There are a lot of people in the industry I could interview, a restaurant chef who buys locally grown produce, someone who works at a community garden, local customers of produce either at restaurants or from the neighborhood farms community board leaders where farms are in their district, community members who volunteer, etc.

Profile- I want to write individual profiles of specific community gardens or urban farms. Some local gardens do wonderful community service. The larger farms are highly innovative and provide an example for how we should move forward. I also want to write an article focusing on the importance of urban agriculture in terms of food sustainability on a much larger scale.

I could do a short blog maybe of different Instagram posts of people’s food of locally grown produce.

Numbers:

For the interviews I’m not sure how long they will be, it depends on the subject and how long their responses are. The profile pieces would be longer form stories, maybe 600-800 words.

The Q&A’s I would try to keep up once a week, and produce the longer form pieces every two weeks. I would have an option to sign up for emails and the articles would be emailed when the profile pieces come out every two to three weeks.

There many articles about urban agriculture around New York City, however there is not a steady source of information to learn about the industry. I want to provide an inside look from the people growing, buying and eating locally grown produce.

Multimedia

I am going to try to include photos in as many posts possible. If I can get a picture of the subject, or of the garden or farm that would be great. Additionally I think it would be great to include a video of some kind about the agriculture industry as a whole, or about one garden or farm like a profile piece.