une/July 2008
My Mother’s Garden
Muktha Jost
Getting A Grip
Frances Moore Lappé
The Documented Health Risk of
Genetically Engineered Foods
Dr. Jeffrey Bland Interviews Jeffrey Smith
The Emerging Significance of Urban Agriculture
Jody Woodruff
Our Food Future
Scott McGuire
We Need A New Generation of Farmers
Zoë Bradbury
Soft Intentions, Hard Results
Peter Moore
Fitness Training For The Brain
Jim Brown and Molly Brown
Improved Health Through Detoxification
Daniel Smith, ND
Awakening and Embodiment
An Interview with Judith Blackstone
Randall Keller
Reclaiming Our Attention
Guy Finley
Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain
The Emerging Significance of Urban Agriculture
By Jody Woodruff
The New York Times, in a recent article on urban agriculture—a subject of increasing interest possibly as a result of predictions of an impending world wide food crisis—describes a successful metropolitan farm in Pennsylvania:
“Amid the tightly packed row houses of North Philadelphia a pioneering urban farm is providing fresh local food for a community that often lacks it, and making money in the process.”
Only three miles from the skyscrapers of midtown Philadelphia, this particular urban farm, Greensgrow, manages to turn a profit from one acre of greenhouses and raised beds on the abandoned site of a former factory. The small business sells its own vegetables and herbs, produce from local growers, and also operates a nursery which provides plants and seedlings for sale. In addition to vegetables and fruits, a popular product is their “Honey From the Hood,” honey made from their own colony of bees that produces about 80 pounds a year. Functioning as a successful business for the past ten years, Greensgrow hopes to soon open another “farm” elsewhere in the city.
Greensgrow began with Mary Corboy’s vision of producing hydroponically grown lettuce for Philadelphia restaurants. When she and her former partner discovered the abandoned industrial site, they persuaded a local Community Development Corporation to purchase the land and, in turn, rent it to them for their enterprise. Their initial investment of $25,000 included soil—often a start up requirement for many urban farms that utilize previously contaminated sites—which was trucked in and used to cover the concrete foundation of the old factory. Importing soil is a method often used in the reclamation of unused land and dilapidated, unsightly, post industrial sites.
Mary soon realized that she had more than a lettuce growing business. Positive community response encour-aged expansion along with the realization that urban agriculture must meet the needs of the people in their immediate community. She expanded as she found that people were eager for good local produce and would support their operation.
Greensgrow is not alone. Urban agriculture is quietly expanding to many major cities. For example, Southern California weather is ideal for many types of urban agriculture—from a home turned into an urban homestead growing produce on 1/10 of an acre in their front yard to larger farms on post industrial sites similar to the operation in Philadelphia.
Veg Farm is an example of the latter. Thirty five acres in the midst of urbanized glass and steel office buildings near Long Beach, California is worked by three generations of the Takahashi family, producing vegetables, herbs, greens and root crops. Before industrialization, this coastal plain south and west of Los Angeles was considered a breadbasket, with at least 100 urban farms covering 3,500 acres. By the time of a study in 1993, 98% of that urban farmland had disappeared. Nevertheless, an array of commercial urban agriculture operations are now thriving—from backyard gardeners selling their produce at Farmers Markets to sprout growing enterprises and farms under power lines.
In the Los Angeles area, Southern California Edison owns thousands of acres of grassy rights-of way under high voltage power lines, renting out 2,000 acres to 100 nursery growers and another 2,000 acres to 100 farmers. This has allowed many urban farms to develop, although it may not be a long term solution because they are subject to eviction at any time despite Edison’s reassurances to the contrary.
Many urban farmers are aided by selling more and more of their crops through Farmers Markets which are springing up in cities all over the United States. These markets offer close proximity for customers and growers, a critical aspect for success. For example, the huge Los Angeles Farmers Market in downtown LA, open every day, provides the perfect opportunity for a diverse group of sellers to reach their consumers. This easy marketing compensates to some extent for the urban problems facing farmers in many communities.
Although some communities welcome easy access to fresh, healthy produce, some residential neighbors complain about the noise of farm machinery, trucks driving into their streets and “unsightly” gardens. In addition, the prohibitive cost of insurance means the farmers usually have to bear the cost of losses themselves. Despite the drawbacks and obstacles, urban farmers are part of a global phenomenon, although “overlooked, underestimated and underreported” according to the United Nations Development Program.
Urban agriculture as an industry is farming that is practiced for income earning through the sale of crops. By this definition, shared community gardens for personal use are not included, although from all reports this type of farming is also on the increase. Urban and semi-rural community gardens have become a popular method for citizens to share space and production of food. Considering that 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, both types of farming are a blessing to a world with an increasing food supply problem.
In short, the benefits of urban agriculture are many: vacant urban areas can be used in a productive fashion; energy is saved by less transporting of produce; local production allows savings in transportation costs, storage and product loss, resulting in savings to consumers; it facilitates access to food by an impoverished sector of the population (urban poor spend 60-80% of their income on food); and it makes the city a healthier place to live through greening and reduction of pollution.
Most Americans take food for granted, but escalating food prices—some of which have doubled in the past two years—have precipitated riots in several other countries. We may not have riots in the US, but our needs and understanding of agriculture may change. In fact, a step backward may be a step forward in our case.
As a child growing up on a truck farm in the 1940s, I witnessed the dramatic change for small farmers, prosperous for generations, when they were replaced by large farm corporations. Many small farmers gave up growing a variety of vegetables in order to contract their fields to big companies growing specialized single crops—in our case, the mammoth Seabrook Farms, the largest freezing and dehydrating plant in the world during WWII. Produce was no longer trucked to nearby towns and cities by local farms, and gradually, vegetables were transported from distant states or even from other countries. People ate locally only if they lived in a rural area or had their own gardens. But now, with the energy crisis and increasing demand for healthier food, the process may be reversed to some extent. Urban agriculture may not replace land extensive production that now provides most of our produce, but as a supplement it can be an important source of food.
What kind of world do we want? Many are beginning to take that question seriously. As one urban farmer remarks, “Growing food is empowering. Growing our food for local consumption can be a path to freedom.”
Jody Woodruff is a retired social worker and educational film writer who now writes freelance from Talent, Oregon.
