Salt Lake County’s urban farming initiative

Urban farming – County preparing to break ground

Tribune Editorial
The Salt Lake Tribune
Nov. 04, 2009

As they sow, so shall they reap. With a progressive and expansive urban farming initiative, Salt Lake County officials are wisely planting the seeds of community, economy and healthful, sustainable living.

After getting the green light from the County Council in August, county staffers identified dozens of sites that may prove suitable for agricultural use, everything from tiny plots for public vegetable gardens to sprawling expanses suitable for biofuels production projects.

An advisory committee will help guide the initiative and refine the tentative plans presented to the County Council by program coordinator Julie Peck-Dabling last week.

It’s an ambitious, three-pronged proposal. Ten tracts of county land up to 30 acres in size may, at long last, be leased to farmers. Regrettably, vacant public land, most of it reserved for future public works projects, has lain fallow. The county will be drafting requests for proposals, and would look favorably on plans that call for crops to be sold locally.

Four parcels of 30-plus acres may sprout safflower and other plants that produce biofuels, which would be used to power municipal fleets and reduce our reliance on imported oil. It’s the first part of the urban farming plan to hit pay dirt, with the county, Salt Lake City and Utah State University teaming to produce biofuels from crops to be planted on a 200-acre city-owned tract, the future site of a sewage treatment plant near Salt Lake City International Airport. The soil is being prepared for a spring planting, and the effort could net up to 10,000 gallons of biofuels per year.

And, in an attempt to help city folk and suburbanites reconnect with their agrarian roots and grow healthy food for home consumption, the county will nurture community vegetable gardens on as many as 23 small plots in county parks and on patches of unused government land.

The gardens will take extensive planning and buy-in from the public, forcing the county to proceed slowly, Peck-Dabling said. Grants may be sought to offset costs, and meetings may be held to gauge community interest. Potential sites will be carefully evaluated during a year-long study, with preference shown for areas where demand is high and gardens can be established economically, perhaps with “sweat equity” provided by program participants.

Putting idle land to productive use and encouraging sustainable living are worthwhile endeavors. And nominal public investments to provide water, sheds and fencing at garden sites would be money well-spent. The county should do all it can to help the program take root.

Link to article here.

See Salt Lake County urban farming documents here. Go to ‘urban gardening’ icon on left side of the PDF.

See Utah’s Urban Farming Conference, Nov. 16, 2009 here.