
A Woman Who Harvested a Two-Acre Wheat Field Off Wall Street (2018) - sstriegs
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/t-magazine/agnes-denes-art.html
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thinkalone
Today there is an educational organic farm about 1,500 ft away from where the
wheat was grown: The Urban Farm in Battery Park
[http://thebattery.org/destinations/urban-
farm/](http://thebattery.org/destinations/urban-farm/)

And there are hundreds of community gardens across the city that are
maintained by neighbors and supported by the Parks Department.

Bonus: A time capsule was also part of the piece, set to be opened in the year
2979
[http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7.html](http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7.html)

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Mirioron
Is this stuff edible? Being in a city sounds like it would be near a lot of
pollution? Does it not affect the plants?

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thinkalone
The garden is overseen by professionals, so it has likely had soil testing
done, especially since they are growing produce.

Manhattan is mostly an island of bedrock, and there is no manufacturing or
industrial areas in Lower Manhattan that would contaminate the soil. The only
concern would be protecting the garden from water running off the streets
bordering the park, but those all have drainage and curbs installed.

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theoh
Air quality is also an issue!

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antnisp
Ironically, there is little confrontation between a skyscraper and a wheat
field, in the sense that they are both extremely artificial and totally man
made.

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thevardanian
There's a huge confrontation.

One is a agrarian and the other urban.

Two types of completely different civilizations clashing.

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jsonne
I assure you the wheat field will survive without the skyscraper, the other
way around not so much. Cities may believe that they are independent of
agrarian and rural society but the reality is that modern cities consume an
incredible amount of raw resources and by necessity require the resources that
an agrarian society produces. While it may sting and be sub optimal an
agrarian society doesn't per say need an urban one to survive.

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crooked-v
"Agrarian society" doesn't really exist anymore in the first world, given the
overwhelming centralized corporatization of farming.

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AngryData
The Amish might count atleast.

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jws
I plant a small field at the end of my parking lot in grain; wheat, oats, or
barley. It started as a way to replace the weeds the previous owner let be,
but over the years it has become its own challenge.

The progress from bare soil to green shoots, tallish grass, grain heads and
then the dried straw color before harvest ties the viewer to the seasons.

It’s a small field. 1/20th of an acre (1/50th of a hectare if you go that
way), but since I do all the work by hand it keeps it from being a burden. The
down side of being the only grain field for miles around is that wildlife can
wipe me out. A large flock of birds before harvest can do serious damage.
Lately I lose most of the crop to sleeping deer which mash it down before
harvest.

On a good year I make more seed than I plant.

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Mirioron
Is it edible? Since it's near cars and their exhausts I imagine that some of
it is going to seep into the plants.

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matheweis
Some modern farm equipment literally injects diesel exhaust into the soil, the
claim being that the increased carbon and nitrogen levels augment or replace
fertilizer. And no I am not kidding, see Bio-Agtive.

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fouc
I was hoping it was going to be about a loophole in wheat futures that let you
claim ownership of the wheat field.

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riffic
There was a very similar art installation in downtown Los Angeles in 2005:

[https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/field-of-dreams-
the-c...](https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/field-of-dreams-the-
cornfield-throughout-los-angeles-history)

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LifeLiverTransp
I wish you could put produce farms into transparent tethered ballons- then
they could provide shade for the buildings reducing ac-cost, while producing
produce like a greenhouse.

Idiotic dream i guess, but a nice one.

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SirLJ
This is about art, not farming and it is great!

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webninja
> “a two-acre wheat field that was planted in May 1982 on the landfill that
> would eventually become Battery Park City”

I would not eat wheat grown from a New York landfill.

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rhapsodic
By "landfill", they mean land that was created by filling in the Hudson River,
not a landfill where refuse is buried. But still, I would eat anything made
from that wheat.

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jimmaswell
To add context, that river is polluted with things like PCBs and mercury to
the extent that official guidance is to not eat fish you catch there.

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ndnxhs
All seafood is contaminated with mercury from coal mining/burning

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jdavis703
From the headline I assumed some “average Jane” had discovered a way to rip
off the big banks via wheat derivatives, or futures or some such financial
non-sense. Of course the headline for this article seems to reflect the post-
modern bullshit that everyone from Wall Street banks to emerging artists (and
yes, SV startups) seem to be participating in today. Since post-modernism
seems to be preoccupied on the banality of the present I will leave no further
words.

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throwawaymath
What does "post-modern" mean in this context?

This isn't a leading question - I really don't know what you mean here.

