Urban farms sprouting in cities across South Florida

Touring the farm. Photo by Mark Randall. Urban Farmer founder Jessica Padron talks with Chef Baron Skorish, owner of the Blue Moon Fish Company in Lauderdale by the Sea. The chef toured the property on Powerline Road where Padron is growing various types of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and strawberries on about 6000 square feet of a 1.15 acre industrial site. The produce is being grown hydroponically on verticle stands. More photos here.

Some municipalities are changing laws to allow farming on under-utilized lots, other small pieces of land

By Maria Herrera
Sun Sentinel
October 17, 2010

Excerpt:

Appropriately named The Urban Farmer, Jessica Padron will participate in a community agriculture program, offer workshops for children and adults and have a farm stand for the extras.

“If I won’t feed it to my daughter, I won’t sell it to you,” Padron said.

Padron’s is one of dozens of farms sprouting in urban settings and inner cities across South Florida. There’s Earth N’ Us and Roots in the City in Miami; Marando Farms in Fort Lauderdale; and the Girls U-Pick Strawberry Farm in Delray Beach. There are also smaller community gardens taking root behind backyard fences, church gardens and abandoned lots.

As cabbage and chickens move closer to office buildings and neighborhoods, municipalities across the country are trying to figure out how and where to fit the urban farm.

“It is true that city politicians are not used to dealing with this sort of thing,” said Alfonso Morales, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin. “[But] in some places they’re not [only] used to it but they seek it aggressively. They all have different models for trying to establish community agriculture.”

The trend is slowly catching on here. In West Palm Beach, a group of residents is working with the city to create an urban farm ordinance. In Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale, residents are asking city officials to allow backyard chickens.

Padron is on the board of the newly formed South Florida Food Policy Council — the kind of organization that would advise cities and counties on the best urban farming practices. It’s scheduled to have its first organizational meeting on Thursday.

The board is made up of South Florida residents, local food movement advocates and farmers. They hope to lobby elected officials to enact ordinances that would allow sustainable practices such as urban farming, seek grants for educational programs and create an interest in the local food movement.

“The idea is to be very supportive of changes that would support urban agriculture,” said Mario Yanez, founder of Earth Learning, a Miami-based organization that advocates for a transition toward a life-sustaining culture. “We need to address the building and zoning codes. It is up to political leaders to respond and do it in an organized way.”

Read the complete article here.