The Promise of Urban Agriculture

National Study of Commercial

Farming in Urban Areas
Report Authors
Dr. Anu Rangarajan and Molly Riordan

Federal Project Lead

Samantha Schaffstall

August 2019

A
Preferred Citation
Rangarajan, A., & Riordan, M. (2019). The Promise of Urban Agriculture: National Study of Commercial Farming
in Urban Areas. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Marketing Service and
Cornell University Small Farms Program.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

B
Contents
Acknowledgements......................................................................................................................... 1
Executive Summary......................................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 1: The Promise of Urban Agriculture .................................................................................. 5
Types of Urban Farms.................................................................................................................................6

Exploring Commercial Urban Agriculture ...................................................................................................7

Structure of the Report...............................................................................................................................8

Chapter 2: Study Methods............................................................................................................... 9

Understanding Perspectives on Commercial Urban Agriculture ...............................................................9

Selection of Commercial Urban Agriculture Case Study Farms.................................................................10

Case Study Interview Protocol..................................................................................................................11

Interviews of Other Urban Agriculture Farmers and Supporters..............................................................12

Chapter 3: Case Study Briefs...........................................................................................................13

Mycopolitan Mushroom Company, Philadelphia, PA................................................................................19

Little City Gardens, San Francisco, CA ......................................................................................................20

Karen Fresh Gardens, Kansas City, KS .......................................................................................................21

Our School at Blair Grocery, New Orleans, LA...........................................................................................22

Rising Pheasant Farm, Detroit, MI............................................................................................................23

Growing Home, Chicago, IL.......................................................................................................................24

Brother Nature Produce, Detroit, MI........................................................................................................25

Side Yard Farm, Portland, OR....................................................................................................................26

Wilson Street Urban Farm, Buffalo, NY.....................................................................................................27

Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, Decatur, GA......................................................................................28

Springdale Farm, Austin, TX......................................................................................................................29

Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn and Queens, NY.............................................................................................30

Mellowfields Urban Farm, Lawrence, KS...................................................................................................31

Green City Growers, Cleveland, OH..........................................................................................................32

Chapter 4: Exploring Commercial Urban Farm Viability...................................................................33

Farmer Training and Information Networks..............................................................................................33

Business Structure....................................................................................................................................34

i
 Gross and Net Revenue.............................................................................................................................34

Business Strategy and Risk Management.................................................................................................37

Crop Choice ...................................................................................................................................37

Season Extension...........................................................................................................................38

Markets and Income Streams...................................................................................................................40

Farm Product Sales Channels.........................................................................................................40

Income from Related Farm Activities.............................................................................................41

Grants and Gifts.............................................................................................................................41

Expenses................................................................................................................................................... 42

Land and Infrastructure.................................................................................................................42

Labor.............................................................................................................................................. 44

Volunteers......................................................................................................................................45

Taxes, Utilities, and Other Costs....................................................................................................45

Net Revenues or Profit..............................................................................................................................47

Comparisons With Rural Farms of Small Size............................................................................................47

Recommendations and Considerations for Commercial Urban Farm Viability.........................................48

Chapter 5: Urban Farms as Social Enterprises.................................................................................53

Defining Social Enterprise.........................................................................................................................53

Social Entrepreneurship and Business Incorporation in Commercial Urban Farming...................53

Benefits to People: Education........................................................................................................55

Benefits to Planet: Ecological Stewardship....................................................................................55

Cost of Social Enterprise...........................................................................................................................56

Seeking Support for Social Enterprise.......................................................................................................57

Strengthening Urban Agriculture Social Impact by Bridging Approaches ................................................58

Recommendations and Considerations for Supporting Urban Agriculture as Social Enterprises.............59

Chapter 6: The Promise and Challenges of Controlled Environment Agriculture in Cities ................61
Help Wanted............................................................................................................................................. 61

Trade Secrets............................................................................................................................................. 62

Environmental Costs.................................................................................................................................63

Marketing Controlled Environment Agriculture Products ........................................................................63

Locating Controlled Enivronment Agriculture ..........................................................................................64

Recommendations and Considerations to Advance Controlled Environment Agriculture .......................65

ii
Chapter 7: Sustaining Commercial Urban Agriculture through Policy..............................................67
Legalizing Urban Agriculture: Urban Agriculture Ordinances...................................................................67

Regulating Urban Agriculture....................................................................................................................68

Site Requirements: Parking, Sidewalks, Signage ...........................................................................69

Farm Buildings...............................................................................................................................69

Water............................................................................................................................................. 70

Soils ............................................................................................................................................... 71

Sales............................................................................................................................................... 71

Other Urban Agriculture-Promoting Policies............................................................................................72

Leaders of Urban Agriculture Policy Change.............................................................................................72

Advocacy Groups and Urban Agriculture Leadership....................................................................73

Food Policy and Sustainability Directors........................................................................................74

Land Use and Licensing Programs: Land Banks, Trusts, and Inventories...................................................74

Recommendations and Considerations for Unifying Urban Agriculture Policy ........................................76

Chapter 8: Urban Agriculture Innovations: Policies, Plans, Strategies, and Technologies.................79

Innovative Policies.....................................................................................................................................79

Baltimore Allies with Farmers........................................................................................................79

Changing Laws in Los Angeles........................................................................................................80

Innovative Plans........................................................................................................................................ 80

Welcome to the Agrihood.............................................................................................................80

Farming and Community Land Trusts............................................................................................81

Innovative Strategies.................................................................................................................................82

Flower Farms.................................................................................................................................82

Urban Farms with Rural Partners...................................................................................................82

Moveable Feast.............................................................................................................................83

Urban “Farmlettes”........................................................................................................................84

City Animals...................................................................................................................................84

Innovative Technologies............................................................................................................................85

Farm in a Box.................................................................................................................................85

Commercial Aquaponics................................................................................................................86

Recommendations and Considerations to Support Innovation in Urban Agriculture...............................87

iii
Chapter 9: Recommendations to Support Commercial Urban Agriculture ......................................88
Concluding Thoughts................................................................................................................................90

Summary of Recommendations and Considerations to Secure the Promise of Urban Agriculture..........91

Urban Farmers...............................................................................................................................91

Federal Policy ................................................................................................................................91

Local-Level Policy and Planning.....................................................................................................91

Programs ....................................................................................................................................... 92

Research, Extension and Education ..............................................................................................92

Appendix A: Interview Protocol......................................................................................................93

Appendix B: List of Expert Interviewees..........................................................................................98
Appendix C: Commercial Urban Farm Case Studies ...................................................................... 102
Mycopolitan Mushroom Company, Philadelphia, PA..............................................................................102

Little City Gardens, San Francisco, CA.....................................................................................................110

Karen Fresh Garden, Kansas City, KS.......................................................................................................116

Our School at Blair Grocery, New Orleans, LA.........................................................................................121

Rising Pheasant Farm, Detroit, MI..........................................................................................................128

Growing Home, Inc, Chicago, IL..............................................................................................................135

Brother Nature Produce, Detroit, MI......................................................................................................141

Side Yard Farm, Portland, OR..................................................................................................................147

Wilson Street Urban Farm, Buffalo, NY...................................................................................................155

Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, Decatur, GA....................................................................................162

Springdale Farm, Austin, TX....................................................................................................................169

Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn and Queens, NY...........................................................................................177

Mellowfields Urban Farm, Lawrence, KS.................................................................................................184

Green City Growers Cooperative, Cleveland, OH....................................................................................191

Bibliography................................................................................................................................. 198

iv
Acknowledgements

T his study was conducted in fulfillment of a cooperative

agreement between the Marketing Services Division
of the Agricultural Marketing Service of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA AMS) and the Cornell
University Small Farms Program. The Cornell Small Farms
Program thanks USDA for their interest in urban agriculture
and their support of this project, with specific thanks to
Debra Tropp, Ken Keck, Arthur Neal, Karla Whalen,
Tricia Kovacs, and the Federal Project Lead
Samantha Schaffstall for their guidance and support.

For additional information related to this research, please

contact Dr. Anu Rangarajan, Director, Cornell Small Farms
Program, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant
Sciences, Email: [email protected].

The authors thank the advisors to this study whose

experience and expertise provided rich critique and
commentary that strengthened this report: Rob Bennaton,
Winona Bynum, Carol Coren, Stephan Goetz, Katherine
Kelly, Neil Mattson, and Samina Raja.

Deepest gratitude to the case study farm operators who

lent their time, stories, photographs, and information,
without which this study would not exist: Jessi Asmussen,
Tyler Case, Anastasia Cole Plakias, Ben Flanner, Glenn
Foore, Paula Foore, Caitlyn Galloway, Stacey Givens, Dan
Howling, Lay Htoo, Olivia Hubert, Sam Kiyomi Turner, Pay
Lay, Carolyn Leadley, John McMicken, Kevin Prather, Joe
Reynolds, Harry Rhodes, Janice Stevens, Nat Turner, Brian
Versek, and Greg Willerer.

Finally we would like to thank the dozens of experts, listed

in Appendix B of this report, who agreed to be interviewed
to inform this study; each of your perspectives contributed
to the depth of this report.

1
Executive Summary
U rban and peri-urban farms have proliferated around
the United States in the past decades. Although
considerable attention has been paid to the impact of this
Based on the results of our interview findings, we have
framed the report around those specific trends in the
emerging world of urban agriculture and urban policy
emerging farm sector on social indicators, such as fresh that seem to facilitate or disrupt individual farms’ paths
food access, youth engagement, community development, toward achieving financial viability. Given the diversity of
and educational attainment, far less attention has operations included in our interview cohort (related to
been paid in the research literature to the economic size, business structure, growing practices, product mix,
and commercial promise of urban-based agriculture. sales channels, et. al.), it is no surprise that the individual
Nevertheless, despite the high risks and narrow profit farm operators we interviewed often took very different
margins often associated with growing and selling farm paths on their road toward commercial viability. Yet, we
products, some urban farms have managed to develop also observed a number of key shared experiences among
successful business strategies that merge economic the group of urban farm managers and stakeholders we
objectives and social mission in a profitable manner. interviewed, which can be summarized as follows:

Our purpose in conducting this study was to investigate 1. Obtaining access to affordable, usable land for
the commercial promise of urban-based agriculture and agricultural purposes is a cost-prohibitive barrier
uncover those specific urban farm characteristics that to entry for many prospective urban farmers,
seem to be linked most closely to long-term survivability especially those seeking financial self-sufficiency.
and growth. The study posits that urban farms have the The ability of urban farms to maintain access to
potential to be commercially viable and economically land over time is often threatened by rising land
self-sufficient, while offering a multitude of quality of life values and real estate development pressures.
benefits for community residents, which may include: Those urban farms that have been successful in
acquiring long-term access to land that supports
zz economic security and sustainability; commercial production frequently obtained their
zz empowerment of small business owners and access to land through exceptional circumstances
entrepreneurs; (land donated from the city, neighbors offering
the free or discounted use of their land, long term
zz access to employment opportunities, job training, leases that were established before a sudden
and skill development; increase in the demand for and price of land
occurred).
zz expanded access to nutritious food;
2. Commercial urban farms often depend on revenue-
zz community beautification and safety; and generating activities beyond agricultural sales to
zz greater opportunities for interpersonal connection. sustain themselves financially. Such activities may
include agritourism (pick-your-own, tastings, farm
tours), farmer trainings, consumer workshops
Observations are drawn primarily from the experience of
(cooking demonstrations, health and nutrition
14 commercial-scale urban farms located in 13 cities across
education), and events (weddings, birthdays,
the United States. The testimony provided by farmers
company events).
associated with these urban farms is further enriched by
interviews with more than 160 subject matter expert1 3. Commercial viability for urban farms depends upon
in the field of urban agriculture including: policymakers, continued demand for local food through farmers’
urban planners, funders, additional non-case study markets, CSAs, and locally-focused restaurants
farmers, and representatives of nonprofit and community- and retailers. Typically, commercial urban farms
based organizations engaged in urban agriculture and local cannot compete on price point alone. These
food systems. marketing channels need to continue to associate
an additional value with local food in order for
commercial urban farms to stay competitive.
1 Information provided in this report (including job titles and business descriptions) reflects material provided in interviews conducted throughout
the development of this publication. This information may have changed between that time and the time of publication.

2
 4. As socially motivated business enterprises,
commercial urban farms are usually driven by the
opportunity to generate economic revenue and
the desire to advance social mission objectives
relevant to the needs of community residents.
They tend to be very attuned and sensitive to
community concerns and feedback, and often
feel pulled in different—and incompatible—
directions. Many commercial urban farms take
innovative approaches in order to reconcile the
tension between these missions. This includes:
developing community partnerships, establishing
hybrid organizational structures (for-profit and
nonprofit), and conducting community outreach
and engagement activities.

5. Commercial urban farms cannot achieve financial

sustainability when saddled with all of the
expectations implied by the promise of urban
agriculture. They cannot be all things to all people.
Farmer profitability is essential for these types
of operations to be sustainable and at times this
means prioritizing financial objectives over social
objectives.

Commercial urban farms contribute to the larger promise

of urban agriculture, and their needs are similar to small,
diversified rural farms. Technical assistance and other
support is needed to help urban farms and farmers achieve
sustainable success. The ways in which urban farms can be
supported include:

zz greater transparency and knowledge surrounding

municipal zoning, land use laws, and policies;

zz improved coordination in matching available

public and nonprofit owned land (e.g. churches)
and other financial and technical assistance
resources with farmers;

zz expanded organizational capacity through

local partnerships with nonprofits, other urban
farmers, existing market outlets (farmers markets,
restaurants, consumers) and local, State and
federal government;

zz enhanced awareness of extension services and

training opportunities available to urban residents;
and,

zz stronger connections with rural agriculture to

foster more resilient and responsive regional
food systems.

3
“ I think that’s something unique about urban farming. Whereas a rural
farm is a place for a family or a collection of families or the immediate
community, I feel like placing that kind of activity in a city allows for the
appreciation and enjoyment by such an extended community.
— Caitlyn Galloway, Founder and Farmer
Little City Gardens, San Francisco, CA

4
Chapter 1: The Promise of Urban Agriculture
U rban agriculture (UA)—growing food in urban and
peri-urban areas where agriculture is not a primary
land use—takes many forms for many purposes. From
The first federal legislative support for urban food
production came in 1977, when Congress allocated $1.5
million to the Urban Gardening Program. This program,
a raised bed in a community garden to a 70,000 square which was eventually expanded from 6 to 23 cities, funded
foot multi-story vertical farm, UA offers many promises: cooperative extension agents in urban areas to work
fresh food access, neighborhood food security, workforce with community gardeners. Though a highly successful
development, farmer training, elimination of food deserts, program, it was discontinued in 1994 due to lack of
youth education, reduced recidivism, neighborhood safety, congressional and extension support.6
open space, improved urban ecology and environment,
better health outcomes for city-dwellers, local economic Today, UA is firmly rooted in many municipalities. For
development, reducing “food miles” traveled… the list several that have experienced economic downturns
goes on. (e.g. Detroit, Buffalo, Chicago), UA serves a focal point
to discuss larger, more institutional challenges that
Though the contemporary UA movement has received contribute to disempowerment and poor economic and
attention from growers, planners, policy-makers, and health outcomes for these communities.7 While a full
funders over the past 2 decades, growing food in American and accurate count of urban farms does not currently
cities is not new. In the economically turbulent 1890s, exist, an analysis of 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture data
Detroit Mayor Hazen S. Pingree devised his “potato shows that urban and peri-urban farms in the 50 most
patch plan” to help unemployed Detroiters grow food populous metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) make up
for themselves and their neighbors on the city’s vacant almost 15 percent of the country’s farms.8 Urban farmers
land. Over 1,500 Detroit families farmed Pingree’s Potato and advocates interviewed for this report say urban
Patches in 1897, but the program dissolved as the city and farmers are far less likely to register for the Census or be
national economy rebounded, a boom-bust cycle familiar counted. This, coupled with the resurgence of interest
in Detroit’s current context.2 in urban farming, makes it likely that there are more
farmers in urban counties than the 2017 Census of
Since the turn of the 20th century, UA has surfaced many Agriculture reports.
times: to prevent hunger during the Great Depression, to
supplement war rations in the form of World War II Victory UA has found proponents in cities across the country.
Gardens when 41 percent of all vegetables consumed by City planners are amending zoning codes and writing
the nation came from urban and suburban gardens,3 and urban agriculture ordinances (UAOs) to define, regulate,
in the late-1960s and 1970s as a response to inflation4 and facilitate both community gardening and urban
and the devastation to minority neighborhoods left by farming.9 Cities are passing legislation to make it easier
race riots.5 for urban gardeners and farmers to access water.10 Food
policy councils from Los Angeles, CA to Pittsburgh, PA are
studying the impacts of UA on their cities and helping city
governments formalize agriculture as an urban land use.

2  Community of Gardens. n.d. Pingree’s Potato Patches. Accessed August 1, 2016 from https:/​/​communityofgardens.​si.​edu/​items/​show/​29.​
3  Lawson, L.J. (2005). City Bountiful: A century of community gardening in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
4  Brown, K.H. and Jameton, A.L. (2000). Health Implications of Urban Agriculture. Journal of Public Health Policy, 21(1), 20-39.
5  Jones, I. (2011, February 16). A Food Crisis is Coming, but Urban America Already has it Solved. Colorlines. Accessed August 1, 2016 at
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/food-crisis-coming-urban-america-already-has-it-solved
6  Malakoff, D. (1994). Final Harvest. Community Greening Review, 4-12.
7  Meenar, M. & Hoover, B. (2012). Community food security via urban agriculture: Understanding people, place, economy, and accessibility from
a food justice perspective. Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 3(1), 143-160.
8  Authors’ compilation of data from Census of Agriculture, 2017. Repeating work previously completed by Rogus, S. and Dimitri, C. (2014).
Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas in the United States: Highlights from the Census of Agriculture. Renewable Agriculture and Food
Systems, 30(1), 64-78.
9  Barth, B. (2014). Agriculture as an Emergent Land Use: Case Studies of Municipal Responsiveness. Zoning Practice, American Planning
Association, 8.
10  Postel, S. (2015, January 8). Securing Water for Urban Farms. National Geographic. Accessed May 24, 2016 at http://voices.nationalgeographic.
com/2015/01/08/securing-water-for-urban-farms/.

5
While the diverse literature on UA has primarily focused economically viable businesses that provide employment,
on community gardening and the social and environmental food, and education opportunities to serve local needs.
impacts thereof,11 some findings indicate positive In the case of community-based urban gardens, their
economic impacts of urban farms. For example, a study primary objective is to create spaces for local residents to
of community gardens in New York found these gardens engage in individual and neighborhood development and
have a positive effect on surrounding property values, empowerment while growing and sharing (or selling) fresh
particularly in the lowest-income neighborhoods where vegetables and fruits with each other. Profitability is not
the presence of a garden within 1,000 feet can increase necessarily the goal of community-based UA.16 Instead
property values up to 9.4 percent.12 these efforts seek dedicated outside funding to realize UA’s
promises of increased healthy food access, food justice,
Yet, some city officials would rather retain vacant education, job training, ecological literacy, and community
parcels than turn them into farms, as urban farms empowerment and development.17 Urban farming and
have a lower measurable economic return than other gardening, particularly learning to grow one’s own food,
types of development.13 The tendency for planners, is often presented as a potential solution for improving
businesspeople, and other local decision makers to focus health outcomes, increasing self-reliance, strengthening
on economic “return on investment” is pervasive in UA community, and achieving social goals.
policy discussions. Even urban planners aware of UA’s
social and community benefits often struggle with setting Commercial urban farms, on the other hand, grow food
aside land for UA because it does not represent the for the primary purpose of selling that food to support the
land’s “highest and best use” from an economic point of farm business, not as a tool for individual or community
view. For example, many cities are facing a housing crisis improvement per se. They produce at a scale large enough
and view UA as an ineffective use of land that could be to earn a significant portion of their annual budget from
put to better use as apartments or condos to house the farm product sales. Education, training, or community
expanding urban population. Results from a Berlin-based improvement may be important activities or side-effects of
study further support this idea, finding that city residents the farm, but not always its primary purpose.
prefer that urban farms either be open to the public, as
with community-based gardens or park-like atmospheres, Whether community or commercial focused, regardless of
or on rooftops so as not to compete for land.14 business incorporation, many of these farms exhibit the
behavior of ‘social enterprises’.18 Social enterprises are
broadly defined as businesses that take an entrepreneurial
Types of Urban Farms approach to solving widely experienced social or ecological
problems.19,20 Social enterprise missions include using
urban farming as a vehicle for workplace-readiness
The many forms of UA can be categorized as either
training, youth education, and lifting the chronically
commercial or community-based15. Commercial urban
unemployed out of poverty through additional social and
farms typically frame their business model on creating
financial services.

These laudable causes come at steep costs to urban farms,

11  Guitart, D., Pickering, C., and Byrne, J. (2012). Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research. Urban Forestry & Urban
Greening, 11(4), 364-373. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2012.06.007.
12  Voicu, I. and Been, V. (2008). The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values. Real Estate Economics, 26(2), 277.
13  Schmelzkopf, K. (2013). Incommensurability, Land Use, and the Right to Space: Community Gardens in New York City. Urban Geography, 23(4),
323-343.
14  Specht, K. (2016). Socially acceptable urban agriculture businesses. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 36(17), n.p. doi: 10.1007/s13593-
016-0355-0.
15  Hodgson, K., Caton Campbell, M., & Bailkey, M. (2011). Urban agriculture: Growing healthy, sustainable places. Chicago, IL: American Planning
Association Planning Advisory Service.
16  Ibid.
17  Vitiello, D. and Wolf-Powers, L. (2014). Growing food to grow cities: The potential of agriculture for economic and community development in
the urban United States. Community Development Journal, 49(4), 508-523. doi:10.1093/cdj/bst087.
18  Elkington, J. (2004), “Enter the triple bottom line”, in Henriques, A. and Richardson, J. (Eds), The Triple Bottom Line: Does It All Add
up?, Earthscan, London, pp. 1‐16.
19  The definition of social entrepreneurship varies; for general information see BC Center for Social Enterprise (http://www.
centreforsocialenterprise.com/), and the Social Enterprise Alliance (https://socialenterprise.us/).
20  Cohen, N. and Reynolds, K. (2015). Resource needs for a socially just and sustainable urban agriculture system: Lessons from New York City.
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(1), 103-114.

6
which already run on the slim margins that small rural steep. The high cost of urban land and utilities; limited
farms know so well. While nonprofit urban farms can seek space to expand the business and increase production;
grants to support programming and general operations, and overall higher costs of living in cities; paired with
for-profit farms do not have this option. Indeed, for-profit the typically low-pay of agricultural work; and lack of
urban farms feel pressure to serve social functions, despite agricultural resources, suppliers, and mentors make it
very little bandwidth to do so.21 Often urban farms feeling difficult for UA to be commercially profitable.24 Is it really
squeezed to farm productively and act communally look possible to farm on a small urban parcel, make money
to other types of subsidies—including free or below- doing it, and provide the social, ecological, educational,
cost labor or land, or long-term investments—and policy and community benefits that UA advocates describe?
changes to help them balance the goals of commercial
viability and community impact.22, 23 Yes, CUA is possible—with caveats. 25,26 This report
describes the efforts of 14 urban farms to produce food
Thus the line between community-based and commercial commercially in the urban setting while undertaking
UA (CUA) is blurry. Highly productive nonprofit farms can many other missions, activities, and strategies (see full
straddle the divide between community and commercial, case studies in Appendix A). It highlights practices and
as can for-profit farms that dedicate a significant portion strategies that may be valuable to other urban farmers,
of their time to community activities. Success for all UA and considerations important for policy-makers and city
approaches is deeply dependent on visibility, committed planners who are unsure what role UA should play in
partnerships, strong leadership, and support from their cities. Their stories are complemented by insights
consumers, local municipalities, and funders. gathered through interviews of over 160 UA experts (see
Appendix B).
The complementarity of community based and CUA
missions provides multiple opportunities for creative This focus on commercial viability of urban farms is not
collaboration that could deepen the impact of UA on local intended to obscure the many other important social
food systems and citizen quality of life. Purposeful policies outcomes of UA. Instead, it seeks to provide a more in-
that do not prioritize one form of UA over another are depth look at the conditions and innovations which have
needed to ensure that the full promise of UA may be met. allowed agricultural entrepreneurship to thrive in urban
areas.

Exploring Commercial When asked about challenges impacting UA, the experts
interviewed commonly mentioned issues of race, diversity,
Urban Agriculture and equitable access to land and other resources.
However, it is not within the scope of this report to
This report focuses on commercial viability, or what it critically review factors affecting the diversity of who is
takes to sustain an urban farm from its own production farming commercially in cities or the equitable access to
and sales, and asks the question largely unanswered in the resources that are the precursors to building a successful
literature: “How can a commercial urban farm realize the CUA business. Some strategies to specifically address these
promises of UA and be profitable?” challenges within CUA are offered in this report,

The risks and costs for commercial urban farmers are

21  The literature on qualitative positive impacts of urban farms and gardens is vast. For two excellent repositories of primary research, see
Golden, S. (2013). Urban Agriculture Impacts: Social, Health, and Economic: An Annotated Bibliography.” Agricultural Sustainability Institute at
UC Davis. and Santo, R., Palmer, A., and Kim, B. (2016). Vacant Lots to Vibrant Plots: A review of the benefits and limitations of urban agriculture.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.
22  Santo, Palmer, & Kim, Ibid.
23  Christian, S. (2010). A Growing Concern. Earth Island Journal. Accessed August 7, 2016 at http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/
article/a_growing_concern/
24  FAO. (2007). Profitability and sustainability of urban and peri-urban agriculture. Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Occasional
Paper. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/a-a1471e.pdf
25  Lepeska, D. (2013). Betting the Farm: Is there an urban agriculture bubble? Forefront, 2(40). Philadelphia: Next City.
26  Heumann, L. (2013). “Urban agriculture for food security: Good but not enough”. The Urban Fringe, Berkeley Planning Journal. Retrieved from
http://ced.berkeley.edu/bpj/2013/03/urban-agriculture- for-food-security-good-but-not-enough/.

7
but for more in-depth exploration of these issues, readers The case studies that are summarized here represent
are directed to more comprehensive studies recently businesses that have some maturity. Many emerging UA
published.27, 28 trends and technologies are too new and unproven to be
studied for their viability. Yet, they are notable because
they point the way for new UA businesses, policies, and
Structure of the Report plans (Chapter 8).

At the end of each chapter are recommendations and

Urban farms vary widely in their missions, goals,
considerations for supporting CUA. They are derived from
operations, and limits. As a result, each urban farm has
the findings from the case studies and the input from
different opportunities and abilities to meet the many
over 160 UA experts. Chapter 9 synthesizes some of the
promises of UA outlined at the start of this report. It is the
dominant themes that emerged for securing the promise
aim of this report that, through the recognition of these
of CUA:
different urban farm types and how they define viability,
UA advocates will be better able to frame the promise of
1. Commercial urban farms often access land through
UA based on farm type and community.
extraordinary circumstances, including eliminating
This report describes diverse models of CUA, using or reducing land costs that can be prohibitive to
farmers’ and other experts’ words to illustrate farms’ entering farming (urban or rural).
origins, production, market, sales, expenses, and the
2. Commercial urban farms rarely depend on sales of
environments and policies that have helped or hindered
agricultural products alone.
their viability. Chapter 2 describes the authors’ process for
gathering and analyzing this information, while Chapter 3 3. Commercial viability for urban farms depends upon
provides brief descriptions of 14 case study farms (full case continued demand for local food through farmers’
studies follow in Appendix C of this report). markets, CSAs, and locally-centered restaurants and
retailers.
Chapter 4 analyzes case study observations and farm data
to summarize strategies, trends, and commonalities that 4. Commercial urban farms cannot be all things to all
affect commercial viability. As discussed previously, not people.
all farm activities are specifically commercial in nature.
Many have a social or community driven goal, such as 5. Commercial urban farms can provide important
food access, job training, or community beautification. social and environmental benefits.
Chapter 5 describes the social and environmental work of
urban farms, focusing on urban farms that exhibit social The chapter concludes with a compilation of all of the
enterprise missions. recommendations and considerations for supporting CUA
as put forth throughout the report and is organized by the
Investors and innovators are being drawn into UA by the topic or user it addresses: urban farmers, federal policy,
promise of controlled environment agriculture (CEA). local-level policy and planning, programs, future research,
While greenhouse production is a proven strategy in more and extension and education programs.
rural areas, new vertical farms or plant factories suggest
pathways to reinvigorate or repurpose urban industrial
spaces. As an emerging UA strategy, Chapter 6 discusses its
unique promises and challenges in the urban environment.

Holding the plurality of models, needs, and promises in

CUA, Chapter 7 analyzes how programs, plans, and policies
can support CUA development. “Local food” and UA are
very popular today, and advocates must have a strong
grasp of urban farms’ operations, needs, and limits to
develop systems that promote UA models that meet a
municipality’s needs.

27  Ventura, S. and Bailkey, M. (2017). Good Food, Strong Communities: Promoting Social Justice through Local and Regional Food Systems. Iowa
City: University of Iowa Press.
28  Reynolds, K. & Cohen, N. (2016). Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City. Athens: University of Georgia
Press.

