“It will help the community find local sources for food, which can sometimes be a little cheaper, fresher, healthier.”

By Aaron Dubois,
The Minnesota Daily
February 05, 2012

Excerpt:

Proposed amendments to the City of Minneapolis’ zoning code would allow community members to turn a profit off of their market gardens and urban farms.

The changes to the code, authored by Ward 2 Councilman Cam Gordon with help from community members, will make it so individuals can sell their own produce, which was not allowed under the old code. Gordon’s proposal passed the City Planning Commission on Jan. 23.

Russ Henry supports the proposed changes. His landscaping business, Giving Tree Gardens, specializes in organic garden installation and maintenance.

“This is about a lot more than community gardening,” Henry said. “This is about opening the door for selling food in Minneapolis that was grown in Minneapolis, and that has never been allowable under city code.”

Henry said he considers Minneapolis to be progressive, but that other cities are way ahead.

Read the complete article here.

An upcoming zone change will allow the sale of urban-grown produce.

By Aaron Dubois
MN Daily
Feb 2, 2012

Excerpt:

Proposed amendments to the City of Minneapolis’ zoning code would allow community members to turn a profit off of their market gardens and urban farms.

The changes to the code, authored by Ward 2 Councilman Cam Gordon with help from community members, will make it so individuals can sell their own produce, which was not allowed under the old code. Gordon’s proposal passed the City Planning Commission on Jan. 23.

Russ Henry supports the proposed changes. His landscaping business, Giving Tree Gardens, specializes in organic garden installation and maintenance.

“This is about a lot more than community gardening,” Henry said. “This is about opening the door for selling food in Minneapolis that was grown in Minneapolis, and that has never been allowable under city code.”

Henry said he considers Minneapolis to be progressive, but that other cities are way ahead.

“In this arena of urban farming, we are lagging behind other communities who have a similar demographic representation,” he said.

Read the complete article here.

See Growing Lots Urban Farm here.

“Urban agriculture a great way to make fresh fruits and vegetables available at reasonable prices to neighborhoods who do not now have access to them and it helps to build a sense of community where none existed before.”

By Chad Deal
San Diego Reader
January 31, 2012

Excerpt:

Today was a landmark for urban agriculturalists as the City Council voted unanimously in favor of amendments to municipal code which simplify the process for approving farmers’ markets on private property, make minor adjustments to community garden regulations, and ease restrictions for keeping chickens, goats, and bees.

In an affable session marked by laughter and applause, the Council heard from several supporting speakers ranging from Hoover High School geographic information systems students to members of the San Diego Beekeeping Society, the San Diego County Farm Bureau, the Goat Justice League, Food Not Bombs, the International Rescue Committee, New Roots Community Farm, the San Diego Hunger Coalition, and the One In Ten Coalition, as well as 55 written supporters who did not speak at the meeting.

The amendments follow a $50,000 grant awarded to the City of San Diego in March to pursue municipal code and general plan amendments supporting urban agriculture with the goal of stunting obesity rates by planning communities in ways that support increased physical activity and access to healthy foods.

Under the amendments, retail farms (produce is grown and sold at the same location) are differentiated from farmers’ markets.

Read the complete article here.

“SFUAA get emails from folks all over the bay area and the entire country – Oakland, Burlington, [Washington] D.C., Chicago – all actively seeking information. That’s perhaps biggest change since ordinance passed – visibility,”

By Catherine Adams
Fog City Journal
January 27, 2012

Excerpt:

San Francisco took a bold step in 2011 further legitimizing urban agriculture in the city. With the passage of the Planning Code Amendment on Urban Agriculture (ordinance 66-11), commercial garden and small farm sites are now legal city-wide. The ordinance received unanimous support from the Board of Supervisors in April before it was approved by Mayor Ed Lee.

This ordinance allows properly permitted and code-abiding gardeners and farmers to sell any produce they grow directly to the public on site. Growers were previously required to haul their bounty to a third party commercial zone, like a farmers market, or sell through a distributor. The permit does not, however, allow for value-added products, such as pickles or jam, or animal products, such as honey and eggs, to be sold at garden sites in residential areas. These products can, however, be sold on production sites within commercial zones. Growers can apply for a permit through the Planning Department for approximately $350.

Read the complete article here.

In September 2011, Brighton & Hove City Council became the first local authority in the UK to publish guidance notes encouraging developers to include food-growing space in new building schemes.

Horticulture Week
13 January 2012

Excerpt:

Included as a case study in the guidance notes is BioRegional Quintain and Crest Nicholson’s sustainable living development One Brighton. Completed in 2010, the pioneering One Planet Communities project was the first development in the city to incorporate on-site allotments in its plans.

Among a host of other sustainable-living features, the apartment roofs house 28 box gardens for residents to grow produce. With 172 apartments in the development, a waiting list has inevitably formed. But on-site green facilities manager Peter Commane says planning permission for further growing space has been secured on a neighbouring former brownfield site to help meet demand.

