North Richmond California “urban” agriculture summit draws big crowd

Ladonna Redmond urged urban farmers to be politically active. “You can’t just sit on your duff in your garden,” she said.

The city of Richmond has produced a working draft assessment of local urban agriculture progress and opportunities for improvement.

By Robert Rogers
Richmond Confidential
June 6, 2011

Excerpt:

Addressing a crowd of government and business leaders, urban agriculture aficionados, commercial growers and others with interests in the growing niche of locally-grown foods, LaDonna Redmond told listeners that she took a different route to urban agriculture.

“I didn’t get into urban agriculture because I love trees,” Redmond said, adding that 20 years ago she didn’t know or care much about global warming or recycling either. “I came to urban agriculture because I had to feed my son.”

Redmond works for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, MN, as a Senior Program Associate for its Food and Justice Program. She served as the keynote speaker for Saturday’s West County Urban Agriculture Summit, a gathering organized by local city and county officials and held in a cavernous greenhouse operated by Sunnyside Organic Seedlings.

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