8
Chapter 2: Study Methods
U sing a case study approach, this research seeks to
evaluate factors that have contributed to or inhibited
the establishment and growth of commercial urban farms;
Understanding Perspectives
distinguish policy, investment, and community actions on Commercial
that could foster development of more CUA; and identify
strategic research, training, extension, and education
Urban Agriculture
needs to advance commercial urban farming. It concludes
with recommendations and considerations for community- An extensive literature review coupled with consultations
based organizations, policy makers, urban planners, and with UA researchers identified opportunities and threats to
funders who may support UA. the economic viability of CUA. This review included urban
farms’ own online materials, popular media presentations
For the purposes of this study, commercial urban of UA, past UA studies, peer-reviewed journal articles, and
agriculture (CUA) is defined as: investigation into organizations and policies that promote
urban farming.
zz Commercial: earned annual revenue greater than
$10,000 through multiple direct and wholesale Snowball sampling—where interviewees are asked to
channels, whereby income earned from product recommend future interviewees from their personal
sales accounts for a sizeable portion of total earned networks—was used to gather information and
revenue. We used $10,000 as a minimum annual perspectives on CUA and identify potential case study
revenue to (1) eliminate gardeners or hobbyists, (2) farms. During interviews with UA leaders, they were asked
focus on farms that are at least ‘side-businesses,’ to identify other UA leaders, key informants, supportive
where farm revenue may provide supplementary policy and planning officials, potential study advisors,
income for the farmer, and (3) enable more and possible CUA case study farms. 30,31 We interviewed
consistent collection of other data on farm over 160 individuals, including, farmers (50), advocacy
operations and earnings, as extremely small farms organization representatives and community advocates
would not likely record this information. (24), researchers (19), urban farm educators (18), urban
farm service providers (17), foundation representatives
zz Urban: includes peri-urban areas; using Weeks’ (11), municipal and federal government officials (10),
(2010) definition, urban and peri-urban places and legal professionals with UA experience (7) (see
are “concentrations of people whose lives are Appendix B).
organized around nonagricultural activities,” where
agriculture is not a primary land use, and there may From these interviews, the authors identified seven
be competing land uses.29 advisors with expertise in food systems research and
planning, community organizing, city planning, farmer
zz Agriculture: for the purposes of this study, we focus education, advocacy, food business development, and the
on operations that primarily grow food for human economic and social impact of urban farms. These advisors
consumption, though some also grow flowers or reviewed interview protocols, provided feedback on case
engage in other value-adding activities. studies, and reviewed findings.

29  Weeks, J.R. “Defining Urban Areas.” Chapter in Remote Sensing of Urban and Suburban Areas, Rashed, T. and Jurgens, C (eds.) Springer
Science+Business Media B.V. 2010. pp. 33-45 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-2385-7_3.
30  Wasserman S, Pattison P, Steinley D. Social Networks. Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
31  Handcock, M.S. & K.J. Gile. 2011. “Comment: on the concept of snowball sampling.” Sociological Methodology, 41:1, pp. 367-371. DOI:
10.1111/j.1467-9531.2011.01243.x
9
Selection of Commercial had to principally be selling agricultural products (fresh
fruits, vegetables, or flowers), while some value added
Urban Agriculture activities did occur.

Case Study Farms Third, the investigators aimed to represent diversity of

production regions. The nature of snowball sampling led
to concentrated areas of UA activity, including both coasts
Expert interviews and review of urban farm websites and of the United States and the Midwest and Great Lakes
other social media highlighted many urban farms across regions. An effort was made to profile farms in cities with
the US for consideration as case studies. The authors also different demographic, economic, cultural characteristics,
visited more than 50 farms in 16 cities to observe their and growing climates.
operations, learn about their missions, and evaluate the
extent to which they fit the criteria of “commercial urban The final criterion for case study selection was farm
agriculture.” maturity, with a minimum of 3 years in business. Though it
takes much longer than 3 years for farms to reach business
Four major criteria were used to refine this list to the 14 stability, it is expected that most farms are out of their
selected case study farms: gross revenue, urban location, higher-risk start-up phases during which operating capital
geographic region, and farm maturity. The selected CUA may come from outside sources. Indeed, USDA Economic
farms earned a minimum of $10,000 annually from the Research Service findings show that farmers 45 years
sale of agricultural products for the reasons stated in the old or younger farming less than 10 acres have over a 50
above definition of ‘commercial.’ Farms could supplement percent exit rate in the first 5 years.32,33 The authors chose
income through grants or other on-farm activities, but 3 years as a minimum age given the emergent nature of
50 percent of gross revenue had to be from sales of food commercial urban farms.
grown in an urban area.
The final 14 case study farms reflect a diversity of manager
Second, the farm had to primarily produce in an urban demographics (age, race, ethnicity, gender), geographies
area. While some farms have rural holdings, the majority (cities of different sizes and densities), production
of earnings came from an urban farm location. Farms also environments (outdoor ground-level, rooftop, controlled-

Figure 1. Location of 14 selected commercial urban farms that met the criteria of the
research team to be considered as case study farms, and agreed to participate in this
study. Two farms are located in Detroit, MI.

32  MacDonald, J.M., P. Korb, and R. Hope (2007). “Experience Counts: Farm Business Survival in the U.S.” Amber Waves, April 2007.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2007-april/experience-counts-farm-business-survival-in-the-us.aspx#.V_1EHZMrKRs
33  Though the referenced study uses five year data that corresponds to the Census of Agriculture, the relatively new emergence of
commercial urban farms and the lack of urban agriculture census data cannot track these five year exits.
10
environment), and business structures (for-profit, The authors successfully identified and profiled
nonprofit). Given constraints of time and budget, the commercial urban farms started and managed by
research team limited case study farms to those within the producers from diverse racial, socio-economic, and ethnic
continental United States (see Figure 1). backgrounds who had long-term ties to the surrounding
community (e.g., Karen Fresh, Our School at Blair Grocery,
The research team, advisors, and expert interviewees Brother Nature, Growing Home). However, the study’s
were very eager that controlled environment agriculture restriction to only commercial focused (as defined
(CEA) farms be included. This presented two primary above) urban farms that were willing to share business
problems. First, because CEA is an emergent industry in information led to the selection of mostly farms primarily
the United States, many CEA businesses are less than 3 operated by college-educated, Caucasian farmers who live
years old. Second, the research team found through expert outside or only recently migrated to the community where
interviews that the largest and most well-known CEA the farm is located.
operations were extremely private about their businesses
strategies, specifically their technology which they
consider to be proprietary information or trade secrets Case Study Interview Protocol
(See Chapter 7 for more on CEA farms and technology).
This was confirmed by the research team’s experience
A standardized interview survey instrument (Appendix A)
after unsuccessfully attempting to recruit a single large-
was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data about
scale, for-profit CEA operation as a case study despite
case study farms and their current and future planned
multiple attempts and encouragement from mutual
activities (see Table 1 for example questions). Key sections
professional and personal connections.

Table 1. Example questions asked of 14 commercial urban agriculture case study farmers from across the
United States
Subject Area Quantitative Information Qualitative Information
Land, Infrastructure What are your total farm acres and the acres under What was the land access process like?
and Natural Resources cultivation? What is the length of your growing/sales What are your growing methods? What on-
season? What are the costs of adding infrastructure? farm infrastructure do you have? What soil
Do you have water access and what are the management challenges did you have?
associated costs of water delivery?
Crops How many different crops are grown on the farm? What certifications does the farm have and why?
What products are most profitable?
Marketing and Sales What are your earnings from farm products sold by Which farm sales channels work the best for you
market channel for FY2015? and why? Who are your competitors? Have you
experienced growth or change in your customer
base?
Financial Management What were your total operating costs for FY2015? When and how do you track metrics or evaluate
Do you have any loans or grants? If yes, for what the business? What are your key measures of
amount? success?
Employees What were your total wages paid out in FY2015? What is the composition of employees
What were your volunteer vs. paid hours? What is (production, administration, sales, etc.)? How
the starting salary for employees? have you found employees? How do you manage
volunteers? Do you have training programs for
employees or students?
Resources & Policies What access to capital did you have to start? Did Where do you go for farm training and education?
grants or gifts helped you start? What policies have made it easier or harder to
farm in the city? What is the farm’s biggest asset
in becoming viable? What is the most pressing
challenge to farm viability?
Other Farm Services What percentage of time is spent on other farm What kinds of education and training are you
service activities? Who does this? What percentage providing in your community? Who manages
of revenue is generated from these activities, if any? these additional activities?

11
of the survey included farmstead design, production, Case studies also include community descriptions. While
crop yields, and income for the one production season city policies are important, the unique characteristics of
(2015). Interviewees received the protocol in advance the immediate communities surrounding farms—their
of the interview to become familiar with the questions. land uses, demographics, and history—impact farms’
Interviews were conducted at the farm and lasted 2 development and growth potential. Often farms exhibit
to 4 hours, enabling the farmers to share their origin unique adaptive characteristics to integrate into their
stories and aspirations, detail production strategies, communities, which planners, policy-makers, and future
provide a tour of their operations, and highlight their urban farmers should consider as they expand UA.
UA innovations. During these 2-day site visits, 1- 2 hour
interviews with other key informants provided much
deeper background on the context for success of the Interviews of Other
case farm.
Urban Agriculture
Expert interviews and research made clear that urban
farms, even those that are commercially-driven, attempt Farmers and Supporters
to fulfill other social and ecological goals.34 Interviewers
asked the farmers about activities related to youth Interviews with more than 160 UA experts uncovered
engagement, job-readiness training, school tours, and many innovative policies, business plans, approaches,
community development based on their proximity to and technologies that did not fit into the case study
urban people curious about farming and food.35 framework. While many of these innovations are new,
they may have promise in other cities and for other
Farmers were asked to describe other services their
farms. One-hour interviews with policy-makers, farmers,
farms provide to the local community, which may include
or others who created or manage these innovations
education, community development, environmental
were conducted and, when possible, the research team
improvements, and other non-revenue-generating
observed these innovations at work. Chapter 7 illustrates
activities. When such services were described, farmers
these innovations in more detail, largely in interviewees
were asked what percent of time was spent on these
own words.
activities, and whether farm sales or other revenue
supported these activities. The mix of social and
environmental missions alongside profit are evidence of
social entrepreneurship, or using a revenue-generating
business to achieve social and environmental outcomes
that benefit a larger community.36

34  Dimitri, C., L. Oberholtzer, A. Pressman. 2016. “Urban agriculture: connecting producers with consumers.” British Food Journal, 118:3, 603-
617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2015-0200
35  Vitiello & Wolf-Powers, 2014.
36  For a discussion of the difficulty of measuring social enterprise, see, Trelstad, B. 2008. “Simple Measures of Social Enterprise.” Innovations,
105-118.

12
Chapter 3: Case Study Briefs
E ach of the 14 farms highlighted in this study have
unique approaches and circumstances that have been
key to their growth and development. The full case studies
These themes include:

zz Land Access
synthesize findings from site visits as well as interviews
with other community members and local policy makers zz Urban Ag Policy
(Appendix C). zz Full Time Owners
The following case study briefs provide a snapshot of each zz Community Revitalizing
farm’s start-up, size, markets, production and business
strategies, and manager education. At the top of each zz SNAP/Double Up Bucks
brief is a table highlighting key features about each farm
(Table 2). A summary of these key features is provided to zz Value Added Products
help readers understand the diversity of farming strategies
zz On-farm events/Agritourism
employed by case study farms (Table 3).
zz Farmer Food Security
In addition, the case studies provide the opportunity
to explore several topical themes relevant to CUA zz Multi-farm efforts
development that support the in-depth analysis in the
following chapters (Table 4). Readers may choose to read zz Education and Training
all or specific case studies, depending on areas of interest.
zz Incubator Farms/Training

zz Animals

zz Specialty Crops

Commercial Urban Agriculture Full Case Study Sections

(Appendix C)
• History • Employees

• Community Description • Other Activities/Services

• Farm Description • Support

• Production Practices • Policies Impacting Success

• Business Structure • Assets and Challenges

• Marketing and Sales

13
Table 2. Description of commercial urban farm highlights or key features

Farm overview Description Representative image

Farming strategy Soil: producing crops in soil either
directly in ground or raised beds

Controlled environment agriculture

(CEA): producing crops in structures
to allow control of heat, light,
temperature, water, and humidity

Roof top: producing crops in

restricted volumes of soil on roof
tops

Total farm size Number of acres n/a

Area cultivated in 2015 Number of acres n/a
Revenue strategy Production: majority of revenue from
sales of farm products

Training: nonprofit farms focused on

education and training, with majority
of revenue received as grants, gifts,
and educational program revenue

Hybrid: primarily production with

some training or education and site-
based fundraising +

Business structure For profit: sole proprietor, LLC, or

FP
S-corp

Nonprofit: 501(c)(3)

NP
Hybrid: split between both for profit

FP + NP
and nonprofit entities

Source for images: © Aleksey Vanin - Dreamstime.com

14
 Farm overview Description Representative image
Crop choice Specialized: relying upon a few crops
for the majority of farm income

Diversified: producing a diversity of

crops for farm sales

Season extension Using strategies such as growing in

unheated high tunnels or applying
plastic mulches on planting beds to
extend the production season

Primary market Direct to consumer: farmers markets

or community supported agriculture
(CSA)

Direct wholesale: traditional

wholesale channels (includes sales
to restaurants, grocery stores, and
other retailers.)

Manager education Self taught, training program, rural or

urban farm work, in-house training,
formal agriculture education

Source for images: © Aleksey Vanin - Dreamstime.com

15
16
Table 3. Key features for 14 commercial urban agriculture businesses profiled. Data based on 2015 farm practices.

Total Season Manager

Year Farming Acres Revenue Business Cropping Primary
Farm name and location Description farm extension education/
started strategy farmed strategy structure strategy markets
acres used training
Mushroom
Mycopolitan Mushroom Co., production in For profit Direct
2013 CEA 0.1 0.1 Production Specialized Yes Self-taught
Philadelphia, PA an industrial LLC wholesale
space
Risky business Self-taught,
Little City Gardens, For profit Direct
on land not 2010 Soil 0.8 0.3 Hybrid Specialized No rural farm
San Francisco, CA LLC wholesale
secured work
New
Direct to Training
Americans For profit
Karen Fresh Garden, consumers: program,
rooted 2012 Soil 0.5 0.5 Production sole Diverse No
Kansas City, KS farmers rural farm
through proprietor
markets work
farming
Rebuilding a
community
Our School at Blair Grocery, Direct Training
through 2008 Soil 1 0.7 Training Hybrid Specialized Yes
New Orleans, LA wholesale program
farming and
food access
Focus on Direct
Self-taught,
Rising Pheasant Farm, efficiency and For profit wholesale;
2009 Soil 0.75 0.75 Production Specialized Yes urban farm
Detroit, MI costs to farm LLC farmers
work
debt free markets
Providing job Direct to
Growing Home, readiness Nonprofit consumers: In-house
2002 Soil 1.5 0.9 Training Diverse Yes
Chicago, IL skills through 501(c)(3) farmers training
farming markets
Integrating
urban
Direct to Self-taught,
and rural 1 urban
Brother Nature Produce, For profit consumers: formal
production 2009 Soil and 7 1 Production Specialized Yes
Detroit, MI LLC farmers agriculture
and value- rural
markets education
added
products
Chef’s hobby
Self-taught,
Side Yard Farm, becomes For profit Direct
2009 Soil 1.8 1.2 Hybrid Specialized No urban farm
Portland, OR vibrant farm LLC wholesale
work
business
 Total Season Manager
Year Farming Acres Revenue Business Cropping Primary
Farm name and location Description farm extension education/
started strategy farmed strategy structure strategy markets
acres used training
Family Direct to
For profit Self-taught,
Wilson Street Farm, homestead consumers:
2008 Soil 1.8 1.5 Production sole Diverse No rural farm
Buffalo, NY incubates a farmers
proprietor work
farm business markets
Unique
partnership
Direct to
Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, with For profit Rural farm
2008 Soil 1.5 1.5 Production Diverse Yes consumers:
Decatur, GA homeowners LLC work
CSA
secures farm’s
future
Multiple
business Hybrid
Springdale Farm, Direct
ventures 2008 Soil 5 2 Hybrid (s-corp/ Diverse Yes Self-taught
Austin, TX wholesale
support farm’s 501(c)(3)
growth
Intensive
roof top farm
Brooklyn Grange, Direct
managed for 2009 Rooftop 2.5 2.4 Hybrid Hybrid Specialized Yes Self-taught
Brooklyn and Queens, NY wholesale
profit per
square foot
Incubating a Direct to
Training
business to For profit consumers:
Mellowfields Farm, program,
eventually 2007 Soil 3 3 Production sole Diverse No farmers
Lawrence, KS rural farm
scale up on proprietor markets and
work
rural land CSA
Year round
employment
Green City Growers, Nonprofit Direct In-house
through 2013 CEA 5.2 3.3 Training Specialized Yes
Cleveland, OH 501(c)(3) wholesale training
hydroponic
lettuce

17
18
Table 4. Topical themes explored in commercial urban agriculture case studies

Provides
Urban SNAP/ Value- On-farm Owner Multi- Incubator
Land Full-time Community education Signature
Farm ag double-up added events/ food farm farm Livestock
access owners revitalizing and product
policy programs products agritourism security efforts trainee
training
Mycopolitan
Mushrooms
Mushroom

Little City Gardens X X X X X Flowers

Karen Fresh Ethnic

Garden
X X X X vegetables

Our School at Blair

Grocery
X X X X X X X

Rising Pheasant
X X X X X X Sprouts
Farm

Growing Home X X X X X

Brother Nature
X X X X X X Salad mix
Produce

Side Yard Farm X X X X Flowers

Wilson Street Farm X X X X X

Love is Love Farm

at Gaia Gardens
X X X X X

Springdale Farm X X X X X X X

Brooklyn Grange X X X X

Mellowfields Farm X X X X X X X

Green City
X X X X Lettuce
Growers
Mycopolitan Mushroom Company, Philadelphia, PA
Mushroom Production in an Industrial Space
Year started: 2013 • Total farm size: 0.1 acre • Area cultivated in 2015: <0.1 acre

Themes: Signature product — mushrooms

FP

About the Farm

Tyler Case and Brian Versek, mushroom enthusiasts with
science backgrounds, were eager to start a specialty
mushroom-growing operation to test their skills. In
2012, they found an ideal home for what would become
Mycopolitan Mushroom Company in an unlikely place: the
dark basement of an old warehouse in an industrial area
of Philadelphia. They signed a 3-year lease with landlord,
The Common Market, hired fellow enthusiast Dan Howling,
and constructed underground high tunnels, realizing their
mushroom-farming dream.
A first-flush of shiitake mushrooms bloom shaggy caps
from a brick of substrate.
Production, Sales and Marketing
Mycopolitan grows a variety of specialty culinary space with few productive alternative uses—does not
mushrooms including King Trumpet, Nomeko, and Shiitake. create land use issues. Case, Versek, and Howling still
Mushroom spawn is suspended in bags of sterilized depend on a strong internet community of mushroom
substrate, the growing medium from which mushrooms growers for support and guidance as they refine their skills
fruit. Mycopolitan can take advantage of several waste and business.
streams for its substrate, including grain from a local flour
mill and sawdust from a local saw mill. Assets and Challenges
Philadelphia restaurants are fans of the results, and The business benefited from an early capital boost from an
Mycopolitan has found success at farm-to-table investor and part-owner in the business and The Common
restaurants, especially because mushroom season runs Market’s eagerness to bring on tenants. It has already
counter to other locally grown food. The business wrote expanded its production facilities to increase production
a food safety plan and is pursuing Good Agriculture and hopes to pay its employees better. The challenge
Practices (GAP) certification, which will be particularly comes in figuring out the key next steps: with few
helpful in marketing to institutions. Mycopolitan already resources and no local specialists, Mycopolitan is charting
appears on menus at the University of Philadelphia, its first new ground for urban mushroom farms.
institutional customer.

Community and Policy Support

Because Mycopolitan is relatively unprecedented in
Philadelphia, it does not face many of the same challenges
that outdoor, soil-based farms do. The nature of the
business—small, underground, utilizing former industrial

19
Little City Gardens, San Francisco, CA
Risky Business on Land Not Secured
Year started: 2010 • Total farm size: 0.75 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 0.33 acres

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, Value-added products, On-farm events,
Signature product — flowers.

+ FP

About the Farm

Caitlyn Galloway and Brooke Budner found the San
Francisco property that would become Little City Gardens
in 2009. The irregularly shaped, garbage-strewn lot
would soon become an urban farm as owner after
owner struggled to develop the land, which had been
plagued with issues including a high water table and a
neighborhood wary of new development. Neighbors began
to visit and enjoy the farm more frequently, as
what Galloway describes as the “experiment” grew its
customer base.

The seed-starting room and potting shed at Little City

Production, Sales and Marketing Gardens is constructed of found materials.
The farm benefited from San Francisco’s temperate climate
to grow food and flowers 10 months each year. The farm The farm continued to face development pressure,
became known for its salad greens, which often included however, and the neighborhood became one of the
sprouts and edible flowers popular among the city’s chefs. strongest support networks for Little City Gardens.
It also grew more traditional crops like radishes and The local neighborhood association’s “Save the Farm!”
turnips alongside less common vegetables like cardoons campaign was broadly supported by the community and
and artichokes. San Francisco’s local food advocates.
It offered a small CSA and advertised any surpluses in
greens or vegetables through social media, on which it had Assets and Challenges
a strong following. Little City Gardens also grew cut flowers Galloway says the land which was made available for
and sold them in bouquets through a few local retailers. Little City Gardens and the buy-in of the neighbors whose
properties surrounded it was one of its biggest assets. It
Community and Policy Support lost its land lease at the end of 2016 when the owners
were finally cleared to develop the ¾ acre property into
Little City Gardens was nearly closed when the City of a private school. The community was devastated by the
San Francisco determined it was illegal to sell anything loss of Galloway’s “experiment,” one she believes was
produced on the farm. Galloway and Budner became ultimately successful.
activists, petitioning the city to change the law along with
other local UA advocates. They succeeded, winning the
right to farm commercially in any city zone under 1 acre.

20
Karen Fresh Gardens, Kansas City, KS
New Americans Rooted through Farming
Year started: 2012 • Total farm size: 0.5 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 0.5 acres

Themes: Full-time owners, Owner food security, Multi-farm efforts, Incubator farm trainee, Signature
product — ethnic vegetables.

FP

About the Farm

Lay Htoo, a Burmese refugee settled in Kansas City,
enrolled in a farmer training program called New Roots for
Refugees. Graduating ahead of schedule in its inaugural
2011 class, she honed her business and production skills
as she learned to grow American vegetables alongside
those she grew in Burma. Upon graduation, she and her
family purchased a house with a yard and began farming in
2012, naming it for the Karen ethnic group of which they
are part. The farm is a source of supplemental income and
provides for many of the family’s food needs.

Rows of spinach ready for harvest in Karen Fresh

Production, Sales and Marketing Garden’s high tunnel.
A high-tunnel, built with the help of the NRCS EQIP
program, produces spinach all winter while spring, New Roots, which is a collaboration between Catholic
summer, and fall proffer a wide variety of crops—from kale Charities of Kansas City and Cultivate Kansas City, an urban
and zucchini to Thai chili peppers and lemongrass. farming advocacy organization, provides continued support
to graduates. It assists with limited direct wholesale
Lay Htoo sells produce at two farmers markets in Kansas sales, connects farmers to social services, provides
City, where she had also sold when enrolled with New assistance with taxes and other business paperwork and
Roots for Refugees. Word of mouth and good customer requirements, and even offers purchase of compost and
service keep customers coming back, says Lay Htoo marketing supplies at cost from its bulk orders. In 2010
through an interpreter. She is shy about speaking English and 2016, New Roots received funding through National
and does not use social media, instead focusing her Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Beginning Farmer
marketing and brand on her farmers market displays: “The and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP).
merchandising is great, and the produce is really pretty,”
she says proudly.
Assets and Challenges
Community and Policy Support Lay Htoo is grateful for the support she has received
from New Roots, especially from its trainers with whom
Kansas City, KS, has a large refugee population, including she has developed lasting friendships. They also help
many Burmese who patronize Lay Htoo’s stands and who her with paperwork, with which she still has difficulty
also farm. Lay Htoo and the three other women with because of her English proficiency. But, Lay Htoo plans to
whom she graduated from the New Roots for Refugees farm “forever” in Kansas City—the farm is the greatest
training program have become a close-knit community of assurance that she will always be able to feed her family.
urban farmers.

21
Our School at Blair Grocery, New Orleans, LA
Rebuilding a Community through Farming and Food Access
Year started: 2008 • Total farm size: 1 acre • Area cultivated in 2015: 0.66 acres

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, On-farm events, Provides education and
training, Incubator farm trainee, Livestock.

FP + NP

About the Farm

Nat Turner had taken several trips to New Orleans’
decimated Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina when
he finally decided to move there from New York City in
2008. The former high school teacher began gardening on
the empty lots of the Lower Ninth Ward and hatched
a plan for troubled neighborhood youth: build an
alternative school that pairs education with part-time work
on a production farm to empower youth to make better
life choices.

Our School at Blair Grocery (OSBG) comprises several

lots purchased and leased from the New Orleans The former Blair Grocery, which served as a school as the
Redevelopment Authority (NORA) where Turner, his staff, property and surrounding parcels began to operate as
and students grow vegetables and manage goats and a farm.
chickens year-round. The school building, a former
grocery store, gives the farm and school its name. Turner was able to purchase land from the NORA after an
intern compiled several UA policies from cities around the
Production, Sales and Marketing country to suggest a variance for the farming use. It was
an early step for New Orleans, which did not have an UA
OSBG specializes in arugula and other high-value greens, policy. New policies have been put in place and are being
including microgreens in its greenhouse. It supplements amended to be more amenable to farmers’ needs.
the nutrient-poor soil of the Lower Ninth with compost
comprised of discarded produce from a local grocery store.
Assets and Challenges
Restaurants are OSBG’s biggest customer, especially
OSBG’s ambitious goals and wide-ranging praise were an
as farm-to-table fever has taken over New Orleans.
asset at its start, but financial challenges quickly cast a
Community members also buy food, but at a price much
shadow over the organization. It has been rebuilding since,
lower (or free) to increase access in the neighborhood.
redefining its mission and scope, and preparing for new
But the center of OSBG effort is education, and over 28 ventures to increase food security in the neighborhood.
percent of their revenue is from educational events, A constant stream of volunteers from around the country
trainings and speaking events. An additional 17 percent of visit the farm to assist with projects, helping to lighten the
funding is from grants. load of so many moving pieces.

Community and Policy Support

OSBG received a lot of early attention and support for
its efforts as the Lower Ninth Ward struggled to rebuild
from the storm. USDA and several local and national
foundations granted money to the organization.
22
Rising Pheasant Farm, Detroit, MI
Focus on Efficiency and Costs to Farm Debt Free
Year started: 2009 • Total farm size: 0.75 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 0.75 acres

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners, Community revitalizing, SNAP/Double-up
programs, Owner food security, Signature product — sprouts.

FP

About the Farm

Carolyn Leadley, her husband, and their children moved to
the Farnsworth neighborhood on the east side of Detroit
to give a permanent home to Rising Pheasant Farm.
Leadley started farming in a rented attic in 2011, and has
expanded to 10 lots around her home, comprising the
family’s sole source of income. Her deep commitment to
reuse, recycling, and low-impact solutions has resulted in
creative strategies to keep costs low. An iconic example is
the farm’s Dutch cargo bicycles for delivery and advertising
of farm products, which also serve as the family’s primary
mode of transportation.
Pea and sunflower shoots are grown in the greenhouse for
year-round harvest at Rising Pheasant Farm.
Production, Sales and Marketing
Shoots are Rising Pheasant’s backbone—sunflower, sweet
pea, mixed radish, and buckwheat—produced year-round expedite purchases of vacant adjacent lots. The Detroit
in the farm’s greenhouse. Leadley’s other 10-15 field Land Bank Authority is now managing all vacant parcels in
crops are produced from April through October, an the city.
extended season with the help of 4 high tunnels. The
majority of the shoots are sold directly to a few restaurants Keep Growing Detroit, a local urban gardening and farming
in the city. The farm also has a table at Detroit’s Eastern organization, has been a critical supporter in sharing
Market, where it offers a ‘market-based’ CSA to give grant opportunities, resources, and training. The National
customers flexible choices on crops available each week. Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental
The Eastern Market’s Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) grants for high tunnels
and Double-up Food Bucks programs have increased their have helped Leadley produce year round and maximize
SNAP-recipient customers. productivity of her very small farm.

The productivity of the farm has improved over time, such Rising Pheasant Farms owes much of its expansion to
that Leadley now hires one part time employee (30 hr/ Leadley’s strategic application and creative use of small
week) during the season, to help with production and grant funding available to urban farmers in Detroit to
bike deliveries. build greenhouses, install heating, and buy small scale
equipment.

Community and Policy Support

Assets and Challenges
The 2013 passage of Detroit’s urban agriculture ordinance
legalized Rising Pheasant’s farming activities. They The availability of land around their home has been a
purchased three of their lots from private owners, and the critical asset, allowing Leadley to rapidly and inexpensively
rest from the City of Detroit. A ‘sidelot’ program helped expand the farm. However, some of these lots have had
trouble with soil contamination, which requires careful
testing, plant management, and compost to build
raised beds. 23
Growing Home, Chicago, IL
Providing Job Readiness Skills through Farming
Year started: 2002 • Total farm size: 1.5 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 0.9 acres

Themes: Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, SNAP/Double-up programs, On-farm events,

Provides education and training.

NP

About the Farm

William “Les” Brown, founder of the Chicago Coalition
for the Homeless (CCH), hired Harry Rhodes in 2001
to create a program that used farming to help recently
incarcerated or otherwise displaced individuals develop
job readiness skills to re-enter the work force. Since
2002, Growing Home has graduated over 400 people
from its job training program, contributed to rewriting the
city’s zoning policy, and has made a significant impact on
Chicago’s UA movement. As a social enterprise, Growing
Home integrates production and marketing of produce
with employment and job training for about 40 individuals.
Growing Home’s graduate recidivism rate within 3 years is The seed-starting room at Wood Street Urban Farm.
around 13 percent compared with 50 percent for
the State. As a result of their own challenges with setting up an
urban farm, Growing Home partnered with several other
Production, Sales, and Marketing UA organizations to rewrite Chicago zoning policy to
support UA. The 2011 UA ordinance further defines zones
Growing Home operates a certified organic farm (only
for UA activity and sales, and exempts urban farms from
one in Chicago) on about 0.9 acres in the Englewood
some landscaping and parking requirements of other
community on the Southside (Wilson Street and Honore
businesses.
Street). The farm infrastructure includes five high tunnels,
outdoor growing areas, a farm stand, and a two-story
building housing administrative offices, classrooms, a wash Assets and Challenges
station, walk-in cooler space, and storage and potting The combination of fast-paced production and customer
areas. Sales of over 50 different crops and 200 varieties interactions at market give Growing Home trainees ample
provides about one third of the overall farm budget. opportunity to hone job skills and interests. Growing
While farm markets and farm stands are their primary Home has succeeded as a social enterprise that aims
sales outlets now, they hope to expand their restaurant to promote urban farming, provide job training and
and other direct wholesale in the future to provide more affordable food, all while paying a living wage to its
financial stability. trainees. As the minimum and living wages continue to
rise in Chicago, however, securing grant funding for their
Community and Policy Support programs will be the most persistent challenge going
forward.
The majority of funding for the programs hosted by
Growing Home comes from support of donors, grants, and
foundations committed to the same goals of individual
development through meaningful work and self-reliance.

