Growing Urban Agriculture

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Growing Urban Agriculture:Equitable Strategies and Policiesfor Improving Access to Healthy Foodand Revitalizing Communities


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Find this report online at www.policylink.org.

2012 by PolicyLinkAll rights reserved.

Design by: Leslie Yang

Cover photos courtesy of (from left to right): iStockphoto.com; Blend Images; iStockphoto.com; Eli Zigas(courtesy of SPUR).

Interior photos courtesy of (from left to right): p.2-3: Colleen McHugh (courtesy of SPUR); p.4: Colleen McHugh(courtesy of SPUR); p.6: Blend Images; p.12: iStockphoto.com; p.14: TNDCs Tenderloin Peoples Garden; p.20:Nuestras Races; p.22: Allison Hagey; p.24-25: Allison Hagey; p.26: Growing Home; p.27: Allison Hagey; p.28:Quesada Gardens Initiative, Caren Winnall (courtesy of Added Value); p.29: iStockphoto.com, Growing Home,Green City; p.30: Eli Zigas (courtesy of SPUR); p.32: Growing Power, iStockphoto.com; p.34: iStockphoto.com;p.40: Allison Hagey.

PolicyLink is a national research and action instituteadvancing economic and social equity byLifting Up What Works.


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Allison Hagey

Solana Rice

Rebecca Flournoy

Growing Urban Agriculture:Equitable Strategies and Policiesor Improving Access to Healthy

Food and Revitalizing Communities


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2Growing Urban Agriculture


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Table of Contents

7 Foreword

8 Executive Summar

13 Introduction

15 Improvin Communities throuh Urban

Farmin

15 Improving Access to Healthy Food

18 Improving Economic Health

20 CASE STUDY // Taking Foods

From Farm to Market:

New Models or Change

21 Revitalizing Communities

23 Common Challenes and Innovative

Strateies

23 Lack o Land Security

24 Inadequate Business Training

25 Soil Contamination and Cleanup

26 Start-Up and Operating Costs

27 Insufcient Income Generation

27 Insufcient or Expensive Water

Access

28 CASE STUDY // Transorming

Challenges into Assets:

Urban Agriculture in Older

Core Cities

31 Workin Towards Financial

Sustainabilit and Scale

31 Diversiying the Market

32 CASE STUDY // Growing Power,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Providing

Healthy, Aordable Food to AllCommunities

33 Evaluating Impact and Success

35 Polic Considerations and

Recommendations

41 Conclusion

42 Appendix: List of Interviewees

44 Notes


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A vibrant movement is changing the landscape,economic outlook, and vitality o cities across thecountry. The recent recession aected many low-income communitiestaking with it manuacturingcenters, jobs, and people while leaving behindabandoned homes and vacant lots. Now a newcrop o urban armers, along with activists, and

community organizations are turning that landinto productive use and turning around theircommunities.

Urban arming brings a multitude o benets tostruggling communities: improved access to healthyood, workorce training and job development, andneighborhood revitalization. Innovative programsand policies are cropping up nationwide; and citygovernments are creating urban agriculture-riendlypolicies to support urban arming.

While the movement is exciting, PolicyLink iscommitted to ensuring that it is an inclusive one.Many o the emerging policies could better targetlow-income communities and communities ocolorthe very communities that would so greatlybenet rom the economic opportunities andrevitalization oered by urban arming.

Growing Urban Agriculture lits up the policies,practices, and programs that are working to sustainurban agriculture eorts in low-income communitiesand communities o color, drawing rom the Urban

Agriculture and Community Gardens tool in thePolicyLink Equitable Development Toolkit (locatedon our website). The report is grounded in extensiveconversations with armers, advocates, andpolicymakers to better understand the operational,nancial, and social challenges that arise in makingthis work responsive and relevant to the needs

o underserved communities. It highlights thecreative solutions that are being implemented tomake certain that the products remain aordableand accessible and that community interests arerepresented in the process. Tough issues like landsecurity and access to water are addressed.

The scale o the eorts is impressive and thecommitment to nding solutions no less so. Urbanagriculture is not an oxymoron. It is a beautiul,productive, and uniying movement that is making adierence in our communities. With this report, wehope it will only continue to grow. The time is ripeto embrace such a system o ood production.

Angela Glover BlackwellFounder and CEOPolicyLink

Foreword


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In urban communities across America, urbanagriculture is taking root as an innovative solution toincrease access to healthy ood while, at the sametime, revitalizing the economic and social health ocommunities. For the purposes o this report, urbanagriculture includes small and mini-sized agriculturaloperations in metropolitan areas that may include

distribution, processing, and marketing eorts.Growing Urban Agriculture details the benets othis new trend, lists many o the common challengesand solutions, and presents policy recommendationsor urther growing an equitable movement.

Improvin Access to Health Food

In many low-income communities, the only places tobuy ood are ast-ood and convenience stores thatsell atty, sugary, processed oods. Some comm-

unities have no ood vendors o any kind. This lacko access to healthy oods makes it dicult oramilies to eat well, ueling the countrys growingobesity epidemic and the severe health problemsthat accompany it. Studies have consistently shownthat there are ewer supermarkets and other retailoutlets selling aordable, nutritious ood in low-income communities than in wealthier ones, andin predominantly Arican American and Latinoneighborhoods than in predominantly whiteneighborhoods.1 However, there is good news:Studies show that residents with greater access toresh produce consume healthier diets and havelower rates o diet-related diseases than theircounterparts in neighborhoods lacking ood access.2Urban agriculture is one such innovative approachto improve access to healthy ood. Strategies todistribute healthier ood through urban agricultureinclude the ollowing:

Sell produce through arm stands,armers markets, and community

supported agriculture (CSA). Farmers canchoose rom a variety o these retail optionsto provide healthy oods to their communitiesand surrounding neighborhoods. Many urbanarmers oer sliding price scales and acceptEBT (Electronic Benet Transer) cards orlow-income amilies in their community. (EBTs

allow state government benetsincludingood stamp benetsto be deposited intoelectronic accounts similar to credit card or ATMaccounts so that recipients can pay or ood.)

Use community gardens to improvehealthy ood availability or armersthemselves, along with their amilies,riends, and neighbors. Families whoparticipate in community gardening areable to oset typically 30 to 40 percento their produce needs by eating oodgrown in their own gardens.3

Use urban arms as an opportunity togrow and sell culturally appropriateood and connect multiple generations.Many arming projects support oten healthierethnic diets and help people grow culturallyappropriate oods or their amilies andcommunities, all while connecting multiplegenerations through arming and diet.

Improvin Economic Health

The economic environment o a communityjobopportunities, homeownership, and the presenceo diverse businessesaects the economic healtho a community. Urban agriculture can improvethat economic health by creating jobs, providingjob training and skills development, incubatingand attracting new businesses, and saving amiliesmoney.

Executive Summar


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Create jobs by growing an urbanarms capacity, including choosingappropriate crops, growing techniques,and scaling up production. Urban armsthat oer packaging and processing inaddition to cultivating are typically able tocreate a considerable number o jobs. Farmsoten spur additional business developmentand entrepreneurship opportunities.

Provide job training and skillsdevelopment. Numerous urban agricultureprojects ocus on helping individuals nd jobsand providing basic job skills and supportwithin their communities, all while usingurban agriculture to provide productive and

empowering transitional employment.

Save amilies money by osettingproduce expenditures. Urban armersand community gardens can supplymost i not all o their amilies produceneeds, sometimes saving what can addup to a signicant amount o money.

Revitalizin Communities

The physical environment in which people live,work, and play greatly impacts their health.Neighborhoods with sae and clean outdoor spacesor people to gather, exercise, and play have apositive impact on residents health. Urban armsare oten planted on previously vacant or underusedurban spaces and are then transormed into sae,attractive, and welcoming places. Urban arms oerthe ollowing benets to communities:

Provide sae, attractive, and welcomingspaces or neighbors to gather andplay. Many urban arm projects incorporate

community gathering spaces in their plan siteand typically oer open spaces to congregateas well as to hold educational workshops,gardening training, and ood preparationclasses or the surrounding community.

Foster a sense o community andcreate saer neighborhoods. Communitygardens oten link dierent sectors o thecity, including youth with elders; and diverse

race, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups,all o which are in pursuit o one goal.Neighborhoods with community gardensalso typically report reduced rates o crime,

trash dumping, res, and violent deaths,and an unexpected advantage: increasedvoter registration and civic responsibility.

Divert organic waste rom city landfllsinto compost. Many urban arms productivelyuse ood wastes rom local retail outlets,restaurants, and residents, recycling thiswaste to generate compost or their arms.