One of the first such schemes in the country, Commane says national and international developers are seeing real value in the idea of incorporating growing space in their plans. “The rooftop allotments have worked very well as a shop window for other developers. They see that it works, it creates a community and there is value behind it. I’ve no doubt we will start seeing the idea springing up across the country,” he maintains.

Read the complete article here. Or see below.

See the municipal documents here.

Complete article from the Horticulture Week site.

Amenity – Enabling communities to grow their own

Friday, 13 January 2012

Planning guidance in Brighton and Hove is encouraging developers to create areas for communities to grow their own food, Hannah Jordan reports.
In September 2011, Brighton & Hove City Council became the first local authority in the UK to publish guidance notes encouraging developers to include food-growing space in new building schemes. The Food Growing & Development Planning Advisory Note (PAN) calls for rooftops, balconies, walls and surrounding land to be incorporated as landscaped areas for residents and local communities to grow their own food.

Approved in September, the guidance was developed for the Green Party-administered council by Food Matters and Harvest Brighton & Hove, part of the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (BHFP), which is seeking to create a city-wide multi-organisation approach to developing more sustainable solutions to food production.

The PAN does not introduce any new requirements for planning applications but provides technical advice on how to deliver food-growing opportunities in development schemes and includes case studies and examples of potential approaches for use by developers.

Enclosed by the South Downs to the north and the English Channel to the south, Brighton is a compact city with little space for food-growing, which makes the PAN all the more vital, says BHFP director Vic Borrill. “We want to give people the right information about what grows well in our environment and in the context of confined spaces such as roofs and balconies,” she explains.

Borrill points out that as part of the city’s push towards a more sustainable food system, interest in food-growing from community groups and schools has increased dramatically over the past few years and she sees the PAN as a way of raising the bar by highlighting developers’ responsibilities towards sustainable living.

“We don’t know what is going to happen as a result of the new national planning regulations yet, but down here the Green administration sees the planning guidance as a way of helping to embed principles and mindsets of what they want to take place in the city,” she says.

Included as a case study in the guidance notes is BioRegional Quintain and Crest Nicholson’s sustainable living development One Brighton. Completed in 2010, the pioneering One Planet Communities project was the first development in the city to incorporate on-site allotments in its plans.

Among a host of other sustainable-living features, the apartment roofs house 28 box gardens for residents to grow produce. With 172 apartments in the development, a waiting list has inevitably formed. But on-site green facilities manager Peter Commane says planning permission for further growing space has been secured on a neighbouring former brownfield site to help meet demand.

One of the first such schemes in the country, Commane says national and international developers are seeing real value in the idea of incorporating growing space in their plans. “The rooftop allotments have worked very well as a shop window for other developers. They see that it works, it creates a community and there is value behind it. I’ve no doubt we will start seeing the idea springing up across the country,” he maintains.

Brighton & Hove City Council sustainability manager Francesca Iliffe says the One Brighton development chimes well with other food-growing initiatives being pioneered in the city and is an excellent example of what the new guidance is seeking to achieve.

“We have done a lot of work encouraging developers to green their sites with green walls and roofs and planting around the buildings – the guidance is part of trying to improve our overall green infrastructure,” she explains.

The council hopes that the guidance will be used as a template by other local authorities around the country to encourage developers to create edible landscapes and provide growing space for residents. A number of councils, including Bristol, are already looking at the document, says Iliffe.

“Incorporating growing space needn’t be a considerable additional expense because they are already putting in some kind of landscaping so it is just a question of their specifications. Of course there will be management issues, but there will be management issues with any landscaping,” she asserts.

Sustainability checklist

Complementing the PAN is the council’s revised online Sustainability Checklist for Planning, which asks applicants for details of any food-growing elements that they intend to include in their developments. A completed checklist must now accompany all planning applications for new-build developments and conversions in the city.

Since the PAN was published, around 50 per cent of completed checklists show planning applications that incorporate food-growing space, says Iliffe. “Developers are responding well to this, which is exciting because historically it’s not an area that planning has covered. But by pushing for food-growing areas you encourage community cohesion, sustainable land use, improved biodiversity – the list of benefits goes on,” she adds.

The guidance has also been well received by representatives from the city’s local housing partnership as well as local housing associations, she adds, many of which, in response to increased demand, already work with residents to provide food-growing space.

Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens chief executive Jeremy Iles says with waiting lists for allotments spiralling across the country since 2008, many local authorities are unable to meet demand. But the innovative approach being taken in Brighton and Hove should serve as an example to others, he adds.

“They have a great partnership between community and local authority, which I think has helped lead to the planning guidance. But there are only a few isolated examples of this kind of innovative thinking,” he says.