24
Brother Nature Produce, Detroit, MI
Integrating Urban and Rural Production and
Value Added Products
Year started: 2009 • Total farm size: 1 urban acre + 7 rural acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 1 acre

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners; Community revitalizing, Value added products,
Owner food security, Signature product — salad mix.

FP
About the Farm
The North Corktown neighborhood of Detroit is now home
to Brother Nature Produce. Greg Willerer quit teaching in
2008 to farm full time at Brother Nature Produce. Olivia
Hubert, a seasoned horticulturist, joined him as partner in
business and life. They provide the majority of the labor
on the farm but have a few committed volunteers who
share their vision for a renewed Detroit. The farm includes
2 houses and 10 city lots, just under 1 acre, plus a recently
acquired rural 7-acre farm 1 hour north of Detroit.

Production, Sales and Marketing

Brother Nature Produce’s production is centered on their Interior of a high tunnel at Brother Nature Produce.
salad mix, which has become its signature product. The
five to eight species in the mix changes over the season, Assets and Challenges
but Olivia has perfected mild, medium and spicy green
The increase in tourism and visitors at the Eastern Market
combinations. Brother Nature adds value to its mix by
has led to a decrease in sales with fewer long term
selling salads ready to eat at the Eastern Market. To extend
residents interested in facing the crowds. Other markets,
the season, they have high tunnels and are also breeding
as well as value-added salad mixes and custom work
and selecting varieties of greens that will overwinter in
have helped to keep Brother Nature thriving. Hubert is
their environment. Three farmers markets account for the
currently creating new vinegars and other products that
majority sales, but restaurants and a few committed CSA
they hope will leverage their farm’s product to higher
members add diversity. But, the farm produces more than
returns.
just income. It ensures the family’s food security.
Despite their prominence as leaders in Detroit’s urban
Community and Policy Support farming movement, Willerer and Hubert have struggled
to purchase the land they are currently cultivating from
Through grants available to vendors at the Eastern Market,
the Detroit Land Bank. While UA is now recognized as a
Willerer has been able to purchase labor-saving equipment
legal use of urban land, they fear that some in the city
and a tractor that he also uses to provide custom tillage to
may prefer land being held for other uses. The support of
neighboring farms. Local nonprofit Keep Growing Detroit
their neighbors and community, as well as adding a rural
was critical in early days to help with marketing and with
farm, helps secure the future of Brother Nature Produce,
projects around the farm. The Detroit UA Ordinance has
regardless of other visions for land in Detroit.
allowed Brother Nature to farm legally.

25
Side Yard Farm, Portland, OR
Chef’s Hobby Becomes Vibrant Farm Business
Year started: 2009 • Total farm size: 1.75 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 1.2 acres

Themes: Full-time owners, Value-added products, On-farm events, Provides education and training,
Signature product — flowers.

+ FP

About the Farm

Stacey Givens came to farming through the kitchen. A
professional chef, she tended restaurant gardens before
deciding to start her own urban farm in Portland’s Cully
neighborhood.

Givens owns and operates The Side Yard Farm & Kitchen, a
farm and catering company. The farm is on two lots in the
neighborhood and includes an office-building, cold storage,
and wash stations.

Production, Sales, and Marketing

Side Yard Farm’s sign from the street, with the one-acre
The Side Yard Farm grows a variety of vegetables, specialty
plot and primary outbuildings in the background.
culinary herbs and edible flowers, and specializes in
high-value, quick-succession crops. Portland’s temperate
growing season is extended by the high tunnel erected Community and Policy Support
with the help of the NRCS EQIP program, allowing Givens
Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary makes finding
to grow hardy greens to supply her catering business
affordable farm land difficult within city limits. Though the
throughout the winter. The Side Yard is also a frequent site
city does not plan to promote UA, Steve Cohen, Manager
for paid farm dinners and events. Givens follows organic
of Food Policy and Programs at the City of Portland
practices but does not feel the need to certify organic:
Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, has provided critical
“The chefs know I’m organic [in my growing practices].
assistance to the Side Yard Farm and other farmers by
That’s the only way to grow in Portland.”
helping to educate and coordinate city bureaus to make
The Side Yard Farm primarily sells direct wholesale to the regulatory burdens on farms reasonable and fair.
restaurants and to its own catering company. The farm
relies on word of mouth to find new restaurant clients, Assets and Challenges
and Givens has strong relationships with area chefs from
Though the majority of the farm’s expenses are its two
her years in the kitchen. On-farm dinners catered by the
part-time farm managers’ pay, the most pressing for
Side Yard’s catering company are another valuable income
Givens are the costs laid by city policies. High water
stream. Though the catering side of the business helps
costs, permitting fees, and poor coordination at the City
keep the farm viable, Givens says she cannot imagine
level cost the farm upwards of $15,000 during the 2015
one without the other, as the farm is part of the business
construction of its newest site. Luckily Givens’ landlords
philosophy.
have been sympathetic to her plight and generously
assisted her in paying for fees or waving rent as she battled
to install the farm.

26
Wilson Street Urban Farm, Buffalo, NY
Family Homestead Incubates a Farm Business
Year started: 2008 • Total farm size: 1.75 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 1.5 acres

Themes: Land access, Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, Owner food security,
Multi-farm efforts.

FP

About the Farm

When Mark and Janice Stevens and their seven children
moved from rural New York State to the East Side of
Buffalo, they did not expect to become some of the city’s
highest-regarded urban farmers—they merely wanted
to continue to homestead and practice self-reliance.
But, the family’s farm, comprised of 25 vacant lots in the
economically-depressed East Side, soon became a side-
business and a stop for tours on subjects from local food to
city planning.

Production, Sales, and Marketing

Wilson Street Urban Farm sign celebrates growing food
The Stevenses grow a wide variety of vegetables for as long in the city.
as Buffalo’s climate will allow, aided by a small high tunnel.
They work hard to improve their rocky, nutrient-depleted
soil with compost from a local cooperative they helped to the family a 5-year lease for the 25 lots for a cost $1 per
start as well as cover crops, and irrigate their crops from year, Wilson Street has been able to grow as it pleases.
the four 350-gallon rain catchment barrels that collect The family remains involved in the continuing policy
from the roof of their high tunnel and their house, situated development, however, and are strong advocates for the
across from the farm. power of UA to contribute to the revitalization of Buffalo.

Nearly half of Wilson Street Urban Farm’s produce goes

toward feeding the Stevens family. The remainder goes Assets and Challenges
toward their farmers market stand, 14-member CSA, and Beyond seeds, materials, fuel for their tractor, and
a farm stand they operate on their farm every Saturday. maintenance, the Stevenses are able to provide for most
Because the Stevens’ goal was not to start a business but of their other farm needs. Mark, a carpenter, can build or
to provide for themselves, they are interested in the maintain any of the farm structures. Several of the Stevens
right combination of sales channels that allow them to children do farm chores as part of their daily routine,
earn what they need while still having time to farm and watering, weeding, and harvesting with Janice, who is the
enjoy life. primary laborer.

But as her children grow, Janice wonders how the farm will
Community and Policy Support evolve. “I’m losing my labor force,” she jokes, talking about
Through 2015, the Stevenses benefitted from a prolonged her children growing up, getting jobs, and moving away.
planning process in the City of Buffalo as it prepared She has been finding ways to work smarter instead of
to adopt its “Green Code37.” With no restrictions and a harder by making better use of space, making crop choices
friendly relationship with the city officials who offered that best fit the market demand and their production
capabilities, and keeping better records to track their
income and expenses.
37  This was signed into law in January 2017.
27
Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, Decatur, GA
Unique Partnership with Homeowners Secures Farm’s Future
Year started: 2008 • Total farm size: 1.5 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 1.5 acres

Themes: Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, On-farm events, Multi-farm efforts, Provides
education and training.

FP

About the Farm

Love Is Love is not a place, says farmer Joe Reynolds: it is
a farming philosophy. After renting land in rural Georgia,
Reynolds accepted the opportunity to move Love Is Love to
the 1.5-acre farm area Gaia Gardens, 5 acres of open space
that is part of the planned community East Lake Commons.
Reynolds works with the community not just to farm
responsibly and provide CSA shares, but to co-manage the
land and maintain balance between natural areas, open
space, the farm, and the built environment.

Production, Sales and Marketing

Beginning of the season at Love is Love Farm, where
Reynolds learned organic practices as a new farmer, and some cover crops have been plowed under while others
Gaia Gardens maintains organic certification. The farm stay in place until Joe Reynolds and his team are ready
benefits from Atlanta’s long growing season, and Reynolds, to plant.
who received NRCS EQIP assistance in 2015, put up a high
tunnel to extend the season. The housing community owns
and maintains the farm infrastructure, including its tractor operated in a grey area, as farming was not technically
and cold storage, at no cost to Reynolds. legal even though it was widely accepted. Political support
behind urban farming is growing in the Atlanta metro area,
Love Is Love’s lease requires it to have a CSA to offer to
and zoning changes like DeKalb’s will make it easier for
community members. Extra CSA shares can be offered
more farms to become legitimate businesses in the future,
to the general public, and over half of Love Is Love’s CSA
says Reynolds.
members live outside East Lake Commons. Shares are
offered in two sessions over the long growing season. To
grow membership and diversity of offerings in the CSA, Assets and Challenges
Reynolds has now partnered with another farmer in the Reynolds’ lease with East Lake Commons offers him free
area. This will help shift reliance away from farmers’ access to the land, infrastructure, equipment, and a set
markets which are a large time investment and are budget for maintenance, repairs, and replacement, as
showing decreasing returns. well as free utilities. A water catchment pond provides for
most irrigation needs. Though the farm cannot expand
Community and Policy Support beyond its 1.5 acres, due to restrictions put in place by
the community, the generosity of the arrangement and
Gaia Gardens’ farm land and materials are fully supported
thoughtfulness of residents make this agreement ideal for
by East Lake Commons residents, who also participate in
Love Is Love.
Love Is Love’s CSA. Prior to a DeKalb County ordinance
amendment in 2015, Love Is Love and other farms like it

28
Springdale Farm, Austin, TX
Multiple Business Ventures Support Farm’s Growth
Year started: 2008 • Total farm size: 5 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 2 acres

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, SNAP/Double-up programs, On-farm events, Multi-farm efforts,
Provides education and training, Livestock.

+ FP + NP
About the Farm
Glenn and Paula Foore started farming in 2008 when their
landscape business, for which they had purchased their
East Austin property, suffered the effects of the Great
Recession. Eager to keep their employees working, they
began growing and selling food, eventually establishing an
indoor farm market and helping to make East Austin an
urban farming destination.

Production, Sales, and Marketing

Austin’s year-round growing climate allows the Foores to
grow more than 75 varieties of vegetables, fruit, and herbs. Beyond the rows of young vegetables, an Airstream
High tunnels and outbuildings used for the landscaping trailer serves as a bridal party respite. The Foore’s home,
business were repurposed for food crop production, and right, is also on the property. It is the only part not
Glenn hard-plumbed irrigation lines into the fields, fed by protected with an agricultural variance and has been
the property’s well. They also collaborate with three other featured in several architectural magazines. It also makes
urban farms near them, buying and selling from each other for an easy commute.
and rallying to support each other when challenges arise.

While the Foores still own and operate their landscaping community. Yet, overall the zoning changes were a victory
company, farm sales have grown to be a competitive for Austin’s urban farmers, who reestablished their right to
second business. Local chefs come to the Springdale farm exist in the city and continue to grow food.
stand twice weekly to purchase for their restaurants. The
farm stand is open to the public as well, and accepts SNAP Assets and Challenges
benefits, which approximately 28 percent of residents
less than a mile from the farm receive. In addition, they Springdale Farm does a lot more than grow food: it hosts
host numerous school group tours and events, generating a pop-up restaurant, acts as a wedding and fundraiser
additional farm revenue. venue, and is home to the Foore’s landscaping business.
It also enjoys popularity among chefs and schoolteachers,
who are eager to bring students to the farm. In late 2015,
Community and Policy Support Springdale Farm started a nonprofit arm to facilitate more
Springdale Farm and other farms in the neighborhood educational opportunities for youth, something the Foores
struggled for several years with a community group that value in their role as urban farmers. The nonprofit will be
opposed the urban farms. The battle ended up in zoning able to accept grants and donations to support education
hearings, despite that agriculture was already legal in all work, which eats into the farm’s current productivity.
zones in Austin. The multi-year ordeal cost the Foores not
only financially due to legal fees and changes demanded
of the farm, but in morale, as well. Something they had Note: As of August 2018, Springdale Farm has closed for
created to be inclusive and positive was dividing the personal reasons.
29
Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn and Queens, NY
Intensive Roof Top Farm Managed for Profit per Square Foot
Year started: 2009 • Total farm size: 2.5 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 2.4 acres

Themes: Land access, Full time owners, On-farm events, Provides education and training.

+ FP + NP

About the Farm

Brooklyn Grange grows produce high above the industrial
neighborhoods surrounding it, farming two rooftops with
Manhattan skyline views. Despite its location, the farm has
become a destination for New Yorkers seeking a bit of farm
life: from a weekly farm stand and tours, to event rentals
and photoshoots, Brooklyn Grange does much more than
grow vegetables.

Production, Sales and Marketing:

Brooklyn Grange grows a wide variety of lettuces and salad
greens, peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and edible flowers, as Brooklyn Grange farm sign.
well as limited quantities of many other vegetables that
grow well in its specially designed soil mix. It employs
detailed crop planning and tracks earnings on a square- farm has also received accolades from the urban farming
foot basis to choose the most productive and profitable community for its innovative education programs, and
crops that make the best use of its limited space. It also from average people who rent space on the farm for
grows sprouts and microgreens in its high tunnels in dinners, weddings, and photo shoots.
winter months.

The majority of sales are to restaurants in Brooklyn and Assets and Challenges
Manhattan, who hear about Brooklyn Grange by word of Forward-thinking landlords of suitably sturdy buildings
mouth or through social media and are excited to receive have given Brooklyn Grange the long-term leases it needs
its hyperlocal produce. The farm also sells at a local to justify the expense of installing a rooftop farm. As the
farmers market and hosts a farm stand, one of several farm looks to expand, it will look for similar long-term
opportunities for the public to see its rooftops. leases. It will also attempt to continually improve its
bottom line in order to retain top talent in one of the most
Community and Policy Support expensive cities in America.
Increased interest in green roofs and rooftop farming has
helped Brooklyn Grange take advantage of several policies,
programs, and grants that helped it secure its locations.
Interest in supporting green infrastructure is responsible
for its Brooklyn location, without which the Grange could
not have completed the rooftop installation project. The

30
Mellowfields Urban Farm, Lawrence, KS
Incubating a Business to Eventually Scale up on Rural Land
Year started: 2007 • Total farm size: 3 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 3 acres

Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, Multi-farm efforts,
Provides education and training, Incubator farm trainee.

FP

About the Farm

Jessi Asmussen and Kevin Prather trained and apprenticed
over the course of several years, slowly moving away from
their day jobs toward owning and operating Mellowfields
Urban Farm. They farmed in their own backyard and on
rented plots until 2013, when they were accepted into a
program operated by the City of Lawrence providing land
to urban farmers and gardeners. They earned organic
certification in 2015 and have begun a greenhouse
operation with another nearby farmer, allowing them to
move beyond seasonal production to year-round sales.

Thousands of cells of onion starts under glass at

Production, Sales and Marketing Mellowfields’ new co-owned greenhouse.
Mellowfields grows 30-40 different crops throughout the
season to supply their CSA and farmers’ market stand.
They moved to a permanent raised bed system to improve The couple also benefits from strong relationships with
production of crops like carrots and beets, and have rural farmers outside of Lawrence, upon whose expertise
purchased and improvised machinery to operate their 3 they call. They are some of the same farmers that trained
acres. them as employees and apprentices, and invited the
farm to partner in a cooperative organic CSA—a powerful
The farm’s CSA is consistently sold out, and its farmers additional marketing channel.
market stand is very popular due to its high-quality
produce and excellent marketing. At the farmers market
farmers work together on pricing because though the Assets and Challenges
market is competitive, it is still a community and vendors Mellowfields’ nearly free access to land with the highest
do not want to undercut each other. Mellowfields accepts quality soil has been its greatest asset, says Asmussen.
SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks at the farmers market In 2017, the farm’s dream was realized, and they moved
which provides additional income and helps them reach a to the outskirts of Kansas and four acres of river bottom
wider variety of customers. land. While their improvements to soil quality at this site
will accrue to another farmer, the couple had prepared for
Community and Policy Support the move by designing moveable infrastructure, including
wash stations and a walk-in cooler.
The City of Lawrence’s Common Ground program is
responsible for granting Asmussen and Prather their land,
which as of the 2016 season has a 3-year rolling lease for
$1 per acre per year. Agriculture has always been legal in
Lawrence, and the program, along with enabling land use
regulations, has made it easier to farm in Lawrence.

31
Green City Growers, Cleveland, OH
Year Round Employment Through Hydroponic Lettuce
Year started: 2013 • Total farm size: 5.35 acres • Area cultivated in 2015: 3.25 acres

Themes: Land access, Full-time owners, Community revitalizing, Provides education and training,
Signature product — lettuce.

NP

About the Farm

Green City Growers (GCG) is a social enterprise that
leverages greenhouse lettuce production to provide
employment and rebuild the Central neighborhood of
Cleveland. It is the third worker-owned cooperative
incubated by Evergreen Cooperative Corporation (ECC),
a 501(c)3. After 1 year working at Green City, employees
can be voted in as member-owners, participate in
decision making, and receive a share that will hopefully
grow into a $65,000 equity account after 10 years. It is
its commitment to its member-employees—and their
commitment in return—that sets GCG apart from other
greenhouse operations. The diverse staff manage all parts Green City Growers has over 3 acres of hydroponic
of the operation, with mentoring and coaching from the growing space.
Corporation.

Production, Sales and Marketing lagging neighborhood. ECC is loosely modeled on the
Spanish Mondragon cooperative model for growing
Lettuce and herbs are produced in tight succession using cooperatively managed businesses, a concept that has
a floating raft/pond system in a controlled environment resonated with anchor institutions and investors.
greenhouse. Supplemental light, nutrients, heat and
carbon dioxide have dropped production cycles to 40 days
or less. Recycling of water from production ponds plus Assets and Challenges
recapture from snow melt and rain has minimized water While the greenhouse currently produces at about
use. Heads are packed in boxes or clam shells destined for 86 percent capacity, 90 percent is the breakpoint for
local institutions or retail chains. Now, regional distributors profitability. Initially, GCG anticipated most of the product
and direct retailers handle most of their product. being purchased by other institutions in the University
Circle area, but the product price point reduced their
Community and Policy Support attractiveness. Managers foresee two strategies to
get there: increase production and reduce energy
ECC has received tremendous accolades for their employee consumption by retrofitting to LED supplemental lights.
empowerment models. Local, city, and federal support Building this social enterprise depends very much on
through loans, grants, and tax abatements generated making the bottom line work.
the $17 million needed to purchase the 10 acres of land
and construct the greenhouse facility. The project was
heralded by many as a boon for development in this

32
Chapter 4: Exploring Commercial Urban
Farm Viability
What are the hallmarks of a viable commercial urban Three case study farm owner/managers have degrees
farm business? The answer to this question is difficult to related to agriculture, including horticulture and plant
generalize among 14 case study farms. Particularities such ecology, though none did so with the plan of starting an
as crop choices, season extension and seasonality, market urban farm. Four of the case study farms are owned/
channels, income streams, land agreements, and labor and managed or co-owned/managed by a farmer who is
other expenses make each farm’s trajectory unique and primarily self-taught, having never worked on an urban
not easy to predict. Ideally, production and income data or rural farm prior to starting their own. Five farmers
could have been synthesized for multiple years and across apprenticed or interned on rural farms, while three
many more farms, but this was beyond the scope of this previously worked on urban farms.
study. While 85 candidate urban farms were identified,
the 14 selected met criteria for farm maturity and earnings Several farm owners and managers participated in training
as well as represented gender and racial diversity among programs to improve their production or business skills.
the primary managers. Lay Htoo launched Karen Fresh Garden after participating
in the New Roots for Refugees program for 3 years.
While these 14 commercial urban farms represent a tiny Nat Turner (Our School at Blair Grocery) participated
fraction of urban farms in the United States, they show in the urban farmer training hosted by Growing Power
striking parallels in their strategies, evolution, challenges, in Milwaukee. Others participated in business training
ideas, and plans. Many of these farms are more mature courses that covered business planning, financial
businesses than is common among commercial urban management, and recordkeeping.
farms. Thus, they represent the potential for CUA.
These farms have developed on the front edge of the UA The CUA farmers who previously worked on other farms
industry, and in many cases prior to coordinated municipal, benefit from a robust network of mentors. Former bosses
state and federal investments in UA. and other farms they interacted with have supported their
continued education. Kevin Prather and Jessi Asmussen
In the following section, we analyze strategies presented get advice from the mentor farmers with whom they
by these case study farms for achieving commercial apprenticed. One mentor farmer was so good, Prather
viability through both their verbal accounts and their sales says, that other former apprentices become his own best
and expense records for the 2015 season. We consider competitors. Joe Reynolds gets advice from the farmer
how specific choices in farm structure, operation, or with whom he formerly apprenticed, as well as the
location impact farms’ commercial performance (See previous farmers of Gaia Gardens, which he says is a built-
Table 3: Case Study Themes). This chapter concludes with in network. Even for mostly self-taught farmers like Paula
recommendations and considerations for urban farmers, and Glenn Foore, talking through crop or pest problems
educators, city planners, advocates, and government with other Austin farmers has provided key insights. Side
officials on strategies to increase viability and mitigate risks Yard Farm, Rising Pheasant Farm, Brother Nature Produce,
of commercial urban farming. and several others indicate that mentor farmers are some
of their most valuable sources of information.

Farmer Training and Networks of other farmers, both urban and rural, are
important, say case study farmers, and some use the
Information Networks internet to broaden that network. All three growers
at Mycopolitan Mushroom Company learned to grow
Case study farmers’ choices and strategies are strongly mushrooms from hobbyist online forums, and, only after
informed by the educational resources they have access to, a lot of experimentation, sought more extensive training
the training they have received, and the farmer networks through workshops and training programs. Meanwhile,
in which they participate. They are also informed by their Reynolds says the internet has become a powerful
previous work experience, whether on an urban farm, a networking and information tool—from advertising CSA
rural farm, or some other non-agricultural business. shares to identifying insects.

33
Case study farmers were less likely to be involved with Nonprofit and hybrid business structures allow CUA farms
local cooperative extension or other traditional agricultural to receive grants and gifts to support education and
education. Several said they did not know extension training programs. These farms chose to incorporate part
educators who could provide assistance for some of their or all of the farm business as a nonprofit for the specific
most difficult problems. Others, like Caitlyn Galloway who purpose of enabling the farm to provide programming,
knows her cooperative extension educator, were unsure education, and training. Grants offset the costs of hosting
how they could or should interact with educators who such programs: increased labor, reduced productivity, and
specialize in UA: “Maybe it’s just me or that I am insulated, loss of potential earnings.
but it feels hard to know what’s available. I appreciate
Rob’s (Bennaton, University of California Cooperative For-profit farms chose structures including sole-
Extension Specialist in Urban Agriculture) presence proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and S-corps. The
and I appreciate what he does, but I have a hard time choice to be a for-profit farm was nearly a default for
remembering he’s there and think of ways to utilize his many case study farmers, particularly for those who
position and knowledge.” had previously worked on rural farms. Some said they
“wanted to prove” that urban farming could be done on a
Some farmers also rely strongly on the published commercial scale, while others were reluctant to submit
resources and books. Brooklyn Grange’s Ben Flanner to the responsibilities of nonprofit farming: applying
and Mellowfields Urban Farm’s Kevin Prather detailed for grants, maintaining a board, and other activities
nearly-identical reading lists for books that influenced that would take them away from farming. Farmers with
their choices and strategies, including Eliot Coleman’s previous rural or urban farming experience, or a network
“New Organic Grower,” John Jeavons’ “How to Grow of other commercial farmers, were more likely to set
More Vegetables,” Richard Wiswall’s “The Organic up for-profit businesses than those without previous
Farmer’s Business Handbook,” Jean Martin Fortier’s “The farming experience, or where inclinations toward social
Market Gardener,” and Ben Hartman’s “The Lean Farm.” entrepreneurship are very strong (see Chapter 5: Urban
Several farmers say they read books by these and other Farms as Social Enterprises).
rural farmers and attend workshops and conferences to
learn new skills and strategies from speakers who have
succeeded in small-scale farming. Gross and Net Revenue
Thus, informal networks, small-farm resources targeting
Case study farmers were asked to detail their earned
rural farms, and skill-specific UA training programs have
farm revenue, expenses, and labor (see Appendix C). Not
been more accessible to case study farmers than long-
all farms kept detailed records, and thus, some potential
trusted, commonly rural farmer education, including
inconsistencies exist. Record keeping challenges many
accredited programs and cooperative extension. It is
small farms, whether urban or rural. In particular, farm
difficult to know to what extent training and education
profitability was difficult to assess given the differences
play a role in case study farm viability because each farm
in business accounting, marketing, labor expenses, and
is so unique in their growth trajectory. But, the words
investments for future growth.
of these farmers may indicate that in the future, formal
farmer educators (e.g. cooperative extension) may have Three sources of revenue on case study farms included:
expanded urban farmer audiences.
zz Agricultural Product Sales: sales of products grown
on the farm through all direct and indirect market
Business Structure channels.

Business incorporation strongly determines at least some zz Related Farm Activities: earned revenue through
of the farm business strategies and revenue streams, means other than the sale of farm-grown
explored throughout this chapter. While case study farms agricultural products. This includes facilities rentals,
are primarily for-profit (9 farms), nonprofit (2 farms) and workshops, speaking engagements, agricultural
for-profit/nonprofit hybrids (3 farms) were included as well services performed off farm, and any other farm
(see Table 3). activity that earned revenue.

zz Grants and Gifts: fundraising in the form of grants

or gifts from government, foundation, individual, or
other donors.

34
Urban Agriculture Training Programs
As UA gains popularity, UA training programs are Ableman, who farmed in rural areas before
popping up all over the country for different target moving toward cities, says, “I am fascinated by the
audiences. New Roots for Refugees (Kansas City) new public excitement around UA, but concerned
and the Green Entrepreneurial Center (Buffalo) that it’s not based in any agricultural reality.”
target refugees. Grow Dat Youth Farm (New Urban farm trainers may have a couple years of
Orleans), Massachusetts Avenue Project (Buffalo), experience on rural farms, but as Ableman says
Added Value (New York City), and many others “the smaller the scale, the higher level of skill
train youth in farming skills. The Urban Farming required to make it commercially viable.” Without
Institute (Boston), Growing Home (Chicago), and deep production experience, says Ableman, urban
Archi’s Acres (Escondido, CA) target part of their farm trainers may not pass on the “scale and
training to adults who have difficulty entering experience” that is needed for urban farms to
the regular workforce due to low education reach viability.
attainment or opportunities, recent incarceration,
or post-traumatic stress after military service That does not mean urban farm trainees do not
(respectively). These programs and others use get a dose of farming reality, says Jennifer Aron,
urban farming to teach many skills: ecology, instructor for Portland’s Beginning Urban Farmer
biology, plant science, math, workforce readiness, Apprenticeship program. “One of the biggest
patience, responsibility, accounting, and customer shocks for students is how much work it all is:
service. For many training programs, “soft skills” what it took to get these Brussels sprouts up or
like taking direction and accountability are the carrots cleaned.”
end-goal—farming is the means. She says the hard work, plus the constant
Other UA training programs primarily educate reminder to evaluate their work against a
the next generation of farmers. Purdue Extension commercial bottom line and manage costs, weeds
recently started an UA certificate program that out a lot of people who would not make it as
offers online classes plus farm tours to help UA farmers. “We have about a 50 percent success rate
entrepreneurs design for economic sustainability. of people graduating and taking the next steps
Growing Power (closed in 2017) trained thousands [toward starting a farm],” says Aron. However, the
of adults and youth, opened farms in Chicago, IL, program still considers this a success: “We have a
and Madison, WI, and established more than a lot of people who go back to their past vocation.
dozen regional outreach training centers around But, that is as important as the people who are
the country to grow the UA movement. Its taking the next steps toward farming. We are
CUA Training Program focused on business and saving people from making an investment that
marketing skills for urban farms regardless of their they are going to regret.”
business structure. Chris Wayne, Director of GrowNYC’s FARMroots
Not all UA training programs are created equal, program, has high hopes for young people who
says Michael Ableman, who founded the Center apprentice with urban farms. A commercially
for Urban Agriculture in Goleta, CA, in the 1980s. viable urban farm, says Wayne, can demonstrate
The Center now operates Sole Food Street Farm the “type of management and efficiency [that can]
in Vancouver, British Columbia, which hires and educate interested agriculture entrepreneurs.
trains people who have struggled with addiction Apprentices who come out of [those farms] and
and homelessness. Sole Food has 25 employees, want to start rural [or urban] farms will have the
grosses over $400,000, and cultivates a few acres skills to make them viable.”
of produce and fruit trees in custom soil boxes
that can be moved by pallet jack or forklift from
site to site.