Strateies for Addressin

Common Challenes

Urban agriculture projects have great potentialor improving neighborhood conditions; however,armers ace many challenges and obstacles whenestablishing and growing a garden in an urbanenvironment. For instance, some o them ace issueso land security, access to water, contaminatedsoil, high start-up and operating costs, inadequatebusiness training, and insucient incomegeneration. Fortunately, communities are ndingcreative solutions to overcome these challenges.

Secure either long-term use o land,

encourage investment in inrastructurethrough local government policies andland trusts, or secure permanent landownership. Some armers hesitate to investin inrastructure such as processing and sortingacilities, rerigeration, trucks, and on-sitebuildings because they ear their arms maybe taken away either because o permittingor zoning issues or because they lack secureownership o the land. A local government that

owns the land can dedicate its use to urbanagriculture through easements or inormalagreements; organizations can also purchaseand hold land in trust or an urban arm.

Work with the city or neighbors to makewater more accessible. Unlike traditionalrural arming, many urban armers set uptheir operations on a range o propertiesrom abandoned property to parking lots.


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Accessing water lines is oten very expensiveand cost prohibitive or armers who,consequently, have developed a varietyo creative arrangements or accessing

and paying or water. In some instances,armers negotiate with nearby neighborswho have access and, in turn, pay them orusage; in other instances, city governmentsallow use o city hydrants at a set rate.

Deal with soil-quality issues by usingraised beds, or hydroponics,a i soilis contaminated. Urban arms are otenbuilt on ormer gas stations, abandonedindustrial sites, and parking lotsall withpotential soil contamination. Soil remediation

is oten too costly or many armers, whoalternatively choose to use raised beds toavoid planting in contaminated soil.

Decrease high start-up and operatingcosts by collaborating with otherarmers. Urban arms are oten smallbecause o size constraints and, thereore,do not produce enough to warrantpurchasing a lot o equipment. Small armerscan work together, sharing trucks, tools,rerigeration, and other arming needs.Pooling resources allows them to reach new

markets, such as those that oten requireliability insurance, trucks, rerigeration,and sorting and distribution systems.

Identiy resources oering technicalassistance and business instruction toaddress inadequate business training.Urban armers oten cite inadequatebusiness training as a limitation to theirgrowing and sustaining a business. Nowavailable to them are urban armingprograms, state extension oces, and

the Small Business Administration,4

whichoer business training or urban armerswishing to start or expand an operation.

Increase potential revenue generationby extending the growing season andintroducing economies o scale. Urbanarms can diversiy the market to create

a Hydroponics is the cultivation o plants by placing the roots inliquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil.

multiple income-generation opportunities,identiy the market early to plan ahead, andevaluate success. Sustaining and growing anurban arm is oten dicult, given the smaller

size o the arm and lacking economies oscale. However, using greenhouses or hoophouses (greenhouses with plastic roongwrapped over fexible piping) to extendthe growing season can help create moreecient economies o scale and even movearmers into new markets. Farmers canincrease protability by selling ood directlyto consumers, grocery stores, corner stores,and community co-ops or by creating avalue-added component, such as makingsalsa, to their operation. Strategic planning

such as identiying the market early andestablishing plans to sell and distribute oodcan also help pave a path towards nancialsustainability and success. Finally, datasupporting urban arming are important tohelp armers to either change their operationsor investigate potential nancial opportunities.

Polic Considerations and

Recommendations

Advocates and policymakers are instituting policiesto support urban agriculture. While some othese policies support low-income communitiesand communities o color, there is still room toadvocate or policies that ocus more on thevery communities that stand to greatly benetrom urban arms in their neighborhoods.Examples o supportive policies include the Cityo Seattles Department o Neighborhoods, whichhas inventoried land or urban arming with aconcentration on low-income communities andindividuals o color. The Brownelds Economic

Development Initiative (BEDI), a ederal grantprogram, assists cities with redevelopingabandoned, idled, and underused industrial andcommercial acilities. The program primarily targetsthe redevelopment o such brownelds sites thatincrease economic opportunities or low- andmoderate-income individuals. Following is asummary o several policy approaches or buildingan urban agriculture movement:


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Families who participate in community gardening are ableto offset typically 30 to 40 percent of their produce needs

by eating food grown in their own gardens.3


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Imagine: a small plot o land growing lettuce,tomatoes, and other vegetables lled withneighbors socializing and buying ruits andvegetables. It is hard to believe that this vibrantspace was once the site o gang violence, vacantbuildings, substance abuse, drug tracking, andother criminal activity. This picture is becoming more

commonplace as resident activists and communityorganizations harness the power o urbanagriculture. Urban arms are cropping up in citiesacross America. They are taking over abandonedplaygrounds, ormer industrial sites, and empty lotslled with trash, which oten require police visits.Individuals and organizations are embracing urbanagriculture as a means or improving ood access,creating economic opportunities, and revitalizingcommunities. Improving access to healthy oods canimprove diet and help prevent diet-related diseases,all while contributing to the economic health ocommunities by creating jobs and providing jobtraining, incubating other local businesses, andsaving amilies money. Moreover, urban arms ostera sense o community by providing sae, appealingspaces or neighbors to gather and orm strongsocial networks and communities, which can helpimprove the health o residents. These urban armsoer exciting opportunities or advancing equityby providing a multitude o these benets to low-income communities and communities o color.

Growing Urban Agriculture is in large part aproduct o over 40 interviews with urban armers,

advocates, and policymakers who are serving andincluding low-income communities and communitieso color in their work. Most o the urban armers,organizations, and ocials interviewed hereinaced similar obstacles in starting and expandingtheir urban armsland insecurity, insucientwater access, soil contamination, high start-up and

operating costs, a lack o business training, anddiculties generating sucient income. However,these armers have shown resilience and creativity inaddressing these challenges. Their struggles inspireand exempliy a wealth o lessons rom which wecan learn. Many o their strategies and solutions canbe widely replicated by other urban armers and

policymakers. The opportunity is ripe at the locallevel to learn rom these pioneers and adopt urbanarm-riendly policies such as securing land, workingwith city water departments to ease access to water,and landing ederal dollars or soil cleanup projects.

This report ocuses on urban arming and agricultureas distinct rom community gardens. While thereare signicant overlaps in the work and theoutcomes, urban agriculture has distinct processing,distribution, and nancial sustainability challengesthat come with scale. While community gardens areaddressed, most o the strategies here lit up eortsrelated to urban arming with scaled distribution andsome processing.

Lastly, this report recommends local, state, andederal policies to support urban armers who, inturn, are supporting low-income communities andcommunities o color.

With the help o fexible, adaptive policies, urbanagriculture can be a catalyst or communities byproviding access to healthy oods, transormingabandoned lots into thriving community spaces,

sharing cultural traditions across generations, andpromoting much-needed economic opportunities.The seeds o change are taking root, and withpolicymakers, advocates, and other stakeholderscollaborating, urban arming can spread and fourishin even more communities throughout this nation.

Introduction


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One nationwide study found that low-income zip codes have25 percent fewer chain supermarkets than middle-income zip

codes. Compared to predominantly white zip codes, majorityAfrican American zip codes have about half the number ofsupermarkets, and mostly Latino zip codes have about a

third as many.6


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The concept o urban agriculture in the United Statesis not new. In the 1940s nearly 20 million peopleplanted victory gardens to lessen the strain placedon the U.S. ood system during World War II.5 Duringthis time, the government rationed dairy, sugar,meat, coee, and canned goods, but labor andtransportation shortages made it dicult to harvest

ruits and vegetables. The government thus turnedto communities and encouraged them to start victorygardens as a way to provide or themselves and theircommunities and to do their part on the home ront.These gardens accounted or 44 percent o the reshvegetables produced in the United States. Citizensplanted them in their backyards, in empty lots,and even on city rootops. Neighbors pooled theirresources, planted a variety o oods, and exchangedtheir oods with each other. A ederal program, thevictory garden utilized state extension agencies toprovide seed, ertilizer, and simple gardening toolsto gardeners. When the war ended, governmentpromotion o victory gardens also ended. Over thepast several years, however, an enthusiasm or urbangardening is being revived.

Todays urban armers break ground or a variety oreasons. Most, however, have one goal in common:improving their communities. Whether their purposeis to provide better access to healthy oods or torevitalize their neighborhoods, they are all providinga multitude o benets to the communities. Farmerswanting to improve access to healthy oods inunderserved communities help improve the diets

o that community and, in turn, may decrease theprevalence o diet-related diseases such as obesity,overweight, and diabetes. Urban agriculture programsdesigned with workorce development in mind otengenerate jobs, sheltered or subsidized employment,or job training, which in turn helps revitalize theentire neighborhood. Many neighborhoods ndthe presence o an urban arm in their communityeconomically stabilizing by establishing a sae placeto congregate and exercise and encouraging other

businesses to locate there. Cities with an abundanceo vacant land are nding that urban agricultureis one o the most economically ecient ways toreinvigorate an entire community.