“Community gardening has been around for a long time and it’s one of the most exciting things happening in the UK right now. We need more people to start thinking laterally about what has been done traditionally.”

Brighton & Hove City Council’s Food Growing & Development Planning Advisory Note can be found at www.foodmatters.org.

Food strategy updated in Brighton and Hove

In 2006, Brighton and Hove became the first city in the UK to produce a food strategy – Spade to Spoon. Written by the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership (BHFP) and supported by the city council, a revised version – Spade to Spoon: Digging Deeper – will launch in the coming weeks.

It will set out how the city intends to address issue such as food poverty and the environmental impact of food imports while supporting local food businesses and creating a more sustainable food system.

As part of the strategy, the BHFP works with local organisations to encourage food-growing on vacant land, gardens, parks, housing estates and schools throughout the city.

In 2009, St Luke’s Primary School applied to convert part of its playground into an edible forest to teach its pupils about food-growing techniques in an urban environment, food uses, environmental issues and sustainability in the community.

Made possible through a £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund and backed by local charity Harvest Brighton & Hove, the project allows the school’s 600 pupils, as well as parents and local residents, to use the forest during term time for practical training in food-growing and gardening techniques.

A 12x20m area of tarmac was replaced with a landscaped space using permaculture principles and irrigated through a rainwater-harvesting system.

The garden incorporates fruit trees, soft fruit, edible perennials with ground layers of low-growing fruits and salads along with hardier root vegetables.

It is planted in three layers to mimic natural woodland with trees at the top, shrubs and perennials in the middle and ground-cover plants at the bottom.

Regular harvesting allows the school to provide food for pupils and local residents, highlighting the success of the project.

Children and young people cabinet member for Brighton & Hove City Council Vanessa Brown says the project is an example of sustainability in action and will enable future generations to make the connection between “spade and spoon”. The project will hopefully inspire pupils and residents to grow their own food, she adds.

Legislation that would exempt the city from a provision in the state’s Right to Farm Act restricting municipalities from exercising regulatory authority over agriculture.

By Jonathan Oosting
MLive
November 29, 2011

Excerpt:

Urban farming advocates say the law, intended to ensure all Michigan farmers operate under the same rules, is discouraging Detroit from allowing farms that would otherwise generate jobs and food.

“I see this as something that can bring real economic activity to the city of Detroit,” Smith told MLive.com. “I don’t think think there’s any other large urban area that has something like this going on. So we can be very innovative, and I really think this could help feed families and put people to work.”

Smith believes the legislation is needed to allow people like Gary Wozniak, whose long-planned Recovery Park project would put addicts and ex-cons to work, to create jobs in the city. Or Hantz Farms, which has slowed its plan to create the world’s largest commercial urban farm in Detroit as city leaders delay rewriting zoning ordinances.

Read the complete article here.

Success and failure in the worldwide urban agriculture movement

By Todd Major
North Shore News
December 28, 2011

Excerpts:

This has been a year of success and failure for the worldwide urban agriculture movement that is desperately trying to atone for past abuses against the environment and to respond to growing concerns about the safety and sustainability of modern food production.

Kate Murphy of the New York Times told of Frank Meuschke of Brooklyn New York, who tested his boulevard veggie soil and found it had lead contamination at 90 times the natural amount. “You won’t know if you’re at risk unless you test your soil,” said Murray McBride, a professor of soil chemistry at Cornell University. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, lead knows no socioeconomic boundaries.” said David Johnson, a professor of environmental chemistry at New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where he has found lead concentrations as high as 65,000 parts per million in the yards of upscale homes.

Read the complete article here.

The Common Ground Program’s goal is to license these properties for the cultivation and sale of plants, herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables

By Theresa Freed
News Laurence
November 28, 2011

The city of Lawrence and Douglas county are seeking applications for an Urban Agriculture/Community Garden land use program (Common Ground). Organizers say the request for applications is intended to assist initiatives for the development of urban agriculture and community gardens in the area, increasing local food production, and providing community benefits.

On Monday night, farmers and gardeners filled city hall to ask questions about the program.

The city and county seek applications from qualified individuals, businesses, and/or nonprofit organizations to apply for a license to use currently vacant or underutilized municipally-owned properties with the goal of producing fresh healthy food for personal consumption and/or sale.

The Common Ground Program’s goal is to license these properties for the cultivation and sale of plants, herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables, either as for-profit or not-for-profit enterprises. Local community members are strongly encouraged to submit applications and/or develop partnerships with local community organizations.

See the story and news video here.

25 years ago, Council chairman Dave Clarke pushed through the “Food Production and Urban Gardens Program Act” of 1986

By Lydia DePillis
Washington City Paper
Dec 16, 2011

Excerpt:

Yesterday, Councilmember and guardian-of-all-things-warm-and-fuzzy Tommy Wells held a marathon roundtable on urban agriculture in D.C., bringing folks from all over the city to describe how they cultivate their gardens. As precious as land is in D.C., there’s actually still a lot of it that could be put to good use—the challenge is securing the right to put down roots.