35
Based upon the amount of revenue from these three services like plowing. They receive a small amount of
sources, case study farms segregated into three revenue grant funding, most frequently to support workshops or
strategies (Figure 2). First are production farms, or community-outreach pursuits.
those that earn nearly their entire budget from sale of
agricultural products, and eschew offering additional Training farms (n=3) are partially or completely nonprofit,
on-farm activities or engaging in fundraising in favor of and are therefore able to receive grants and gifts with few
focusing on growing food. Second are hybrid farms, or restrictions. Grants and gifts make up the majority of their
those that meet their total budgets through agricultural revenue, on average, while sale of agricultural products
product sales plus a variety of related farm activities. makes up just over 40 percent. Grants and gifts support
Third are training farms, or those that prioritize an their programs, including job training and farm education,
education or training mission and usually are partly or as well as farm operations where sales fall short.
completely structured as not-for-profit yet still produce on These decisions on CUA farm structure and revenue
a commercial scale. strategy impact the range of actual earnings in dollars.
Production Farms (n=7) earn over 90 percent of their For each farm type, Figure 3 shows the range and average
revenue from the sale of agricultural products. Unlike value of agricultural product sales, total revenue (the sum
hybrid farms, they do not rely heavily on income from of agricultural product sales, revenue from additional
additional farm activities in their business model. They activities, and grants and gifts) and profit, or total revenue
may receive very small grants or gifts, usually through less total expenses. These values have been standardized
community foundations or crowdsourcing, but do not rely to the tenth-acre and divided by the number of months
on these gifts for farm operations. each farm is able to sell. This is done in an effort to
account for the vast difference in size and seasonal
Hybrid farms (n=4) earn revenue from a variety of sources. output among case study farms. Because the practices
On average just over 60 percent of their total earned and therefore earnings and expenses of a tenth acre farm
revenue is from the sale of agricultural products, while cannot be accurately scaled-up, values from all farms have
35 percent or more of earnings come from related farm been scaled to the lowest common denominator to allow
activities including event hosting, site-rentals, educational comparison among farms.
workshops, speaking engagements, or off-farm agricultural

Figure 2. The average percentages of revenue generated from three revenue categories—sales of agricultural products,
related farm activities, and grants or gifts—among CUA case study production farms (n=7), hybrid farms (n=4), and
training farms (n=3) in 2015.

Urban Farm Revenue Streams

Production Farms

Hybrid Farms

Training Farms

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Agricultural Product Sales Other Farm Activities Grants and Gifts

36
Figure 3. The maximum, minimum and average value in dollars associated with earnings from a tenth acre of
production per month of sales on 14 commercial urban farms. Sales represents earnings from sales of agricultural
products (fruits, vegetables, flowers). Total revenue includes additional income from grants, gifts or other related
farm activities. Profit was calculated based upon total revenue less farm expenses as reported by each farmer for 2015.
Farms are represented based upon primary revenue strategy as Production (n=7), Hybrid (n=4) or Training (n=3).

Agricultural Product Sales, Total Earnings, and Profit

$9,000
Dollars per tenth-acre per month of sales

$8,000
$7,000
$6,000
($/0.1A/mo. sales)

$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
Sales Total Profit Sales Total Profit Sales Total Profit

Production Farms Hybrid Farms Training Farms

Because of the differences in farming approach, the

production farms have a greater range in earnings from
Business Strategy and Risk
agriculture product sales than either the hybrid or training-
focused farms. Production farms’ total revenue are not
Management
much larger than their sales, as they receive very little
from other farm related activities (see Figure 2). Their To build profitable CUA businesses, all farms had specific
profits also have a larger range than hybrid or training- strategies to intensify production and outputs from a
focused farms. small area. Crop choice, crop mix, and season extension
were carefully deployed to optimize returns. What they
Hybrid farms have narrower ranges in sales and revenue, grew, how, and for how long determined how much they
but profits were similar to production farms. Other could grow in their limited space, to whom they could
farm activities have a significant impact on overall farm sell (next section), and for how long, which influenced
profitability. These additional earnings serve to reduce how they approach commercial viability. Crop choice and
risks related to variable produce sales by supplementing season extension were also methods of risk management,
farm revenue. buffering farms against crop or market slumps.

Training farms have the highest average product sales.

Their total revenues are much higher per tenth-acre than Crop Choice
other farm types due to grants and gifts. Yet, despite much The urban farmer’s strategy to achieve commercial viability
higher total revenues, profits are near-zero, as earnings depends upon optimizing crop and financial output from
are invested in training and education instead of being a limited growing area. Crop choice is central to this
reported as profit. planning. Case study farms’ choice of crops followed
two distinct strategies: specialization or diversification.
While ranges in profit is indicated for the production and Each approach has benefits for both sales outlets and risk
hybrid farm types, differences in business, marketing, management. Crop specialization in this study describes
labor accounting, and recordkeeping strategies on these earning more than 50 percent of total income from one
farms (further described below) suggest that it is difficult or two crops. Surprisingly, both production and training
to calculate and compare profits among these farms. farms opted for both strategies. Farm mission did not
direct crop choice as much as farm facilities (e.g. CEA).
37
To build an economically viable urban farm, 8 of the For farms that do more direct sales to individuals,
case study farmers chose to specialize in the production including farmers’ markets and CSAs, a wide variety
of crops that are lucrative and well-suited for sale to of products has the potential to capture more of each
restaurants and high-end retailers who are responding customer’s food-spending by providing broader selection.
to the vibrant local food culture. Both controlled- Particularly for CSA farms like Love is Love Farm at Gaia
environment operations (Mycopolitan and Green City Gardens and Mellowfields Urban Farm, a broad variety
Growers) specialize in quick-succession, high-value of produce will engage members throughout the season,
produce (mushrooms, head lettuces). Non-CEA farms keeping them satisfied and potentially improving retention
also specialized in quick-succession, high-return crops like for subsequent membership.
lettuces and baby salad greens and edible flowers, earning
$7 to $24 per pound. Even outdoor farms that specialize say they aim to keep
a good variety of crops in rotation as a risk management
Farmers say specialization is critical when space is limited, strategy. “We want diversity on the farm,” says Flanner
and the focus on high-value, quick-succession crops makes from Brooklyn Grange. “You get too carried away, you

“
up for small acreage. Givens of Side Yard Farm says she become a monoculture, set yourself up for a lot of risk,
now grows more specialty herbs and edible flowers and and the next thing you know you’re using pesticides. When
fewer crops that take more space and time: there’s more variety, you’re not setting yourself up for as
much risk.”

We took away Hakurei turnips because Season Extension

people don’t know what they are. And Season extension includes any practices that modify
peppers—there was no point for us to do temperature, moisture, and the light environment for
peppers. We just get them from local farms. a crop to allow it to be grown and harvested beyond
There’s no point when someone else has the typical outdoor growing season. It is a form of risk
more land and can do it better than me. So management in that it attempts to control the growing
why not put [the land] into something like environment and minimize weather-related challenges
arugula that pays 9 dollars per pound and while increasing the total months of sales and overall
earning potential. Seven of the 12 outdoor farms use
get two or three harvests out of one bed?
heated greenhouses or unheated high tunnels to grow
crops for sale. Others only use protected structures
Thus commercial viability using specialization by default for growing transplants, but not for producing crops.
depends on production and sales of crops that do not Convinced by its efficacy and profit potential, two more
impact local community food access, nutrition, or anti- farms added season extension in 2016 (2015 figures do not
hunger goals. This is particularly acute for CEA urban farms reflect new season extension).
that specialize in rapid-turnover niche crops like salad
Sprouts and microgreens grown in greenhouses or
greens, tender herbs, and microgreens, which typically
high tunnels are some of the most successful crops for
cost more than field-grown greens and are sold primarily
extending the season for case study farmers. Rising
at retail stores that cater to higher-income customers.38, 39
Pheasant Farm, Brooklyn Grange, and Our School at
But, soil-based farms face the same quandary; Blair Grocery specialize in or have ongoing production
greenhouse-grown sunflower shoots are a key crop for of sprouts and microgreens. “The sprouts have been our
Rising Pheasant Farm, while Our School at Blair Grocery’s bread and butter,” says Rising Pheasant’s Carolyn Leadley,
Nat Turner says his farm can earn $7 per pound or more who sells sprouts to restaurants and at farmers markets
for field-grown arugula, exclaiming, “You can’t beat $7 per year-round.
pound with a stick!”
Even farmers that do not specialize in sprouts or
“You may get pushed toward [growing] more expensive, microgreens find that growing unique crops and taking
high-end [products],” says Brooklyn Grange’s Ben Flanner, advantage of season extension increases sales. Joe
who, like many of the case study farmers, struggles to keep Reynolds uses his high tunnel for beets and fava beans in
his produce affordable and attractive to lower-income the winter months with great success, and grows ginger
customers while earning enough revenue to sustain the and turmeric in a heated glass greenhouse that was
farm, his employees, and himself.

38 Brin, H., Murayama, D., Landau, J., & Kalva, P. (2016). The State of Vertical Farming [white paper]. The Association for Vertical Farming.
39 Sission, P. (2016, October 31). As vertical farming grows, a new real estate opportunity takes root. Retrieved from http://www.curbed.
com/2016/10/31/13476888/real-estate-warehouse-vertical-farming-aerofarms.
38
Figure 4. Range and average of sales and total revenue Many of the case study farms have applied for a USDA
per tenth-acre per month for soil-based farms that use NRCS EQIP grant to help with the costs of a high tunnel.
season extension (n=7) and farms that do not (n=5). CEA These structures and the practice of growing in a high
farms are not included. tunnel are seen as a conservation strategy, since they
help extend the growing season, can reduce water and
nutrient losses, increase plant diversity, improve soil
Impact of Season Extension on Revenue quality by keeping living roots growing in soil for more of
for Outdoor Urban Farms the year, reduce erosion by maintaining more soil cover,
Dollars per tenth-acre per month of sales

$3,500
and increase locally-grown food availability. The NRCS
EQIP provides both financial and technical assistance
$3,000 with adding a high tunnel to a farm site. Grants amounts
generally cover the physical structure of the high tunnel,
($/0.1A/mo. sales)

$2,500
based upon cost and square footage.
$2,000

$1,500
On average, soil-based farms with season extension earn
twice as much in agricultural product sales per tenth acre
$1,000 per month than those without season extension (Figure
$500 4). They also have larger ranges of total revenue, with the
highest sales close to $3,000 per tenth-acre per month.
$0
Sales Total Sales Total
This figure does not include a comparison of profits
because not all farms calculate their own labor in the same
Season Extension No Season Extension
way. Farms that do not use season extension happen to
also not always include farmer’s labor as part of expenses,
making profits appear higher than those farms that do
at Gaia Gardens before he arrived. Springdale Farm in include farmer wages.
Austin, TX, produces year-round, using high tunnels for a
wider variety of crops in cooler months. While both farms Season extension also supports sales for a greater portion
produce a diversity of crops, they prioritize valuable types, of the year than outdoor production without season
like strawberries and heirloom tomatoes, which grow and extension (Figure 5). By increasing the months with sales,
sell well. cash flow is improved and financial risks lowered. Outdoor

Figure 5. The sales of agricultural product per month in dollars per a tenth-acre of production for five farms without
season extension (blue) and seven farms with season extension (orange). Sales are plotted against the number of
months each farm conducts.

Agricultural Product Sales per Month of Sales

Sales of agricultural product per

$25,000

$20,000
tenth-acre ($/0.1A)

$15,000

$10,000

$5,000

$0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Months of Sales
No Season Extension Season Extension

39
Figure 6. Range in sales and profit associated with a tenth-acre of production per month of sales for twelve outdoor
farms where more than 50 percent of sales falls in one of the three categories: farmers markets, CSAs, and direct
wholesale. Direct wholesale includes sales to restaurants, grocery stores, and other retailers.

farms without season extension typically produced for

fewer months than those with season extension, however Markets and Income Streams
in some cases, regional location can support a fairly long
growing season without season extension. Farms without
season extension also sold less agricultural product per Farm Product Sales Channels
month than those with season extension. These CUA farms use diverse direct to consumer and
direct to retail marketing channels to manage risks. Direct
In a fully controlled environment, as in CEA, production marketing may be through a combination of CSA, farm
risks can be tightly managed. For example, Green City stands, or farmers market. Several use fairly informal
Growers follows strict food safety, biosecurity, and sales at the farm (simple stand with cash “honor box”) to
sanitation protocols with foot baths and hairnets required keep the farm and its products visible and accessible to
of all workers and visitors to protect the ecology of the neighbors. Two farms are CSA-focused (Love Is Love and
floating raft system of lettuce production and minimize Mellowfields, both certified organic) and five conduct the
microbial food safety risks. Mycopolitan Mushroom majority of their sales at farmers’ markets.
Company has strict cleanliness and food safety rules in
the delicately-balanced ecosystem of growing chambers Restaurant sales (direct wholesale) comprise 50-100
to protect their mushrooms from a crop-devastating percent of revenue for six farms. Restauranteurs and
airborne pathogen. chefs with strong farm-to-table ethics have become
regular customers of these farms. For CUA farmers,
The plus side, says Mycopolitan’s Brian Versek, is that restaurant sales are a way to move significant quantities
mushrooms grow when most outdoor crops do not. of product quickly without the long hours, logistics, and
Mycopolitan’s mushrooms can capture a larger market unpredictability of farmer’s market sales. Because these
share from locally-oriented restaurant sales in the autumn, farm-to-table restaurants charge high prices for their food,
winter, and early spring when supply and variety of local they can afford to pay higher prices for city-grown produce.
produce is limited, further mitigating financial risks. The strength of the farm-to-table movement suggests
there is stable demand for what these urban farms grow.

40
Figure 6 shows the ranges of sales and profit per tenth-
acre per month of sales for 12 outdoor farms whose
primary sales channel is either a farmers market (n=5), To Organic Certify or Not?
community supported agriculture (CSA) programs (n=2),
or direct wholesale, including sales to restaurants and
Only 2 of the 14 farms are certified organic as
retailers (n=5). Farmers markets have the widest range
defined by the USDA National Organic Program.
of sales and reported profit of all three market channels,
Several interviewees assumed organic certification
and appear to be the most profitable based on case study
would be “prohibitively expensive.” But, for the
farms. CSAs have the lowest range of sales and profitability
owners of Mellowfields, organic certification has
per tenth acre per month of sales. Direct wholesale has a
“opened the door up” with the local co-op grocery.
broad range of sales competitive to farmers markets, but a
“It increased the quantity of what they were
smaller reported profit range.
interested in,” says Mellowfields’ Kevin Prather.
“We sold them chard last year, but they want twice
Income from Related Farm Activities as much chard this year, and at a better price.”
Non-production income streams help many farms stabilize “We’re just getting more [revenue] out of a 100-
their cash flows and budgets. Six farms report earning foot bed,” he says. Mellowfields head farmer
income from on-site events, tours, or rent collected for and his wife Jessi Asmussen agrees, and says,
use of the land by others. For two farms this represents 25 “I don’t think organic certification has as many
percent or more of their total earned revenue. barriers as people think it does. Once we actually
All 14 farms participate in community or education events went through the process it was easier than we
to some extent, but only 4 earned revenues for these thought.”
activities. Those who were able to monetize educational Other urban farmers eschew organic certification,
activities typically did so through holding on-farm preferring to be transparent about how they
workshops, which constituted 3-14 percent of total earned grow. “Our deal is, come and see it: we’re open
revenue. Wednesdays and Saturdays,” says Glenn Foore
Five farms earned additional income through off-site of Springdale Farm. “The chefs wonder why we
speaking events, payment for which constituted 1-4 would need to [be certified organic]. Well, we
percent of the farm’s total earned revenue. Speaking want to be the best. They say, ‘well it looks like
events are aimed at a wide variety of audiences including you’re already there now.’”
farmers, students, consumers, and funders. Proximity increases transparency because
The remainder of earned revenue came from off-site customers can visit the farm. However, as organic
services like landscaping or installation of home-gardens, farmer Joe Reynolds of Gaia Gardens says, many
or custom hire jobs like field preparation or snow-plowing. organizations “beat the drum for consumption
Seven of the 14 farms earned additional revenue this way. of local organic food.” This study does not
Five consider it a critical part of their business model and investigate whether these hyper-local urban farms
earn 8-28 percent of their total annual revenue this way. benefit from consumers’ conflation of ‘local’
For the other 2 farms, it constitutes 2 percent or less of and ‘organic,’ though that conflation still occurs
total revenue. among consumers broadly, both nationally and
internationally.40 41

Grants and Gifts

Eight of 14 farms, including 3 nonprofit or hybrid-model
farms, received some sort of grant in 2015. For training
farms, grants and gifts comprise 33-67 percent of the 40 Campbell, B. et al. (2014). “U.S. and Canadian Consumer
total farm revenue. These farms seek larger, multi-year Perception of Local and Organic Terminology.” International Food
and Agriculture Management Review. May 2014, 17:2. Accessed
or renewable grants available by application through August 22, 2016, at http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/167903
government or foundation sources, or if they are very 41  Lombardi, P. et al. “Marketing high quality Thai organic products
large, they run through capital campaigns for individual in Europe? An exploratory approach.” In Looking east, looking west:
donors. Grants and gifts are directly related to program Organic and quality food marketing in Asia and Europe. (2010). R.
Haas et al., eds. p. 135.
provision, though farm operations as a function of training
is also funded.

41
Nonprofit and hybrid farms like Growing Home, Our
School at Blair Grocery, and Green City Growers (through
Evergreen Cooperatives) can draw on a much larger pool
of grant funding. National funders like the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation and the Kraft Family Foundation provide
important support to food businesses throughout the
country, while foundations with a more regional focus can
provide more continuous support for programming and
operations through years of trusted partnership.

Urban farms can also apply for USDA grants, including the
Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP), the Local
Foods Promotion Program (LFPP)42, and the Community
Food Project (CFP) grants. FMPP helped Growing Home
build out and strengthen its farm stand marketing,
while Our School at Blair Grocery’s CFP grant supported
its employment of New Orleans youth and youth Site manager Fred Daniels directs fellow farm employees
programming in connection to farming. at Growing Home..

Production-focused and hybrid farms may also receive continue to thrive as places of production and learning.
grants, though they have tended to be much smaller and Farms that focus on these programs have a variety of
comprise less than 7 percent of the total farm budget. grant and gift sources to minimize the risk of losing a
These small grants either target business improvements single funding source which could otherwise devastate
to help farms become more sustainable or profitable, programming. Grants and gifts also help farms make small
or support one time education programs. These grants improvements that position them to scale up.
are typically awarded by local foundations, nonprofit
organizations, or schools supporting local farms. These
farms also use crowdfunding platforms to raise money Expenses
for capital improvements or other goals. It is important
to note that these farms would qualify for several federal
grants such as Value-Added Producer or Small Business Land and Infrastructure
Innovation Research grants. Eight farms own part or all of the land they farm. All
Small local grants offered by Detroit’s Eastern Market but one purchased land through a city or quasi-public
subsidized the cost of high tunnels at Brother Nature program to sell vacant parcels. Land costs vary widely, and
Produce and the greenhouse at Rising Pheasant Farm. depended on the zoning and previous use of the parcels.
Rising Pheasant’s Carolyn Leadley says these grants, Karen Fresh Garden is the only farm that is completely
while small, have been key to ratcheting up production of located on the same lot as the farm owner’s personal
microgreens and making her business year-round. residence.

Little City Gardens forced the creation of a grant program Land owners are responsible for property taxes, the rate
to offset the cost of installing an irrigation meter in San structure of which depends upon the city. For example,
Francisco. The public utility commission was convinced by Detroit charges Rising Pheasant Farm and Brother Nature
the farmers’ argument for better access to water for urban Produce a vacant land tax rate much lower than the
farms, and the grant, which is not well publicized, covered residential tax rate, while Karen Fresh Garden pays Kansas
the entire $7,000 cost of installing the irrigation meter and City, KS, residential property tax rates. Just one farm,
hooking into the water main. Springdale Farm in Austin, TX, has an agricultural property
tax exemption for 4.5 of the 5 acres they own.
Grants and gifts offer security to farms that spend their
earned revenue on programming (trainings, after school Seven of the 14 farms lease part or all of their land for
activities, tours, etc.), and are often the reason farms can production. Like ownership, leases have a variety of
structures and costs. Some farms have free or nearly-free
leases from their respective cities, city-based programs,

42 Projects must benefit two or more producers to qualify for FMPP and LFPP.

42
or individual landlords. For example, Mellowfields Urban deputy director of Austin’s Sustainable Food Center,
Farm in Lawrence, KS, has one of the most generous says the imbroglio was about more than farming: “What
leases, paying 1 dollar per acre per year to farm on confounded [these disagreements] was the economic
city-owned land through a farm and garden promotion divide: urban farms were taking advantage of vacancies
program run by the city and county governments. Their and low property prices in lower-income neighborhoods.”
lease states, that if the city decides to terminate the lease,
the farmers have 3 years from that termination date to Other farms pay rent at or near market value to landlords.
move off the land. Brooklyn Grange, Mycopolitan Mushroom Company, and
others have standard rental agreements with rate-increase
Other case study farmers who have taken advantage of schedules and other stipulations. Land is a much higher
free to low cost leases do not necessarily choose farm cost for these farms, and farms paying these higher lease
sites based on surrounding demographics and typically rates are more likely to support their business through a
are not socially connected with the existing community. mix of activities beyond sales of agricultural product.
Rather, the right mix of circumstances for soil-based urban
farming —vacant properties, inexpensive land access, A farmer’s relationship with their landlord is a key
low regulatory oversight—drives choices. These types determining factor in how secure the farmer feels about
of properties have been primarily located in historically their land tenure. Stacey Givens of Side Yard Farm calls
disinvested neighborhoods.43 When the Wilson Street her landlords her greatest asset, and their willingness to
Urban Farm relocated from rural western New York state contribute to some of the costs of her operation is unique.
to Buffalo’s East, they chose their home because a friend On the other hand, Little City Gardens’ rent-free lease
living nearby suggested the 25 empty lots on the next was a looming threat as the farm could be and in 2016
block may be the right size for the Stevens’ urban farm. was evicted when landlords’ planned development was
The city planning agency, eager to make improvements approved.
and decrease the burden of maintaining vacant land, Even when land tenure is secure, as with Mellowfields
leased the land to the Stevens family for just a few dollars Urban Farm, urban farmers find it necessary to remain
a year. While their 5-year lease with the City of Buffalo mobile. Mellowfields has invested in mobile infrastructure,
lapsed in 2014, they have not been asked to vacate the including their two-zone walk-in cooler (built on a pallet-
land. The City has also not renewed the lease, leaving the base and moveable with a forklift) and high tunnel. Farms
farm in a state of land-security limbo. like Side Yard Farm, Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens,
Like the Stevens family, Glenn and Paula Foore were and Wilson Street Urban Farm which farm on leased land
similarly drawn to East Austin by an offer of below market have high tunnels that can easily be disassembled and
value land (Springdale Farm Case Study pg. 29): a federal-
local partnership for economic development helped the
Foores purchase the five-acre parcel that housed their
landscaping business for 20 years. At the time East Austin
was suffering from decades of disinvestment, and its
residents experienced a poverty rate of 52 percent.44 It was
only during the 2008 recession that the Foores, eager to
keep their employees working, started to farm their land.
Springdale Farm became one of several urban farms in the
area, all owned by individuals who moved from outside of
the community.

This influx of urban farms was not without challenges.

Neighborhood leaders rallied against the farms after one
farm’s composting system created unacceptable odors.
This led to a multi-year zoning dispute with farmers on one
side and community-activists on the other. Andrew Smiley,
Glenn, left, and Paula, center, look over their fields, which
produce food nearly year-round at Springdale Farm.

43 Guthman, 2008. Bringing good food to others: Investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies, 15, 431–447.
44 Geolytics (2000). Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) Tract Data from 1970-2000.
43
moved should they move on (though Joe Reynolds, owner seasonal employees.
of Love Is Love Farm, agreed to give the high tunnel to
Gaia Gardens for its next farmer). With some effort, even Farmers said the decision to have employees was difficult.
Mycopolitan Mushroom Company’s multiple labs and Employees are expensive, and farmers recognized this
grow-rooms could be disassembled and moved. Creating a significant expense despite saying they wished they could
movable infrastructure makes leasing land or facilities less afford to pay their employees more. They reported farm
daunting. employee wages of $8-12 per hour. But, they also say
that having good employees has helped their farms’ scale
Farms that own or have long-term land tenure agreements up or reduced their stress-level, both of which are worth
are more likely to install permanent infrastructure, like the cost.
Springdale Farms’ hard-piped irrigation system or Growing
Home’s office and seeding room. Givens of Side Yard Farm, Just 6 of the 14 case study farms pay the farm owner
says her relationship with her landlords was strong enough a salary. Those that do not expense their salary report
that she paid to put in a permanent office and storage taking owner-draws from net farm revenue. The impact of
space and install her walk-in cooler. Her landlords even owner salary is illustrated when comparing sales per tenth
provided financial assistance when building costs rose acre per month with profit margins (Figure 7). Farms that
because of confusion about the farm’s zoning. report net revenues of 40 percent do not include owner
salary as part of expenses. Rather an unknown, and likely
unequal, amount is drawn by the owner from farm net
Labor revenue for personal expenses. Farms that do pay the
Labor is a significant but necessary expense for farms that farm owner a salary report much lower profits margins
have scaled beyond the hours of a single farmer, couple, but more accurately account for salary and management
or family. Six of the 14 case study farms have full-time expenses. Farms that report zero profits (Figure 7) operate
year-round employees in addition to some seasonal and/ as nonprofit training farms, at which all employees are
or part-time employees, while 4 have just part-time or paid salaries.

Figure 7. Profit margins calculated based upon farmer provided net revenue as a percentage of total agricultural
product sales per tenth acre per month of sales. Profit margin for each farm is graphed against net revenue in dollars
per tenth-acre per month of sales. Each dot represents one farm that either pays the farm owner a salary (blue, six
farms) or does not pay a salary but the farmer takes owner-draws from profit (orange, eight farms).

Profit Margins and Farmer Salary

(Net Revenue/0.1A/mo.]/[Sales/0.1A/mo.])
Profit margin per tenth-acre per mo.

100%
Salary No Salary
80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
$0 $200 $400 $600 $800 $1,000 $1,200

Net Revenue per tenth-acre per month of sales

44
Volunteers Taxes, Utilities, and Other Costs
Despite labor laws prohibiting for-profit businesses Utilities, rent, and property taxes are the three areas of
from engaging volunteers45 as a primary workforce, expense that are particularly high for urban farmers. Rent
volunteerism on small diversified vegetable farms is not and property taxes are directly influenced by market-rate
uncommon in urban or rural areas.46, 47 Seven of the farms property costs, and utilities, particularly water, can be high
interviewed—five for-profit, two nonprofit or hybrid— for farmers in areas without irrigation water rates.
have volunteers. None of the farmers interviewed were
hesitant about sharing information about how many Six farms paid property taxes in 2015. Springdale Farm of
hours volunteers worked on the farm, further proof that Austin, TX, is the only case study farm to have received
volunteers are an important component of work planning an agricultural property tax exemption: all but 1/2 acre
on these farms. of its 5 acres are taxed at a lower agricultural rate, while
the remaining half-acre that holds the Foore’s house is
Several farms accounted for 20-25 volunteer work hours taxed at a standard residential rate. Three farms purchased
per week during the growing season. Many have regularly vacant lots from the city, and paid property tax based on
advertised volunteer hours. Other farms have backed away their vacancy status, which is lower than their zoned rate
from regular volunteer hours, instead inviting groups to (e.g. residential). Land purchased this way was taxed no
volunteer for special-projects like building a high tunnel. more than 15 cents per square foot. Each city’s property
tax rates are different, and each property is subject to
Some urban farms rely on volunteers to accomplish all different rates based on its location, zoning, the buildings
they need to do: “we rely on that volunteer labor to get on it, and a variety of other factors.
our harvest done.” Volunteers reduce owner labor-hours
per day and decrease the need for mechanization. Farmers Utility costs are also variable based on zoning and
also report that volunteer opportunities allow customers production practices. Water is the costliest utility for soil-
and community members to have local “buy in” and based growers using municipal water: 2-13 percent of total
provide a venue for farmers to share what they do with sales can go toward paying water costs alone. Farms like
the community. According to one farmer: Wilson Street Urban Farm and Green City Growers use
water catchment to decrease water costs, while Springdale
“I know some farms in the area have gotten investigated Farm was able to install a well on its property, a cost saving
for unpaid internships that are illegal, but it is so integral investment they felt comfortable making based on their
to this operation that it’s hard not to talk about it. It secured land tenure. Electricity is the costliest utility for
feels contentious or sketchy. I wish it wasn’t like that, CEA farms and those that heat greenhouses throughout
because I feel like some of the most valuable educational the winter at a cost of up to 20 percent of total sales.
experiences we can offer are through our weekly workdays
and internships and less formal volunteer workdays. A Other costs are variable and depend upon farms’ business,
large part of [urban farming] is the education that comes sales, and marketing strategies. Liability insurance can
out of it.” cost thousands of dollars for farms that invite youth or
the general public onto the farm for education or events.
Farmers acknowledge that while volunteer labor is free, Farms that do not have the public on their farm have
it is not the most effective. “It’s actually totally inefficient, lower liability insurance costs. Packaging can be costly for
but it’s helpful,” says one farmer. Brooklyn Grange stopped farms that conduct direct wholesale to retailers; packaging
offering volunteer days because the cost of managing costs are very low for direct-to-consumer sales. Fertilizer
volunteers was high. For the Grange and other farms and seed costs also depend upon the land condition, the
that do not offer volunteer opportunities, tours and farm growing season, and the business strategy. A conservative
stands allow the public to interact with the farm and estimate based on case study farm costs is $190 per tenth
farmers, meeting similar community-engagement goals. acre for fertilizer and $340 per tenth acre for seeds.