There are several benets to urban arming: improvingaccess to healthy ood, improving communities

economic health, and revitalizing neighborhoods.

Improvin Access to Health Food

In many low-income communities, the only places tobuy ood are ast-ood and convenience stores thatsell atty, sugary, processed oods. Some communitieshave no ood vendors o any kind. This lack o accessto healthy oods makes it dicult or amilies to eatnutritiously, ueling the countrys growing obesityepidemic and the severe health problems that

accompany it.

Low-income communities and communities ocolor are the ones most aected by limited accessto healthy oods. Studies have consistently shownthat ewer supermarkets and other retail outletsselling aordable, nutritious oods are located inlow-income communities than in wealthier ones,and in predominantly Arican American and Latinoneighborhoods than in predominantly whiteneighborhoods.

This pattern is clear or many urban areas. InWashington, DC, the citys lowest-income andalmost exclusively Arican American wards (Wards7 and 8) have one supermarket or every 70,000people while two o the three highest-income andpredominantly white wards (Wards 2 and 3) have oneor every 11,881 people. One in ve o the citys oodstamp recipients lives in a neighborhood without agrocery store.7

Improvin Communities throuh Urban Farmin


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Residents o underserved communities typically lackthe transportation to make trips easily to stores inother parts o town. Low-income Arican Americanand Latino households are less likely to own carsthan whites and households with higher incomes; asa result they oten need to arrange rides with riendsor relatives, piece together multiple bus routes, orpay or taxi rides to do their grocery shopping. Withlimited transportation options, low-income residentsoten must rely on the smaller convenience storescloser to their homes. These stores usually chargeprices that are much higher than supermarketsprices and their inventory is primarily high-at, high-sugar snacks, sot drinks, and alcoholic beverages.

Access to Healthy Food Matters

Community environments aect peoples eating andexercise habits. Scientists and medical proessionalsagree that lack o easy access to healthy oodsand sae outdoor areas or physical activity are keycontributors to obesity.8 The obesity epidemic, alongwith related health problems like diabetes and heartdisease, is most severe or low-income people ocolor.9 Nearly a th o all Arican American childrenand nearly a quarter o Mexican American childrenare obese, compared to one in 10 white children.

Children rom low-income amilies are twice aslikely to be overweight as those rom higher-incomeamilies.10 Researchers estimate that or the rst timein American history, todays generation o childrenwill live shorter lives than their parents becauseo the health consequences o obesity and beingoverweight.11

Studies have shown that better access to healthyood corresponds to healthier eating and lower rateso obesity and diabetes.

For example: One study examining several states ound that

Arican Americans living in a census tract witha supermarket are more likely to meet ederalguidelines or ruits and vegetable consumption,and or each additional supermarket, produceconsumption increased by 32 percent.12

In rural Mississippi, adults living in countieswithout supermarkets were 23 percent less

likely to meet guidelines or daily ruit andvegetable consumption than adults living incounties with supermarkets.13

A recent study ound neighborhood access tohealthy ood and sae places or physical activitydoes matter or childrens weight. The studyound that children living in neighborhoodswith healthy ood and sae play spaces are 56percent less likely to be obese than children inneighborhoods without these eatures.14

Studies have concluded that New Yorkers andCaliornians living in areas with more resh oodretailers, along with ewer convenience storesand ast-ood restaurants, have lower rates oobesity.15

Researchers in Indianapolis ound that adding anew grocery store to a neighborhood translatedinto an average weight loss o three pounds oradults in that community.16

Increasing access to healthy oods also bringseconomic benets. A large, ull-service supermarketcreates between 100 and 200 ull- and part-timejobs, and emerging evidence suggests that a grocerystore can increase local tax revenues and stabilize or

even increase local home values.17

A separate studyound that tripling the amount o resh produce thatarmers sell directly to consumers at armers marketsin Michigan could generate as many as 1,889 newjobs and $187 million in additional personal income.18Urban arms bring with them new job opportunitiesas well.

Distributing Healthy Food toCommunities

Urban arming operations are being establishedin underserved neighborhoods to allow greateraccess to healthy, aordable produce or localresidents. Local ood rom urban arms/communitygardens is very resh since the ood does not needto travel long distances beore being purchased andconsumed. There are a variety o ways in whichurban arms can distribute their produce and providebetter access to underserved communities.


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Urban arms can sell their produce through armstands, armers markets, and community supportedagriculture (CSA).19

For example: The Food Project in Boston sells its produce

at our armers markets (all accepting EBTcards) in low-income neighborhoods in easternMassachusetts. According to the organization, italso contributed 48,668 pounds to anti-hungerorganizations in that area.

City Slicker Farms in West Oakland, Caliornia,operates a arm stand on a sliding scale, allowingvery low-income West Oakland residents to pickup produce or ree, those with limited means to

purchase produce at below-market rate prices,and higher-income customers to purchase at astandard rate.

Added Value Farm in Brooklyn, New York,helped establish a new armers market in theunderserved neighborhood o Redhook inBrooklyn and also runs a CSA or the surroundingRed Hook community that oers a sliding scaleand work shares.

In 2009, the P Patch community gardeningprogram in Seattle, Washington, donated 25,000

pounds o ood to local ood banks, according tothe organization.

Distributing Healthy Food to Farmers

Community gardens increase healthy oodaccess or the armers themselves, alongwith their amilies, riends, and neighbors. Atraditional arm worker is typically unable to bringhome the ood he or she produces and is oten letood insecure. A 2007 survey ound that 49 percento arm workers in Caliornia were ood insecure, 49

percent in North Carolina, 82 percent in Texas, and 98percent in Virginia.20

In Seattle, the Department o Neighborhoodsound that amilies were able to cover 30 to 60percent o their amilies produce needs throughthe citys gardening programs.

City Slicker Farms in Oakland surveyed itsbackyard gardeners and ound that 61 percent ogarden participants reported improving their dietsby eating produce rom their own gardens.

Many urban arms and community gardeners,such as The Food Project, Urban Adamah, andClean Greens, donate a portion o the ood theygrow to the community and to local ood banks.

Growing and Distributing CulturallyAppropriate Food

Urban arming and community gardening can helpresidents eat an oten healthier traditional andculturally appropriate diet. For instance, as Mexican-origin women move rom the rst to the secondgeneration, the quality o their diet deteriorates andapproximates that o white non-Hispanic women.Second-generation Mexican American women standa much higher risk o eating a poor diet than rst-generation women.21 This same trend holds true orother ethnic groups. One study ound a higher rateo Type 2 Diabetes in second-generation JapaneseAmerican men (20 percent) and women (16 percent)compared to rst-generation Japanese Americans.22When communities have closer connections to thearmers or are the armers themselves, they can

choose to grow oods they desire that may not bereadily available locally.

Many urban agriculture projects, such as TheKansas City Center or Urban Agriculture(KCCUA), The Seattle Market GardensProgram, and Viet Village provide recentimmigrants with the opportunity to growculturally appropriate oods or their amilies andcommunities.

Urban agriculture projects such as The Detroit

Black Food Security Network and NuestrasRaces, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, provideopportunities or urban residents to rediscovertheir ood culture by connecting younger residentswith elders in the community who can share theirskills and perspectives on ood.

In Brooklyn, New York, East New York Farms!runs 12 community gardens that connect youthgardeners with older gardeners who need help


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tending their plots. Many o the seniors receiveood stamps, and their garden plots helpsupplement their diet with healthy and culturally

appropriate ood or this predominantly AricanAmerican, Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Bengali,and West Arican community.

Improvin Economic Health

The economic environment o a communityhas a critical impact on residents health. Jobopportunities, the presence o diverse businessesgrocery stores, banks, restaurantsand the amounto collective wealth, including homeownership and

savings, can infuence residents health. Withouta vibrant economic environment, residents mustcope with joblessness or more tenuous job securityand the higher crime rates that can be ueled byjoblessness. When there are ew local businesses,or local businesses are closing, there tends to bea spiraling eect wherein businesses do not wantto locate in that area. In contrast, new businessdevelopment tends to attract additional activity,bringing with it new jobs, as others try to capitalizeon existing economic vitality.

Urban agriculture improves job and economic

opportunities or local residents in a variety o ways.

