Texas editorial – Urban agriculture, the next cool thing

Sunshine Community Garden, Austin, Texas.

The Dallas Morning News
November 13, 2009

Did you know that more Texas kids are believed to be studying agriculture and agricultural science in urban and suburban high schools than in the state’s rural academies?

As education officials told Dallas Morning News reporter Matt Peterson earlier this week, most of the ag-related jobs now and in the future are based in urban areas, not on the farm. “For that reason,” said the Texas Education Agency’s Ron Whitson, “I think these courses are very relevant to our young people.”

Are the future farmers of America actually living in suburbia? Not quite. As educators point out, agriculture is a far more diverse industry than the growing and harvesting of crops and raising of farm animals. Even so, there’s no denying that there’s a rising tide of interest among urban young folks in agriculture.

Believe it or not, the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, ground zero for New York hipsters, is crawling with youthful agrarians – that is, young people whose passion is farming and food. As one Brooklyn food journalist puts it, “Every person you pass has read Michael Pollan, every person has thought about joining a raw milk club, and if they haven’t made ricotta, they want to.”

Indeed, it’s hard to overstate the influence of The Omnivore’s Dilemma author Pollan in popularizing food and agriculture among the kinds of kids who may never have set foot on a farm. It’s not just a white thing, either. Will Allen, a descendant of African-American sharecroppers, won a MacArthur Genius Grant last year for his efforts to teach inner-city populations how to grow good food in their own neighborhoods. All over American cities, community gardens, backyard chicken coops in urban back yards and other surprising green shoots are sprouting amid the asphalt.

It’s happening in Dallas, too, though unfortunately not as fast or as easily as it might, given the city’s discouraging regulatory attitudes. This should change. Urban agrarianism is not only a healthy trend, but also one that means jobs, both now and in the future. Time for City Hall to go to school on this subject.

Link to newspaper here.