As it happens, city leaders were aware of this opportunity 25 years ago, when Council chairman Dave Clarke—himself a well-known environmentalist—pushed through the “Food Production and Urban Gardens Program Act of 1986.”

The accompanying staff report cited an Office of Planning inventory of 20,000 available sites, and the bill directed the mayor to encourage the cultivation of those vacant lots by relieving owners of maintenance and insurance responsibilities in exchange for allowing them to be put to use for food production. It also aimed to include gardening projects in the Summer Youth Employment program, have the University of the District of Columbia to provide educational materials and technical assistance, and encourage food buying clubs and produce markets.

Read the complete article here.

See the “Food Production and Urban Gardens Program Act” here.

See the Value of Urban Agriculture Testimony of Steve Coleman Executive Director of Washington Parks & People here.

City manager in Aurora, Missouri explains urban agriculture as part of American history

By Tony Stonecypher, City Manager
Aurora Advertiser
Dec 05, 2011

Excerpts:

Aurora, Mo. —
Aurora is working to find a way for agriculture and urban living to be compatible again. When our zoning laws were written and the zones and their assigned uses were developed, it was decided that agricultural activities had no place in the urban area and they were banned entirely. If one looks at the way normal rural farms conduct their business, it is clear why this assumption was made. Consolidated feedlots and large machinery have no place in a congested city street, but is that really all that agriculture means?

Thomas Jefferson had a different idea when he looked to America’s future. He saw a large class of yeoman farmers who were self reliant and industrious. This attitude was to be the backbone of a nation, and, while the vision of a country of farmers has not endured the self-reliance and independent nature has. This attitude has served us well throughout our history and the best example for our current discussion has to be the Victory Gardens of the World War I and II eras. They were gardens established in private yards and public parks in cities all across this land.

They were planted to ease the pressure on the food supply during the wars, but they were also a morale booster. It gave people an opportunity to contribute to the cause and reap the rewards of their labor at the same time. We as a people need to be a contributing part of society, and one of the basic parts of our society is to provide food. What better way to give than to give food? What better way to feel productive than to produce life-giving food?

Read the complete article here.

Inside Town Hall – City of Sioux Falls – December 2011

Shawna Goldammer – Zoning Enforcement Manager
Rex Rolfing – City Councilor
Wyatt Urlacher – Urban Farmer

Chickens and turkeys in the backyard… Councilor Rex Rolfing takes on the topic of urban agriculture and what it means here in Sioux Falls.

Link here.

Quick Summary of H.R. 3225, the Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act

The Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act will help create the next generation of farmers in our nation’s cities, reduce foreign agricultural imports, work to eliminate food deserts, strengthen local food systems and increase marketing opportunities for small farmers while improving seniors’ nutrition.

Next Generation of Farmers and Reducing Foreign Agricultural Imports
Economic challenges and land use changes have created vacant land throughout the nation’s cities. These areas could be transformed into greenhouses or community gardens by agricultural entrepreneurs but many of these individuals likely never thought an agricultural related small business was possible in a metro area and USDA has not traditionally engaged these communities.

In addition, USDA estimates that the U.S. will import nearly $95 Billion in agricultural products in 2011. If we were to turn vacant land in our cities into agricultural producing small businesses, we would create the next generation of American farmers to reduce the need for foreign imports.

The Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act establishes the Community Agriculture Outreach Program to help fund efforts to engage prospective entrepreneurs in metro areas and also establishes the Office of Community Agriculture within USDA to focus on using existing USDA resources to increase agriculture production in nontraditional production areas.

Eliminating Food Deserts and Strengthening Local Food Systems
USDA estimates that 23.5 million people live in food deserts and 14.5 percent of households were food insecure. These problems occur because of our broken food systems.

The Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act specifically tasks the Office of Community Agriculture with the responsibility of ensuring that existing USDA programs specifically address the root causes of food deserts and food insecurity. In addition, the Office is provided with the authority to coordinate efforts among federal departments to eliminate food deserts and food insecurity.

Increasing Marketing Opportunities for Small Farmers & Improving Senior Nutrition
USDA reports that 60 percent of small farms have gross cash farm income of less than $10,000. About 35 percent of small farms sales come from direct sales such as those at farmers markets.

The Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act seeks to increase small farmers income by increasing funding for and expanding the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program. In addition, the bill would help support consumer demand at farmers’ market and improve senior’s nutrition by increasing funding for the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.

Furthermore, the legislation requires the Office of Community Agriculture to develop a strategy to ensure that the $91 Billion in federal nutrition assistance program funding is used to support economic development and the consumption of locally produced foods.

Link here.

