urban agriculture policy
Agritecture Design Workshop is First Step Towards Baltimore Urban Agriculture Community Center
June 9, 2017 | seedstockNews Release: BALTIMORE, MD. (June 9, 2017) — Teams of local architects, engineers, real estate developers, Baltimore city officials, urban farmers, and others will compete this June to design and devise the best plan for sustainably growing food in Baltimore. These crowdsourced ideas will contribute to an actual urban agriculture community center to be constructed in Baltimore in the coming years. Read More
Woodchip Gate: Injustice for an Urban Farmer in Toledo, OH
May 1, 2017 | Trish PopovitchNefarious woodchips? Criminalized soil remediation? According to the supporters of urban grower Thomas Jackson of Toledo, OH, the level of police and city council harassment leveled against a local urban grower for having woodchips in his compost on his residential lots went far beyond outdated zoning laws and stepped things up to arrest warrants and legal pressure. All Jackson wanted to do was grow some organic produce in clean soil.
Master Gardener and multi-certified composter Thomas Jackson owns several empty urban lots in downtown Toledo. December of 2015 a complaint was filed against Jackson claiming his odorous compost was attracting vermin and in violation of residential zoning laws. A few years ago, Jackson began breaking down woodchips on the site to create a composted mulch. He wanted a contaminant free bed for his organic vegetable gardens, planning to sell his produce to area restaurants. Yet despite neighborhood support for a radius of five blocks around the site, officials insisted the neighbors were not happy with the state of the lots. Read More
In Urban Gardens Without Borders, Project Sweetie Pie Plants Seeds for Food Justice and Freedom
January 18, 2017 | Trish Popovitch
Michael Chaney, founder of Project Sweetie Pie, an urban farming movement based in Northern Minnesota to seed healthy changes in the community. Photo Credit: Karl Hakanson.
“North Minneapolis is going green
Give us a call and learn what we mean
Where once lay urban blight
Now sits luscious garden sites
Gardens without borders
Classrooms without walls
Architects of our own destinies
Access to food justice for all.”
– Michael Chaney, Project Sweetie Pie
In a collaborative effort to revitalize the economy and the community of North Minneapolis, Project Sweetie Pie, an urban farming movement working to seed healthy changes in the community, has as one of its principal goals the mentorship of 500 local youth in growing food, obtaining practical sales and marketing skills, and becoming leaders. Launched in 2010 Project Sweetie Pie has made great strides towards this goal by aligning dozens of community partners with hundreds of urban youth to implement community garden and farm stand initiatives, which together have resulted in a framework for a more self-sufficient and self-aware urban community. Read More
Weekly Stories of Food Systems Innovation from Around the Country
December 8, 2016 | seedstockArizona Urban Farming Startup Embraces Aquaponics to Increase Access to Healthy Food
BY VANESSA CACERES
Merchant’s Garden operates a 10,000-square-foot greenhouse; that utilizes an aquaponics system to grow lettuce, various other leafy greens, basils, … Read More
In Collaboration with Underserved Community an Outsider Helps Establish First Urban Farm in Dallas
November 28, 2016 | Karen BrinerIn what some might describe as a midlife crisis and others an epiphany, Daron Babcock, the executive Director of urban farming organization Bonton Farms, quit his all-consuming job in the corporate world and moved to Bonton, an impoverished inner city community in Dallas, Texas. He had already been volunteering there once a week, meeting with a group of men who had been in prison and were struggling to get their lives back on track. But two hours on a Saturday was not enough, so he decided to work full-time with the men.
After moving to Bonton, he noticed that many people were sick and dying at a rapid rate. He also learned that Bonton was a food desert, with the nearest grocery store a three hour return trip on public transportation. Daron recognized a correlation between the lack of access to healthy food and the high rate of cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes – Bonton had a 300 percent higher death rate from diabetes than the county rate.
It was a collaboration between six men, three of whom suffered from diabetes and cancer, that led to a decision to plant a garden. Read More
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