45 Fair Labor Standards Act. 29 U.S.C. § 203(f)

46 Ekers, M. et al. “Will work for food: agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and the agrarian question.” Agriculture and Human Values,
(2016) 33:705–720. DOI 10.1007/s10460-015-9660-5
47 Mincyte, D. and K. Dobernig. “Urban farming in the North American metropolis: Rethinking work and distance in alternative food networks.”
Environment and Planning A, 2016, 48:9, 1767-1786. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16651444

45
 Keeping Up Appearances
Farmers working at street-level mentioned Paula and Glenn Foore of Springdale Farm in
attempting to fit into the neighborhood by Austin, TX, would like to see their farm become
introducing themselves to their neighbors and a point of unity for their neighbors. The Foores,
hosting neighborhood events, and also by keeping who are also landscapers, have put a lot of effort
the farm tidy and attractive. A farm’s appearance into making their 5 acres beautiful since they
is critical to neighborhood acceptance, which purchased it in 1992. And after a multi-year
may be skeptical of the sights, sounds, and smells struggle with a neighborhood group over urban
of farming. farming, the Foores continue to make the
farm look park-like to welcome neighbors and
Janice Stevens says she and her family try as hard renew relationships.
as they can to make Wilson Street Urban Farm
“look like a park.” “We have to be very careful Beautification can be time-consuming and
about how we proceed,” she says. “We can’t have expensive, and is less likely a burden on small rural
shoddy compost piles that have rats everywhere, farms. Our School at Blair Grocery’s Nat Turner
we can’t be stinking up the place, we can’t be looked out over his farm, which still had broken
leaving weeds growing all over.” fencing and remnants of previous buildings, and
said he wished there were a grant to help urban
When Caitlyn Galloway started Little City farms look more like the agritourism destinations
Gardens in an undeveloped lot in the middle of a they feel pressured to be: “I want to make it look
neighborhood block, neighbors’ skepticism was nice: put up a nice fence, get some tools, rewrap
tempered by Galloway and her farm-partner’s our hoop houses so they don’t look so raggedy,
eagerness to connect with neighbors and keep buying some real shelving,” says Turner. But,
them informed about the farm’s progress. It did production and teaching do not leave much time
not take long for neighbors to come visit the for beautification.
farm themselves.

“A lot of the neighbors have grown to cherish this

use of this space,” says Galloway. “They’ve seen
this space go through a lot of iterations of neglect
or what they might call unsafe. A lot of neighbors
have said that we’ve made the neighborhood feel
more safe by activating the space. And there are
neighbors who are engaged with the farm: CSA
customers or people who like to come walk, enjoy
the space, bring the kids while we’re working.
So there’s an appreciation for us using the space
this way.”

Michael Hooper, neighborhood resident

and president of the New Mission Terrace
Improvement Association, says that while not all
neighbors get along with one another, “Everyone
gets along with Caitlyn.” It has also become a place Little City Gardens shared part of its 3/4 acre lot
for neighbors to meet each other and meet new with a school group, which used the area for outdoor
people. “They have poetry readings here [at the learning and play.
farm], and we come by and know other people
who are showing up.” He says, “Instead of it being
a barrier, the farm became a point of unity—
people wanted this to happen.”

46
Net Revenues or Profit exceed median earnings per acre and median farm income
for intermediate farms or similarly-sized farms in rural
areas. While net income may seem high when compared
Lack of consistent salary payments to farm owners to rural farms, cities’ higher costs of living may negate that
confounds profitability analysis in this study, and net advantage.
revenue should be considered in light of this difference
among farms. However, it is evidence that many urban Case study farms were not specifically asked to account
farms act much like small rural farms, where owner for or budget their labor costs; the farm net income would
income is considered a result of farm performance rather decrease if they were asked to do so. Many rural farms in
than a critical part of the business plan.48 the United States do not account for labor performed by
the family.52, 53 Furthermore, 42 percent of farms selling
While keeping farm income earnings confidential, it is $10,000-$250,000 in agricultural products report using
accurate to say that case study farms with the highest unpaid labor, on average 2 unpaid laborers per farm.54
sales per tenth acre have sophisticated business or
recordkeeping skills, and have lean, highly-skilled There are several variables that keep us from drawing
workforces. Many have also invested in technologies such conclusions around these comparisons among urban
as high tunnels and heated greenhouses that extended and rural farms. One such variable is access to land; five
the growing and harvest season and farm cash flow. Most outdoor soil-based case study urban farms benefit from
of the urban farms profiled here that pay the farm owner low-cost or free land. Six outdoor case study farms bought
or manager a salary use season extension and all but one some or all of their farmland cheaply through municipal
farm specializes in a high-value, quick-succession crop. programs that sell off vacant parcels in attempts to
These practices support maximizing the output from a reactivate neighborhoods.
small area.
Jessi Asmussen, who farms on 3 acres for just 1 dollar per
Use of these practices does not guarantee that the farms acre per year with a 3-year rolling lease, says she does not
are profitable enough to pay farmer salary, nor that farms feel like she has an unfair advantage over rural farmers
that pay their farmers a salary are more sophisticated in who have inherited their land. She does, however, expect
their financial management. As with any business, it is the that purchasing land will be difficult when she eventually
combination of labor, financial, and planning skills that set leaves the Lawrence, KS, Common Ground program,
successful farms apart. because of its high cost. The Common Ground program
is helping her farm build its market and earn revenue to
save for her family’s own farm, acknowledging the chicken-
Comparisons With Rural and-egg problem of land ownership and product-demand-
outlets in farming: each is needed to have the other.
Farms of Small Size
For CEA farms like Green City Growers (GCG), purchasing
land in an urban area may be a much higher cost than a
There are many measures of rural small farm yields and
rural location. GCG purchased its 10 acres for $350,000
earnings per acre.49 In the studies cited here, median or
from the City of Cleveland, but the company also paid
expected net income per acre for small rural or peri-urban
relocation costs for three families and remediation costs
farms of 5 acres or less is between approximately $5,600
for the land. However, costs of production and yield
and $6,600.50 Only 29 percent of U.S. farms of 1 to 9 acres
depend much more on the combination of equipment
report net gains, averaging $34,000 per farm (or $8,500
(fixed costs) and labor (variable costs) the operation
per acre); the remaining 71 percent of small-acreage farms
chooses. So while land costs were high for GCG, facilities
reported an average loss of $11,000.51 By comparison, the
build-out and operation has a greater impact on viability
commercial urban farms studied herein are on par with or
over the long term.

48 Frenay, E. “Farm profit: making a life and a living from your farm.” Small Farm Quarterly, Summer 2011. Accessed August 22, 2016 at http://
smallfarms.cornell.edu/2011/07/04/farm-profit-making-a-life-and-a-living-from-your-farm/
49 See for example, Rabin, J., Zinati, G. and Nitzche, P. (2012) “Yield expectations for Mixed Stand, Small-Scale Agriculture. Sustaining Farming on
the Urban Fringe, 7(1). https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/urbanfringe/pdfs/urbanfringe-v07n01.pdf
https://www.mda.state.mn.us/~/media/Files/food/organicgrowing/specialtycrop2009-12.ashx
50 https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c3-65.html
http://www.cias.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grwr2grwr.pdf
51 USDA.2012. Table 64 “Summary by Size of Farm: 2012,” 2012 Census of Agriculture, v.1c.1.
52 Adam, K. (2006) “Community Supported Agriculture.” ATTRA. www.attra.ncat.org.
53 Gray, M. (2013) Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic. University of California Press.
54 USDA. 2012. Table 65 “Summary by Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold: 2012.” Census of Agriculture, v.1 c.1.
47
Proximity to customers is another benefit of being urban,
many interviewees said. Transportation time and costs can
Recommendations and
be a large expense, and it is easier for urban growers to
justify moving a small amount of product 3 miles than a
Considerations for Commercial
rural grower traveling 30 miles to make the same delivery. Urban Farm Viability
Yet, transportation efficiency must be weighed against
other costs. Brooklyn Grange used a third-party service
The following are recommendations and considerations
to do its deliveries because the cost of owning or renting
for urban farmers, city planners, UA advocates (e.g.
a refrigerated van, fuel, and labor hours in New York City
researchers, educators, nonprofit organizers, community-
traffic were too high. But, when its delivery-service went
gardeners), and policy-makers in relation to the above
out of business, it went back to making its own deliveries.
findings on CUA. Chapters 5 through 8 will also offer
Eli Zigas, Food and Agriculture Policy Director for San recommendations and considerations, which are
Francisco planning and policy organization SPUR, has summarized in Chapter 9.
been a proponent of urban policies that make more land

“
and resources available to urban farmers. Yet, he says, Recommendation: Invest in longitudinal research
that does not mean it is any easier to “make it” as an studies of commercial urban farms.
urban farmer:
Farm business development, investment strategies,
and profitability require analysis over time. Additional
It is hard enough to be a rural farmer and research that collects multiple years of farm income,
make money selling what you grow. [There labor use, and other management data is needed to more
is a] theory of a premium for urban-grown completely identify and clarify strategies that best support
produce to off-set the high cost of living [in] viable UA development under different land access,
education, policy, and community contexts.
cities. [But] the cost of labor and housing are
higher, and [urban farms] are competing
Recommendation: Create a Small Farm Business
with rural farms at market. The willingness
Summary to support more extensive analysis of urban
to pay is limited when the other [rural
and rural farm sustainability and profitability.
farm] is local and organic as well. Maybe
you have savings on transportation, but the University-based collection and analysis of farm income
premium plus transportation don’t outweigh and expense data has supported growth and farmer
the cost. It doesn’t pencil out well. decision-making in other agricultural sectors. Adapting
these types of data instruments to diversified, small-scale
farming could identify policy and community conditions
This, finally, points to marketing. Whether they are on the that support farm sustainability.
ground, in buildings, or on top of buildings, the highest-
earning and highest-profit case study farms have found a
Recommendation: Prior to starting a farm, understand
market niche. They sell to mid- to high-end restaurants,
and engage the communities where the farm could
farm-to-table caterers, and upper-middle class farmers’
be located.
market shoppers. They use social media to create a
buzz around their produce and the (curated) lifestyle
of the urban farmer. They develop cachet in the urban Michael Conard, Columbia University professor and
marketplace, and build a following over time. adjunct researcher for its Urban Design Lab, maps urban
farms and the deployment of funds to support urban
farming projects. His research and visualizations show
that the location of most vacant urban land available
for farming maps directly to the presence of minority
communities, higher obesity levels, and negative health
outcomes. Conard suggests that such maps, which clearly
illustrate where neighborhood disinvestment has taken
place, could be used to prioritize UA investments for the
benefit of local community residents.

48
Such analyses tend to attract the attention of those State agricultural cooperative extension systems have
people dedicated to increasing healthy food access in successfully served educational and training needs of
communities that are not their own.55 Non-local urban rural farms and represent a logical first place for public
farmers who act with the best of intentions to increase reinvestment to help urban farmers connect to other
food justice may inadvertently negatively impact local resources that may benefit their commercial viability.
residents—the people many urban farmers are trying Dedicated UA Extension staff can begin to translate
to help.56 An urban farm without deep community university research for CUA, including advanced skills
connections could unintentionally mask the community’s and techniques to improve farm outcomes. They can also
struggles and make it more difficult for them to receive connect urban farmers to other service providers that are
the investments and opportunities that local residents not traditionally located in urban areas as well as rural
would prioritize. farmers interested in new collaborations.

Ten of the 14 case study farms migrated into the

communities where their farms are located. While they Recommendation: Expand farm trainings on critical
may have been less familiar with community leaders or issues to support UA farm success, such as maximizing
history, and not immediately trusted, all shared examples yields through rapid-cycling crops, using season
of how they have worked to strengthen ties to their extension and high tunnels, diversifying income
neighborhood. By nature of locating in cities and resulting streams and managing labor.
visibility to local citizens, these urban farmers face the
ongoing challenge of trying to meet community and Successful CUA farms maximized farm profits through
commercial needs. careful planning to optimize production per square foot,
extending the season, and complementing produce sales
Engaging communities in advance of starting a CUA with other activities that take advantage of the farm’s
business can alleviate many of the concerns expressed location (e.g. tours for fee). Urban farms looking to scale
about who is farming where. Rather than make toward commercial viability, however, also need more in-
assumptions as to local interests, needs or priorities, depth training aimed at planning for growth. These include
a thoughtful, open dialogue with neighbors can forge skills for business development issues, labor management,
partnerships that may support the farm in many ways. risk management and liability issues.
Such discussions, with participation from local leaders,
can illuminate the area’s history, best locations for retail Business development includes not just production
marketing, and even nascent agricultural skills or interest practices, but recordkeeping and financial management.
among community members. Such discussions will Including these components in new farmer training has
alert aspiring farmers to strategies that may enhance worked well for all audiences, including refugee and new
or challenge local support, fostering a more socially American farmer training programs, to move farmers
sustainable and community-connected business model. from gardens to commercial production. Included should
be training on opportunities to leverage an urban farms
location to generate ‘agritourism’ income streams.
Recommendation: Reinvest in urban farm educators
and service providers to strengthen education and Scaling up a business almost always requires hired labor.
business networks for CUA farmers. Urban farmers, like their rural counterparts, do not always
understand their state Departments of Labor regulations
Urban farmers are well-networked amongst themselves related to employer responsibilities (e.g. worker’s
and with training programs specifically designed to train compensation, overtime, payroll, hosting volunteers) or
urban farmers. But, they are not strongly connected additional insurance protections needed for business risk
to traditional agriculture service providers, including management. Though their insurance needs are similar
Cooperative Extension educators with UA specialties, to small diversified rural farms, which also need adequate
USDA divisions and the Farm Service Agency, bankers, general liability and product liability insurance, there
accountants and insurers who have deep agricultural are less likely to be insurance agents in urban areas who
knowledge. understand their agricultural business insurance needs.

55 Passidomo, 2014. Whose right to (farm) the city? Race and food justice activism in post-Katrina New Orleans. Agriculture and Human Values,
31(3), 385-396.
56 Ramírez, 2015. The elusive inclusive: Black food geographies and racialized food spaces. Antipode, 47(3), 763.

49
Finally, all farmers need better clarity on workers’ from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were
compensation laws. While it is true that some States do produced and sold, or normally would have been sold,
not require workers’ compensation, farmers must be well during the census year.58 Participation in the Census of
educated on their risks and opportunities for workers’ Agriculture is not tied to the Internal Revenue Service—a
compensation. While many complain that the cost of fear of many farmers still working to understand the tax
workers’ compensation is high, similar group plans or system. Farm data is confidential and used in aggregate.
other subsidies could help small diversified farms protect Integrating urban farms into the Census of Agriculture is
themselves and their farmworkers. fundamental for USDA to assess how many urban farms
exist, what their needs are, and how USDA programs relate
Some cities may already have educators or service to UA in its real-world, multivariate contexts.
providers that have this expertise. Connecting with UA
advocacy organizations or Cooperative Extension may Additionally, FSA registration and Census data will provide
help urban farmers identify existing resources. If they do evidence of UA’s reach and scope which can support the
not exist, farmers are encouraged to advocate for these inclusion of funding and programming for UA-related
programs and services. Additionally, there are funding activities in future legislation, including the Federal
sources for organizations wishing to develop and provide Farm Bill.
such training and technical assistance. For example,
the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Recommendation: Encourage urban farms to invest in
Program (BFRDP) has funded at least six projects focused season extension technologies.
on urban farmers in the last three years. BFRDP trainings
that focus on these topics can support commercial viability Use of high tunnels or greenhouses can extend the
for urban and rural farms. production and harvest season, improving profitability
for many of the farms profiled here, by increasing
Recommendation: Urban farms should register with productivity per square foot and the number of months
the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and participate in of sales for the farm. Assistance provided through USDA
the Census of Agriculture to increase visibility of this NRCS EQIP grants to offset costs of high-tunnels was
emerging sector. critical for many of these farms to extend their seasons
and improve profitability. Coupling these types of support
Urban farms must be encouraged to register with the Farm with education on maximizing use of high tunnels could
Services Agency (FSA) to receive a farm number. FSA farm improve overall capacity of CUA to meet emerging local
numbers are assigned by local FSA offices.57 FSA numbers food system needs.
enable farmers to participate in FSA loan and cost-share
programs, including the NRCS EQIP high tunnel and Recommendation: Raise the profile of FSA Microloan
erosion control program that have been valuable to many and other USDA programs among urban farmers.
urban farmers.

The NRCS EQIP program has proven enormously popular Though urban farmers are reluctant to apply for loan
and successful with urban farmers, including four case programs because of insecure land tenure and other
study farms. Without an FSA number, farmers deny uniquely-urban variables, there is a strong potential
themselves the opportunity to participate in federal to work with urban farmers to take advantage of
programs that may help their businesses. Continued underutilized programs. For example, the Farm Services
expansion and promotion of NRCS EQIP and other Agency’s Microloan Program could be used to purchase
programs that have been well-utilized in urban areas can the land and infrastructure so many farms need. In
promote a stronger relationship between USDA and urban addition, the Farm Storage Facility Loan Program has
growers, and improve urban farming practices. potential to fund mobile facilities and equipment to allow
a farm to move quickly if they lose their lease or land
Urban farms should also be encouraged to participate in access. A promotion campaign aimed at urban farmers
the Census of Agriculture administered by the National that clarifies program terms could raise the profile of the
Agriculture Statistics Service of USDA. A farm is any place program and improve outcomes for urban farmers.

57 USDA Service Center Locator, https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app

58 USDA Census of Agriculture. (Last modified 2015, November 16). 2012 Census Highlights. Retrieved from. https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/
Publications/2012/Online_Resources/Highlights/Farm_Economics

50
 Consideration: Expand the visibility of ‘rural Consideration: Adapt the Whole-Farm Revenue
development’ programs that could assist urban farms Protection Program to meet the risk management
needs of small, diversified farms in urban areas.
USDA Rural Development (RD) has made great strides in
improving rural agricultural communities’ economies and Though Federal support for commodity crop production
infrastructure. Urban and peri-urban areas experience has existed since the 1930s, similar supports for “specialty
many of the same resource needs as rural economies, crops” have existed only since 2004.59 Specialty crops
and programs similar to RD offerings could achieve similar include fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, and
economic gains if piloted in cities with significant UA. horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture).60
Many USDA Rural Development programs, such as Support for specialty crops is largely indirect61 and
Value-Added Producer Grants, Renewable Energy for insurance programs parallel commodity crop insurance
America Program, and the Business and Industry Loan programs in their recordkeeping and reporting
Guarantees, currently have statute authority to extend requirements.
outside the traditional rural area definitions and could be
particularly valuable to UA businesses. Other program that In 2016, USDA heeded the call for a crop insurance
are not currently under this statute authority could also be program designed to accommodate small, diversified
helpful to UA operations if they were changed to be able produce farms. Historically small and very small, highly
to serve urban communities. diversified vegetable and fruit farms have not been
eligible for crop insurance programs, the recordkeeping
and reporting requirements for which are set up for
large commodity farms operating at a scale orders of
magnitudes larger. Indeed, none of the farms profiled
herein hold crop insurance.

The new Whole-Farm Revenue Protection Program

(WFRP), piloted in 2016, is designed to protect diversified
farms due to natural weather, environmental, or market
causes.62 While a promising step forward, WFRP requires
stringent recordkeeping, something that may be difficult
for very small producers with a broad diversity of crops.
Small, diversified vegetable farms enrolled in the pilot
reported that this was a major hurdle in their operations,
and it is expected that even smaller urban farms may
experience the same issue.63 As WFRP continues its pilot,
it is encouraged to consider recordkeeping requirements
that result in an actuarially-sound crop insurance program
that meets the needs and capacities of very small
diversified producers in urban and rural areas.

59 Johnson, Renée. (July 10, 2014). “Specialty Crop Provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill (P.L. 113-79).” Congressional Research Services. Accessed
October 23, 2016 at http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/crs/R43632.pdf
60 Defined in the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-465, 7 U.S.C. §1621 note) and amended under section 10010 of the
Agricultural Act of 2014, Public Law 113-79 (the Farm Bill). See USDA, “USDA Definition of Specialty Crop,” https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/
default/files/media/USDASpecialtyCropDefinition.pdf. Excludes peanuts and other crops
61 Id. Johnson, 5.
62 For more information on WFRP, see http://www.rma.usda.gov/pubs/rme/wfrpfactsheet.pdf
63 Conversation with Alex Sorino, USDA RMA Officer, November 11, 2016.

51
Consideration: Expand visibility of CUA priorities in future
US Farm Bills, to support research and education on best
practices.

Investment in research, extension, and education for

agriculture is primarily mediated through the US Farm
Bill. Priorities for agricultural development have largely
been focused on rural farming, though many programs
are available for use relating to urban farming with some
USDA programs broadening scope to include urban farms
(e.g. USDA AMS Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion
Programs, Specialty Crop Block Grants, Federal-State
Marketing Improvement Program, Beginning Farmer and
Rancher Development Program). Including UA in funding
program priorities, coupled with specific outreach to
researcher and CUA communities, will support critical
analyses and innovations needed to fully achieve the
promise of urban agriculture. The 2018 Farm Bill did have
an increased focus on urban agriculture and outlined
specific actions to be taken, however until they are fully
implemented it cannot be determined if these actions will
truly satisfy the need of urban farmers.

52
Chapter 5: Urban Farms as Social Enterprises
The previous chapter highlighted the commonalities and social and environmental issues for decades, one could
difference among how the case study farms’ approached define social enterprises as businesses that demonstrate
creating profitable businesses on a small footprint of “profit” as strongly as the other two P’s.71
urban land. In this chapter, we focus on their common
motivation for farming in the city and how they connect to Qualitative measures of success have frustrated attempts
surrounding communities to affect positive social change. to measure the impact of social enterprises.72, 73 The
While very few actually described themselves as social value of ecological services (e.g. rainwater infiltration,
entrepreneurs, the hallmarks are found all over their carbon sequestration) and social benefits (e.g. increased
work. Here, some of the ways in which these urban farms knowledge of where food comes from and its nutritional
succeed and struggle to sustain their triple bottom line value, changes in fruit and vegetable consumption) are
missions of social impact, environmental improvement notoriously hard to measure, and even harder to put
and profitability are explored with support of observations in economic terms. These measures are particularly
from key informant interviews. important to donors and investors, who want to
understand and report the impact of their investments.74

Defining Social Enterprise Acknowledging a lack of consistent measure for social

enterprise success, this discussion unpacks the qualitative
examples of social entrepreneurial activity unique to urban
The term “social entrepreneurship” was coined in the farms. It will also become evident that commercial urban
early 1980s when business and social scholars began farming is not a natural social enterprise for one significant
to differentiate enterprises with social impact and reason: beyond the difficulty of measuring impact on
environmental sustainability goals while also earning “people” or “planet,” urban farms struggle to (and are
profit.64, 65 It is often equated with the “triple bottom line,” often expected to) serve both even when they chip away
which some reduce to the “three P’s” of “people, profit, at an already-slim “profit.”
and planet”: a sustainable business supports all three.66

Social entrepreneurship is a wide net that describes Social Entrepreneurship and Business
many businesses, whether or not they identify as Incorporation in Commercial
social enterprises. 67 The promise of UA addresses
many such goals: increasing food security for the urban Urban Farming
poor, decreasing stormwater run-off, improving health Growing Home, the only fully nonprofit farm profiled
outcomes, youth education, job training, and more.68, 69 among these case studies, is also the only one that
defines itself primarily as a social enterprise. Growing
New business incorporations, like benefit corporations Home’s mission as a nonprofit is to “inspire healthy living,
(B-corps), have arisen as entrepreneurs set out to solve economic opportunity, and community empowerment in
social and environmental problems with business-based Englewood” through job training and support services.75
solutions.70 While nonprofit businesses have addressed

64 See for example, http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/di-0546-e.pdf

65 This report does not attempt to define or redefine the term “sustainability.” As this report is the product of a USDA request, the U.S. Code
definition originally proposed in the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, 7 U.S.C. §3103 (19), suffices as the broadest definition
of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This definition is included in the recommendation on pg. 59.
66 http://www.johnelkington.com/archive/TBL-elkington-chapter.pdf
67 Semaan, W.E. Jr. (2014) “Cultivating Capital: A Look at the Issues Affecting Urban Farms as a Business and How New Innovative Policy Changes
at the Federal and State Level Will Impact the Financial Sustainability of Urban Farms.” University of Detroit Mercy Law Review. 91:317
68 Dimitri, Oberholtzer, and Pressman, supra. (2016)
69 Vitiello & Wolf-Powers, supra.
70 Ibid.
71 Osberg, S.R and R. Martin. (2015) “Two Keys to Sustainable Social Enterprise.” Harvard Business Review, May 2015.
72 Bagnoli, L. and C. Megali. (2011) “Measuring Performance in Social Enterprises.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40:1, pp. 149-165.
DOI: 10.1177/0899764009351111.
73 Luke, B., J. Barraket, and R. Eversole. (2013). “Measurement as legitimacy versus legitimacy of measures: performance evaluation of social
enterprise.” Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 10:3/4, pp. 234-258. DOI: 10.1108/QRAM-08-2012-0034
74 http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2014/03/15/how-to-measure-social-impact-new-research-and-insights/#4dfa0c4274be
75 Growing Home website. “About Us.” http://growinghomeinc.org/about-us/
53
 space; the community benefit of neighbors talking to one
another because they were all drawn to spend time in
the farm; the ecological benefit of increasing stormwater
infiltration in the flood-prone neighborhood; and the
personal benefit to Galloway and others who were able to
draw a supplementary income from the farm.

Growing Home and Little City Gardens both have missions

that fit within the definition of social entrepreneurship,
with two different business models, scales, metrics of
success, and supports toward achieving their goals. Most
case study farms can be similarly analyzed and found to
have social entrepreneurial goals, though not all could
be said to be making a true profit because they account
for farmer labor in different ways. The business structure
and revenue strategy (see Table 3 on page 16) do not
Seedlings emerging in the high tunnel at Wood Street necessarily predict social entrepreneurship, and both
Urban Farm. demonstrate how these farms can act as social enterprises
with many structures and strategies for impact.
Growing Home dedicates about half of its staff-time, as
well as support services, to helping its trainees with life- Becky Lundberg Witt, staff attorney with the Community
management and job-readiness skills. Educators, case- Law Center in Baltimore, MD, says the choice about
workers, and administrative staff manage this portion business structure is one of the most difficult for urban
of the program, which is expensive to run, but critical to farmers. She says urban farmers come to her saying, “We
Growing Home’s social mission of providing living wage want to be able to take advantage of grants, but we don’t
jobs and job-training for those trying to get back into want to set up a nonprofit structure because we want to
the workforce. be in charge of it all.”

About 89 percent of Growing Home’s budget is funded by “They are in a nebulous space that doesn’t actually exist
foundation and corporate grants, government grants and legally speaking,” says Witt “I’m trying to communicate:
programs, and individual donors.76 Besides relative funding you have to choose. Are you going to be a for-profit with a
stability, it has an excellent job-placement track record for social mission, or a nonprofit with a board?” Either can be
trainees and low recidivism rates. As a result of its funding a social enterprise, she says, but the business model
and program success, it has also sold a significant quantity a farmer wants to pursue—including fundraising and
of fresh, culturally relevant produce in Englewood where diverse revenue streams—will determine how the
its farm is located, fulfilling another part of its enterprise is funded.
social mission.

Caitlyn Galloway, meanwhile, decided with her business

partner before they started Little City Gardens in San
Francisco that it would have to be for-profit. Neither
wanted to spend time writing grants, and both were
convinced that their “experiment” in urban farming could
only prove successful if it were self-sustaining. They chose
to form a legal partnership, and work toward earning a
profit from which to pay themselves.

Though commercial farming was Little City Gardens’

raison d’être, it grew into an enterprise that was not only
profitable, but had clear benefits to the community and
environment noted by Galloway, visitors, and neighbors.
Examples included the psychological benefit of more green

Caitlyn Galloway of Little City Gardens.

76  See for example, http://growinghomeinc.org/docs/GrowingHome12-13AnnualReport.pdf

54
Benefits to People: Education Benefits to Planet: Ecological
Education is the social goal of several case study farms, Stewardship
though they fund it in different ways. Farmers say Case study farmers prove an intuitive sense of their farms’
education is part of their everyday work, and record the environmental benefits to the community: decreasing
number of students or tour participants their farms have stormwater runoff, sequestering carbon, improving natural
hosted. Brooklyn Grange hosted over 20,000 students habitat, and much more. Yet, most do not or cannot
on its rooftop farms in the five seasons since it helped quantify their environmental benefit.
found the nonprofit farming education organization, City
Growers. City Growers operates as a separate business, Joe Reynolds of Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens is one
renting bed-space from the Grange for educational of the most successful case study farmers in measuring his
programming. environmental impact. On the 1.5 certified organic acres
he leases, he tries “to focus on the ecological benefit of a
Our School at Blair Grocery has provided after-school farm and how we try to minimize the impact that farming
activities, internships, and paid-work opportunities for has. Farming is manmade and a pretty destructive thing to
dozens of youth in the Lower Ninth Ward. This part the environment. Even in the way we farm, we walk that
of its mission attracted large funders. But its leaders line all the time.”
acknowledge that education is time-consuming, costly,
and does not always provide quantifiable impacts like Reynolds’ for-profit CSA farm monitors birds and turtles,
GED-attainment or better career prospects. Its director, and as per the stipulations of his lease has not expanded
Nat Turner, says youth who come back to visit say beyond its 1.5 acres to maintain the balance between
“decision-making and using good judgement” are the farm and surrounding woodlands. He measures the
primary skills they learned there. organic matter in his soil as a metric of the farm’s success
as well as its earnings and expenses. He is able to pay his
When asked how much time they spend on the newly employees and himself a modest wage several dollars
formed nonprofit arm of Springdale Farm, Paula Foore higher than the local minimum wage. In combination,
says, “Too much, and not enough.” Indeed, hybrid models Reynolds could be said to be a social entrepreneur.
often represent a careful balancing effort.

“We do spend a tremendous of amount of work hours [on

education tours] that take us away from the farming time,
but it takes a lot of inertia and energy to get it going,”
says her husband, Glenn. Still the Foores are compelled to
provide educational opportunities for Austin youth as part
of what they describe as a “civic duty.” They launched a
nonprofit in order to separate production from education
to keep the farm viable while seeking funding to expand
educational activities.

Many urban farms offer informal education for no

compensation, particularly through farm tours and
volunteering in the community. For Mellowfields Urban
Farm in Lawrence, KS, community engagement and
education come with being part of the farm community.
However, it still takes a toll, says Asmussen: “[Tours]
The pond at Gaia Gardens is actually a stormwater
aren’t associated with the farm at all, but more about the catchment for East Lake Commons. Love Is Love Farm is
community. But, a lot of time ends up [being spent] on able to irrigate its crops from the water catchment much
[volunteer work]. We have a lot of volunteer work we do. of the year.
A goal of mine is to let some of that go.”