Community Food Security Coalition Supports H.R. 3225

Excerpt:

Approximately 80% of the U.S. population lives in metropolitan areas, and urban agriculture is an effective means to increase food security and provide access to fresh, affordable, nutritious food. Urban agriculture can also contribute to sustainability, economic and community development.

Earlier this month, Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) introduced a bill to advance community agricultural production in nontraditional communities, encourage local food production, and increase the availability of fresh food in underserved communities. The Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act of 2011 (H.R. 3225) will create jobs by diversifying agricultural production in communities not traditionally associated with agriculture.

Why Community Food Security Coalition Supports H.R. 3225

In light of the importance you placed on fostering community-based agriculture in our Farm Bill listening sessions earlier this year, CFSC has endorsed the Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act. Creating more opportunities for agriculture and gardening projects in urban areas can greatly increase food security and access to healthy, affordable food. CFSC’s Policy and Urban Agriculture committees welcome this bill as a comprehensive way to expand support for urban agriculture and address the root causes of so-called food deserts. If enacted, it will:

Establish an Office of Community Agriculture within USDA.

Create the Community Agriculture Outreach Program to provide grants to community organizations, municipalities, institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and local school districts to encourage the production of local foods.

Increase funding for the Farmers Market Promotion Program and the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program.

Develop the Community Agriculture Research Initiative to conduct scientific research on the needs for promoting and enhancing agricultural production solely in nontraditional communities.

See how you can help here.

Urban Ag Study Highlights National Best Practices

Report by Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law
Authors:
By Mindy Goldstein Acting Director, Turner Environmental Law Clinic
Jennifer Bellis, Sarah Morse, Amelia Myers, and Elizabeth Ura
Student Attorneys, Turner Environmental Law Clinic
Nov. 2011

Excerpt from EcoWatch article Dec 12, 2011

This report represents one of the most comprehensive, objective presentations of current urban agriculture policies being implemented across the country. Some cities have reacted in a nimble manner, creating conditions that have allowed urban food production to thrive. Other cities are struggling to identify the best mechanisms to spur urban agriculture. What is evident is that there is no one-size fits all policy to address urban agriculture. Each community needs its own nuanced approach to balance the land it has available with the needs of its residents.

Mindy Goldstein, acting director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic, was overwhelmed at her student’s interest in this topic. “We prepared this report to highlight some of the best practices being employed across the country. Our goal is to build upon these practices and prepare recommendations that will work best for the city of Atlanta and other urban areas in the state. The clinic’s students dove right into this work. They were eager to lend their legal expertise to this exciting social re-innovation.”

Executive Summary from the Report

This report surveys the zoning ordinances of 16 cities and explores how these cities have incorporated urban agriculture into their land use plans. Each city was chosen either because of its long-standing urban agriculture practices or because of its recent efforts to revise its zoning ordinances. All information contained within this report is current as of June 1, 2011.

The cities’ unique approaches to urban agriculture are addressed in three parts. First, we present the regional, political, and historical context of urban agriculture in each city. To provide a common point of comparison, we identify each city’s rank in the 2008 SustainLane city sustainability rankings where possible. SustainLane evaluated the 50 most populous cities in the United States and ranked each city to create the “nation’s most complete report card on sustainability.” Second, we explain the current status of the city’s urban agriculture zoning ordinances. Finally, we provide a detailed report of each city’s urban agriculture practices. Based upon this examination, we conclude that there is no exact formula for the successful implementation of urban agriculture initiatives. Nevertheless, we hope this report will help inform and guide Georgia Organics in fostering urban agriculture practices in Atlanta and throughout Georgia.

To understand this report and its findings, a brief explanation of urban agriculture is required. Urban agriculture encompasses a wide range of activities; the term means something different to each of the 16 cities surveyed. Most broadly, urban agriculture refers to growing and raising food crops and animals in an urban setting for the purpose of feeding local populations. Cities choose to narrow and focus this definition in various ways, often categorizing urban agriculture as one or more of the following: community gardens, commercial gardens, community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, personal gardens, and urban farms.

Regardless of the definition, most of the cities surveyed incorporate urban agriculture provisions into their zoning ordinances. Many do so by including provisions regarding community gardens, sales of produce, and keeping animals. Most commonly, cities will address community gardens in their zoning ordinances. While these gardens are formed and regulated differently in each city, administration of garden operations typically requires the city to partner with local community groups.

Many cities also contemplate sales in their urban agriculture zoning ordinances. Usually, the sale of produce grown in urban agriculture settings is permitted. Sales, however, are often subject to various restrictions, depending on each city’s individual needs, desire for urban agriculture, and feedback from citizens and interested groups.