Creating Jobs

Researchers estimate that urban armers could earnreasonable incomes i they select the right crops anduse the most appropriate growing techniques.23

A or-prot cooperative urban agriculturebusiness called Green City GrowersCooperative is being launched in Cleveland,

Ohio. The cooperative will include a ve-acrehydroponic greenhouse growing leay greensand herbs that will be sold to grocery stores,institutions, and wholesale produce businesses.Green City Growers expects to provide 35 to40 long-term, living-wage jobs or low-incomeresidents living in the surrounding area; andworker-owners will build about $65,000 inpatronage accounts over eight years.

SHAR (Sel-Help Addiction Rehabilitation)is a collaborative that involves over 50organizations and seven universities ormed

to help launch one o Detroits largest urbanarms. The SHAR program will encompassapproximately 30 acres o vacant land and willuse an ecient, three-tier system and havethree growing seasons. The arms will also havea packaging company on site. SHAR estimatesthat the project will create 150 jobs in aboutsix months and 2,500 to 3,500 permanent jobsor local, low-income residents over the next 10years. These jobs are expected to pay between$10 and $12 per hour plus benets.

Viet Village Farm in New Orleans plans tocultivate a community arm on 28 acres oland in a predominantly Vietnamese Americanresidential area, next to a Catholic church thatserves the community. Project leaders estimatethat the arm will create 26 mostly ull-timeshort- and long-term jobs or local residents.

Providing Job Training and SkillsDevelopment

The majority o urban arms are small operations

with small stas and thus are limited in the numbero jobs they can create. However, several urbanagriculture projects are specically dedicated tohelping individuals nd other jobs or providingbasic job skills that will allow them to enter otherjob markets, all while using urban agriculture togenerate productive and empowering transitionalemployment. These urban arm projects oten ocuson youth, the homeless, and ormerly incarceratedindividuals.

The Food Project annually employs

approximately 150 youth rom diversebackgrounds in urban and suburban easternMassachusetts. It builds leadership by providingteens with deeply meaningul workgrowingoodand placing them in highly responsibleroles. Through their workdistributing the oodthey growteens also gain job experience andgreater awareness o ood justice issues.


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Added Value Farm, in a low-incomeneighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, hasprovided year-long training to more than 175

neighborhood teens since it began its programin 2001. Youth develop new skills, build theirleadership capacity, and engage with theircommunity, as they help operate the Red HookFarmers Market and explore issues o oodjustice. They also engage in educational andadvocacy activities through media projects andrelated events.

Growing Home in Chicago has trainedapproximately 150 ormerly incarceratedindividuals on its arms in and around the citysince the program began in 2002. As o 2008,according to the organization, 59 percent oits participants had been homeless; 76 percenthad previously been incarcerated. O thosewho had been incarcerated, 95 percent did notreturn to jail, compared to the average recidivismrate in Illinois o 50 percent. Ninety percento Growing Homes ormerly incarcerated orhomeless participants successully rent their ownapartments or nd stable housing, accordingto the organization, and over two-thirds secureeither ull-time jobs or urther job training atergraduating.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Societys(PHS) City Harvest project works with inmatesin the Philadelphia prison system and teachesthem to grow vegetable seedlings, which arethen grown to maturity at 30 participatingcommunity gardens. In 2010, PHS establishedan additional program or recently incarceratedpeople, including a work-release landscape jobtraining program and job placement programor inmates. The program ocuses on reentryand connecting greenhouse work at the prisonto workorce opportunities. The participantsreceive landscape skills training as well as trainingor resum writing and presentation skills. Theyare helped with housing, restoring licenses, andother transition services. In the rst year, 12 othe programs 18 participants have secured jobs,nine o which are ull-time.

Incubating Businesses

Urban agriculture operations can provide land,supplies, training, and technical assistance orcommunity members to develop their own urbanarming and ood-related enterprises.

Nuestras Races in Holyoke, Massachusetts,assisted the primarily Puerto Rican immigrantcommunity o Holyoke with the creation osome two dozen ood and agriculture businessesestimated to have added an annual $2 million oeconomic activity to southern Holyoke.

Clean Greens in Seattle establishes arm stands

within parking lots and provides spaces wherelocal entrepreneurs can also set up stands andsell local products.

Saving Families Money

Urban arms and community gardens can saveamilies money by supplementing some o theirproduce expenditures and are oten able to providesupplemental income. Studies have estimated thata community garden can yield between $500 and$2,000 worth o produce per amily per year;24 and

that every $1 invested in a community garden plotyields around $6 worth o produce.25

Community gardeners can supply all or some o theiramilys produce needs, saving money. Communitygardeners sometimes sell their surplus produce aswell, generating a small income.

City Slicker Farms in Oakland surveyed itsbackyard garden participants and ound that 92percent o them saved money because o theirgarden, while 62 percent grew hal or more o

their amilies produce in their gardens.

The Seattle Market Gardens Program,operated by the citys P Patch Program, ocuseson the large immigrant and reugee communityin Seattle and helps these residents earnsupplemental income while acclimating to theirnew homes. The training honors the agrarianskills that many immigrants and reugees brought


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with them, while teaching needed skills or doingbusiness in this country, such as how and whereto market their produce.

The Kansas City Center or Urban Agriculture

(KCCUA) trains community members interestedin urban agriculture to become armers in eitherull-time or supplemental businesses. KCCUAruns a new Roots to Reugees program thatcurrently works with 17 reugee armers, eachwith one-ourth o an acre or a garden. Thereugee armers sell their produce to area marketsand participate in a CSA with one to six membersand provide traditional oods to their community.

East Bay Asian Youth Center operates a our-acre organic strawberry arm in Sunol, Caliornia,or Oakland-based Mien amilies rom Laos to

grow strawberries commercially, as well as otherproducts or their own consumption.

Revitalizin Communities

The saety and the social environment o aneighborhood aect the health o its residents.People need strong social networks to thrive. A lacko sae, well-maintained open spaces and parks canbe a critical barrier to physical activity. In contrast,when these spaces are provided they can promote

exercise and serve as places or neighborhoodgatherings. Sae parks and walkable streets, alongwith open spaces that encourage communitygatherings, are all protective actors that contributeto the health o a community and have a positiveimpact on the health o its residents. Also importantis making more productive use o organic waste.

Providing a Sae, Appealing Spaceor Neighbors to Gather

Numerous urban arming operations use previouslyvacant or underused urban spaces, beautiying theareas, providing a sense o saety, and cultivating agreater sense o community.

Urban arms can provide an attractive andwelcoming space or neighbors to gather,volunteer, or just enjoy the scenery. Manyurban arms and community gardens incorporategathering spaces within their overall site plan;

they oten run educational workshops, gardeningtraining, and ood preparation classes or thesurrounding community. In neighborhoods whereaccess to parks and open space is limited, theseurban arms can be a valuable asset or outdoor

recreational and physical activity.26

Urban arms can oster a sense ocommunity. Urban arms and communitygardens link dierent sectors o the cityyouth and elders, and diverse race, ethnic,and socioeconomic groupsin pursuit oa common goal. Research indicates thatcommunities with high-participation gardensand arms have reduced rates o crime,trash dumping, res, violent deaths, and

mental illness,

27

and even increased voterregistrations and civic responsibility.28

Urban arms and gardens can increasehome values. A New York University studyexamined more than 636 New York Citycommunity gardens and ound a statisticallysignicant, positive eect on sale prices oresidential properties within a 1,000-oot radiuso a community garden when compared toproperties outside the 1,000-oot ring butstill within the same neighborhood.29 Thisis benecial or current homeowners, but a

cautionary note: current renters should notbe orced to leave their neighborhood.

Diverting Organic Waste romCity Landflls into Compost

Some urban armers make productive use o oodwastes rom local ood retail outlets, restaurants,and residents by converting them into compost ortheir arms.

Growing Power in Milwaukee obtains massiveamounts o organic waste rom Milwaukeebusinesses, such as the byproducts rom thebreweries located in the city, to use in itscomposting operation. Last year it produced over11 million pounds o compost.

City Slicker Farms in West Oakland has a bicyclecompost pick-up program that removes compostrom local restaurants by bicycle and takes thewaste back to its arms to compost.


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One recent survey found that only 5.3 percent of gardens

in 38 cities were permanently owned.


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CHALLENgE:

Lack o Land Security

Urban arms are oten built on vacant land thatoers little security in terms o long-term landaccess.Community gardens are typically establishedon vacant or abandoned land, and the armers/gardeners oten do not own the land they tend. Manyoperations lease or have permission to use land and

do not own it outright. One recent survey oundthat only 5.3 percent o gardens in 38 cities werepermanently owned.30

Gardeners arming on vacant public land run the risko losing years o hard work i a developer wantsto purchase that land and there is no protectionrom eviction. This lack o security makes urbanarmers reluctant to invest in inrastructure inputssuch as water line access, machinery, sorting andrerigeration/storage acilities, educational /communitygathering centers, or cooking/processing acilities.

