Urban Agriculture: Shifting From Oasis to Food System Mainstream?

In New York City, senior gardener Abu Talib oversees the Bronx’s Taqwa Community Farm and its 13 chickens. “Just get a few chickens and you can feed yourself,” says Abu Talib. “He who controls your breadbasket controls your destiny.” Photo by Ira Block

Taqwa Farms is definitely an oasis

Michelle Knapik,
Environment Program Director
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Blog
Aug 9, 2010

Excerpts:

The explosion of interest around urban ag is undeniable. It is little wonder as it serves as a portal to community building, local pride, skill building, the knitting of relationships across perceived cultural and age divides, the physical and psychological transformation of vacant lots, the growing of food, and the feeding of people, body and soul. Funders large and small are clamoring to learn more about the social change mechanisms presented in urban ag. The Sustainable Ag and Food System funders dedicated a number of sessions and field visits to urban ag during its 2010 annual conference.

So what’s on the horizon – what will make urban ag an integral part of the regional food system and where might funders plug-in? Jacquie Berger, the accomplished Executive Director at Just Food, has more than a few thoughts on this matter. Here are some of the pieces of the puzzle:

On the policy and public funding fronts, state departments of ag need to invest in the urban markets and urban-rural connection; we need to see more changes need to Farm Bill, and Community Development Block Grant dollars need to be aligned with urban ag capacity building.

Programmatically, Community Supported Agriculture models need to be tweaked to work for lower-income people and they need to be adjusted with food access/food justice in mind. In addition, there needs to be wider spread efforts to align food benefits such as WIC, senior coupons, food bucks, etc. into urban markets (note that the Wholesome Wave Foundation is supporting double coupons benefits in a number of urban areas). Urban ag also needs to be more clearly tied to the food pantry and emergency food sector.

There is a need for improved data collection (currently, most of the data is self reported).

Land tenure issues need to be addressed, which may call for comprehensive vacant lot planning and strategies.

The next level of capacity building must be launched. To this end, Just Food is planning a Farm School. This decentralized learning model will integrate food production, marketing, livestock training, food access and food sovereignty components and hands-on internships.

Investment opportunities and models need to be explored (e.g., micro investing to take a 10 chicken operation to 50 chickens, provided the community wants to grow to this scale).

Read the complete story here.