2024 Earth Day School Visits

2024 Earth Day School Visits

2024 Earth Day School Visits

Are you a high school or middle school teacher in Columbus City Schools? Looking for a fun and exciting Applied STEM tie-in to Environmental and food science? Consider bringing Mezzacello Urban Farm mobile farms to your class with 2024 Earth Day School Visits!

Why Earth Day?

Environmental awareness is a very important aspect of the Earth Day experience. However we know that knowing the problem is not enough. We need to also give our kids applied STEM tools to help address, solve, and better understand our challenges.

In addition, the theme of the 2024 Earth Day events this year is Planet Vs Plastics and their impact on Nature. All of our programming here at Mezzacello Urban Farm are aligned to the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Dealing with the inherent pollution of living in and growing in a dense urban environment is at the core of Mezzacello’s mission, this includes combatting micro-plastics pollution.

Bringing The Urban Farm To You, 2024 Earth Day School Visits

Each of the three portable urban farm carts is completely mobile and modular. There are three themes that can be explored using the mobile labs: Energy, BioEngineering, and Ecology.

If you are interested in having a mobile lab come to your school, please comment on the form below. This year, Earth Day falls on Monday, April 22, 2024. I can bring a mobile lab to a STEM class or an assembly. But a registration must be made first.

Visit Mezzacello Urban Farm

If you’d like to tour Mezzacello Urban Farm you are welcome to that as well. Mezzacello is located on the Near East Side of downtown Columbus, Ohio at Broad and 20th. It is central enough that Olde Towne and King Lincoln/Bronzeville schools can easily visit!

Mezzacello Urban Farm’s Applied STEM and agriculture infrastructure is extensive! We run programming here throughout the year, on site and online. On site there are four lab classrooms (Livestock, Energy Production and Renewables, BioEngineering and Automation, and BioTechnology).

In addition to the labs, Mezzacello Urban Farm has a complete standards-aligned and UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals aligned curriculum, formal gardens, aquatic, herb, hydroponic and traditional food gardens. All of these gardens have applied STEM and advanced permaculture and technology solutions built-in.

Camps and Workshops

Mezzacello runs summer camps, workshops, and online courses. Perhaps your students would be interested in taking a week-long camp or a one-day workshop? Perhaps you would be interested in becoming a teacher alongside my team of interns and teachers?


2023 Mezzacello Annual Report

2023 Mezzacello Annual Report

2023 Mezzacello Annual Report
Click on the Report to view a PDF

Our Mission:

Grow, Maintain, Sustain, Explain

Mezzacello Urban Farm invites students, families, and communities to learn about sustainability in a live enclosed, interrelated ecosystem lab in a densely populated urban environment. With gardens, ponds, pollinator systems, classrooms, compost, livestock, fish, insects and various bacteria, we teach about life. Our farm includes a greenhouse, power generation and water collection and purification systems, and a series of labs for research and teaching. Our focus is on hands-on applied STEM and we integrate robotics, automation, coding, and sensor systems needed to maintain a healthy, balanced homestead in the 21st Century.


Growth:

We were incorporated into a non-profit in 2021 and have been operating learning labs, tours and workshops here since then. In 2023 we saw ENORMOUS growth.

Annual Report Growth
Annual Report Financial Growth

2023 Highlights:

  • 2024 Innovations included a new BioLab for Biotech research and greenhouse use, an expanded BioEngineering Lab including 3D Printing and data analysis, and expanded power generation and renewables.
  • New for 2023 was the first iteration of my Student Leadership interns – a cadre of five well-trained and competent middle schoolers capable of teaching and leading with confidence.
  • In 2023 Mezzacello presented 6 presentation on Applied STEM innovations to the Global Innovation Field Trip and in partnership with Franklin Park Conservatory and The PAST Foundation.

Donations and Connect!

We created Mezzacello Urban Farm to make the world, or at least our local communities more innovative and sustainable. But we need your help. Please consider a donation to help us create a sustainable world.

Every dollar of your donation goes to providing equipment, resources, and scholarships, for inner-city and marginalized communities in Central Ohio to participate in Mezzacello programming. Please consider being a light in someone else’s garden.

Financials

That 10% in donations allowed 28 young people to attend camps at Mezzacello. Be a force for positive experience and change. Rick and I ourselves empowered 35 kids to join us here at Mezzacello Urban Farm. This is our first year in independent operation. 2024 holds so much more!