Some cities label gardens from which produce is sold as “commercial gardens,” and set forth specific regulations for that particular use.
Most zoning ordinances also address keeping animals. Keeping chickens is allowed in many cities, and some cities allow for livestock and bees to be kept as well. The regulations regarding the keeping of animals are typically stricter than those for gardens, and setbacks for chicken coops or animal housing and restrictions on the number of animals that may be kept are nearly always established.

Cities often address a variety of other urban agriculture issues, including the length of time the property may be used as a garden, ownership of the land, lot size and setbacks, parking, signage, liability, aesthetics and upkeep, access to water, impact to property values, and runoff and pesticides. While each city’s approach is different, together they form a template from which Atlanta can begin to draft its urban agriculture initiatives.

NOTE: Since June 2011, some of the cities surveyed have changed their urban agriculture practices from those described in this report. For example, Chicago passed amendments to its zoning code in September 2011. The new amendments reflect those discussed in this paper, with one notable exception. Chicago expanded the permitted size of community gardens to
25,000 square feet to accommodate commercial farms within city limits. Chicago is not the only city making changes. Atlanta, Boston, Minneapolis, and Portland are also revising their zoning codes during fall 2011 to incorporate urban agriculture. Additionally, Atlanta has passed a Farmers’ Market amendment to its zoning code and is hosting an urban farm design
competition. The Atlanta section has been updated to reflect these efforts and is current as of October 2011.

Contents

Cities

Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Boston, Massachusetts
Chicago, Illinois
Cleveland, Ohio
Denver, Colorado
Detroit, Michigan
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nashville, Tennessee
New York, New York
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Portland, Oregon
San Francisco, California
Seattle, Washington
Washington, D.C.

Read the complete report here.

The Sustainable Economies Law Center has created an Urban Ag Legal Resource Library

By SELC
The Sustainable Economies Law Center
12.01.11

Excerpt:

Here are a few suggestions for ways that cities can adopt policies to facilitate the growth of urban agriculture and community food growing spaces:

Offer property tax incentives for vacant private lots that are used for urban farming: Cities should offer private land owners a property tax discount during years when an otherwise empty lot is used for food growing. The Williamson Act in California already provides property tax incentives to preserve land as agricultural in rural areas, and a similar policy should be applied in urban areas. Generally, land has higher income earning potential when it is built up with strip malls and housing developments. But it doesn’t always make sense to assess a property based on this potential value when the land is actually being used for a more modest activity, like agriculture. Even if a piece of land will eventually be developed, landowners should be rewarded for putting it to productive agricultural use in the meantime. Such a tax incentive could dramatically multiply the amount of available land for community gardening and urban farming.

Conduct a land inventory and prioritize the use of city-owned land for urban farming: Cities should conduct inventories of land available for urban food growing, and prioritize the use of public lands for food growing. In 2009, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California, asked the city “to conduct an audit of unused land – including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills, and median strips – that could be turned into community gardens or farms.” (Yes, he even asked for a survey of windowsills!) In other cities, private groups have conducted such inventories. In Brooklyn, New York, an organization called 596 Acres has identified and created a map of 596 acres of vacant publicly owned land. In Oakland, California, geographer Nathan McClintock published a report and interactive map of public lots available for urban farming.

Conducting land inventories for urban food growing is not a new idea. During WWI and WWII, to relieve burdens on the railroads and reduce demands for materials used in canning and processing, the U.S. government encouraged the cultivation of yards and unused plots of land. Up to 44 percent of the country’s vegetables were produced by individuals and families in small “victory gardens” during WWII. Community organizers were sent out to survey available land for urban and suburban food growing. The National War Commission used the slogan “put the slacker lands to work,” implying that any tillable lands not being used for food production were, basically, slacking off.

Read the complete article here.

See the Urban Ag Legal Resource Library here.

USDA Expands People’s Garden Initiative to Sow Seeds for Community-Based Agriculture across the Country

News Release – USDA
Washington Nov 10, 2011

Projects were funded in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio. Grants were awarded to:

Homer Soil and Water Conservation District, Alaska, $110,500
Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona, Arizona, $5,000
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, California, $29,000
Denver Urban Gardens, Colorado, $70,000
Knox Parks, Inc., Connecticut, $50,000
Heritage Ranch, Inc., Hawaii, $110,500
Alliance for Community Trees, Inc., Maryland, $150,000
Towson University, Maryland, $60,000
Calhoun Conservation District, Michigan, $70,000
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, Ohio, $70,000

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2011–Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited a community garden in Baltimore today to announce 10 grants to support 155 People’s Gardens in neighborhoods from Maryland to Hawaii, continuing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) efforts to combat malnutrition while supporting local and regional food systems. These sustainable community gardens will give residents direct access to fresh fruits and vegetables in underserved neighborhoods. A lack of access to fresh and nutritious food fuels obesity and domestic food insecurity—a condition where households experience limited or uncertain access to adequate food.