While farms like Brooklyn Grange and Springdale Farm Whether certified organic or not, case study farms rely
have begun charging for farm tours, most farms do not. primarily on multi-year cropping rotations to decrease
Unlike rural agritourism, urban farmers say they get the disease, weed, and pest pressure; application of compost
impression that urban agritourism is an obligation: farms and organic amendments like fish emulsion; and constant
located in cities invite questions, and urban farmers feel vigilance in monitoring their crops. City regulations and
duty-bound to answer them. personal philosophies do not permit the use of common

55
“ There’s only so much you can focus on. Better to find another organization
that has the passion, and bring them in as partners.

education on the ecosystem services of urban farms. Yet,

most of these attributes are hard to quantify, let alone
prove as a measurable benefit to cities.

Cost of Social Enterprise

Nat Turner from Our School at Blair Grocery speaks for
many urban farmers when he says, “There’s a difference
between teaching-farming and production-farming, and
often the teaching-farming messes up the production-
farming.” Farming requires precision and vigilance. But,
— Ben Flanner

synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides

et al. As good neighbors reliant on community buy-in, case
Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn and Queens, NY

study farms are often open to the public and offer informal

when a farmer’s fields are subject to constant traffic from

visitors eager to learn and connect with their food, it
could lead to damaged crops, compacted soil, and food
contamination.
“Unless it was two highly-skilled people working every
day 12 hours a day, it wouldn’t work,” says Rishi. “We
are looking for grants for irrigation, refrigeration, shade
structure, greenhouse; I don’t think it’s any different than
any other farm.”

For nonprofits that aim to pay living wages, the costs of

social entrepreneurship are higher. Chicago’s Growing
Home aims to pay livable wages. But, executive director
Harry Rhodes doubts the farm could ever earn enough to
cover its costs. “Everybody talks about, ‘you have to be
[financially] sustainable! You have to make it on your own!’
But, it’s not really possible for our programs,” he says.

Yet, it is exactly these types of urban farms that advocates

of UA promote. Portland, OR, Manager of Food Policy and
Planning Steve Cohen says, “The [urban farms] that I love
are educational farms, because our stance is: we’re not
going to feed ourselves [through UA], but all of the things
I work on from planning to food waste is for valuing food.
As we move from rural to urban society, we don’t value
“We do a lot of nonproductive work around here,” says
food the same way. I want kids to know where food comes
Glenn Foore of Springdale Farms with a half-smile, half-
from, learn about seasonality, and overall to realize that
grimace. “People want to see the farm, so we feel sort of
it’s hard for farmers to do what they do.”
obligated to walk them around, talk to them about what
we’re doing.” While he and his wife, Paula, love to share Heather Wooten, Vice President of Programs for
their passion for farming with others, doing so negatively ChangeLab Solutions, a nonprofit that has written and
impacts their productivity and bottom line. consulted on UA zoning ordinances in California and
beyond, agrees: “It’s not about the produce, it’s about the
Rishi Kumar, founder of the Los Angeles nonprofit urban
people” who stand to benefit from UA.
farm The Growing Home (no relation to the nonprofit
Growing Home in Chicago), earns close to $50,000 per Social entrepreneurs and their supporters believe many
year on his half-acre backyard lot in the Los Angeles hills people stand to benefit from UA. Sabine O’Hara, Dean
growing 12 months of the year. But, with him, his mother, and Director of Land Grant Programs at the University
and another full-time employee, he says he could not of the District of Columbia, says her program supports
make this intensive growing operation work without the UA because “what drives thriving communities is quality
five to eight part-time trainees who learn through working of life. You shortchange yourself if you only look at the
at the farm. economic indicators. There are significant social and

56
environmental benefits as well.” While most farms “I’m concerned that people are learning more about it,
acknowledge they cannot significantly impact food and think it sounds cool, it’s a pretty hip thing to talk
security in their communities, they improve quality of life about, but the economics are bad,” says Glenn. “A lot of
by providing greenspace, reducing blight, and offering people are learning the hard way. Like, ‘Oh, nobody told
educational and community engagement opportunities. me that the economics aren’t working out here. I’m pulling
$5,000 a month out of my savings to say I’m farming, to
There are ecological benefits, too. The “ecosystem lose another $5,000.’”
services” UA provides—including environmental
quality, reduced food miles, carbon sequestration, soil
health—should be more highly prized, says University of Seeking Support for
Massachusetts Amherst instructor and landscape architect
Helena Farrell. Portland, OR, urban farmer Marc Boucher- Social Enterprise
Colbert agrees: “Now I see that ecological and habitat
preservation can actually be because of UA instead of a Just three for-profit and two hybrid-model case study
byproduct of other issues.” farms received funding for their education and community
However, it is also important to acknowledge that social engagement work. Farms’ ability to subsidize what Glenn
and ecological benefits cost money. Caroline Dmitri, NYU Foore calls “non-productive time,” doing non-farm work
professor and researcher of UA, says she went into the for the social good, is based upon how the businesses
research looking for commercial urban farmers, but found were set-up.
something different. “A lot of urban farms don’t really exist For example, Brooklyn Grange helped to launch City
to grow food, per-se. If you want to look at their benefits, Growers, a completely separate nonprofit, because
then it has more to do with the feel-good social missions the farm determined it was not financially feasible to
than to be [financially] viable.”77 run its own education program. Flanner says, “There’s
Those commercial farms that do exist to grow food—and only so much you can focus on. If [the Grange] set up a
sustain themselves on crop sales—are not necessarily nonprofit [wing of the business], who would run it? Where
aiming to fulfill a food access or food justice mission. would the passion come from? Better to find another
While they do increase household food security (see organization that has the passion, and wants to focus on
Chapter 4), many make the majority of sales by selling that, and bring them in as partners.” While the Grange
niche produce rather than crops that have high calorie or provides a space for education to happen, it remains
nutritional value. rooted in its for-profit model as a measure of success.

Some urban farmers focused on making viable businesses

feel pressured into social entrepreneurship. “It’s great
that urban farms want to be community oriented, but
I also feel like there’s an obligation if you’re in the city
to give stuff away,” says one urban farmer who asked to
remain anonymous because of what they call the “taboo
of wanting to have a business.” “There is pressure to give
away your vegetables to a food bank or farmers market
for low income people—which is great. But, why is it
more frowned upon in [urban] agriculture to have a small
business?” This is a common tension mentioned by case
study farmers: whose responsibility is it that people can
afford and access fresh produce?

Commercial urban farmers feel the heavy burden of social

entrepreneurship, even as they try to realize themselves
as social entrepreneurs. Glenn Foore is concerned that
the hype around urban farming makes false promises to Ben Flanner overseeing and collecting data on crop
development at Brooklyn Grange’s rooftop farm.
would-be urban farmers and their dreams of community
and environmental change.

77 See Dimitri, Oberholtzer, and Pressman “Urban agriculture: connecting producers with consumers” 2016.
57
Our School at Blair Grocery, meanwhile, was conceived as
a nonprofit at the outset. Its business structure allowed it
Strengthening Urban
to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars of grants and
donations to support its social enterprise as a farm and
Agriculture Social Impact by
education facility. Bridging Approaches
On the other end of the spectrum, Springdale Farm added
a nonprofit arm 7 years after launching the for-profit farm. The case study farmers are proud of their work building
The Foores have struggled to find grants because they do commercial farms but recognized the value of multiple
not have a proven track-record as education or community forms of UA. As has been described, these commercial
service providers. While Paula Foore says she doesn’t feel urban farmers find themselves challenged to meet a
competition from urban farmers, she does feel it from multitude of expectations regarding business profitability
other farm-based nonprofits and social enterprises: “We and social mission. Most CUA farms are highly visible
are all competing for the same grants.” to curious local citizens, which can be an opportunity
for education but also a burden for time and business
Some farms engage in community interaction as part of management.
their land agreement. This is true for Love Is Love at Gaia
Gardens and Mellowfields, both of which are beholden to Leaders of community-based urban farms express concern
the community for the land they farm for nearly no-cost. that the positive social impacts of urban farming on
That is not to say they would not do it otherwise; merely food justice, workforce development, and community
that communities have begun to put the “social” aspect empowerment could be undermined by a growing focus
into entrepreneur-launching programs. on commercial UA or high-tech controlled environment
agriculture (CEA) by investors worldwide (see Ch. 6).
For farmers like Greg Willerer and Oliva Hubert, farming A narrow focus on the commercial viability and return
is a social act. Hubert says community engagement and on investment of urban farming can obscure the social
education takes up a lot of the family’s time. “It’s easy to accomplishments achieved by urban farms, community
focus on making money when you’re not involved in the gardens and noncommercial UA efforts.
community,” she says. Though she and Willerer would
like to find grants, they would be for farm infrastructure Favoring those UA projects that seem to have the highest
rather than programming, which is a different perspective economic return on investment (ROI) may reinforce
altogether. existing socio-economic disparities rather than improve
community economic development or quality of life,
as very few, if any, of the benefits of such UA projects
accrue to the surrounding community. According to
University of California Cooperative Extension Associate
and Urban Agriculture Specialist Rob Bennaton, an
excessive emphasis on economic ROI “almost completely
ignores equity issues that have arisen in terms of historic
disinvestment in low-income communities.”

The hybrid CUA farms decision to separate educational

efforts from commercial aspirations suggest opportunities
for new collaborations among commercial and community
UA that bring the best of both approaches to the table.
A complementary approach, nested within highly
accessible locations, would leverage the goals and assets
of both strategies. Community UA recruits, inspires,
and cultivates youth and new UA social entrepreneurs;
mentoring by affiliated CUA farmers creates pathways
A sign at the Merc Coop in Lawrence, KS features for new UA business development; community UA
Mellowfields Urban Farm’s owners, further assisting the goals of empowerment and social justice complement
farm’s advertising to new customers.

58
environmental and economic innovation of CUA; citizens zz Community: shared community space amongst
can explore the value and challenges of more regional food diverse groups; increased neighborhood safety;
systems; and together, these UA approaches can make a access to and appreciation of greenspace;
more compelling argument for UA as an engaging land decreased blight; increased neighborhood property
use practice. values; stable neighborhoods with less “churn”;
creation of new businesses near farms.
Rather than prioritizing CUA over community urban
gardens, or vice versa, there is and must be a well- zz Ecological: stormwater runoff management; carbon
supported place for both in the urban landscape. It is sequestration.
only through the active collaboration of both community-
focused and commercial-oriented approaches to UA and Placing a value on these services can help urban planners
the creation of purposeful policies supporting both that and city officials argue for agriculture as a permanent
the full promise of food production in cities can be met. part of the urban landscape, because its benefits can
be compared dollar-for-dollar with traditional economic
development proposals. The National Science Foundation
Recommendations and has also taken this stance, and its Innovations at the Nexus
of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) initiative
Considerations for challenges researchers to study and demonstrate those
Supporting Urban Agriculture linkages and values.

as Social Enterprises Recommendation: Clearly target resources and grant

funding to lead to the sustainable development of
urban agriculture.
Recommendation: Fund research to place value
on the ecological and social services performed by “Sustainable agriculture” is legally defined in U.S. Code
urban farms. Title 7, Section 3103 as an integrated system of crop and
livestock management that will over the long term:
Though commercially-viable urban farms are limited
in their capacity to produce food for urban residents, zz Satisfy human food and fiber needs.
particularly those with limited food access, they may have
alternative impacts that improve the quality of life for zz Enhance environmental quality and the agricultural
urban residents. natural resource base.

Advocates of urban farming often cite the community zz Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable
development, educational, and ecological benefits of resources and on-farm resources and integrate,
urban farms as a reason for further investment. But, where appropriate, natural biological cycles
it is hard for researchers, city planners, and funders to and controls.
know what those benefits are “worth,” particularly when
zz Sustain the economic viability of farm operations.
weighing urban farming against other land uses that have
greater direct economic impacts. These services include: zz Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society
as a whole.
zz Educational: childhood and consumer education,
which may grow the consumption of fresh, locally- Sustainable urban agriculture must also balance these
and regionally-produced foods and produce in pillars of sustainability: environmental health, economic
general; improved test-scores in math and science profitability and positive social impact. Yet, the social
from hands-on learning in urban gardens and impacts of UA can be overshadowed by an overemphasis
farms. on metrics such as ‘return on investment’ or ’highest and
best use’.
zz Social: jobs and job-training for low-skilled or hard-
to-employ people; increased healthy food access
for underserved groups; improved relations among
diverse groups.

59
Both community and commercial UA have tremendous As such, urban farms, including those with social missions,
opportunity for social benefits: both approaches can risk contributing to gentrification and pushing out
strengthen community cohesion, provide education and the people who started farming (because of desire or
workforce development skills, foster entrepreneurship, necessity) or for whom the farms were meant to serve.
and create new infrastructure that, when done Urban planners, community groups, and future urban
thoughtfully, will enhance the quality of life of the farmers may consider working together to site new urban
surrounding communities. These initial social benefits have farms to best achieve the desired outcomes of all groups.
the potential to have long term positive economic impacts.
Through the funding of research to understand the full Consideration: Remember that not all farms aim to
impact of different investments in UA on all outcomes, not be commercially viable through agricultural product
just financial, the promise of UA can be more fully met. sales alone.

Recommendation: Explore new models for incubating This report investigates the commercial viability of UA and
collaborative UA strategies. acknowledges that not all urban farms are intended to
be profitable enterprises. Many of the farms profiled in
Creation of UA centers which share space and resources this study leverage their location to host educational and
could strengthen ties rather than tensions among recreational events at the farm, benefiting both the farm
community and commercial approaches to UA and provide and the local community. Urban farms have many missions
venues for research on UA impacts. Such models offer and strategies for achieving their goals: it may be fair to
an opportunity to prioritize social outcomes of UA while consider the extent to which their strategies for funding
tying education to pathways for entrepreneurship and their activities—grants, donations, non-agricultural
innovation. Shared resources could help both teach and income streams—are sustainable in the long-term. UA
train about the technical aspects of UA food production incorporation into cities must be financially viable, but
(e.g. planning, crop choice, enterprise budgeting, food there are multiple paths toward financial viability that are
safety), while also highlighting entrepreneurship, product not strictly commercial.
development and social innovation. New collaborative
farming and marketing models could evolve to represent
the culture and history of host neighborhoods, celebrating
unique connections among food and community.

Consideration: Recognize that public-facing social

enterprises like commercial urban farms can drive
neighborhood revitalization and increase the tax base,
with positive and negative consequences to local
community residents.

Beyond their direct and indirect social and ecological

benefits, urban farms may also drive neighborhood
revitalization. Community gardens were employed in the
second half of the twentieth century for similar reasons:
connecting neighbors, increasing the presence of “eyes
on the street” to ward off crime, inspiring neighborhood
beautification projects, and providing a space for
overall social capital cultivation. These effects can make Street view of Wilson Street Farms.
neighborhoods more attractive to other businesses or
new residents, particularly those who view an urban farm
as a valuable part of the bundle of goods and services
one “purchases” when renting or buying a property. Thus
urban farms can be a benefit similar to parks, grocery
stores, or good schools.

60
Chapter 6: The Promise and Challenges of
Controlled Environment Agriculture in Cities
Urban controlled environment agriculture (CEA), which Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives saw CEA as a promise
includes greenhouses and vertical farms with 100 percent to help lift the local neighborhood out of poverty. Its
artificial light, has surged in the past several years. In CEA original plan—to provide head lettuce and herbs to nearby
systems, the growing environment (temperature, carbon hospitals and institutions year-round—was designed to
dioxide, light quality and intensity, water, soil, nutrients, provide good jobs and good food through UA. Evergreen’s
and relative humidity) can be controlled. These types of Green City Growers (pg. 191) received significant start-up
farms require significant energy inputs to maintain the capital, but found itself lacking in a few key areas where
light and temperature environment, in contrast to high other CEA producers have also found obstacles: a lack of
tunnels (used by several urban farms profiled here) that skilled workers, difficult market penetration, and the tough
typically do not use any supplemental heating, cooling, or economics of competing with field-grown lettuce.
lights. High tunnels are also movable structures, unlike
greenhouses or vertical farms which are permanent
installations.

CEA has two general approaches. The first, greenhouse Examples of

production, is a well-established agricultural method.
These systems enclose the plant growing environment Commercial Urban CEA
with glass or plastic structures that maximize use of
sunlight, moderate temperatures, and reduce plant stress. Gotham Greens, New York and Chicago
The second, vertical farms or plant factories, produce Hydroponic rooftop greenhouses
plants in completely enclosed buildings that use sole-
source electric light with no sunlight. Vertically-stacked Green City Growers, Cleveland
growing platforms incorporate either hydroponic (a Hydroponic freestanding greenhouse
constant stream of nutrient-boosted water) or aeroponic
(a sporadic or misting stream of nutrient-boosted water)
plant-growing methods. Spurred by increased demand for Dream Harvest Farming Company, Houston
fresh local produce and facilitated by more efficient LED Hydroponic vertical farm
lighting systems, CEA operations promise consistent year-
round production of high-quality produce using one-tenth Aerofarms, Newark
the water and causing less food waste. Aeroponic vertical farm with sole source lighting
While there are many micro CEA operations,
entrepreneurs have capitalized on new technologies and
new interest from grantors and investors to launch large-
scale urban CEA companies. Greenhouse-based urban
CEA company Gotham Greens has expanded several times
Help Wanted
to include three farms in New York City and another in
Chicago. Its 60,000 square foot greenhouse in Queens, The burgeoning CEA industry needs qualified workers.
NY, was granted one million dollars from the New York It needs personnel for low-skilled work like seeding,
State Energy Research and Development Authority and up harvesting, and packing produce, along with highly-
to an additional $152,000 in tax credits from the State’s skilled master-growers and experts at the intersection of
economic development fund to create 46 full-time jobs. plant biology and computer science, says Ed Harwood,
Chief Science Officer for Aerofarms. While all agriculture
Meanwhile, Aerofarms, a vertical farming company, aims benefits from highly-skilled head growers, the high capital
to build 25 vertical farms around the world in 5 years. investments, high operating costs, and delicate ecosystem
The company has raised over $90 million in investment balances of CEA requires extreme competency and few
capital, including funding for a 70,000 square foot facility mistakes for the business to thrive.
in Newark, NJ. Each facility could employ up to 40 people.

61
There is some on-the-job training for low-skilled Food Science Lab includes hydroponic, aeroponic, and
workers—urban residents who likely have no agriculture aquaponics demonstrations, experiments that students
experience—and training programs like Growing Home conduct, and harvesting the bounty of lettuces and
(pg. 135) attempt to anticipate these farms’ needs and microgreens.
place trainees in CEA jobs.
CEA is a strong fit for high schools, they say, because it
In the long run, increased mechanization imagined for is a hands-on learning tool that produces throughout
CEA may reduce the number of low-skilled jobs. While the school year (unlike many school gardens), excites
some CEA executives are sure low-skilled work will always students about fresh produce and even provides lettuce
be needed, others see mechanization as essential to and microgreens for school lunches. In addition to all its
competing with field-grown crops, primarily lettuces and education and nutrition benefits, CEA in high schools can
tender greens. also be part of a pipeline to train skilled CEA workers,
seeding interest in CEA with youth and helping them train
As mentioned previously, Eric Ellestad of Local Roots for future careers.
states that “True cost parity [with field-grown crops]
requires a lot of automation and people who are more
technologically savvy.” Researchers agree. Louis D. Trade Secrets
Albright, emeritus professor at Cornell University and
former director of its Controlled Environment Agriculture
Training of a CEA workforce faces one major hurdle:
program, says automation of tasks like seeding can
intellectual property and “trade secrets.”
improve efficiencies and decrease costs. Neil Mattson,
current director of Cornell’s CEA program, adds that some Real-world CEA curriculum development is hampered
CEA companies can justify the higher one-time cost of by CEA companies’ reluctance to share their standard
labor-automating machines to save on labor costs down operating procedures which may include intellectual
the line, ultimately lowering operating costs. property that keeps them competitive, says Greens.
Howard Brin, a CEA advocate formerly of the Association
Still, there is a strong emphasis on job training. High
for Vertical Farming, agrees: “Standard operating
schools around the country have begun to incorporate
procedures are very proprietary and are not shared
CEA to teach botany, biology, food science, and more.
between companies.”
Nick Greens, a CEA consultant and former grower at
FarmedHere in Chicago, partnered with Jaime Guerrero, a As a result, there are also few internships available, says
chef and local food activist, to start the Food Science Lab Greens. He suggests that “workforce development can
at Chicago Public Schools’ Carl Schurz High School. The promote transparency between CEA companies over
time,” as workers move to new jobs among companies
and share knowledge and skills amongst themselves.
Developing a standardized CEA training program is difficult
in part because of a lack of sharing of industry knowledge.

Meanwhile, Albright says very little of what urban CEA

entrepreneurs call intellectual property is really intellectual
property. Most so-called trade secrets, he says, have been
used all over the world for decades by greenhouse and
sole-source lighting CEA operations. Still, many companies
require researchers to sign non-disclosure agreements to
even visit a facility.

This opacity makes it difficult to understand start-up costs

and long-term business projections for urban CEA. One
reason Green City Growers is an excellent CEA case study
is its umbrella organization’s nonprofit status and the
strong social commitment of its executive team which
Lettuce being grow hydroponically by students in made it easier to gain deep insight into its successes and
the Schurz High School Food Science Lab, Irving Park, challenges. Mattson says Green City Growers is similar to
Chicago.

62
other greenhouses he has worked with, who show greater
transparency than vertical farm operators. Greenhouse
operators are more willing to invite other greenhouse
operators to workshops at their farm and talk about their
challenges openly, he says.

Environmental Costs
Though CEA touts many environmental benefits, including
water use reduction up to 90 percent over field-produced
crops, it also has environmental costs. Energy costs for
system operation, including temperature control and
lighting (particularly in sole-source lighting vertical farms
or plant factories), compete with labor costs for the largest
expense on a CEA enterprise, says Mattson.
Green City Growers use insulating blankets to conserve
Energy costs have environmental impact, reminds heat and control light levels in the greenhouse.
Albright, and those that use “essentially free” sunlight
have far less of an environmental impact than sole-
source lighting vertical farms. “Modern greenhouses
typically transmit outdoor sunlight to indoor crops with
Marketing Controlled
70 percent efficiency,” says Albright. Sunlight transformed
to electricity via photovoltaics to power LEDs in vertical
Environment
farms, meanwhile, converts sunlight to crops with single- Agriculture Products
digit efficiency.78

The result, says Albright, is widely varying carbon Despite their carbon footprint disadvantage, urban CEA
footprints, one of the underpinnings of the local food companies still market their produce as the sustainable,
movement’s concern with ‘food miles.’ Albright’s hyper-local option. Many also add elements of food-
calculations show that lettuce produced in vertical farms, accessibility in their mission. As observed with some soil-
which provide nearly 100 percent of photosynthetic light based urban farms growing niche produce, accessibility is
from electricity and require 20 or more hours of electrical questionable when based on the price of produce: around
lighting per day, have a carbon footprint four to five times $14 per pound for lettuces and $22 per pound for
greater than lettuce produced in greenhouses. Add to this micro-greens.
the additional cost of cooling vertical farms, which unlike
Yet, willingness to pay for local CEA is limited. A
greenhouses rely more heavily on cooling to remove heat
forthcoming paper by Mattson and Miguel Gomez shows
from growing lights, and the environmental cost of vertical
that, while consumers are willing to pay a premium of 19
farming is very high.
percent for locally grown lettuce (with a flexible definition
To illustrate the point, Albright simulates lettuce of “local”) there is no difference in the willingness to pay
production in scenarios around the country. In one for CEA lettuce.80 However, CEA can especially benefit from
scenario, he compares three types of lettuce purchasable the demand for local in winter months, when produce
in the northeastern United States: local vertically farmed grown outside is hard to find or nonexistent. In a previous
lettuce, local greenhouse-grown lettuce, and California study on consumer willingness to pay for local foods,
field lettuce shipped to the northeast. Given current freshness, perceived health benefits, food safety, and
technology in both controlled-environment scenarios, flavor were named as the largest determinants of whether
lettuce shipped from California still has a lower carbon a consumer purchases local food—not the locality itself
footprint.79 necessarily.81

78 Albright, Louis D. “Urban Plant Factories: High in the Sky or Pie in the Sky?” Lecture to Urban Ecosystems class, Cornell University, April 7, 2015.
79 Harbick, K. and Albright, L.D. (n.d.) Comparison of energy consumption: greenhouses and plant factories. Acta Horticulturae. In Press.
80 Nishi, Irin Ferdous. 2017. Consumer Willingness to Pay for Local Vegetables Grown in a Controlled Environment: The Case of Lettuce.
https://doi.org/10.7298/X4X63K37. Accessed Nov. 2, 2017.
81  Tang, Y.,M. Gómez, and K. Park. “A Case Study of Price Premiums for Local Foods in Tompkins County, NY.” Smart Marketing, November 2014.
63
Like many other businesses, the launch of urban CEA Transporting CEA-grown lettuce from a peri-urban or rural
businesses is often predicated on soft commitments to area a few hours’ drive outside of cities is not likely to
purchase produce. For example, J.J. Reidy, founder of the have a significant deleterious effect on produce quality
shipping container CEA business Urban Pastoral, based the or nutritional value, says Mattson, who adds there is not
launch of his company on informal purchase agreements significant peer-reviewed literature on the subject to point
with his business school alma mater, Johns Hopkins to this. “If you’re talking about 3,000 miles away, then
University. When a dispute over cost arose, he was yes,” he says, “but a tenth of that mileage is not likely to
adamant that he receive his price, which is significantly have the same impact so long as the cold chain is in place.”
higher than the “commodity prices” he says the school was
used to paying. “They need me,” he says, referring to the Urban farms have a greater ability to engage with
school’s commitment to buy locally. neighbors and play a part in revitalizing communities.
Urban CEA facilities make similar aims to “fuel blooming
“Success to a CEA operation is 10-15 percent profit,” communities where others fear urban decay”82 by making
says Albright, who estimates that 80 percent of people “post-industrial buildings alive again.”83 They pilot CEA
who approach him with a CEA business proposal have no projects at local schools and eagerly support secondary
background in horticulture, agriculture, or a related field. school training for CEA jobs in urban areas. Meanwhile,
“But success in agriculture is single-digit profit.” community access to a CEA production facility is limited
by necessity to preserve the careful control of growing
Mattson considers today’s urban CEA businesses the early conditions and minimize plant diseases.
adopters in the industry. Early adoption often comes with
a price premium, like most consumer technology. Urban Jobs are one area where most urban CEA businesses aim
CEA-grown produce is no different and seems to fetch a to have social impact. This is certainly the case for Green
high price. Add high location costs—higher rents, more City Growers, which hires directly from its surrounding
expensive fuel, wages adjusted for higher costs of living neighborhood and provides supports like housing and
in urban areas—to the other costs of urban CEA business, transportation assistance to help employees thrive. Green
and the higher price for its produce makes sense. As the City Growers’ wrap-around services go far beyond other
industry develops and more product is available, prices are CEA operations, though many aim to “bring agriculture
likely to come down. The long-term profitability of these jobs back to cities and create green-collar jobs for the
high-cost, energy-intensive systems remains to be told. future.”84

Good jobs for city residents who are chronically

Locating Controlled unemployed or underemployed is a strong promise,
but runs counter to the need for increased production
Enivronment Agriculture automation for CEA businesses to remain competitive.

Urban CEA businesses also claim their urban location

While most of the CEA operations described here are and production capacity make them particularly adept
located in urban areas, some CEA companies, like Bright at providing produce that is “accessible to everyone” 85,
Farms, choose to locate in peri-urban and rural areas and particularly Americans living in food deserts.86 However,
benefit from lower location costs. CEA businesses most frequently sell their produce at high-
Urban locations do not necessarily mean a lower carbon- end retailers like Whole Foods Markets and local specialty
footprint for distribution. Most food retailers use large retail chains as well as restaurants, and are reliant on these
produce distribution facilities to aggregate and coordinate high price sales for their bottom line.
movement of products to stores. The addition of a truck Urban CEA offers many promises: prolific food production,
delivery from an urban farm actually adds to the total water conservation, decreased carbon emissions (due to
food miles. Add to that unpredictable city traffic, and lower transportation costs), jobs, increased food access,
Albright says peri-urban greenhouses that deliver to food and more. But, the unique technologies of CEA will
distribution facilities tend to make more sense in terms of determine the extent to which they can deliver on each of
total energy cost. those promises.

82  Gotham Greens website. http://gothamgreens.com/our-philosophy

83  FarmedHere website. http://farmedhere.com/
84  Local Roots website. http://www.localrootsfarms.com/future/
85  FarmedHere, ibid.
86  Local Roots, ibid.
64
Tradeoffs will occur. Fully-enclosed vertical farms in urban technologies evolve, greater transparency about the costs
areas may have lower transportation fuel needs, but and benefits this type of production system will support
much higher draws on the energy grid due to lighting and decision making on future investment.
cooling. CEA may be able to bring product costs down
to increase food access through automation, however Recommendation: Conduct case study analyses similar
this will eliminate lower-skilled jobs. These are complex to those in this report on commercial CEA businesses to
chain reactions, but more information is needed for assess community, policy, and social factors influencing
entrepreneurs, investors, and cities to make decisions that their viability.
benefit all parties, including citizen consumers.
Case studies of existing urban CEA businesses increase
Recommendations and transparency around business viability and can help
entrepreneurs, investors, city officials, and others
Considerations to determine if CEA is a strong fit for their city. Case studies
like the ones in this report discuss farm start-up, including
Advance Controlled necessary capital, resources, and policies; production
practices and technologies; sales and marketing strategies;
Environment Agriculture challenges and expenses, including changing needs for
labor; and the expected future course of the business.

