Crop Mobbing: A First Attempt At Urban Farming

Planting a salad mix in the middle of the bed, sunflowers toward the edge. Photo by FarmPlate.

Crop mob

By Emily Morgan
The Farm Plate Blog
04.16.2010

Excerpt:

I was a little nervous about what my Sunday afternoon would be like when I got a message on Facebook that included the instructions, “Eat a big breakfast, this ain’t your 9 to 5 desk job! We’ll be doing physical labor!”

I was gearing up for my first ever Crop Mob–a volunteer phenomenon that took off in the New York City area after a New York Times magazine article about the initiative ran in late February. The concept, as detailed on the Crop Mob website, is simple:

“Crop mob is primarily a group of young, landless and wannabe farmers who come together to build and empower communities by working side by side. Crop mob is also a group of experienced farmers and gardeners willing to share their knowledge with their peers and the next generation of agrarians. The membership is dynamic, changing and growing with each new mob event.”

For me, a Crop Mob sounded like a great way to meet like-minded people, learn about the food system and the unique challenges of urban farming firsthand, as well as help an important cause. I was sold.

Shortly after the February New York Times piece ran, I did a quick search on Facebook for “crop mob” and found a New York City chapter had recently been organized. In two days, the group had over 60 members. My confidence was boosted reading the group description: “For aspiring farmers or the merely ag-curious.” Since watering houseplants was the only way I had ever challenged my green thumb, I consider myself to be on the ag-curious side of the spectrum. I joined.

In less than a month, the first round of Crop Mobbing was set-up, with four farms requesting volunteers. I signed up to participate on April 11th at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Other mobbers (approximately 100 in total) took on the Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service, the Red Hook Community Farm and the Brooklyn Rescue Mission Farm.

The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square foot organic vegetable garden planted on the roof of a warehouse that houses a film production company. The farm, which overlooks the Manhattan skyline, is in its second planting year. It also boasts the first rooftop-based CSA in the country, an on-site farm market and farm education workshops. This year, they will introduce chickens and an apiary.

See the rest of the article here.