Please Consider Joining Us Here at Mezzacello Urban Farm!

There you can learn more about our mission, camps, workshops, research and development or to schedule a tour, donate or collaborate.

Sponsors and volunteers are welcome as well. All this can be accessed on Mezzacello.org.

Become involved in our Mission Today!

Thanks to Our Generous 2023 Sponsors and Partners!


Revisiting the Chicken/Duck Run in 2024

Revisiting the Chicken/Duck Run in 2024

Ah, the poultry run between the livestock shed and the energy generation shed! What a delight it is. I think it’s time for revisiting the chicken/duck run in 2024.

Why Revisit?

Well there are two main reasons I need to modify this system. The first being that when it works, it’s great, but when it doesn’t – like in the winter – it’s bad. The second is that it is labor and resource heavy to maintain it with satisfactory sanitation.

The issue is the rubber horse mattes. They are terrific and are required by law in my City. They are easy to clean, impermeable and long-lasting. The weakness is that I cannot adequately collect the manure runoff in a sustainable way for long before they clog or at all in the winter.

I was beginning to think that I had to modify the understructure of the mattes in a way that allows for chickens and ducks to have more natural materials beneath their feet. Secondly, I need a system that will manage manure in a way that does not back up. I found my solution from an unlikely source.

Paris or Bust

My original proof of concept was the redesigned 19th Century sewers of Paris. Allow water and waste to flow through channels and down into a main sewer where I could treat wastes with diatomaceous earth and UV radiation to cure the hot, acidic manure in a covered cistern. Then I could reuse the manure as a potent nutrient resource.

Alas, my sewers were under-designed and would clog easily. Even an 8″ diameter pipe and grated sumps placed strategically around the run were insufficient. In order for the system to work, I needed to engineer a 30cm (18″) drop which meant a cistern five feet deep.

Obviously that is a lot of work. It would also be a pain to empty. It does not work well in winter either.

Tour of The Livestock Sheds

Clean and functional poultry run

Dysfunctional Run in winter

The bioPath to the north of the poultry run and the manure collection cistern

Leave It To The Kids

Because this BioTechnology Summer Camp is an applied STEM summer camp, the team also came up with a series of solutions to the messy wastes and backup problem. Scrap it. Create a hybrid system that benefits animals and humans.

Team Duck, Mezzacello BioTechnology Camp Students

I have known this was a brewing issue for a while now. After two winters I can see the many flaws in my plan. But it was my BioTechnology Summer Camp Kids that really drove the point home.

In a section of the camp called sustainable habitats, one team of kids ran a meticulous review of the run and readily identified these issues. I was very proud of them.

Because this BioTechnology Summer Camp is an applied STEM summer camp, the team also came up with a series of solutions to the messy wastes and backup problem. Scrap it. Create a hybrid system that benefits animals and humans.

Listen To The Kids

Their suggestion was to install long French Drains located at the matte edges beneath the mattes. This would allow a small gap covered in hardware cloth to let water and wastes drop in and flow. They encouraged me to seal the south ends end to prevent rodents. They encouraged me to cover the rubber horse mattes with river rock to allow the manure and to percolate down and stay clean at the same time.

The drains would empty straight into a single 25cm (10″) deep, 8″ trough with a grate over at the run side of the walkway. Lastly, I am impressed that they recognized quickly the three major flaws with my existing system. I was quite surprised when they delivered their analysis.

I actually think this analysis the kids did is quite genius. One of them even drew what they thought the biggest problem with the system was: Too many 90 degree turns in the pipes. That had never occurred to me, but I see now that they were absolutely correct.

Their calculations showed that this stone hybrid interface would require .5 cubic meters (7.2 cubic yards) of river rock to achieve. The french drains would stretch north to south beneath the mattes and I could repurpose the existing sewer into a straight run in the walkway with a 10cm drop at the east end. The run drains to the north towards the walkway so this makes great sense.

This straight run and the smooth drains with steeper runs and no turns or wells to clog will allow me to clear wastes and recycle them easier – even in winter. The stones will keep the birds healthier and control the mess. The entire system will be far more sustainable and sanitary.

My BioTechnology design cohort!

I will keep you posted on the progress. Follow me if you have a coop and want to see the CAD plans and the before and after. If nothing else, show this to your kids to remind them that kids are the future, and a bit of Applied STEM goes a LONG way!