Recommendation: Fund and conduct independent Large CEA businesses in American cities declined to
academic research on the costs, output, and respond to requests for interviews for logical reasons; the
environmental and social impact of CEA. consensus of expert opinion is that CEA businesses are
too new and are too attached to their (often proprietary)
CEA momentum is strong, but to sustain it CEA must technology to be transparent and risk releasing ‘trade
achieve tangible benefits for more people than secrets’ that may make them less competitive in the
entrepreneurs and investors. The majority of current marketplace. Yet, to grow the industry—from workforce
academic research considers the productivity of different development programs to research to investor relations—
CEA technologies, while industry white-papers tout early CEA businesses would benefit from working together
successes in the United States and abroad. Neither group, to increase industry visibility, transparency and future
however, considers the full environmental, social, or investment by numerous funders, including municipalities
economic impact of new CEA technologies and the extent and local communities.
to which their promises can realistically be fulfilled. The
promise of low-water, high-productivity, high-value yields Recommendation: Support research on resource-
has excited entrepreneurs and investors, but for funders efficient CEA technologies and approaches.
and cities, which provide allowances and tax breaks for
CEA businesses, more information is needed to determine The growing popularity of CEA promises year-round
under what conditions these businesses can deliver on production of greens, fish, and more. Yet, enclosed CEA
production, jobs, and return on investment. facilities, and in particular those dependent on sole-source
lighting, are challenged by high energy use and costs
Research can clarify the multiple costs of CEA—including for lighting and cooling. In repurposing older buildings
start-up and operating costs, energy, labor, environmental or warehouses for CEA, the heating, venting, and air
and other costs, to better describe and distinguish CEA conditioning systems are often inadequate to manage
from soil-based UA systems. Different combinations the heat and humidity generated by the plant growing
of technology, strategy, and location will also suggest systems.
situational best practices and will offer decision-makers
like investors, city planners, and educators, the requisite Urban CEA may decrease food waste by being closer to
information to determine whether or not to invest markets, and thus require shorter and more efficient
resources in CEA. supply chains. While this would suggest a decrease in
product losses during shipping and handling, there is a lack
From energy loads to societal impacts, more research is of peer-reviewed research on the extent to which
needed comparing vertical farms, greenhouses, and field- this is actually a benefit. In addition, most CEA products
grown product in both urban and peri-urban areas. As are highly perishable and require careful handling to
retain quality.

65
 Consideration: Invest in workforce development training
to benefit CEA and the entire agriculture sector.

CEA businesses and industry groups indicate a shortage

of skilled workers may hamper the industry’s growth.
High-skill jobs require 4-year degrees or higher in botany,
biology, and computer science; even low-skill jobs require
some basic training in plant science and production
techniques.

CEA programs are popping up in 4-year and community

colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools,
engaging students in activities that teach math, science,
nutrition, and more. With industry collaboration to
elucidate skills and processes, these programs could
become a workforce pipeline for the CEA industry.

The entire agricultural sector can benefit from students’

early engagement with growing their own food. More
knowledgeable eaters, more invested consumers, and
more future farmers will be a boon to the future of
agriculture, particularly those farmers that grow fresh
food for human consumption.

66
Chapter 7: Sustaining Commercial Urban
Agriculture through Policy
Previous studies have done well to catalogue the ways Urban agriculture ordinances (UAOs) are a common
cities and suburbs use zoning ordinances and municipal mechanism to change zoning codes to permit agriculture
comprehensive plans to include UA into the city where it had previously been a prohibited land use. UAOs
fabric.87, 88, 89 Rather than provide another list of these define different types of UA (e.g. community gardens,
accomplishments, this chapter discusses the context in market gardens, urban farms), determine where UA can
which they arise, their strengths and weaknesses, and the occur (e.g. residential zones, commercial zones), and
conditions for their successful encouragement of more UA. restrict the size and activities of farms to what is deemed
acceptable and reasonable by officials and the community.
Commercial urban farms’ viability hinges on land access UAOs may include limits on farm structures, livestock,
and cost. Access to land is determined by practical zoning or sales.
policies, affordable land, and agreeable lease terms.
But policies permitting urban farms are just the first Ten of the 13 municipalities featured in this report have
step. While multiple city agencies may have expressed passed UAOs or other zoning regulations in response to
interest or oversight of various urban farm activities (e.g. urban farms. While some farms like Little City Gardens
soil contamination, water use, renovation of buildings, have used UAOs to justify their existence and build support
and new markets), each agency requires separate policy for urban farming, others like Brother Nature Produce are
adaptations. Though this can be an onerous process, when unsure that the regulations will improve their businesses.
these policies operate in tandem they create a strong Farming has long been a permitted use in Kansas cities,
platform for CUA success. including Lawrence and Kansas City; it was a permitted use
in Austin, TX, as well, but a dispute over urban farms led to
While there are several planning tools and strategies that a revised UAO in 2013.
encourage stronger local food systems as an integrated
component of city plans,90 this chapter reviews those Some farms thrive in an environment with few regulations
specific policies that directly impact commercial urban regarding urban farming. For example, Kansas City, KS,
farms and that proved the most valuable or challenging to and Buffalo, NY, have yet to pass strong policies regarding
case study farms. CUA, so farms operate relatively undisturbed. Others that
farm in marginal spaces, like Brooklyn Grange’s rooftop
farm or Mycopolitan Mushroom Company’s basement
Legalizing Urban Agriculture: grow rooms, are subject to fewer regulations than ground-
level farms and have experimented and thrived without
Urban Agriculture regulation.
Ordinances With a limited knowledge base and conflicting opinions
about UA, establishing UA legislation is typically an
City zoning codes determine the permitted and prohibited iterative process; no UA legislation is perfect on the
uses of all land within municipal limits. As cities became first try. It took Springdale Farm 3 years of zoning board
more populous, agriculture was eliminated as a zoned use hearings to re-affirm the legality of the farm, which was
to encourage urban density and the “highest and best use” permissible under Austin, TX, existing zoning. The new
of limited space. zoning legislation restricted certain activities on residential
properties, but did not differentiate them from farms on

87  Goldstein, M. et al. “Urban Agriculture: A Sixteen City Survey of Urban Agriculture Practices Across the Country.” Turner Environmental Law
Clinic, Emory University. 2011.
88  Hodgson, K., M. Caton Campbell, and M. Bailkey. “Urban Agriculture: Growing healthy, sustainable places.” Chicago, IL: American Planning
Association, 2011.
89  Mansfield, B. and W. Mendes. “Municipal Food Strategies and Integrated Approaches to Urban Agriculture: Explore Three Cases from the
Global North.” International Planning Studies, 18:1, 37-60; 2013.
90  For an excellent description of these policies, see Schneider, S., N. Civita, and L. Bernadett. (2015). “Local Food Policies: Reconnecting People
to Their Food.” Chapter in Urban Agriculture: Policy, Law, Strategy, and Implementaiton. Eds. M.H. Chumbler, S.E. Negro, and L.E. Bechler. American
Bar Association. pp. 49-63.
67
commercial properties, like Springdale. This omission led anybody’s quite figured out where to go, and the county
the farm owners to seek a conditional use permit. The hasn’t come knocking just yet. When they do, I reckon
process cost tens of thousands of dollars and months of [licensing] will happen.”
farm productivity, a sacrifice few urban farms have the
resources to make. Understanding UA policies and permitting can be
overwhelming, says Jenny Rushlow of the Conservation
Law Foundation. “Even where urban farming is legal,
[cities] don’t do a great job making the process clear,” she
says. “People need help interpreting this stuff.”

Attorney Becky Lundberg Witt at the Community Law

Center in Baltimore says an additional challenge to UAOs
and other permissive policies is that those policies and
priorities are not communicated or consistent across city
government. “You can get two messages: one from one
agency saying, ‘Go forth and plant!’ and then another says,
‘No! Don’t get attached to your land!’”

David Silverman, a Chicago attorney, has worked on UAOs

which he calls “very fashionable” in urban planning right
now. But, he says, city governments should have answers
to a long list of questions before they pass an UAO: “Have
you properly planned for the incorporation of agriculture
Cover of Boston Redevelopment Authority’s 2014 into [the] community? Is it part of your comprehensive
publication, “Article 89 Made Easy: Urban Agriculture plan? What’s the regulatory framework? Can you handle
Zoning for the City of Boston”. it under existing regulations? What is it going to do to the
marketability of surrounding parcels of land, particular
with livestock or apiary?” The list goes on, including soil
In New Orleans, UA amendments to the comprehensive quality issues and determining which city agency has
zoning ordinance led to overly restrictive conditions, ultimate oversight of UA projects.
like a beekeeping limit of one beehive per lot, that are
detrimental to commercial farming. Marianne Cufone, One concern Rushlow has heard from city officials is
agricultural lawyer and founder of New Orleans’ fear that urban farmers are not prepared to take on the
Recirculating Farms Coalition, says that because the city responsibility of maintaining land. In Boston, she says,
council did not understand what farms need to operate city officials “want to give city-owned parcels away for
successfully, the regulations were based on incomplete urban farming, but fear that people interested in taking
information. Revised regulations are in the works in New them over don’t have the skills to do so properly.” Boston
Orleans, which Cufone interprets as a sign that city leaders is working with the Urban Farming Institute to prepare
are willing to work with UA leaders to reassess and amend farmers for this responsibility.
regulations as needed.

Even when there is legislation and licensing permitting Regulating Urban Agriculture
urban farms, it is not always clear to urban farmers how
to become licensed and what city ordinances allow
When cities pass UAOs or other UA zoning amendments,
or prohibit. A local farming toolkit or guide, as Boston
they often base site requirements and restrictions on pre-
has created91, can help farmers navigate the process to
existing zoning that is not adapted to UA scenarios. This is
becoming a legal farm.
the simplest method of incorporating UA from a planning
Joe Reynolds of Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens says, perspective, but can create complications for urban
that even though DeKalb County, GA, where he farms has farms, which do not operate like other businesses. Below
updated its ordinance to include urban farms, “Nobody’s are some examples where well-meaning UAOs failed to
gone and gotten permitted or gotten licenses. I don’t think understand the activities of a farm.

91  Boston Redevelopment Authority. (2014). “Article 89 Made Easy: Urban Agriculture Zoning for The City of Boston.”

68
Site Requirements: Parking, because its activities fell under “green roof” designations.
Furthermore, it took advantage of a green roof tax
Sidewalks, Signage abatement that incentivized landlords to support or install
Urban farms are increasingly permitted by right on green roofs and rooftop farms.
residential land. But, city agencies have had difficulty
deciding which regulations do or do not apply to them Streamlining the process for approving a green roof
based on their commercial or nonprofit activities. could make it easier to install more of them, says
Lara Hermanson of urban farm landscaping company
When Growing Home founded Wood Street Farm in Farmscape in Oakland, CA. In the Bay Area, she says, it can
Chicago in 2001, there was no city definition of ‘urban take up to 6 months of hearings before getting a green
farm.’ The City designated Growing Home a ‘technical roof started, which can hurt the bottom lines of those
institute,’ which demanded costly landscaping and parking installing them.
requirements. “We’re still fulfilling the requirements,” says
Growing Home’s Harry Rhodes, some 15 years later.
Farm Buildings
In Portland, OR, an incomplete understanding of the UAO Farm buildings are a necessary but poorly understood
led the city’s Bureau of Transportation to require Side aspect of farm operations at the zoning level, including
Yard Farm owner Stacey Givens to put in an American’s offices, cold storage, tool sheds, shade structures,
with Disabilities Act (ADA) parking space, which cost greenhouses, and high tunnels. For example, New Orleans’
her $4,000, and sidewalks. She worked with the city’s 2015 amendments to its comprehensive zoning ordinance
planning and sustainability offices to appeal the Bureau finally made it legal for a lot used as an urban farm to also
of Transportation’s sidewalks decision, which they have a structure for office space and storage. Before that,
determined to be a requirement for a commercial business any residentially-zoned lots used for farming could not
even though there were no other sidewalks in the rest of have buildings, electricity, or lights. The amendments allow
the neighborhood. Because sidewalks were not in keeping a farm to have an office or meeting space with bathrooms
with the character of the neighborhood, they reasoned, and electricity.
the farm did better to maintain the neighborhood quality.
The successful appeal for a variance was just one step “Urban farms are not rural farms,” says New Orleans
in educating Portland city bureaus about the nature and lawyer and urban farm advocate Marianne Cufone. “You
needs of urban farms. aren’t running back and forth from the farm house.
Urban farms need a place for the things [needed] to run a
Navigating the gray areas of UA policy is no less difficult business,” she says. UA property tax incentives that declare
on commercially-zoned land. Austin, TX, did not make that lots “may only be used for agriculture” may not be
separate provisions for commercially-zoned urban farms, applicable to lots with structures that could be used for
and decided instead that Springdale Farm, which has that farm purposes.
zoning, must pursue a costly conditional use permit to
determine if it had more rights than residentially zoned
farms. A timely and costly process, the conditional use
permit was granted only if Springdale put in ADA parking
spaces and illuminated “Exit” signs at its gates.

“I don’t know how you could get lost in here,” says

Springdale Farmer Glenn Foore, looking across the 5-acre
lot’s clear sightlines to a 4-foot fence at the back of the
property. “But, I guarantee this is the only farm you’ll
see that has illuminated exit signs.” From a regulatory
perspective, policies need to be practically applicable
to specific case situations: in this case, how often
are consumers likely to be on the site at night to see
illuminated signs?

Rooftop farms most often have to comply with existing

green roof policies, many of which included edible plants
as permissible vegetation from their inception. Brooklyn Farming on rooftops helped Brooklyn Grange get the
Grange’s rooftop model avoided ground-level zoning issues needed acreage to farm in NYC.

69
Meanwhile indoor farms venture into relatively uncharted, percent water infiltration, the water is either used to
but far less contested, territory. All of the indoor farms grow plants or recharge aquifers, outcomes that benefit
studied here are on industrially zoned lots. While food the environment and stressed city sewers and water
safety and other building protocols are still required, treatment facilities.
controlled environment growing does not present a zoning
issue, possibly in part because they are less publicly visible. Most public utilities, however, are designed for water
consumption by humans, and assume that water will pass
“[Most people] never even ask if we’re a legitimate through a sewer system, run off into a stormwater system,
business or where we’re growing, unless it’s out of or will combine in a combined sewer system. Because
curiosity,” says Tyler Case of Mycopolitan Mushroom urban farms are often new and few in comparison to a
Company. Co-founder Brian Versek continues, “They’re city’s total water use and processing, cities are slow to
more like, ‘We don’t know what you guys do, we assume adopt policies removing water-processing fees.
you’re doing great. Thanks for the mushrooms.’”
“If you have green space, you’re helping [to mitigate]
stormwater problems,” says Winona Bynum, Executive
Water Director of the Detroit Food Policy Council. “How do urban
Urban water—access to it, the cost of it—is one of the farms get credit for that? In a city not set up to think about
biggest production concerns of farmers interviewed. that, how do we get it in place? Water fees cut into profits,
Farmers gaining access to vacant land cannot be sure but farms are a benefit to the city.”
that there are available water hook-ups and connecting
to a water main can cost several thousand dollars. When Some cities and counties have changed their water billing
farms do have water access on-site, water billing rates policies for urban farms. Atlanta and DeKalb County, GA,
follow zoning; residential water rates are often more use irrigation meters, which charge farmers a lower rate
expensive than commercial or industrial rates, and are far by eliminating sewage charges. However, they also require
more expensive than agricultural irrigation water rates backflow preventers, which can be expensive.
available in rural areas. Finally, water fees for sewage and In New York City, community gardens can apply for a
stormwater discharge are common, but very few cities Department of Environmental Protection permit to use
make exceptions for urban farms, which do not contribute water for free from sidewalk fire hydrants. The City of
to sewage or stormwater flows. Philadelphia’s Water Department at one point had a
Urban farms with access to alternative sources of water, lockbox program whereby community gardens and urban
including rain barrels and wells, are eager to use them to farms could gain access to a fire hydrant and backflow
avoid the high costs of city water. Urban growers argue preventer. But, after losing too many backflow preventers
that when fields are responsibly irrigated and there is 100 (about $300 each) when gardeners forgot to return them,
the city discontinued the program. It did, however, offer
an exemption to the city’s farmers and gardeners for
stormwater fees, lowering the price of irrigation by about
a third.

For farmers in cities like San Francisco that do not

charge stormwater fees, finding a way to reduce costs
can be difficult. After the founders of Little City Gardens
petitioned the city’s Public Utilities Commission, the
commission developed a grant program to subsidize the
full cost of meter installation (about $7,000) for vacant lots
that did not have a water meter.

Even in cities where stormwater fees do not exist or, as

in Portland, OR, are exempted for urban farms, the price
of water is still a burden for farms on residentially zoned
lots. Residential water rates are often tiered, and higher
volumes incur higher fees. Water is the most frequently
Green City Growers reclaims most of the water needed mentioned resource contributing to the overall cost of
for its hydroponic operations from rainwater off of the production by urban farmers, and is a concern second only
growing space’s roofs. Hair nets, beard nets, and other to land cost, access, and tenure stability.
food safety precautions are standard protocol.

70
UAOs often do not cover water rates, which are part of a
different department and sometimes a different regional
authority entirely. Such was the case in New Orleans, LA
when it passed its UAO in 2015, and also in Lawrence,
KS. Lawrence farmer Kevin Prather says the zoning
amendment committee, in which he participated, came to
the conclusion that water-related programming was out of
its purview due to lack of clarity in regulatory oversight.

Soils
Urban soils are particularly worrisome to planning
departments and city councils considering whether
to incorporate UA programs and policies into their
municipalities. Urban soils are more likely to hold
contaminants from pollution, run-off, or structures that
previously stood on empty lots. Lead, heavy metals, One of Lay Htoo’s family members lends a hand
and historical application of pesticides are of particular loosening soil in preparation for the spring planting.
concern.

Some municipalities have begun to require soil testing for State cooperative extension systems support testing
community gardens and urban farms, but requirements and interpreting soil tests on rural farms. Few urban
are inconsistent.92 Farmers markets and distributors also counties, however, have extension agents or educators
require soil tests to prove there is no risk of contamination with UA expertise, though the rise of UA in some cities has
of food sold.93 necessitated the creation of such positions (see Chapter
4, Farmer Training & Information Networks). Extension
“It would be useful [for cities] to have a roadmap on resources are augmented by Federal Environmental
how to establish soil testing requirements,” says Hannah Protection Agency guidance and publications.94
Shayler of the Cornell Waste Management Institute. “It is a
whole other layer once we’re talking about selling produce
to the public. That implies a liability that’s different than Sales
gardeners sharing with neighbors.” Another regulatory gray-zone is on-site sales, which have
been legalized by Detroit95 and other cities in recent years.
But, says Shayler, many cities do not have the “[agency
Baltimore, MD, did not allow on-farm sales for several
or programmatic] structures to go about soil testing and
years, treating urban farms like community gardens
interpretation and follow up in a consistent way,” including
from which sales are prohibited. The recent Homegrown
review and recommendations when sites are near State or
Baltimore initiative changed these rules to allow farm
federally recognized contaminant thresholds.
stands on-site.
This is the main reason that Detroit, in the looming
Homegrown Baltimore sits in the middle of the spectrum
shadow of the Flint, MI, lead crisis, has not yet made
of city regulation of on-farm sales. On one end is New
soil testing requirements. Kathryn Underwood, who
Orleans’ present ban of on-farm sales, leading to covert
has helped usher UA zoning through Detroit’s planning
sales just off the farm property; on the other end is the
department and city council, says even if the city was to
Austin provision that allows on-site sales of farm product
mandate soil testing, “We do not have anybody on staff
as well as products made off-site if they comprise less than
who can interpret the tests. Planners can’t. The Property
20 percent of total retail space.96
Maintenance Division can’t.” As Underwood suggests, an
unenforceable rule is no better than no rule at all.

92  See http://www.urbanaglaw.org/soil/#Index_of_Existing_Soil_Safety_Requirements_by_Location but check cities for up-to-date ordinances.

93  Interviews with with Ashley Atkinson, Keep Growing Detroit and Haile Johnston, The Common Market Philadelphia.
94  See for example, “Evaluation of Urban Soils: Suitability for Green Infrastructure or Urban Agriculture,” 2011 at nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.
cgi?Dockey=P100GOTW.TXT
95  http://detroitagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2013_Sharable_UA-Ordinance.pdf
96  http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=205937

71
There are few municipal restrictions placed on produce Property tax exemptions for UA are a recent policy
sold off-site, through a CSA pick-up location, farmers movement that has gained traction throughout the
market, restaurants, or other direct wholesale, other country.101 For example, California’s Assembly Bill 551, the
than what facilitators of those sales (market managers, Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act, provides a property
distributors) may require. In one instance, Portland, OR, tax reduction for any vacant land owner in the amount
banned CSA pick-ups in residential neighborhoods due to equivalent to the difference between current property
resident complaints of increased traffic on pick-up days.97 taxes and an agricultural assessment of the same property,
so long as the landowner commits to allow UA on the
property for 5 years. The law must be adopted by each
Other Urban Agriculture- city or county.102 Similar provisions have been adopted in
Maryland, Missouri, and other States.103
Promoting Policies
Cities like Cleveland, OH, are also carving out agriculture
City, State, and federal grants and incentives can be used incentive zones, and targeting areas for UA development.
in interesting ways to promote urban farms. New York These are frequently located in neighborhoods with
City’s Green Roof Tax Credit incentivized Brooklyn Grange’s significant vacant land and little economic opportunity due
Queens landlords to lease the roof to the farm, while the to historic disinvestment and high poverty rates.
city’s Department of Environmental Protection Green
Infrastructure Grant provided three-quarters of the cost to
launch the second farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In the
Leaders of Urban
second case particularly, the city grant was crucial to the
project’s launch.
Agriculture Policy Change
Austin’s 1992 incentive program to place businesses on its The evolution of each municipality’s UA policies differs,
then-depressed east side was not intended to start farms but a few key groups and mechanisms are responsible for
like Springdale Farm, but provided ample land at a low driving, shaping, and enforcing these policies.
interest rate to do so more than 25 years after the Foores
purchased it. These types of incentive programs are not Farmers
unusual in city planning, and have begun to be adopted for
the express purpose of promoting urban farms in cities and As several case studies herein demonstrate, UA policy
states throughout the country. Utah, Missouri, California, often reacts to existing agricultural pursuits in the city,
Maryland, and some municipalities provide tax incentives rather than setting the stage for their appearance. “The
in “agricultural zones,” with varying restrictions on the City seems to catch up after things happen on the ground,”
types of farming that can occur to receive incentives.98 says Harry Rhodes of Growing Home in Chicago. Growing
Home and Growing Power Chicago were instrumental in
Green City Growers is unique in that it is the only redrafting and advocating for Chicago’s UAO.
agricultural business eligible for development financing
through the New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) program.99 That was also the case for Detroiters Carolyn Leadley
Designed to incentivize investment in economic and and Greg Willerer, founders of Rising Pheasant Farm and
community development in low-income communities, Brother Nature Produce, respectively. “When we started,
NMTCs exclude agriculture and farm development from what we were doing was illegal,” Leadley says. Willerer
eligibility.100 It does not, however, prohibit the construction says, “before the [UA] ordinance passed, there were a few
of a controlled environment facility as part of a commercial crazy people like me who didn’t care if [farming] was legal
or mixed-use facility built to meet these standards. or not. And now that it’s technically legal, you see a few
more people taking a risk to build up a farm.”

97  Interview with Steve Cohen, December 15, 2015

98  Chumbler, Martha Harrell. (2016). “The Tax Implications of Urban Agriculture: Liabilities and Incentives.” Chapter in Urban Agriculture: Policy,
Law, Strategy, and Implementation, eds. Martha H. Chumbler, Sorell E. Negro, and Lawrence E. Bechler. American Bar Association, 2015, pp. 177-
183
99  See https://www.cdfifund.gov/programs-training/Programs/new-markets-tax-credit/Pages/default.aspx
100  26 CFR 1.45D-1(d)(5)(iii)(C);
101  Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. 2016. Food Policy FAQs: Property Tax Credit for Urban Agriculture Uses.
102  August 2016.
103  Johns Hopkins, Ibid.

72
Co-author Molly Riordan learns from Carolyn Leadley Greg Willerer in the field at Brother Nature Produce.
of Rising Pheasant Farm.

Farmers even advocate for and shape local policy. Caitlyn recommendations that integrate food and farming into
Galloway and Brooke Budner of San Francisco’s Little City local governance.104 Scores of food policy councils are
Gardens, decided that rather than apply for a costly and active at the city, county, regional, state, and tribal council
difficult-to-secure conditional use permit, they would get level in the United States.105
the law changed. Their activism led to the redefinition of
urban farms in San Francisco, which allows “neighborhood The second type of organizations are nonprofit think
gardens” of less than 1 acre to exist in all zoned areas, as tanks, food system alliances, farmer groups and advocacy
well as on-site sales. Similar activism by the Oakland Food organizations that write model policy and UAOs, and work
Policy Council led to the citywide allowance of limited with cities to adopt such policies. Heather Wooten,
agriculture in Oakland. Vice President of Programs for ChangeLab Solutions, a
policy and local planning organization, has worked with
Existing UAOs are providing models for other cities and the city of Sacramento, CA, and others to write and adapt
other farmers, who may be the first to navigate city UAOs to local environments.
bureaucracy in order to farm legally in the city. An intern
for Our School at Blair Grocery developed a spreadsheet of “When an ordinance allows for sales, for example,
details from UAOs from other cities and copied the most planners have many concerns,” including traffic, noise,
relevant pieces into a document when the farm applied for and neighbor complaints, says Wooten. “But an informal
a variance. The City of New Orleans approved the variance ChangeLab survey of planners in cities where on-farm sales
for the Lower Ninth Ward properties, aided by the model were legal did not report any of these negative effects.”
language from other cities. Organizations like ChangeLab can translate information
and policy-impacts from one municipality to another,
helping cities adopt policies more quickly with evidence
Advocacy Groups and Urban from other cities.
Agriculture Leadership
Cultivating UA leadership that represents the communities
Two distinct types of advocacy organizations have emerged where UA is active remains a priority for many
to support UA and food policy generally. First are food organizations. When Allison Boyd joined the Baltimore
policy councils, representative bodies of local food system Farm Alliance as Executive Director, she expected to find
leaders that collaborate to develop policy even greater diversity among farmers and leaders than

104  Hamilton, Neil. (2002). “Putting a Face on Our Food: How State and Local Food Policies can Promote New Agriculture,” Drake Journal of
Agricultural Law 7(2), 407-454.
105  Food system expert Mark Winne maintains a map of active and former food policy councils on his website, http://www.markwinne.com/list-
of-food-policy-councils-in-the-usa/

73
she had experienced in rural North Carolina. She quickly families. But, he says, he does not push for too many
learned that in Baltimore, as elsewhere, the development outdoor soil-based commercial urban farms because “the
of UA and small-scale farms were being led primarily purse economics of it are never going to make sense.” Still,
by individuals with financial means from outside of the he has successfully worked with embattled commercial
communities. Boyd worked to increase the diversity of the urban farms to establish clear zoning regulations.
membership in the Baltimore Farm Alliance and cultivated
new Alliance leadership that reflected the demographics Atlanta, GA, meanwhile, is the first city in the country to
of the city. hire a Director of Urban Agriculture. Mario Cambardella,
who was hired into the position in 2015, says framing
Other farmer-based organizations have taken on missions food systems issues through the lens of UA, “can link
to advocate for leadership in UA of different races, urban farming to several facets of a stronger food system,”
ethnicities, and genders that more accurately represent including economic development, cultural preservation,
the diversity of farmers in this field. One such example education, ecological literacy, and better nutrition for city
is Black Urban Growers which for the past decade has residents. One of Cambardella’s actions in the position
been committed to building networks and community was to make irrigation meters available to community
support for growers while also nurturing collective black gardens, fulfilling the requests of many Atlanta growers
leadership in both urban and rural settings, particularly eager for access to irrigation water at a lower price than
in locales where investment priorities may not reflect the residential rates.
goals or needs of the local community. Embedded within
its mission is improved access of farmers of color to land,
training, funding, agriculture networks, and policymakers, Land Use and Licensing
as well as expanded representation on boards of local
governments and foundations. Programs: Land Banks,
Trusts, and Inventories
Food Policy and Sustainability Directors
City mayors have begun to create positions in their When city-owned land is made available for UA, there are
administrations for officials who interpret the needs and several entities and tools that can facilitate, or in some
gaps in the local food system. Often called Sustainability cases inhibit, access. The first, land banks, are public or
or Food Policy Directors, Coordinators, or Managers, they quasi-public entities that manage vacant city land. Land
are frequently housed in a city department such as the banks sell off properties for development. Sales are made
Mayor’s office or the planning department. They work based on land bank and (sometimes) city development
across departments to implement policies that better plans at market rates for the land.
serve the city’s food system and environment, including its
urban farms. The Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Detroit developed its Land Bank Authority as a semi-
a national organization providing knowledge and resource autonomous entity to manage its thousands of vacant
sharing for individuals in these city positions, has over 135 properties. While Land Bank land is plentiful, it is not
members. easy for urban farmers to access. Greg Willerer and Olivia
Hubert of Brother Nature Produce struggled to secure the
Food policy directors and offices work across a wide array land they farm from the Detroit Land Bank after years of
of issues, including food access, farm-to-school programs, attempts. The collective hypothesis among urban farmers,
and development of food hubs or other aggregation and they say, is that the Land Bank is holding out for higher-
distribution infrastructure. While they are vocal advocates return development. This follows the idea of “highest and
for UA, as city employees they must also diplomatically best use,” or the optimal outcome for land development
and objectively weigh the needs of urban farms against based on economic (and sometimes social) factors.
other city priorities. Steven Cohen, Manager of Food Without a specific directive to sell land to urban growers,
Policy and Programs in Portland, OR, has worked to raise land banks are free to choose who gets land and who does
the profile of urban farms, but because of the city’s urban not, and may prioritize functions like housing or industrial
growth boundary that prioritizes density, “it hasn’t led to a uses that appear to have higher economic returns by
lot of ground being plowed.” common real-estate calculations.
Edwin Marty, a former urban farmer and now the Austin, Land trusts, a second entity type, are private or nonprofit
TX, Food Policy Director, is a strong advocate for urban landholding entities that are distinct from land banks
farms in schools, which can act as educational resources in a few key ways. First, trusts are usually developed to
and distributors of vegetables to students and their maintain a stock of affordable housing and/or greenspace,

74
keeping the community in control of its own development. Furthermore, Los Angeles County, like many municipalities,
Second, properties are held “in trust” forever: buildings does not have the knowledge on staff to make strong
can be built or sold, but have permanent restrictions on assessments. “We have zoning enforcement officers, but
deeds of sale. Community land trusts are common in cities they’re not scientists,” says Durbin, who works with the
like Boston and Chicago that have vacant land, a large low- Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) on implementing
income population, and increasing land-prices. the incentive zone act. While LAFPC is trying to build
a database of available properties, says Durbin, “they
Growing Home worked with NeighborSpace, a Chicago haven’t determined if they’re truly vacant or if they’re fit
community land trust, to start its Wood Street Farm in for urban ag.” This suggests that for Assembly Bill 551 to
Englewood, becoming the first urban farm NeighborSpace be successful, the growers would have to bear the cost-
started. Meanwhile Boston’s Urban Farming Institute burden of soil testing, and the proof-burden of establishing
worked with a community land trust to launch the first that a site is not contaminated.
of several planned urban farms in the Roxbury/Mattapan
area. Community land trusts can provide more affordable Not all experts agree that city-based UA land inventories
access to land and more security for the community. are impossible to maintain. Dr. Samina Raja, Associate
Such lands will be controlled by the community for future Professor of City and Regional Planning at the State
generations. University of New York at Buffalo and Director of
Growing Food Connections, notes that cities, “do not
Land banks and land trusts maintain inventories of their have a problem maintaining inventories of land suitable
properties, as do city departments like planning, housing, for commercial development.” She suggests that city
or preservation. Land inventories for UA are a third land- departments have control over this information, thereby
based strategy that could inform UA policy and placement controlling and potentially curtailing UA development.
of UA. There have been efforts to map vacant land106 and
urban farms107, but overall cities do not provide maps of
vacant land that would be most suitable for farming.

