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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City
  • Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:16:49 -0600


Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City
by Holden Frith
http://www.consciouschoice.com/2003/cc1610/urbanfarms1610.html

Heading west from the Loop on the El’s Green Line, the hustle and bustle of
the high-rises gives way with disconcerting suddenness to boarded-up windows
and barren lots. Just a few stops from the soaring, world-class architecture
of the Loop, vacant parcels dot the landscape.

Yet the vacant lots themselves are inspiring optimism. Increasingly, people
are looking at the junk-strewn weed-laden land and seeing an untapped
resource. The empty lots, they say, need not be worthless. Instead, they
should be cleared, cultivated and turned into economically productive "urban
farms."

"If the investment were made in urban agriculture," says Ken Dunn, founder of
an urban garden group called the Resource Center, "it could bring full
employment to a community, great improvements in nutrition and a sense that
we’ve got a mission together where communities are contributing to the wealth
of the city."

The idea is not new — the Resource Center opened its first garden in 1975 —
but now it seems to be catching on. Dunn’s group owns four sites around
Chicago and city authorities recently invited it to expand its farm at West
Division Street and North Clybourn Avenue from one acre to two. It’s a small
step toward Dunn’s vision of a productive city, with every vacant lot
replaced by community-owned organic farms, but small steps reap big benefits,
Dunn says. "We actually started experimenting with agriculture 25 years ago
or more as a means of improving the quality of life here in the city," he
says. "Mostly we’ve been working on community gardens and noticing there’s an
extreme community effect of people getting together and gardening together
and supporting each other that way, but early on we noticed that some people
needed more than just food for their tables. They should have the capability
of growing vegetables for sale to others and of creating their own jobs."

Now the four farms grow tomatoes, potatoes, greens, turnips and radishes,
which they sell at local farmers markets and to restaurants and passers-by.
As well as generating income and a sense of purpose, the sale of produce
brings another benefit to the community: fresh, readily available organic
food. In many of Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods, such food can be almost
impossible to find.

"It’s a real chore to get a salad," says LaDonna Redmond, president and CEO
of the Institute for Community Resource Development in West Garfield. "We can
purchase illegal drugs, weapons, Nike trainers and junk food, but we can’t
get a salad."

Redmond became interested in nutrition after her son was born with food
allergies. She began to research what goes into the food we eat and was
alarmed by what she describes as the increasing industrialization of
agriculture. "My son’s health depends on not ingesting chemicals," she says,
"but when I set out to buy organic food I found, one, that it wasn’t
available and, when I did find it, two, that it was very expensive." She says
distributors of organic food overlook neighborhoods like hers because
"there’s an overall perception that African-Americans wouldn’t buy it. It’s
only marketed to wealthy people ­ [people who are] middle-class...mainly
white."

However, Redmond says African-Americans will buy organic food if they are
given the chance. The two farms run by her organization, located at 200 N.
Kenneth Avenue and 4429 W Fulton Street, grow collard greens, okra and other
foods that she says are "consistent with the diets of African-Americans."

Redmond has met with enthusiasm from most everyone, including city
authorities. "Food is one of those issues that unite people," she says. "I’ve
worked in substance abuse and prisoner rehabilitation and there is always
someone who says,‘That person doesn’t deserve a second chance.’ But I have
never been in a situation where somebody has sat across the table from me and
said that people don’t deserve access to quality food."

City support will be crucial if the urban farming program is to expand beyond
its fledgling status and become a serious food provider. While income from
sales can pay for maintenance and staff salaries, start-up costs can be
prohibitive. The average cost of turning an acre of wasteland into productive
farmland is about $20,000, according to Ken Dunn. "...we have suggested to
the city that, given the advantages to the municipality of free lots being
productive and being used for job creation, the city should invest in the
initial emptying and enriching the soil. From there on it can be a
self-sustaining farm."

The city has responded positively, Dunn says, and is looking for a 5-acre
site suitable for "the next step of demonstrating urban agriculture," but has
not yet settled on a specific location.

While the city is deciding, urban agriculture rookie Carol Hughes is finding
out firsthand that setting up a site is no easy task. She is the project
leader for Urban Farmers in Training, which started work on a farm in
Woodlawn in mid-May. The four-block site, owned by the First Presbyterian
Church, was standing unused until Hughes stepped in after hearing Redmond
speak about her experience of farming in West Garfield. "I met LaDonna at the
Food Security Summit two years ago, and I was hearing what she was trying to
do in her community," Hughes says. "I thought about all the land the First
Church has available. We had a food distribution program, a soup kitchen, and
[I thought] it would be nice if we could incorporate fresh food, fresh fruit,
fresh vegetables into those programs first of all."

Hughes laughs as she describes how she had to start from scratch, teaching
herself about nutrition before she could pass on her knowledge to neighbors.
"It’s a slow learning process," she says. "We’re all into fast food and
microwaves, so we’re making it as simple as possible and convenient as
possible."

Getting the farm up and running has proved to be anything but simple and
convenient, though. Hughes says the project is getting by "on a wing and a
prayer," with several small grants and a lot of volunteer support.

On more mature farms, such as those overseen by Dunn and Redmond, day-to-day
survival is no longer an issue. Their viability has been established, Dunn
says, and the time has come for Chicago to commit to the idea of urban
agriculture on a citywide scale. Chicago has 6,000 acres of unused land,
which he says would support 42,000 full-time jobs if all of it were
cultivated. With local ownership, the whole neighborhood has a stake in the
farm’s success, Dunn says, and the whole neighborhood is lifted. Aside from
the tangible benefits of food and jobs, Dunn says community farms bring an
intangible psychological bonus. "We’re moving back into the production
economy, where people actually produce things for themselves. It’s a very
engaging job, and a very human one."





  • [Livingontheland] Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City, Tradingpost, 08/17/2008

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