Mezzacello Zoo Brew Adventures 2023

Mezzacello Zoo Brew Adventures 2023

Well, now what do I do? Earlier this year I was gifted 25 cubic yards of Columbus Zoo and Aquariums manure called Zoo Brew. This is the story of Mezzacello Zoo Brew Adventures 2023.

Why So Much?

The truth is, 25 Cubic Yards is what Price Organic Farms proposed to me originally. I knew instinctively that that amount was FAR too much. But I knew I could spread 10 Cubic Yards around quite easily.

So I turned to the data. I have 45 growing beds and permaculture installations at Mezzacello. Once I started mapping out area and volume, that amount of manure disappeared quite quickly. It also meant that I had to move that mountain myself.

A Diagrammatic Map of Mezzacello Urban Farm with every system in place.
These Areas are the growing and garden beds at Mezzacello Urban Farm.

Once I started looking at Mezzacello to scale in CAD, I knew I was right. I was going to need at least 10 Cubic yards of manure and compost for all of the growing systems I have at this modest farm. This includes all of the farm febs and raised beds, hedges, and permaculture formal garden, parterre, and allee beds as well.

Yes, it’s a big pile of refined poop. Yes, it smells like elephants, zebras, and giraffes. As soon as this pissy gray late fall drizzle weather passes, I’ll begin moving this mountain.


Glyphosate and The Hormone Regulation Mystery

Glyphosate and The Hormone Regulation Mystery

Glyphosate and The Hormone Regulation Mystery

Last year, I and several of my colleagues began noticing that our egg productionn standards had begun to drop precipitously. We began to suspect that it may have something to do with feed tainted with Glyphosate-Resistant grains. We began to explore Glyphosate and the hormone regulation mystery.

This blogpost contains data and discussion of Genetically Modified Organisms and Genetically Engineered Grains.

The Science and the Doubts

Causation does not imply correlation. This is true. There is a lot of research on the efficacy and safety of GMOs. But there is NOT a lot of solid research on the effects of Genetically Modified Glyphosate-Resistant Feed Corn and Wheat products on animals and livestock.


Given glyphosate can kill commensal members of the microbiome like Lactobacillus spp., Ruminococaeae and Butyricoccus spp., resulting in reductions in key microbial metabolites that act through the gut-brain-microbiome axis including indoles, L-glutamate and SCFAs.

NIH Research


What I and my colleagues – across the United States – were noticing was that our egg production rates were plummeting for some unexplained reason. It was anecdotal, sure, but we realized quickly that all of us were using feed grain from big box farm supply stores. But those of us using special grains or their own feed were not experiencing egg production issues.

The Shikimate Pathway and Soil Modifications

The herbicide glyphosate inhibits the shikimate pathway of the synthesis of amino acids such as phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Unsurprisingly, you’ll find all three of these key amino acids are requirements for both hormone regulation and calcium synthesis for eggshell production.

What is missing is a complete understanding of how this process plays out in Genetically Modified Crops. Yes, there are some crops that allow them to escape the impacts of the shikimate pathway. But it is not the most efficient pathway.

The most common way that Glyphosate Resistance is engineered into crops is through engineered alternative pathways in soy, corn, wheat, and cotton that protects the plant from disruptions in the shikimate pathway. This genetically engineered crop has the benefit of making the plant Glyphosate Resistant. In doing this though it has dire impacts on the ability for a key bacteria to survive intact.

This bacteria is none other than Lactobacillus Acidophilus and related species. This particular bacteria plays a VERY important role in the mammalian and avian biome. It is absolutely vital to proper digestion, immunity, and hormonal regulation.

Glyphosate Is Everywhere

It [Glyphosate] exacerbates the issue we are addressing here; The impact on the egg cycle of My poultry livestock by genetically engineered grains.

Jim Bruner

Now you know that one of the integrated pathways of a plant to become immune to Glyphosate’s destruction was to engineer a new biological catastrophe. This is to cause a major disruption in a very beneficial and universally common bacteria, you and all vertebrates use to digest food. This is sadly the truth.

No matter where we turn, we cannot avoid Glyphosate and its extended and integrated impacts. It is a scourge to people with Glyphosate sensitivity. Genetically Engineered Glyphosate crops and their soil additives are creating the unintended consequence of Glyphosate-resistant weeds.