“The simple act of planting a garden can help unite neighborhoods around a common effort and inspire communities to find solutions to challenges facing our country—from hunger to the environment,” said Merrigan. “The People’s Garden Initiative has demonstrated that one direct and effective way of improving food access is to plant a garden. Since establishing our People’s Garden Initiative, we’re excited to see more and more people working together to create nurturing communities around these sources of nutritious food.”

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) manages the People’s Garden Grant Program (PGGP), with funding from the Agriculture Marketing Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The grants announced today, totaling $725,000, are the first awards given under the PGGP. USDA received more than 360 proposals requesting more than $4 million.

PGGP was designed to invest in urban and rural areas identified as food deserts or food insecure areas, particularly those with persistent poverty. In addition, PGGP seeks to address health issues closely related to malnutrition, including food insecurity, obesity, diabetes and heart disease, through onsite education programs.

Projects were funded in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio. Grants were awarded to:

Homer Soil and Water Conservation District, Alaska, $110,500
Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona, Arizona, $5,000
Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, California, $29,000
Denver Urban Gardens, Colorado, $70,000
Knox Parks, Inc., Connecticut, $50,000
Heritage Ranch, Inc., Hawaii, $110,500
Alliance for Community Trees, Inc., Maryland, $150,000
Towson University, Maryland, $60,000
Calhoun Conservation District, Michigan, $70,000
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, Ohio, $70,000
The People’s Garden Initiative is a grass roots effort to grow healthy food, people and communities. There are more than 1,400 People’s Gardens across the nation, three U.S. territories and nine foreign countries. USDA is working with over 600 local organizations to create school gardens, community gardens and small-scale agriculture projects in urban and rural areas, collectively referred to as community-based agriculture.

People’s Gardens are located at faith-based centers, on federal leased or owned property, at schools and other places within communities. All produce grown at a People’s Garden on USDA owned or leased property is donated to help those in need. To date, the People’s Garden has donated over 1 million pounds of produce to local food banks, food kitchens and other charitable organizations through their ‘Share Your Harvest’ campaign, whereby USDA invites partners to share their harvests with neighborhood food pantries, kitchens and shelters, which helps improve access to healthy, affordable food at a local level. Search the People’s Gardens Interactive Map to find out where our gardens are located. To learn more or to register your community garden as a People’s Garden, visit www.usda.gov/peoplesgarden.

See news release here.

See The People’s Garden Initiative here.

‘If a developer came to you, you’d give out the tax breaks,’ Clarke says

By Luke Broadwater,
The Baltimore Sun
November 22, 2011

Excerpt:

A City Council committee on Tuesday killed a bill to grant tax breaks to nonprofit urban farmers after the mayor’s office said it would set a bad precedent.

The opposition by the administration of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake outraged Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, a sponsor of the measure.

“I know we give tax breaks to well-to-do developers,” Clarke said, her voice rising, after learning that the city’s finance department had urged her colleagues to vote against the bill. Urban farmers, she said, “aren’t wealthy. They’re not well-heeled. They don’t hang out and sit with their suits at tables and talk about how they’ll help the city. They just do it.”

Read the complete article here.

Pilot program opens door to urban agriculture in Boston, making two vacant city-owned parcels available for farming

Mayor’s Press Office
November 16, 2011

Mayor Thomas M. Menino today announced the adoption of a progressive text and map amendment to the city’s zoning code, which passed unanimously at the Zoning Board Association meeting this morning. The amendment will allow the city to move forward with an Urban Agriculture Pilot project, making use of two vacant city owned parcels in Dorchester at 23-29 Tucker Street and 131 Glenway Street. The updated zoning code will allow the land be farmed to provide fresh and healthy food for sale to local residents and businesses.

“Boston is at the forefront of the urban agriculture movement and with this zoning amendment we are taking a proactive approach that will allow us to further explore the benefits of urban farming,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. “This project is an opportunity to take underutilized city land and put it to productive use. Community gardening brings neighbors together and it creates a new way to get healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables into neighborhood stores and kitchens.”

In 2010, Mayor Menino launched the Urban Agriculture Initiative to increase access to affordable and healthy food, particularly for underserved communities. At the time, the zoning code did not allow for urban farming as an acceptable land use on these parcels. To support the development of the Pilot Urban Agriculture Project, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) explored ways to amend the zoning code. Through a series of public meetings, staff from the BRA, Neighborhood Development, and Mayor Menino’s food initiatives team worked with the community and residents to ensure that the zoning amendments would be appropriate for the area and support the desired farming and gardening activities. Throughout the development of the project, the team has also worked to establish a set of best practices for urban farming, making Boston one of the nation’s leading cities in expanding urban agriculture initiatives.

