Vacant Lot-to-Bioenergy Farm in Central City New Orleans
The intersection of Jackson Avenue and North Johnson Street looks like many in Central City. There are vacant lots overgrown with vegetation and strewn with debris alongside boarded-up, decaying houses optimistically donning “for sale” signs. But on one corner in this neighborhood, which lies in view of the Superdome and the B.W. Cooper housing development, there are signs that a transition is under way. Over the past few weeks, the grass has been cleared, the soil tilled, and, in the next two months or so, this formerly blighted parcel will be filled with blooming sunflowers whose seeds will eventually be collected and converted to biodiesel.
Soon, five lots owned by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority at this intersection will be similarly planted as part of a pilot program dubbed Project Sprout. The work is being performed by crew members from Limitless Vistas, which offers youth workforce development training in environmentally related fields. It’s a model developed over the past couple years by Pittsburg-based nonprofit GTECH Strategies. GTECH stands for Growth Through Energy and Community Health. …
The primary aim of Project Sprout is not to produce vast quantities of biofuel, Bradshaw said. The pilot project under way is only expected to generate around 20 to 50 gallons of biodiesel that will be combined with recycled waste oil, he said.
Rather, Bradshaw said, the aim is for these sites to function as transitional sites that spur new interest in underutilized neighborhoods. The lots might function as sunflower farms for a few growing seasons, then be transitioned to market gardens or something else. READ MORE
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