These “super weeds” are a bigger problem, because to combat them, agriculture needs to use even more Glyphosate to accommodate. It exacerbates the issue we are addressing here; The impact on the egg cycle of My poultry livestock by genetically engineered grains.


BioDome Curriculum Design

BioDome Curriculum Design

BioDome Curriculum Design

Meet my charming assistant helping me to create my BioDome curriculum design. Lydia and I were convinced that my instincts to teach the basic geometry of the BioDome could be mastered with straws, pipe cleaners and ONE hour of time. It was a success and I am very proud of us.

Geometry and Magic

The really cool thing about this project is that we were working on two DIFFERENT goals! I wanted to discover the bare minimum of materials to build a BioDome in under an hour. Lydia was exploring how big she needed to make the BioDome to hold an Aftrican Leopard Lizard.

Regardless, We both achieved our goals. The dome takes 50 straws and 25 pipe cleaners. The ratio of the lengths is also a geometric function.

The hardest part was prepping the straws’ lengths and cutting the pipe cleaners. If that can be managed the time to build will be 15 minutes. Then we can add an art component by deciding how we cover it!

Relevance and Function

The relevance of Lydia’s mission made it much easier and fun to build this dome. She immediately knew she would need a larger dome to get more space between the top of the dome and the heat lamp. We also agreed it made more sense to 3D print the hubs so we could use any material!

I am really looking forward to testing out this curriculum with a workshop or two at Mezzacello Urban Farm. Many thanks to the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation and the Garden Conservancy of New York for their generous donations and grants that made this research possible!


The Golden Ticket Presentation

The Golden Ticket Presentation

This is the Golden Ticket Presentation I gave 10/15/2023 at the Global Innovation Field Trip. It is a very nice presentation and I am very proud of myself. I am a Willy Wonka for summer camps and workshops on biotech, renewables and sustainability!

YouTube of my October 15, 2023 presentation to Global Innovation Field Trip.

I chose Willy Wonka because I know globally this reference is still relevant to many kids around the world. I wanted something fun and accessible, but still mysterious and a tad dangerous? Mostly I wanted kids to see that failure is the path to learning when we play rather than work.

Oompa Loompas AKA Student Interns

I also love my “Oompa Loompas”. These were my kid teachers. You can see them in the screenshot of the video above.

They are LITERALLY the three young (and only) girls in this photo. They were (from Left to Right) Milana, Summer, and Arya.They helped me run and teach this summer camp on BioEngineering to this group of 16 boys.

I never told them I thought any of my interns were Oompa Loompas of course. I didn’t know it then either. This idea of Mezzacello Urban Farm as a metaphor for Wonkaland is quite new.

But these five young interns were just that! The magic that makes the magical place work and come alive in the hearts and the imagination of the young people in the camps and workshops. I literally could not have had the success I did without them.

Impacts and Pride

They did a terrific job, and I am very proud of them. I am proud of all the kids in my camps and workshops this year! 160 kids in 13 programs, and an additional 103 in my online events and tours.

The success of this intern program has been so great that I am extending it into 2024 with a new series of workshops on leadership and peer to peer mentorship and training. I will be announcing details later in November. To those parents who have already reached out, I have your data!


This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023.



Why I Hate To Eat In Public

Why I Hate To Eat In Public

Why I hate eating in public

Eating solid food is a commitment for me. That is why I love Mezzacello and that Rick is such a great and imaginative chef. This is why I hate to eat in public.

I have to trade time for food (I must lay flat and lay still for a minimum of 30 minutes – each time I eat) I can’t eat foods that are too dry as I don’t have an esophagus with peristalsis and if food gets caught at my trachea where my stomach meets my throat I can easily choke or suffocate. Oh, and I cannot eat processed food or sugar.

No FAST Food, Just FRESH Food

Why I hate to eat in public

No convenient fast food for me. Sugar catastrophically escalates my insulin response and my blood sugar drops to dangerous levels and I pass out and loose the ability to process most nutrients for three days.

I MUST eat fresh, healthy food. Thus Mezzacello has become my lifeline in this world. Now we have turned our urban farm into a learning lab.

Make More Food

We grow a lot of food. We store as much as I can. I have a wonderful, creative, empathetic, and patient husband who is a fantastic cook and I eat like a king.

It hasn’t been easy though. First we had to learn how to grow food and maximize yields. Then we had to learn how to preserve it and store it properly.

Food is a frenemy to my body. I can eat almost everything. But everything has a cost.

