Feed Denver and the The Urban Farm at Stapleton

Photo from Feed Denver

The Canary Stopped Singing

By Lisa Rogers
Feed Denver

Excerpts: Letter from the Executive Director

As city dwellers we have abdicated food production to “others” – other people, other places, other states and other countries. We live in trust that food is being produced and that it will show up at our local grocery store in time for our hunger. We live in false security that someone is taking care of our food needs and our city’s food shed.

Our city used to be surrounded by farms. Those farms became subdivisions. Our state used to produce a wide variety of foods. In last year’s census we now only have 354 farms that produce vegetables – most of those under 10 acres and producing revenues less than $10,000 per year. Only .2% (that’s POINT TWO percent) of the food we eat in the Metro area comes from our state.

The canary warning us of danger stopped singing a long time ago. We all watched as Willie Nelson and FarmAid reiterated, year-in and year-out, that we were losing our family farms. We’ve watched as our diets became more and more dependent on processed food products. We’ve watched as our health has deteriorated, as diabetes and obesity became the norm. We’ve watched as our children have become lethargic with shrinking attention spans attributed to lack of proper nourishment.

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Producing food in the city would bring fresh food directly into our communities and homes. Food grown near where we live will be more transparent leading to deeper understanding of production that is good, clean and fair. Learning the skills of farming in the city will create a new labor force. Developing city-appropriate, low-carbon-use farming techniques will create new green businesses. Food production buildings will secure year-round fresh food availability. And creating these businesses in communities, in neighborhoods, and on main streets will re-establish our relationship and responsibility with feeding ourselves.

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Our first pilot farm will be at The Urban Farm at Stapleton. Already the state’s largest 4H Program, The Urban Farm teaches sustainable farming and animal husbandry to over 4,000 children and youth each year. Through this pilot project we will grow the farm to include a soil producing compost program as well as a greenhouse aquaculture operation which will produce nutrient rich greens, vegetables, and fish. The education program will expand to include re-skilling and business courses for adults. Through the process we will engage local universities to assist in research and development to document and to improve our processes.

Our second pilot will be a community-led project in one of our city’s most challenged neighborhoods. This will be guided by community leaders to create a community-based operation providing not only jobs and training but a fresh food market and café in a “food desert.” Included in the location will be a food processing public commissary for local entrepreneurs to develop and hone their skills as producers and business people. A board of vision and business leaders will develop this project focusing on making fresh food available and accessible, strengthening cultural identity, building health, and creating local job and entrepreneurial opportunity.

See the rest of Lisa’s letter here and read more about Feed Denver.

See a radio interview with Lisa here. See the Dec 3, 2009 link, “Denver Tests New Model of Urban Agriculture Ryan Warner speaks with the founder of Feed Denver, Lisa Rogers, about a pilot project at The Urban Farm at Stapleton. It’s based on a model by Will Allen, who won a MacArthur fellowship for his work.”