The 14-acre South Central Farm/South CentralCommunity Gardens in Los Angeles lost its armwhen the city sold the land to a previous propertyowner under a right-to-repurchase clause in theoriginal contract the city used to acquire theland. The landowner, who wanted to put theproperty towards a more protable use, had thearm razed and the armers evicted, resulting inmultiple court battles and protests by the armers.

STRATEgy:

Secure Long-term Use o Land

Secure long-term use o land through localgovernment policies and land trusts, or by securingpermanent land ownership.In many instances, apartnering organization or local government owns theland and has dedicated its use to urban agriculturethrough easements or more inormal agreements. In

other cases, organizations are able to purchase theland or their arming operations or hold it in trust orcommunity armers/gardeners.

The Chicago City Council created a city-undedentity called NeighborSpace, which operatesas a land trust and is authorized to purchaseproperties to protect them as open spaces,including community gardens.

Growing Home in Chicago owns its landoutright as it obtained its land through theMcKinney Act,31 which oers ederal surplus

land or organizations working with homelessindividuals.

Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT), inProvidence, Rhode Island, holds title to ve acreso inner-city land in trust or community armersto use. Its initial holdings were both purchasedor a low price and received as donations romindividuals. In addition, SCLT has supportedthe development o a network o community

Common Challenes and Innovative Strateies

Urban armers across the country encounter a set o similar challenges and obstacles. With creativity andcommitment, they are overcoming many o those obstacles, as depicted in the strategies below. Admittedly,many challenges remain that are not addressed here, the largest o which are those related to the practiceand science o growing vegetables and raising animals, which are particular to regional climates. Besides thosetechnical challenges, other challenges exist in attracting and retaining dedicated people, especially peopleo color, due to the historical and social stigmas associated with arming. As was mentioned by a numbero advocates and observers in the eld, young people are reluctant to participate in growing because it is

associated with their ancestors or older generations and work that is not protable.


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gardens, armers markets, and school gardensbuilt on land owned by churches, city parks,the state, schools, and businesses. Currently,around 750 low-income amilies grow ood in 37Providence-based community gardens, and sevenlimited-resource arm businesses collaboratively

manage a 50-acre arm on the outskirts othe city. The growers include immigrants romSoutheast Asia, Arica, the Caribbean, andCentral and South America, as well as residentso the low-income neighborhoods surroundingthe gardens and arms.

Growing Power in Milwaukee and Chicagohas multiple sites, some o which they own andsome o which they lease or have permissionto use. Further, one site was established inpartnership with the Chicago Parks Districtand Moore Landscapes, Inc., a private land-

scaping rm.

CHALLENgE:

Inadequate Business Training

Training in ood production, distribution, marketing,and business planning is oten needed.Agriculturaltraining can help ensure greater arming success.Business training and support can help operationsthat are selling ood to increase their ability to makea protcontributing to increased incomes or the

armers and more unds or their ongoing expenses.

STRATEgy:

Identiy and Use Technical Instruction

on How to Grow, Market, and Sell Food

This instruction can maximize yield or armers and

gardeners and prots or those selling their ood.

Just Food in New York oers an adult FarmSchool, which will provide proessional trainingin urban agriculture through a two-yearcerticate program.

TheKansas City Center or UrbanAgriculture (KCCUA) runs programs to trainurban armers. In addition to teaching armingskills, KCCUA trains armers in nancialmanagement, customer communication,marketing, and setting up CSAs.

TheLatino Farmers Cooperative oLouisiana, based in New Orleans, provideseducation and training assistance in Spanish toaddress the needs o emerging Latino armers,so that they can ultimately run their ownsustainable urban agriculture micro enterprises.Participating amilies also receive access toarmland, tools, and other types o support.

State extension services have traditionallysupported individual armers and can provide

technical assistance. While unding or stateextension services has been rapidly declining,several states are ndings ways to support urbanarmers. The Ohio State University Extensionis providing technical assistance along a widespectrum o issuesrom communications tobusiness development, to plant science, to urbanarmers across Ohio. Several states, like Michiganand Colorado, have hired urban agriculturespecialists in their extension oces.


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CHALLENgE:

Soil Contamination and Cleanup

Much o the available land or urban agriculture iscontaminated and requires cleanup.Many o the

available, vacant plots or community gardens andurban arms may be contaminated with lead andother toxic chemicals rom ormer industrial uses,lead paint, or gasoline.

It is expensive to clean contaminated soil.Conventional browneld cleanup, where taintedsoils are removed and disposed o in toxic wasteacilities, is cost-prohibitive without state andederal unding.

EPAs Brownelds Program provides grantdollars or brownelds assessment, cleanup,

revolving loans, and environmental job training.This program presents two obstacles, however,or urban armers wishing to use these grantdollars: (1) the brownelds assessment programis limited to government or quasi-governmententities (while the brownelds cleanup programis available to government, quasi-government,and nonprot entities); and (2) municipalitieswishing to establish urban agricultural projectson ormer residential land are orced to undergothe same stringent, and typically unnecessary,assessment standards that ormer industrial

properties must meet to be eligible orcleanup unding.

Large urban arms oten consist o severalparcels o land sometimes with dierenthistorical uses, thus making it hard to determinethe soil quality or the entire arm. SHAR(Sel-Help Addiction Rehabilitation) in Detroitis working to identiy eective ways to ensure,on large tracts o land, that soil is suitable orgrowing ood.

STRATEgy:

Address Soil Quality Problems

Farmers and gardeners should address soil qualitybeore attempting to plant ood. Soil testing can

help growers assess toxin levels. Farmers mayalso want to get a detailed land use history o thesite they are considering gardening, as organiccontaminants may not show up in a soil test.Additionally, many large urban arms consist oseveral plots o land that may have varying levels olead and other toxins depending on where the soil istested. I the land is polluted, armers can use raisedbeds/hydroponics, remediate the soil, or chooseanother location. Approaches or planting in areaswith contaminated soil include:

I planting directly in the ground, test the soil.There are labs (or example, see UMASS32)that will test or heavy metals. Agriculturalsoil tests will look more at nutrients, pH, andother qualities important or growing plants.Remediation techniques or cleaning soil includephytoremediation (using highly absorptive plantsto take up heavy metals), bioremediation (usingmicrobes to eat certain harmul chemicals), andmycoremediation (using ungi to remove toxinsrom the soil). Urban armers/gardeners morecommonly use the raised-bed method since itmore directly avoids problems o potential soil

contamination.

Build raised beds or develop a hydroponicsystem to protect ood rom contaminated soil.33Some armers, such as Growing Power, chooseto use raised beds and hydroponics to avoidpotentially contaminated soil and ensure a high-quality growing environment. These methodsalso help keep out weeds and some commongarden pests.


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CHALLENgE:

Start-Up and Operating Costs

New urban arms must address start-up andoperating costs, including expenses associatedwith gathering soil, seeds, and tools. The cost ostarting and maintaining an urban arm varies widelydepending on the size, location, and purpose o thearm. Community residents running a communitygarden may need approximately $1 per square

oot per year over ve years34 or soil, seeds, soiltesting, basic turkey wire ence, and initial cleanup,assuming volunteer labor and a ree water source.Other arming operations can be much more costlyto start. For instance, the initial expense o tappinginto water lines can be quite costly. And larger-scalearms oten need rerigeration, sorting and packingacilities, delivery areas, compost areas, and trucksand tractors. Oten urban arms ace problems withsoil contamination and need to pay or soil testingor building raised beds beore beginning operations.Most urban agriculture programs struggle to

understand and address a mix o city permits andpolicies that aect their ability to garden or arm,which can lead to increased time and costs. It isoten dicult to recruit banks to invest in start-uploans or other capital needs or operating a larger-scale urban arm, and smaller-scale armers otenneed assistance as well.

STRATEgy:

Collaborate with Other Farmers to

Secure Tools, Trucks, Rerigeration,

and Other Farming Needs and Look or

Donations and Financial Assistance

Small armers can work together to reach newmarkets by sharing expenses such as liabilityinsurance, trucks, rerigeration, sorting, and

distribution systems. They can also supplement theirown oerings by selling other armers produce andadded-value products.

Programs such as the MUDs Truck Share allowthe Missoula community to borrow a truck oroccasional use. A $5 nonreundable applicationee is required, and a armer can borrow thetruck or $5/hour and $0.45/mile in usage ees.

Urban Tilth in Richmond, Caliornia, is workingto oer a tool-lending library that allows

community gardeners to borrow tools instead opurchasing them permanently.