The Reality of the 30 Minute Rule

I still have very real scars from my surgery. Not all of them are physical. I am very serious about fresh food – because I have to be.

But I know — without a doubt — the true cost of food. I have lived it. I am living it.

That photo above is my body just after I lost my esophagus. Those scars are where they took my left lower lung out and that tube is how I ate. I understand and appreciate that food is a LUXURY.

None of this left me special or unscathed. I am happy to be alive, even if it means food is complicated. That 30 minute lay flat rule means I avoid eating out and I often watch people in restaurants eat their food.

Occasionally I will eat in public and then go out to a car or lay on a bench or in a doorway to digest and reflect. Sometimes people give me money. I guess they think I am a homeless guy in a fedora, dress shirt, and a bow tie. Who knows? It’s a crazy world.


The Age of Steel – Part 1

The Age of Steel – Part 1

Slowly over the last six years I have replacing and updating mat garden infrastructure from wood to steel. This week is the dawning of The Age of Steel – Part 1. So why steel and not wood?

Plastic and wood are particularly vulnerable to the one two three punches of strong UV radiation, CO and O3 levels, and winds…

Jim Bruner

Originally it was not steel because poor boys have poor ways. We needed to build EVERYTHING at Mezzacello from scratch. Wood was easier to obtain, more adaptable and less expensive. It worked out at first.

Urban Location, Urban Decay

Over time the costs of wood kept mounting. The maintenance costs, the environmental degradation, and COVID supply and demand issues were making wood way more expensive than steel. So we started converting.

Wood is the ultimate in sustainability. There is no doubt about that. But wood did not evolve to withstand high levels of carbon monoxides that are present in an urban setting.

I can already hear people saying, well, steel din’t evolve at all. Steel was invented. And that is kind of the point.

Thank You, Wikipedia!

Oxidation is one of the largest, expensive, and most persistent problems at Mezzacello Urban Farm. Plastic and wood are particularly vulnerable to the one two three punches of strong UV radiation, CO and O3 levels, and winds that are artificially amplified by steel and brick infrastructures and wind tunnels.

Steel Is More Sustainable in the Long Run

When you see photos of Mezzacello as recently as May of 2023, you will see the former PolyPropylene and aluminum greenhouse. That structure was doomed for the same reason the wooden structures and fences were: UV radiation, acidic atmospheric conditions, and wind.

In the case of the greenhouse it was rapidly degrading PP panels and the aluminum substructure was far too lightweight to withstand the gusts of wind in downtown Columbus. That is actually one of the many functions of the wind turbines and sheds at the southern edge of the property. They serve as a windbreak – and convert that wind into energy.

While steel is heavier than aluminum and wood, it has a substantial advantage in that is can be easier to maintain and repair than wood or plastic. It also withstands fire very well. Fire is the absolute most efficient way ro deal with weeds.

In addition, steel actually requires substantially less maintenance and has more benefits over wood. This part of the process was partially funded by the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation, The PAST Foundation, The Boyd Family Trust, a lot of your donations, and Richard and I eating a lot of beans to cut costs.

In the end, it will be worth it. Almost the entire bioreactor and water collection systems are steel now. That just leaves the raised bed planting boxes (Beds 1 – 6) that will have to be converted to steel – or a composite of pressure-treated wood and steel. I am still working on that.

Stay tuned. Maybe you will steal a glance of what’s coming next. Or just keep following me.


Empowering Learners Through Applied STEM Learning

Empowering Learners Through Applied STEM Learning

Empowering Learners Through Applied STEM Learning

I love this photo! This is one of the students in Feather and Fin Workshops sponsored by City of Columbus Parks and Recreation this summer! This is what empowering learners through applied STEM learning looks like.

Give Kids Tools And Schools

In our workshops we look for opportunities for kids to see the world through new eyes. in the case of this photo it was through the eyes of a robotic fish health monitoring robot with a 1080P camera. The kids loved monitoring the fish from the BoiEngineering Lab.

Sometimes school is the best place for kids to learn. But there is something to be said for change of pace, change of place as well. The Mezzacello Urban Farm Summer Workshop Series was dedicated to just that point.

We pride ourselves on giving kids the tools and schools they need to see the worl – literally – through fresh eyes. This new data can help them better solve problems, and see new patterns. This is how we and they will change the world for the better.


This is a part of the City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Summer Grant Grant #1521-2023.