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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Developers Bet the Organic Farm
  • Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:11:02 -0700


Developers Bet the Organic Farm
by Barbara Damrosch
March 28, 2010 by The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/23/AR2010032304607.html
[Damrosch is a freelance writer and the author of "The Garden Primer."
Her book The Garden Primer is a classic manual for organic gardening. She and
her husband, Eliot Coleman, operate an experimental market garden in the
state of Maine. This garden produces food year-round and is a model of
small-scale sustainable agriculture.]

Forget the golf course. The hot new "amenity" being offered to residents of
new subdivisions is a working farm. You don't have to weed it (unless you
want to), but you can have access to food that could not be more local and
participate in a slice of vanishing farm life. Ironically, the housing
developers that are so often the culprits in farmland extinction are starting
to save some of it.

There is a difference, of course, between the old farming community where
everyone farmed and a planned community with a farm included, but something
of the old sense of rural village life can be retained by clustering homes
and having them anchored by a farm, as part of set-aside open space. Often a
farm market is set up, or a community-supported agriculture program through
which residents can buy food shares. Farm-centered festivals and activities
bring residents together.

Several hundred projects like this are underway or in the planning stages
throughout the country, but there is no one formula for setting one up. Two
well-established residential-farm developments: Bundoran Farm
(http://www.bundoranfarm.com), near Charlottesville, preserved 90 percent of
its 2,300 acres, including orchards and cattle pastures. Serenbe
(http://www.serenbecommunity.com) in the Chattahoochee Hill Country, near
Atlanta, combines New Age vibes with historicity, with three constructed
"hamlets" and several farms.

By contrast, Prairie Crossing (http://www.prairiecrossing.com) in Grayslake,
Ill., is an easy commute to downtown Chicago yet boasts a 90-acre farm and a
"learning farm." Agritopia (http://www.agritopia.com), in Gilbert, Ariz., is
smack in the middle of an urban area, with an ambitious farm project
underway. In Colorado, ranches are being preserved with narrow lots
encircling them like piano keys.

Most of these projects start with a matchup between a fine old farm to save
and a smart developer with a vision, but in the case of Potomac Vegetable
Farms (http://www.potomacvegetablefarms.com), west of Tysons Corner, the
farmers saved it themselves. Hiu Newcomb and her family now have a co-housing
project (a community with shared common areas and responsibilities) clustered
in one area, but most of the popular farm remains.

Another uncommon example is the South Village Community
(http://www.southvillage.com) in South Burlington, Vt., where a percentage of
house sales will help fund a farm's infrastructure. Will Raap, founder of
Gardeners Supply Co., provided interim funding as a "slow money investor" to
create what he calls "a new farming and food hub." Happily, getting the farm
off the ground first has paid off in buyer interest, as well as providing
several farmers with an honest wage.

It remains to be seen whether development-based farms will progress from
enticements to resources that can feed an entire planned community.
Encouragingly, a project called Brewster Point in Rockport, Maine, will have
a farm that is scaled to provide a significant amount of produce to all the
homeowners.

But any progress is good, since farm soil, once lost, is nearly impossible to
recover. As Julia Freedgood, head of American Farmland Trust's Growing Local
Campaign puts it: "It's fantastic to see the increasing trend recognizing
local food as a key element in creating sustainable communities. Ultimately,
it's helping keep farms in agriculture."




  • [Livingontheland] Developers Bet the Organic Farm, Tradingpost, 03/28/2010

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