Other sources o support include donatedsupplies and grants rom oundations orindividuals, along with government-based grantand loan programs, which can provide assistancewith initial inrastructure investment and in somecases ongoing operating support as well.


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CHALLENgE:

Insufcient Income Generation

Urban arms oten generate only small orsupplemental incomes or a limited number opeople. The income generated rom arm salestypically does not provide sucient wages or ull-time employment or armers. In addition, there areoten limits on the number o armers that can armon relatively small plots o land in urban areas.

STRATEgy:

Increase Production

Increase potential revenue by extending the growingseason or creating economies o scale. Net revenuescan be increased by extending the production othe season or area. Expanding the size o urbanarms can be helpul in reaching greater economieso scale.

Farms such as Growing Power use hoophouses to extend the growing season.

Green City Growers Cooperative uses agreenhouse to grow lettuces and herbs year-round.

SHAR (Sel-Help Addiction Rehabilitation) inDetroit will use 30 acres o land or arming aswell as value-added ood production.

CHALLENgE:

Insufcient or Expensive Water Access

Tapping into a water main or an urban arm canbe very expensive, costing as much as $20,000. Inaddition to a hety price tag, many armers are bothunable and reluctant to make a huge investmentin inrastructure when land ownership is notguaranteed.

STRATEgy:

Identiy Ways to Access Water

In cases where use o land or a garden or armis not permanent, some armers arrange with aneighboring resident to pay them or use o thathomes water.

In Cleveland, the city water departmentallows people to access re hydrants or urbanagricultural use. This is a creative stop-gap

measure until the city can address issues o landtenure, which will encourage armers to investin linking to the city water main.


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Once-thriving manuacturing cities such as Cleveland andDetroit have been acing huge inventories o vacant land and

empty buildings due to lost economic downturn, oreclosures,and population loss. Both cities are aced with demolishinghundreds o abandoned, derelict houses, but residents aretransorming this challenge into an asset through urbanagriculture. Residents and community organizations arepartnering to use vacant land productively and helping ensurethat residents can live in sae, vibrant neighborhoods.baInboth cities, urban agriculture is completely transorming theland, access to healthy ood, and the economic outlook. Theeorts eatured here ocus on low-income communities andcommunities o color.

Detroit

Detroit community members have been engaging in urbanagriculture to help revitalize Detroit. The Detroit BlackCommunity Food Security Network works toempower Arican Americans in the Motor City by raisingawareness about ood: where it comes rom, who controlsit, and the role it plays in building healthy amilies andcommunities. The organization has established a our-acreorganic arm within the city and organized a ood co-opbuying club. It also has taken leadership in promoting policychanges, successully leading eorts to get the city council tocreate a ood policy council and pass a ood security policy.It is now working to establish legislation protecting gardensand arms; encourage stability by creating a program ororganizations and individuals to lease land with an optionto purchase it; encourage the city to provide resources orurban agriculture; identiy a model state program to supportsmall arms with unding, marketing, etc.; and encourage

b See Bloomberg.com, Rust Belt Cities Demolish Homes asDeaults Blight Neighborhoods, retrieved rom http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-18/rust-belt-cities-demolish-homes-as-oreclosures-blight-cleveland-detroit.html.

schools and institutions to purchase local oods. Moreover, ithas provided leadership to the Undoing Racism in the Detroit

Food System Initiative and has been selected as the DetroitRegional Outreach Training Center or Growing Power.

In 2008, SHAR (Sel-Help Addiction Rehabilitation), aDetroit-based organization treating over 4,000 clients eachyear, decided to expand its approach to addiction treatmentby incorporating urban agriculture into its program. SHARhas ostered a collaboration involving over 50 organizations,including the Detroit Black Community Food SecurityNetwork, and seven universities to help launch one oDetroits largest urban arms.

The program Recovery Park will encompass approximately30 acres o vacant land and will use Growing Powersthree-tier system and have three discrete growing seasons.The eorts leaders estimate that this system will generate$25,000 to $35,000 per acre, compared to a traditionalarm site, which can produce only $5,000 to $6,000 peracre. In addition to growing ood, the arms will also havea packaging company on site. For example, the armers willgrow and package small two- to three-ounce packages oruits and vegetables (instead o chips and other junk ood)or schools. Just two school contracts or processing thesesmall healthy snack packs will create 150 jobs in aboutsix months. The ull model, involving both growing andprocessing, is estimated to create 2,500 to 3,500 permanentjobs, paying between $10 to $12 an hour over the next 10years.

The arms within Recovery Park will not use pesticides orertilizers, making it possible or residents to continue livingin the community next to this city armland. The collaborativeis looking to create bike trails, job training centers, and othercommunity resources in and around the arms, helping tocreate a thriving community.

Transformin Challenes into Assets:

Urban Agriculture in Older Core Cities


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Cleveland

In 2007, Neighborhood Progress, a nonproftorganization working to restore and maintain the health andvitality o Clevelands neighborhoods, launched a citywideplanning initiative to tackle the issue o land vacancies. Thegroup sponsored a study to identiy productive re-uses ovacant land that could build healthy communities and protectpeople, current stakeholders, investments, and the value ohomes. The highest recommended strategy or vacant landre-use was urban agriculture.

Neighborhood Progress is now working with the City oCleveland to implement agricultural pilot projects throughout

the city over the next several years. The most successul oneswill be brought up to scale. A total o 66 projects aiming torenovate vacant land have been implemented throughoutCleveland, 31 o which are urban agriculture-related (13are market gardens and the remainder are communitygardens, orchards, or vineyards). The urban arms will providesupplemental income to many armers and primary incomeor one or two armers. While the projects are limited to city-owned land, o the 20,000 vacant lots in Cleveland, the cityowns 7,500well over one-third o the vacant land. The cityhas agreed to a fve-year lease or the pilot projects, with thegoal o transerring title to the community group or individualarmer ater the expiration o the lease.

The city recognizes that converting vacant land into an assetsaves the city money in the long run. It costs close to $1,000to maintain a vacant lot: mowing the lot, responding to policecalls involving crime and violence at the sites, and cleaningup ater illegal dumping. As a result, Cleveland has alsobeen progressively amending its zoning and health codesto provide increased land security to armers by allowingor composting toilets, on-site sales, changes to encingrequirements, and arm animal and honey bee provisions.

The city has also established an agreement with the waterdepartment to provide fre hydrant access to urban arms and

community gardens so that armers can access water withoutspending $1,500 to $4,500 to gain permanent access to awater line.

Cleveland is also home to the newly launched Green CityGrowers Cooperative, which will operate a fve-acrehydroponic greenhouse that will produce leay greens andherbs to be sold to nearby grocery stores and wholesaleproduce businesses. The greenhouse operation will be runas a cooperative, allowing opportunities or neighborhoodresidents/workers to participate at an ownership level, toselect the board or become board members, and to become

involved with the cooperative development. It will create35 to 40 jobs, all at a living wage. The average salary in theUniversity Circle and Central City area where the workers willreside is currently $18,000. It is estimated that Green CityGrower jobs will build about $65,000 in patronage accountsin eight years. Green City looks orward to eventuallyexpanding its operation beyond the fve-acre greenhouseto include a network o greenhouses and related oodprocessing and packaging. These combined urban agricultureeorts stabilize the community empowering it, as each ooddollar kept in the city will help improve the local economy.

Urban agriculture eorts in Cleveland have benefted roma strong city council and mayor and a strong network ocommunity members, planners, public health advocates,extension agents, and other stakeholders. Monthly networkmeetings bring together people interested in urban armingto understand its connection to improved health andneighborhood revitalization.


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While urban armers oten choose to arm ormany dierent reasonsimproving ood access,creating a stronger workorce through job trainingprograms, or revitalizing the economic healtho a communitymany struggle with reachingnancial sustainability. Given the oten limited plotsize o an urban tract o land, it can be dicult

to reach ecient economies o scale or growingand distributing produce. However, many armersare tackling the issue o nancial sustainability andrecommend the ollowing:

Diversifin the Market

Many armers have ound that they can worktowards greater protability and long-termsustainability by diversiying their urban agricultureoperation.Operations with multiple income-

generating activities tend to have larger totalrevenues.

Sell ood rom the arm to the consumer.Community supported agriculture (CSA), armersmarkets, and arm stands are all good ways to reachconsumers directly.

Some armers use CSA as a distributiontool. This allows armers to start small, witha consistent set o clients. In some cases,CSAs allow armers to skip some expensiveinrastructure investments such as rerigeration,but in other cases, rerigeration is needed toensure that produce stays resh in midsummer.

Farmers can sell produce at armers marketsand arm stands whether they are existingmarkets or new markets/stands that the armersdevelop themselves.