The zoning amendment establishes an Urban Agriculture Overlay District within the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood District, which will improve public health and environmental sustainability and promote economic development by supporting the local production of fresh food. Use of the land will be limited to the cultivation of plants, herbs, fruits, flowers, and vegetables and composting of materials produced on the site.
The Urban Agriculture Initiative is part of Mayor Menino’s overall food agenda and mission to increase access to affordable and healthy food. By bringing farming into the community, the program aims to increase education and knowledge around healthy eating and food production, particularly among youth; and promote economic opportunity by increasing partnerships with, and/or between, local and regional food producers, and increase healthy food supplies to local schools, organizations, institutions and corner stores.

In July 2011 the city issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Pilot Urban Agriculture Project, to put several vacant Department of Neighborhood owned properties in Dorchester to productive use for farming. Initially, each property will be leased based on a rate of $500 per acre, which based on lot sizes, will be roughly $125 to $200 per year for a term of five years. The term may be extended if farming is successful.

See press release here.

Also see “Dorchester one step closer” here.

San Diegans are getting excited as the urban agriculture ordinance works its way through the city’s long and winding government system

By Jill Richardson
Grist
Oct 29, 2011

Excerpt:

An advocacy group formed calling itself the 1 in 10 Coalition, in reference to their hope that — once the rules changed — one in 10 people in San Diego would be able to get at least some of their food locally. One of the group’s leaders was Parke Troutman, who had written a PhD dissertation on land-use politics in the city and county of San Diego. “[It] was a land-use issue, and only a few of us had experience with that,” he recalls.

Changing the community garden laws was a long, hard slog that took two years, even with several city council members’ support. Toward the end, the effort got a boost from a $16 million obesity-prevention grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that included a school and community garden program led by San Diego County. The money went to fund the creation of five regional gardening education centers throughout the county. The grant also paid for work on policy changes; it paid for Troutman to consult as a “Land Use and Planning Consultant,” allowing him to devote more time to bringing San Diego’s urban agriculture laws into the 21st century.

The community garden effort brought to light a number of other urban agriculture-related issues — such as the need to revisit chicken ownership, farm stands, and beekeeping. So, once the community garden issue was wrapped up in June, San Diego City Council wasted no time; by July, they had brought urban agriculture before the council’s Land Use and Housing Committee.

Read the complete article here.

San Diego – Urban Agriculture Potential Regulatory & General Plan Amendments

San Diego – Urban Agriculture Regulatory Summary Table

San Diego – Urban Agriculture Regulations- Farmers Market & Retail Farms – Draft November 1, 2011

The Harare City Council now has the blessing of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to slash crops grown in the city in an effort to curb environmental degradation brought about by urban farming. The move has received with mixed feelings from residents and political parties.

By Seven Nematiyere
The Zimbabwean
09.11.11

Excerpt:

With the coming of a new growing season, all places without buildings on them are being cultivated. These include football, netball and basketball pitches, road-sides and recreational parks as well as wetlands. This has resulted in serious environmental degradation including soil erosion and siltation. Most drains in the city in such places like Glen Norah, Tafara, Highfield, Kambuzuma and Mufakose are blocked with soil resulting in flooding that sometimes affects the sewerage system.

This has put enormous pressure on the city council as it fights bursting sewer pipes and flooding with mosquitoes breeding in stagnant water. City Council health services director, Dr. Stanley Mungofa, has said the city’s health institutions are battling an increase in water-borne diseases like dysentery and malaria owing to poor water management systems including the blockage of drainage pipes and stagnant water brought about by urban agriculture.

ZRP Harare Province Spokesperson, Inspector James Sabau confirmed that the police has given a green light to the council to slash crops to enforce the ban on urban agriculture.

Read the complete article here.

Forward by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

By Olivia Varley-Winter
City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development
Capital Growth
Oct 2011 – 59 pages

Excerpt from Executive Summary:

This report aims to:

show that many community food-growing groups and other urban agriculture projects provide community-based learning and training opportunities, and are an effective way to develop employability for people in general,

outline how such projects can help people who face difficulties in finding and keeping work in particular, and

identify the support projects needed to develop employability among their participants.

Community food-growing projects, city farms and other urban agriculture initiatives in London already reach people who are facing particular difficulties with their employability: out of the 23 London agriculture groups interviewed, 20 include people experiencing unemployment and/ or facing difficulties including physical or mental disability, addiction issues, homelessness, English language barriers, and long-term unemployment. 12 out of the 23 projects were purposefully reaching people in one or more of these situations, with the aim of helping them. They also help experienced individuals at difficult times in their lives.

This report looks at how urban agriculture develops the skills and attributes that people need to develop to improve their chances of getting and staying in employment by:

building the confidence and social support that is a foundation for further learning,

developing the transferable skills, including teamwork and communication, which are needed in most workplaces,

supporting the acquisition of basic skills like literacy and numeracy where these are lacking,

teaching technical skills which enable participants to fulfil a particular role, and

helping participants to present their skills to employers and get into work.

See the complete report here.

See more details here.