I find it interesting that, as technology advances and makes the world smaller, some people are retreating to their own backyards.

In an era when you can get juicy watermelon, shipped from far afield, in icy Pitts burgh in January, empty lots slowly are being converted to small farms. There are urban farms in Braddock, Wilkinsburg and some in the city, for example.

Are we cocooning? Is being in touch with everyone causing us to need to withdraw a bit and be in touch only with ourselves?

Perhaps.

But wouldn't it be great to see those miles and miles of ugly, empty post-industrial sites around our region be renewed into farms?

Maybe it's time for history to repeat itself. The agrarian lifestyle has benefits beyond the sustainable movement. The beauty of green fields, the jobs that reintroduce generations to the earth ...

It will take niche training to get there, say those involved in the urban farm movement. Danae Clark, a consultant who runs Allegheny Greenworks, is working with Grow Pittsburgh, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable food production, to find manpower and funding to get such a program under way.

Urban farming is not as simple as planting and harvesting on a city-bound tract, she says. It differs dramatically from large, rural farms in methodology.

In fact, Marion Manion, executive director of Grow Pittsburgh, says the program will be called a foods system training program, to differentiate it from the traditional farm model: No cows involved.

As described in Marlene Parrish's story on Braddock Farms, urban farms are intensely cultivated -- planted tightly and in planned progression to make best use of smaller acreage.

It's also almost all nonmechanical, Ms. Clark said, and requires strong knowledge of the needs of the community in which it is based, since products are sold there rather than thousands of miles away.

Operators must have business training, since "you can learn all about growing things in soil, but if you don't know how to manage a farm as a business, you will fail."

While agricultural degrees are readily available, programs in urban gardening are not, she said. What she and Grow Pittsburgh are envisioning is a 20-month course that would start in winter with greenhousing seeds and continuing through two growing seasons. Ms. Manion would like to see Penn State brought into the mix.

The cost would be modest in relation to four-year degrees: $10,000 to $15,000, Ms. Clark said. The program would be targeted toward people in low-income communities, where jobs are at a premium. Profits are indeed a real possibility: The urban Somerton Tanks Farm project outside of Philadelphia (somertontanksfarm.org) has reported profit, she said.

The farm, which has completed its five-year experiment, in 2004 had a gross income of $68,000 on half an acre, said Roxanne Christensen, president of the Institute for Innovations in Local Farming, which ran the farm, ith the Philadelphia Water Department.

That exceeded the original goal of the for-profit farm of $50,000, which was reached in year three. An economic feasibility study reported that income of as much as $120,000 can be achieved via the Somerton model, she said.

Why urban farming should stick for the long run is an interesting question, but one Ms. Clark has parsed.

"You've got a younger generation that really gets it when it comes to issues of sustainability. You've got baby boomers like me who want to give back to the community and who are really worried about the environment and the issues of food security."

The global movement is turning back on itself, Ms. Clark said, and that is indeed nearly history repeating itself. It's only in recent decades that the idea of farming in one's own backyard went fallow.

Now, "it's almost as if nature is trying to fix itself and balance itself out."

The 15th annual Rusyn Food Festival will be held Aug. 7-9 at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Ambridge. You'll have your Carpatho-Rusyn favorites: Pierogi stuffed with potato/cheese or sauerkraut; halushki; stuffed cabbage; borscht; and an array of baked goods including palachinke (fruit- and cheese-filled crepes), cheregi and torte. There also will be arts, music and dancing. Call 724-266-2879.