Sell ood directly to small grocery stores,corner stores, and community co-ops. Smallstores and co-ops benet rom sales directly romarmers as they are able to cut out a middleman,which oten makes or a less expensive product.Farmers are thus able to pocket dollars that wouldtraditionally go to this middle player.

In Oakland, Mandela Foods Co-op buysproduce rom local armers to sell at the worker-owned cooperative, beneting the armers,as well as the community residents who canpurchase resh, locally grown produce.

Nonprot organizations such as Red Tomatoin Massachusetts and Community Alliancewith Family Farmers in Caliornia serve asmiddlemen and connect local armers withmarkets.

Prepare and then sell oods.Some urbanarms create value-added products, such as jams orprepackaged cut ruit, employing more people andgenerating additional income.

Nuestras Races transormed an abandonedbuilding on a vacant lot into the CentroAgricola, a community center or small-scalebusiness development. Included is a shared-usecommunity kitchen, whose space can be rentedby community members or the development osmall-scale ood preparation enterprises, such as

catering, ood processing, and the production osauces.

Sell oods rom the urban arm along withoods rom other local arms. Urban armscan supplement their oerings with goods romother local arms and ood producers, acting asa distribution site or locally produced ood. Thisallows the armers to oer a larger, and moreconsistent, mix o oods.

Workin Towards Financial Sustainabilitand Scale


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growin Power, Milwaukee, Wisconsin:

Providing Healthy, Aordable Food to All Communities

Near a large aordable-housing complex in Milwaukee, 14greenhouses, livestock pens, and hoop houses stand, flled withsalad greens, arugula, beets, tilapia, perch, beehives, hens, ducks,beehives, goats, and turkeys. The project is run by Will Allen(shown above), a charismatic armer who has become a national

spokesperson or urban agriculture and a more just ood system.

From the housing project, its more than three miles to the Pickn Save, Allen says. Thats a long way to go i you dont havea car or cant carry stu. And the quality o the produce can bepoor. In 1993, Allen created a national nonproft and land trustorganization called Growing Power, which provides communitieslike this one in Milwaukee with better access to healthy, high-quality, and aordable ood and osters a more sustainable,equitable ood system. Growing Power has more than 25employeesmany rom the neighborhoods servedand morethan 2,000 volunteers.

The organization produces ood using a sophisticated, organicsystem: It relies on recycled waste rom local restaurants,breweries, arms, coee houses, and worms to help generatenutrient-rich compost that helps their crops thrive. Theorganization also uses an aquaponics system that arms fsh

while breaking their waste down into ertilizer, by fltering the fshtank water through a gravel bed and then a crop o watercressthat flters the water a second time. Growing Power distributesthe ood through retail stores, restaurants, armers markets,schools, and a community supported agriculture program. The

CSA oers discounted shares to low-income consumers or $16weekly; in return, residents receive enough ood to eed a amilyo up to our or a week.

The organization osters school and community gardensthroughout the city; it also provides training, outreach, andtechnical assistance, sharing its knowledge beyond the citysborders, in places like Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Mississippi. One example o theorganizations expanding work is the Chicago Avenue CommunityGarden at Cabrini-Green. Growing Power is collaborating withthe citys Fourth Presbyterian Church to convert an unkemptbasketball court into a thriving community garden. Plots are

allocated to individual local gardeners. Growing Power suppliesthe materials, assists in designing and building the space, andprovides daily sta and technical assistance during thegrowing season.


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Added Value in Brooklyn operates a CSA thatsells produce rom its urban arm combinedwith ruit and eggs rom regional rural armers.

Identiy other ways to diversiy the urbanarming operation. Urban armers can alsooperate a nursery selling ood or non-ood plants,raise bees, or provide consulting and training to localgardeners.

Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia bringsin signicant revenue to support the overallarming operation through sales o nurseryplants, including many non-ood plants.

Added Value generates income rom guidedgroup tours o the arms that supplements thestang costs associated with hosting the tours.

Identiy your market early. Some urban armsmake plans or selling/distributing the ood theygrow as an important rst step o their operation.

Green City Growers in Cleveland is developing

agreements to supply lettuces and herbs tolocal institutions, including a variety o retailersand restaurants. This arrangement helps ensurea consistent, reliable client base. The projectis estimated to provide 35 to 40 living-wage

jobs or low-income community members romthe surrounding community. It is projectedthat Green City Growers will break even inone-and-a-hal to two years o operation. Alsoprojected: that in approximately eight years,worker-owners will accrue about $65,000 inpatronage accounts in addition to good wagesand aordable benets.

Evaluatin Impact and Success

Data can help advocates highlight the importanceo their work and can provide helpul document-ation or changing their operations. On a broaderscale, urban armers could greatly benet romadditional analysis on the health, economic, andsocial impact o urban agriculture operations.Evaluating an urban arming project oten requiresdierent metrics rom project to project, as dierenturban arms are typically developed to meet a rangeo dierent goals.

Urban armers do not select the samegoals or approach them in the same way.For example, some arms ocused on jobs maywork toward permanent job creation, while others

may ocus on supplemental income generationor general job-skill development. Others may beocused on healthy ood access, reuse o vacantland, community revitalization, etc. The measuresused must t the goals o that particular armingoperation. Some operations seek to reach ullnancial sustainability without ongoing operatingsupport, while others do not have this goal butbelieve that the services they provide merit ongoinginvestment. Evaluators should account or thearming operations philosophy and approach indeveloping an evaluation plan.


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A 2006 study found that tripling the amount of freshproduce that farmers sell directly to consumers at farmersmarkets in Michigan could generate as many as 1,889 new

jobs and $187 million in additional personal income.18


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Urban agriculture policies must ensure that low-income communities and communities o color benetby involving them in policy development and advocacysteps to identiy and advance an urban agriculturepolicy agenda.

For a sampling o potential policy approaches,

please see below:

Help identiy and provide land and acilitiesor arming. Local governments eager to identiyways to make productive use o vacant land oten turnto urban agriculture. Cities can inventory public andprivate land, authorize leasing agreements with privatelandowners, clear contaminated land, and authorizeuse o municipal land.

The City o Seattles Department oNeighborhoods35 has inventoried land and

locations or community gardens, ood bankgardens, and community kitchens that wouldstrengthen and maximize accessibility or allneighborhoods and communities, especially low-income and minority residents.

TheCity o Cleveland and the nonprotNeighborhood Progress in 2009 created acompetitive vacant land-reuse grant program toempower neighborhood residents and communityleaders to turn vacant land into urban arms/community gardens. Currently, 30 urban pilotprojects are creating community and market

gardens, orchards, vineyards, and arms. The cityalso has passed an urban garden district zoningcode.36

The Chicago City Council created a city-undedentity called NeighborSpace, which is authorizedto purchase properties to protect as open spaces,including community gardens. NeighborSpacesecures land against potential development,

provides basic liability insurance or those usingthe land, and supports community control o andengagement in local green open spaces.

TheSustainable Food Center in Austin, Texas,is working with the city and county to map land,advertise the available land to the community, and

help arrange lease agreements with the city. It hasalso created a single point o contact to ease theprocess o creating urban gardens.

As part o its crime prevention strategy, theAlameda County Sheris Oce in Caliorniahas partnered with Dig Deep Farms & Produceto identiy county-owned land and acilitiesand privately held land to ensure the arm cancontinue to grow and provide jobs or youngpeople. Since 2010, Dig Deep has amassed over36 acres o armland.

Cities including Cleveland,37

Washington, DC, andHartord, Connecticut,38 collect and maintain aninventory o public or private vacant land suitableor gardens.

Provide fnancial support or start-up oroperating costs through grants on a variety oissues and low-interest loans, available at thelocal, state, or ederal levels.

The City o Clevelands economic developmentdepartment started a program in 2008 thatprovides grants up to $3,000 to urban armers ortools, irrigation systems, rain barrels, greenhouses,display equipment, and signage, through aprogram called Gardening or Greenbacks.39

Cities such as Madison, Cleveland, and Boston useCommunity Development Block Grant unds todevelop urban agriculture projects.

Polic Considerations and Recommendations


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The Food Project in Massachusetts hasreceived money rom the North ShoreWorkorce Investment Board to support itsyouth programs as they relate to workorcedevelopment.

Growing Home in Chicago has received stateand city government support or its workorcedevelopment eorts with homeless and ormerlyincarcerated residents.

City Slicker Farms in West Oakland wasawarded a $4 million grant through a state parkbond to construct a 1.4-acre urban arm park,designed through a community-based planningprocess with local residents.

The Department o Labor Work Opportunity

Tax Credit (WOTC) and Federal BondingProgram could potentially help support urbanagriculture eorts that create jobs.WOTC taxcredits incentivize private-sector businesses to hireemployees, such as ormerly incarcerated individuals,who have consistently aced signicant barriers toemployment. The Federal Bonding Program providesno-cost Fidelity Bonds that oer reassuranceto employers who are hesitant to hire ormerlyincarcerated individuals based on ears o thet ordamage to property.

Department o Justice Second Chance Act

Reentry Grants could potentially be used to trainormerly incarcerated workers or urban agriculturejobs.Second Chance Act Reentry Grants ocuson reducing recidivism rates and state and localspending on corrections. The unding or reentryprograms covers a number o areas, includingjob training, education, mentoring, substanceabuse and mental health treatment, amily-basedservices, literacy classes, housing, and employmentassistance.

USDA programs can help support urban

agriculture and community gardens. Theseprograms can be a great resource or urban armers,but there is a need or greater coordination ourban agriculture opportunities across programs. Astreamlined application process is needed or urbanarmers who wish to access resources. In addition,many o these resources are oversubscribed, makingit challenging or urban armers to access theseresources.

TheCommunity Food Projects CompetitiveGrant Program (CFPCGP) provides grantdollars or projects that ght ood insecurityand help promote the sel-suciency o low-income communities. Food Project unds have

supported ood production projects, includingurban agriculture. Funding ranges rom $10,000to $300,000 or one to three years.

TheBusiness and Industry Loan Program(B&I) can support regional ood systems.B&Iloans are traditionally available only in ruralareas, but loans may be made to cooperativesor value-added processing acilities in nonruralareas provided they service agriculturalproducers within 80 miles o the acility andhelp improve producer income.

TheValue-Added Producer Grant Programdedicates $18 million in grants to armers oradding value to their oods, including makingpesto, jams, salsas, etc.

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food. ThisUSDA-wide eort seeks to create economicopportunities by better connecting consumerswith local producers. Farmers and rancherswho are not quite ready to obtain nancingrom commercial lending sources can apply ordirect and guaranteed loans. Targeted undsare available to smaller-scale, beginning armers

and ranchers who have been in business or lessthan 10 years, as well as to armers who arewomen, Arican Americans, American Indians,Alaskan Natives, Hispanics, or Asian AmericanPacic Islanders.

The Healthy Urban Food EnterpriseDevelopment Center (HUFED) at the WallaceCenter at Winrock International is undedby the USDAs National Institute or Foodand Agriculture (ormerly Cooperative StateResearch, Education, and Extension Service or

CSREES). HUFED provides grants and technicalassistance or enterprise development andocuses on getting more healthy ood, includinglocal ood, into communities that have limitedaccess. The program provides grant dollars orlocal and regional approaches to aggregate anddistribute healthy oods.


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The Department o Housing and UrbanDevelopment (HUD) could support urbanagriculture through its revitalization andpoverty reduction programs.

TheNeighborhood Stabilization Program(NSP) was created to help cities, counties, andstates deal with the allout rom the nationalmortgage oreclosure crisis. Now in its third year,NSP should be authorized by legislators suchthat unds can be used or urban agricultureprojects; NSP currently restricts unding to housingexclusively. The rst round o NSP unding wasmore fexible and could be used or other areassuch as public parks, mixed residential andcommercial uses, and urban agriculture.

For decades, Community Development BlockGrants (CDBG) and Section 108 Loan guaranteeshave provided support or local and stategovernments to promote economic sel-suciencyand poverty reduction. Many cities are using theirallocations or city gardens, armer supports, andother economic development measures.

Green City Growers has been able to accessBrownelds Economic Development Initiative(BEDI) grants through HUD. The initiative is acompetitive grant program that HUD administersto stimulate and promote economic and

community development. BEDI is designedto assist cities with the redevelopment oabandoned, idled, and underused industrialand commercial acilities where expansion andredevelopment are burdened by real or potentialenvironmental contamination. BEDI grant undsare primarily targeted or use with a particularemphasis on the redevelopment o browneldssites in economic development projects and theincrease o economic opportunities or low- andmoderate-income persons as part o the creationor retention o businesses, jobs, and increases inthe local tax base.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)can ensure that nongovernmental entities canapply or EPA Brownfelds Program assessmentgrants or urban agriculture projects. It can alsoensure that projects to transorm ormer residentialproperties into urban arms are not held to the sameCERCLA and Superund assessment standards usedor ormer industrial land.This will enable more

urban agriculture projects to use brownelds undingor their eorts to reclaim vacant and abandonedland and will address the diering contaminationassessment needs at ormer residential sites comparedto ormer industrial sites. The EPA should also develop

alternative guidelines that can be used to assessormer residential property.

Other ederal agencies, including theDepartment o Health and Human Servicesand the Treasury, may be able to play a role insupporting urban agriculture in the uture aswell. Green City Growers Cooperative has usedNew Markets Tax Credits through the Treasuryto support the landlord o their greenhouse, whothen leases the land to the cooperative or its urbanagriculture operation.

The Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI)supports planning or regional ood systems.SCI is a new collaboration among EPA, HUD, andthe Department o Transportation and has undednumerous ood-ocused local and regional planningeorts across the country.

Cities can provide services to reduce costs.Localities can provide trash collection service, compostrom the localitys recycling program, and accessto water, tools, and storage acilities to support

community gardens and urban arms.

In Cleveland, the citys water department allowsurban armers to use re hydrants or urban armuse based on a predetermined rate. It has setwater usage rates determined by a tiered systembased on the size o the parcel.

Minneapolis helps provide access to water andcompost or local community gardeners.

Include urban agriculture-riendly policies ingeneral plans and adopt urban agriculture-

riendly zoning policies. Cities can make long-term commitments to community gardens and urbanagriculture by adopting language in its zoning codesand its general plan. Supportive zoning designationscan protect urban arms or community gardens romredevelopment and encourage armers and gardenersto invest in inrastructure development. Some o thesepolicies have an equity ocus and give priority to low-income, underserved communities, such as in the citieso Berkeley40 and Seattle.41


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Berkeley designates space or communitygardens in its general plan and prioritizescommunity garden development in high-densityresidential areas and low-income communities.

Seattle has committed to an urban villageconcept that assigns one garden per 2,500residents and is committed to serving allresidents. Seattle developed land use codes42to encourage urban agriculture throughoutthe city. Some o the land use codes will allowresidents to grow ood in their backyards andsell it, increase the number o chickens allowedin a backyard, allow greenhouses on buildingsand vertical spaces, allow more fexibilityin armers markets locations, and reducepermitting and ees.

Also see Public Health Law and Policys LandUse and Planning Policies document,43 whichdetails model planning and zoning provisionsor many cities.

Pass resolutions, initiatives, and legislationsupporting urban agriculture and communitygardens. Broad policies supporting urbanagriculture can be promoted at the local, state, orederal levels.

At the local level: Seattles City Council passed a resolution44

in 2008 supporting community gardenand urban agricultural development. Theresolution called or the Department oNeighborhoods (DON) to identiy land andlocations or community gardens, ood bankgardens, and community kitchens that wouldstrengthen and maximize accessibility or allneighborhoods and communities, especiallyor low-income and minorityresidents. DONwill partner with the Seattle School District, theSeattle Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, andSeattle Department o Parks and Recreation

to propose a process and strategic plan orcreating programs and policies to support urbanagriculture.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has created aood policy council and released the PhiladelphiaFood Charter,45 which includes a ocus on urbanagriculture. The citys Greenworks initiative,designed to turn Philadelphia into the greenest

city in America, has a goal o increasingcommercial agriculture within city limits.

The City o Minneapolis adopted a resolutionthat will expand the consumption, production,and distribution o local, sustainably produced,and healthy oods. The resolutions came roma series o convenings coordinated by themayor that included several city departmentsand community representatives. This group(calling themselves Homegrown Minneapolis)met over a six-month period and ocused onadvancing community gardens, small-enterpriseurban agriculture, armers markets, and thecommercial use o locally grown ood.

Local governments could designate a pointperson to help local urban gardeners and

armers navigate these city permits and complywith city policies.

At the state level: States can enact legislation or provide allocation

o unds or programs that promote urbanagriculture by supporting local and regionalood.For example, in 2009, North Carolina(Senate Bill 1067),46 Montana (House Bill 583),47Oregon (House Bill 2763),48 Vermont (HouseBill 313),49 and Minnesota (House F 1122),50enacted legislation supporting local and regionalood systems. (See National Conerence o

State Legislatures or a detailed listing o statepolicies.51)

States can promote policy initiatives and visionstatements to guide development, investments,and legislation. TheMichigan Good FoodCharter aims to promote policy changes thatincrease access to ood that is healthy, green,air, and aordable.

At the ederal lev

Growing Urban Agriculture

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