Some planners think UA land inventories would be hard

to maintain. “Land changes hands so quickly, it would be
hard to keep track” of suitable farming land, says Detroit’s
Kathryn Underwood. A full map would have to include the
development history of every lot in the 142-square mile
city to rule out possible contaminants or other dangers.
It would be a monumental task to develop, let alone
maintain, says Underwood.

Bruce Durbin, Supervising Regional Planner at the Los

Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, says
an inventory of “toxic land” would be equally impossible
for the unincorporated areas over which his department
presides: 2,600 square miles. While the county is
interested in which parcels are fit for UA, especially as it
implements the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone act,
the impact of UA would not outweigh the expense of such
an inventory.

“When we started studying [UA] with the county working

group, we found you can’t do soil testing without being
comprehensive: different bore drills, different depths,
different locations. If you are going for [an UA tax
exemption], you want to find out what’s there. But, it is a
very expensive procedure” and the County could not take Map of existing farms in NYC as found in The Potential
it on, says Durbin. for Urban Agriculture in New York City by Urban Design
Lab, The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

106  http://www.buildingdetroit.org/our-programs/side-lot-sales/
107  See for example http://mdfoodsystemmap.org/farm-food-storymap/ http://urbandesignlab.columbia.edu/files/2015/04/4_urban_
agriculture_nyc.pdf http://cuamp.org/#/
75
Recommendations and Several organizations offer links to UA policies and other
regulations around the country, including the Growing
Considerations for Unifying Food Connections’ searchable database108, Sustainable
Economies Law Center109, Vermont Law School’s Center
Urban Agriculture Policy for Agriculture and Food Systems110, and ChangeLab
Solutions.111 Yet, there is no coordinated critical analysis of
these policies to determine which most strongly support
The following are suggestions, based on information
UA and commercial urban farms.
garnered through this study, on how and where UA
policies work best. An analysis of city-level UA policies and a dissemination
of best practices in UA planning could help city planners
Recommendation: Ensure that UA policies are across the country identify successful policies and prevent
coordinated with and supported by other municipal cities from spending time and resources to recreate strong
support services. UA policies. Based on stakeholder interviews, primary
topics to consider when conducting an analysis of existing
UA policies need to be integrated not just into zoning UA policies were identified. They include:
ordinances, but into the functioning of other city
departments as well. Philadelphia’s Elisa Esposito says it is zz Are these policies working in tandem with
crucial for the Department of Parks and Recreation to get municipal support (zoning ordinances, access to
buy-in from other city departments in charge of water and land, water, clean soil, etc.)?
streets to help Philadelphians gain access to farm some of
zz Are these policies in conflict with other urban
the 8,000 vacant city-owned parcels.
priorities?
“Philly has a vibrant UA movement, and [it] largely
zz When these policies were developed were the
happened [with] limited government support: there
people being impacted consulted?
was more support from nonprofits and academia. But,
what’s missing is access to land, water, clean soil,” and the zz Is there an undue burden (amount of paper work or
involvement of the supportive city departments in charge time required, complicated process, etc.) being put
of those elements, she says. on UA practitioners in order to be compliant with
policies? Is there a way to improve the process and
The same coordination is needed in cities like Portland,
requirements?
OR, and Detroit, MI, where case study farmers found that
while farming was legal under zoning, it was difficult to zz Are the policies aligned with the current
coordinate with other municipal services. This might be community demographic and resources available in
avoided if policy planning and implementation includes the community?
stakeholders from other city departments.
zz How is it being ensured that the policies impact and
benefit all individuals equally and equitably?
Recommendation: Sponsor more critical analysis of
existing UA policies and educate city planners on urban zz Do the policies require access to resources (e.g.
farm functions and best support strategies. capital, investments, loans, education, and political
connections) that undermines lower-resourced
Early adopters of UA said they spent a lot of time people and their ability to achieve economic gains
educating city leaders about farming, dispelling myths, from UA?
and showing the value of growing food in cities. This
work began with the community gardening movement,
and continues today. Each of the case study farmers
has had some role in educating their city officials and
administrators about the needs and benefits of UA.

108  http://growingfoodconnections.org/tools-resources/policy-database/
109  http://www.urbanaglaw.org/
110  http://www.vermontlaw.edu/academics/centers-and-programs/center-for-agriculture-and-food-systems
111  http://www.changelabsolutions.org/tools-healthy-planning

76
 Recommendation: Ensure local plans, funding and Recommendation: Review and revise UA policies to
policies for UA engage and respond to community ensure broad benefit by the entire community of
input. current and potential urban farmers.

Many UA programs and incentive zones target areas Most urban farmers interviewed for this study observed
with a lot of vacant land and few traditional economic that the current structures and priorities of many UA
development prospects. Though Rust Belt cities like policies and protocols makes it excessively difficult for
Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo are proving that this can local community residents to enter the profession. For
result in viable commercial urban farms, it is important example, access to available vacant land parcels is too
that residents’ voices are leading the conversation, often limited to those prospective farmers and farm
says Detroit planner Kathryn Underwood. Participatory managers who are already well-resourced and well-
planning processes that treat local residents and business- connected politically. To ensure that available vacant sites
owners as partners and key informants in redevelopment are promoted to all aspiring farmers and avoid perceptions
planning can ensure new land use, including UA, is of bias, municipal governments and planning organizations
neighborhood-appropriate. should consider some of the following practices:

Kim Scott, city planner for the City of Cleveland agrees. 1. Evaluate existing UA land policies and requirements
After the housing foreclosure crisis left thousands for obtaining vacant land parcels and determine
of homes and properties vacant and abandoned in whether or not they provide fair and equal access
Cleveland, the Federal Department of Housing and to all interested parties, including lower-income
Urban Development (HUD) authorized $9.4 million in community residents.
Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds to knock down
blighted homes and provide incentives for people to 2. Evaluate whether information about UA policies
purchase vacant land for creative reuse.112 and land access opportunities is distributed in a
way that ensures fair and equitable access.
But, says Scott, “in areas that have been disinvested,
people who see opportunities to get funding to support 3. Compile an inventory of all available vacant land
projects are not necessarily reflective of the people living parcels, using the resources of municipal planning
in challenged neighborhoods.” As the city considered agencies and other departments.
applications for program funds, it looked at whether
applications were submitted by residents living in close 4. Examine available vacant land inventories for their
proximity or from surrounding suburbs. agricultural suitability (e.g., zoning, historical use,
utility connectivity, proximity to other buildings,
“If you’re going to propose it, that’s one thing,” says Scott and contiguity with other vacant parcels).
of suburbanites looking to profit in Cleveland’s disinvested
neighborhoods, “but how well is your project going to be 5. Promote and facilitate access to suitable
received by neighbors? Will you have credibility? Have you agricultural sites to all community residents.
talked to them?” 6. Engage directly with marginalized or
Scott and other Cleveland planners started talking with underrepresented communities, and/or the
neighborhood residents about redevelopment, including nonprofit organizations and foundations
food access. “While some of us on staff thought that that advocate on their behalf, to solicit
people probably were not aligned with “food movement” recommendations on how to design or modify
conversation, we were pleasantly surprised that some programs that promote UA to ensure access to
were,” says Scott. This helped inform their planning programs by all residents. One example of this type
direction, and the development of the Urban Agriculture of approach is the 11th Street Bridge project in DC,
Innovation Zone in the city’s Kinsman neighborhood. which aspires to create community-led processes
and support inclusive development.113

112  https://development.ohio.gov/files/cs/NSPAwardAnnouncement.pdf
113  https://bbardc.org/the-park/

77
 7. Embed robust community engagement processes
into UA planning, to build trust and participation
in these urban food systems. For example,
programs addressing equity in land access could
be collaboratively designed by diverse farmers
and communities, urban farmer advocates, and
the local, State, or federal agencies that direct and
monitor such programs.

Consideration: Align UA policies to complement other

urban priorities.

It is easier to advance UA policy when it complements

existing priorities. Cities like Portland, OR, that have a
strong desire to increase density can also incorporate UA
if it is done so with other priorities in mind. “I see nothing
wrong with UA so long as it does not detract from urban
development,” says Portland land use attorney Carrie
Richter. But, when increasing affordable housing is a city
priority, she says, “I would hate to see urban farms take
the place of needed housing.”

Elisa Esposito, Urban Agriculture Coordinator for the City

of Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, says
she and other UA advocates are “trying to change the
city-mentality of gardens as interim development,” and
show how urban gardens and farms are a complementary
permanent use to housing and other development.

Permanent use requires considerations of long-term

land tenure, comprehensive UA risk management,
environmental health, and personal and public safety,
suggests attorney and professor of food systems Nicole
Civita. “Make sure [UA] ordinances are designed to create
harmonious uses,” like a provision that beehives be kept
a certain distance from property lines. Without those
provisions, there will be conflict over farms, she says.

78
Chapter 8: Urban Agriculture Innovations:
Policies, Plans, Strategies, and Technologies
While this report focuses on fourteen UA businesses that production, sale, and consumption of locally-grown food,
have a demonstrable record of successfully meeting the this program offers 5-year leases of city land to urban
proposed definition of CUA, emergent policies, plans, farms at a cost of $100 per year.
strategies, and technologies show early promise in further
integrating UA, including CUA, into the fabric of cities This urban farming-specific program requires lessees to
across the country. The following examples are just a demonstrate at least 1 year of farming experience, and
sample of the many ways city planners, policy-makers, and adhere to sustainable management practices including no
entrepreneurs are strengthening the support for UA. pesticides other than those approved for use in certified
organic production. The 5-year lease has the potential for
a 5-year extension, and includes a 2-year notice to vacate
Innovative Policies city-owned land should the city decide to sell the property.
In 2015, the Baltimore City Council approved a 90 percent
property tax break for urban farmers who grow and sell at
Baltimore Allies with Farmers least $5,000 of produce per year. Farmers are required to
keep the parcel in agriculture for 5 years, and not use the
The City of Baltimore has enacted a handful of policies
parcel for anything other than farming.
to allow residents to turn some of its 14,000 vacant lots,
a result of its declining population since the 1960s, into To support new farms popping up as a result of these
gardens and farms. policies, urban farmer Maya Kosok started the Baltimore
Farm Alliance, which provides farming education and
Baltimore’s Adopt-a-Lot Program allows residents to adopt
helps to market and sell Baltimore farmers’ produce. The
a vacant lot, listed on the city’s Housing Office website
Alliance is now a registered nonprofit. As the Alliance’s
(which operates the program). Adopt-a-Lot leases are one
membership grows, it is expanding its services to urban
year in duration, and can be terminated with 30 days’
farms and reaching out to farmers of color or those from
notice if the city sells the lot to a developer. Adopted
low-resource neighborhoods to make the Alliance more
lots can be used for gardens, farms, greenspace, or small
representative of the city itself.
informal parks open to the community.
“In so many ways, [the City of] Baltimore has gotten out
When successful urban farms like Whitelock Community
of the way of people trying to [farm],” says Kosok, who
Farm, backed by significant produce sales and community
operates Hillen Homestead flower farm on two adopted
support, petitioned the city for longer leases and more
lots. While access to the opportunity to farm is equal, she
security, the city developed the Homegrown Baltimore
says, access to the information on how to do it is not.
Land Leasing Initiative. Part of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-
Blake’s comprehensive initiative to encourage the

The difference between me and one of my neighbors [is] I have the

knowledge of who to call to get what. If we want someone in an impoverished
neighborhood to be able to start a farm, [these policies] should be better
operationalized.
— Maya Kosok
Hillen Homestead Flower Farm, Baltimore, MD
79
Changing Laws in Los Angeles “I wish that city officials were better informed about the
importance of urban farming. Urban farming complaints
The implementation of California Assembly Bill 551, the
[from neighbors] are an opportunity for education,” says
Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act, in Los Angeles
Kolla. She believes that by educating all city departments
County is the latest in a number of policy measures making
on how to share urban farming’s benefits when responding
it easier for Angelinos to farm in the county.
to neighbor concerns, local communities will become as
AB551 allows owners of vacant land who agree to host a welcoming of UA as the regulatory environment in Los
farm or garden on the property for 5 years to be taxed at Angeles has become for UA of all types.
the agricultural tax rate. AB551 can apply to properties of
any zoning, though the zoning determines what farming
activities can take place (e.g. a farm on a residentially Innovative Plans
zoned parcel in unincorporated Los Angeles County
cannot sell its produce without obtaining a conditional
use permit). Rather than vacant land being reassessed Welcome to the Agrihood
at a higher tax rate because of ‘improvements’ via UA, Though planned communities like East Lake Commons,
landowners are incentivized to participate in a program in Decatur, GA, (Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens Case
that lowers their tax burden while creating more Study: Pg. 162) have been in existence for decades, a new
opportunities for farming in the city. generation of real estate developers are incorporating
agriculture into new housing developments.114 The first of
AB551 as implemented in Los Angeles does have some the so-called agrihoods were in development in the early
restrictions. Bruce Durbin, Supervising Regional Director of 2000s, and homes in them came up for sale just before
the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, the housing market collapsed. But, they have survived
explains that the county differentiates community gardens, and are now thriving. These agrihoods vary in size and
which are allowable uses in all zones, from commercial target demographic, but all specifically set aside land for
farms, which are not allowed by right in residential agriculture use, and hire farmers or managers to grow
zones. A residentially zoned commercial farm requires a produce and engage the residents. In most cases, farms
conditional use permit, a process that can take up to 2 produce a CSA type share for interested residents, or
years and cost more than $10,000, says Durbin. However, supply product to on-site restaurants. Demand for local
farms on commercial or industrial land do not need a food has increased along with the rise of New Urbanism,
conditional use permit.

AB551 followed the passage of “The Parkway Act,” a Los

Angeles ordinance legalizing vegetable gardening in the
parkways, or grass strips between the sidewalk and street,
increasing residents’ land access and eliminating fines for
such activity. Along with the Cottage Food Act legalizing
the production of some value-added foods for direct sale,
these new regulations enable food business start-ups.

While Durbin has not been able to quantify significant

economic development from these new policies, Los
Angeles UA activist Andrew Goodman says, “We’ll start
seeing the fruits of [these policies] now that we’ve
negated the disincentives” of urban farming.

Tara Kolla, a Los Angeles flower farmer who fought Los

Angeles’ 1946 Truck Farm law that prohibited growing and
selling flowers, successfully led the charge to repeal the Gaia Gardens is part of East Lake Commons, a cooperative
law and pass the Food and Flowers Freedom Act in 2010. neighborhood focused on sustainable living where cars
While this was the first of the acts that have paved the way are left outside and homes are close together to promote
for more farming in the county, Kolla says there is still work community development.
to do.

114  See for example http://www.shareable.net/blog/12-agrihoods-taking-farm-to-table-living-mainstream

80
an urban design movement that includes smaller homes, farmer training program on other lots, wanted access
increased suburban density, and ecologically friendly to the land, and partnered with TPL and Dudley
design. Agrihoods integrate these design goals and lifestyle Neighborhood Inc. (DNI), a local land trust focused on
values and ensure local food and open space. 115 public housing, to apply for the land.

Unlike the East Lake Commons’ agreement which The group won its bid to farm the land, now known as
provides land, infrastructure, and some operating costs Garrison-Trotter Farm, due to its unique strengths. TPL
to its farmers, agrihoods hire their farmers into salaried lent its credibility and deep pockets toward acquiring and
positions to grow food specifically for the community. investing in site preparation. DNI would then hold the land
Urby, in Staten Island, NY, has a farmer in residence who once renovations were complete and could lease it to UFI.
is paid to manage a 5000-square-foot urban farm on UFI will use Garrison-Trotter for its training program, and
site.116 The farmer also receives a studio apartment, to has continued to pursue other sites around the city to
live on site. The farm’s priority is to grow produce for place fully-trained farmers who want to begin urban
the residents but also provides food to local food banks farm businesses.
or restaurants.
TPL was attempting to demonstrate a new way to help
farmers, says Darci Schofield, Urban Program Director at
Farming and Community Land Trusts TPL. “Land is expensive, capital improvement is expensive.
Boston, MA, is home to a complex constellation of [A farmer’s] ability to produce is never going to get that
community gardens and nonprofit organizations that return on investment.” That’s why organizations like TPL
incorporate gardening and farming into programming. It can help to prepare the farm sites and offer low-cost turn-
is also home to many vacant parcels: its Department of key farms for low-resource urban farmers.
Neighborhood Development owns over 500 vacant lots in
neighborhoods around the city. That type of investment is expensive. It cost TPL over
$200,000 to acquire and prepare the 0.3-acre Garrison-
In 2012, a group of residents from the Roxbury and Trotter site, including bringing in soil and mulch, and
Mattapan neighborhoods on Boston’s south side building fences and storage sheds.
formed the Urban Farming Institute (UFI). This group is
interested in farming and increasing food access in these It is also not as easy as the city’s “Article 89 Made Easy”
neighborhoods that have high poverty rates and low worksheet for would-be farmers makes it seem, says
access to fresh food retail. Barbara Knecht, an experienced architect and designer
who has acted as UFI’s project leader for site development.
Around the same time, the City of Boston, informed by the
work of the Mayor’s Office of Food Initiatives and its Urban “[Boston] passed the zoning resolution but never got
Agriculture Visioning Steering Committee, began to draft [city] agencies together to do something coordinated to
its revised UAO. Article 89, passed in 2014, defined and help farms. The zoning resolution was passed with the
broadened the types of UA permissible in the city. It also idea that a farmer could take a farm through permitting
made commercial urban farming legal. and approvals process and have a farm at the end. But,
that’s the reality of land development… [farmers] don’t
One staunch supporter of Article 89 was the Trust for have capital, time, and [the process is] complicated,”
Public Land (TPL). A national organization dedicated to says Knecht. As the first post-Article 89 farm, UFI and its
preserving urban and rural greenspace, TPL has completed partners experienced the challenges that still lie ahead for
over 5,300 urban and rural acquisitions preserving open Boston’s urban farmers.
and productive land by acquiring it and transferring
ownership to local land trusts which hold land. Article 89 Schofield is charging through to make way for more
presented a new opportunity to preserve open space in urban farms in part, she says, because she fears UA
cities while helping to start revenue-generating farms. funding from other organizations may wane if it loses
appeal with funders. And while TPL continues to primarily
After Article 89 passed, the Department of Neighborhood focus its urban efforts on parks, Schofield sees a place for
Development announced a bid opportunity for three urban farms.
vacant lots. UFI, which had already been operating a

115  http://urbanland.uli.org/sustainability/food-adds-flavor-value-real-estate-agrihoods-food-halls-food-based-concepts/
116  Rosen.K. (2017 March 10). A Staten Island Urban Farmer. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/realestate/a-staten-island-
urban-farmer.html?mcubz=0&_r=0.

81
“From the TPL perspective, UA is not going to feed a others in the urban farming community. She also applied
city, or affect climate change. But, it does influence the and got access to a city lot to be used for gardening
consumer,” says Schofield. “How the public or neighbors or greening (via the Adopt-a-Lot program described
interact with a farm, even if only visually, helps them learn previously) and farmed it herself.
and value greenspace.”
Kosok realized that Baltimore farmers could benefit if they
shared tools and cooperatively marketed their produce.
Innovative Strategies She launched the Farm Alliance of Baltimore to do just
that. The Farm Alliance has grown to 20 member farms
and works with city officials to continue to improve urban
Flower Farms farming infrastructure and policy in Baltimore.
The daunting financial prospects of mixed vegetable But, running the Farm Alliance and a farm was difficult,
farming in the city brought some urban growers to a especially with two young children. Flowers, however,
new crop: flowers. Several growers who have been did not require the same time and intensity of vegetable
instrumental in changing policies and increasing support cultivation. Today Kosok’s farm, Hillen Homestead,
services for urban farmers have themselves turned to cut occupies two lots totaling a quarter acre of production.
flowers which, they say, present fewer political challenges She works on her farm about 10 hours a week to provide
and have a greater profit potential. a needed supplemental income her family would not have
otherwise.
Tara Kolla and her husband bought their home and
half-acre of land in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los “Even if you gross $11,000 or $12,000, you still have the
Angeles in 2001. “I saw a field and an opportunity to grow potential to take home between $6,000 and $8,000,”
crops,” says Kolla, who aimed only to earn enough from she says. “I don’t know about you, but for my family that
production to cover maintenance costs. amount of money is not insignificant.” She agrees that full-
time agricultural employment is a laudable goal, but sees
Unbeknownst to her, Kolla had started growing food and
flowers as an excellent supplemental income.
flowers as the early buzz around urban farming was just
beginning. People wanted to learn from her, as well as buy Kosok and Kolla both said they can easily sell all they
her produce and flowers. She expanded to an additional grow—demand for locally-grown cut-flowers is high.
property. Then city officials showed up. Caitlyn Galloway of Little City Gardens has moved up to a
third of her production time into flower farming, which she
Kolla was cited for breaking a 1946 Truck Farming
says has made her vegetable enterprise more viable. While
ordinance that prohibited the off-site sale of flowers, and
vegetables brought all three women to farming, flowers
was shut down. “I had three options: close down and give
are what keep them in it.117
up, pay thousands of dollars to try to get a variance (and
even if I spend it, there’s no guarantee), or get the law
changed. So I decided to get the law changed.” Urban Farms with Rural Partners
Stone’s Throw Urban Farm in Minneapolis and St. Paul,
Like Caitlyn Galloway in San Francisco, Kolla worked
MN, was formed when a group of young urban farmers
with local activists and politicians to repeal the law to
began asking one another the question: “how can urban
expand opportunities to farm in the city. She also gave
farming be a viable business, relying on vegetable sales to
up vegetable farming, and her farm, Silver Lake Farms,
support itself?,” while also engaging the community and
focused only on “slow flowers,” a phrase used to describe
improving the environment?
cut flowers grown outside of the traditional cut flower
industry. The group agglomerated its parcels, which in 2016
numbered 11 and totaled 2.5 acres, and began to farm
Maya Kosok of Baltimore similarly advocated on behalf of
together as one operation. When one of its farmer-
vegetable farmers before turning to flowers. Kosok worked
partners left the Twin Cities to start Whetstone Farm in
for Baltimore’s Real Food Farm, an educational nonprofit
rural MN, the two farms connected with the Latino
with a significant production farm, where she got to know

117  Despite Silver Lake’s Farm success and growing customer base, Kolla closed the farm in 2016 to pursue other agricultural pursuits in France
with her husband. http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-silver-lake-farms-20160521-snap-story.html

82
“
One of the best models for urban farming is collaboration with regional rural
farms to supplement urban farm production. In return, urban farms increase a
regional [rural] farmer’s reach and economic sustainability, helping [regional
rural farms] stay alive.
— Rob Bennaton, UA Specialist
University of California Cooperative Extension

Economic Development Center, which runs a training to maximize yield while minimizing impact on the
program for Latino-run urban farming cooperatives, to see environment. Greensgrow began purchasing from
what opportunities might be available for cooperation with these farms and featuring them in its CSA. The move
Latino-run rural farms. simultaneously diversified the produce Greensgrow could
offer and helped it achieve its goal as an “idea farm” by
In 2014, the two farms, along with three Latino-run rural raising awareness of regional farmers and food.
farms—Agua Gorda Coop, Cala Farm, and La Familia
Coop—formed the Shared Ground Farmers Cooperative. “Greensgrow’s diversification is what helped it grow
The Cooperative runs a 120-member CSA and conducts and thrive,” says Elisa Esposito, UA Coordinator for the
wholesale and restaurant sales for all five farms. Eric City of Philadelphia’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Larsen, principal farmer with Stone’s Throw, says the Philadelphia is a city of many urban gardens and farms;
connection to rural farms allows Stone’s Throw to offer what sets Greensgrow and its 1,000-member CSA apart is
its produce—salad mixes, arugula, heirloom tomatoes— its reach beyond the city’s limit.
with crops like brassicas and melons from rural farms,
creating more diversity and helping all businesses become Moveable Feast
profitable.
Michael Ableman has been an urban farmer since the
That wide variety of seasonal produce was also Mary 1980s when he started the Center for Urban Agriculture
Seton Corboy’s goal when she expanded the CSA model near Santa Barbara, CA, “when no one had ever heard of
at Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, PA. Corboy founded [UA].” Since then, he has moved to Vancouver, BC, and
Greensgrow in 1997 when, she said, “I realized growing continues to be a UA innovator as the founder of Sole Food
tomatoes in rural New Jersey is boring as hell.” She and Street Farms.
her founding partner Tom Sereduk identified a capped
Superfund site, previously a steel galvanizing plant, Sole Food has four farm-sites in Eastern Vancouver, using
and worked with the local community development temporary leases to grow food for sale at farmers markets,
corporation to lease the land and begin to turn it into restaurants, and its own CSA. Sole Food utilizes custom-
a farm. made grow-boxes with a pallet-like base, so they can be
forklifted and moved, meaning Ableman and his team can
Greensgrow’s evolution included the addition of high move the farm mid-season without losing a crop.
tunnels and greenhouses, experiments with hydroponic
growing, and a nursery to diversify the nonprofit’s revenue Sole Food has 25 employees, many of whom struggle with
streams. It also restructured its produce sales, moving homelessness, addiction, or previous criminal records.
from selling what little the farm grew to starting a regional Ableman says the farm grosses nearly $400,000 CA each
farm box program including vegetables from rural farms. year (approximately $300,000 U.S. dollars), and attributes
its success, in part, to learning how to farm in a rural
Philadelphia is surrounded by prime farmland: southern area: rather than learning to farm in a city, Ableman says,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, and the “What was unique about Vancouver is that we took a rural
DelMarVa Peninsula are home to sizeable produce farms production farmers experience and applied it to the city.”
that practice integrated pest and crop management

83
Today Sole Food also includes an urban orchard of over Love & Carrots in Washington, DC, adopted a similar
500 fruit trees. They grow in the same soil-box units as the model, and started when founder Meredith Sheperd put
rest of the farm’s produce, so that even trees are able to up fliers advertising installation of raised-bed gardens.
move around the city as land becomes available. Since its founding in 2010, Love & Carrots has grown to
a team of 12 and has installed over 500 gardens. It also
Urban “Farmlettes” actively maintains and provides coaching sessions for
owners of 125 gardens.
A new wave of urban farm businesses circumvents land
access issues by modeling their viability on tiny spaces. “I call it ‘urban farming services,’” says Sheperd, who
They work with homeowners and businesses to use micro- is proud that the business has bootstrapped its way to
plots of land to grow food for a variety of purposes. profitability. Yet, with the desire to retain strong talent
and frequent requests to donate services and materials to
Fleet Farming, a bike-based project of Ideas for Us community and school gardens, Sheperd is considering a
in Orlando, FL, sets up agreements with Orlando nonprofit arm of the business.
homeowners to dedicate a portion of their yards to food
production. Homeowners pay an initial installation fee for Farmscape is also concerned with retaining talent and
their Fleet “Farmlette,” which is maintained by staff who making urban farming a career that pays. “We offer good
bike between the 14 farmlettes. salaries, healthcare, and paid vacation—a lot of things you
don’t get in traditional agriculture,” says Hermanson.
Homeowners can have up to 10 percent of the salad
greens, radishes, and turnips that grow on their lawns, but Though Love & Carrots and Farmscape are out of
Fleet Farming Program Manager Michele Bumbier says reach for many people—“We’re often people’s second
they often take far less than that. Volunteers harvest the gardeners, and we’re okay with that!” says Hermanson—
remaining crops on Saturdays, which are transported by both organizations prioritize creating good jobs that
bike to Fleet Farming’s facility, and then sold to restaurants create positive impacts on urban environments and the
and at a farmers market. Revenue from harvest sales helps communities who enjoy them.
pay for Fleet Farming’s staff, which provides maintenance
of farmlettes throughout the week. City Animals
Fleet Farming is expanding to California, where another From backyard chickens to beekeeping collectives, urban
business, Farmscape, has been installing micro-farms farm animals are on the rise across the country. While a
since 2009. Farmscape, a for-profit company that installs few laying hens in a small chicken tractor or a beehive on
and maintains urban vegetable gardens in and around Los an urban farm are the new normal, commercially viable
Angeles and San Francisco, has installed over 600 food urban livestock farms are hard to find.
gardens and maintains 250-350 of them.
The reasons are obvious. Animals by their nature attract
Farmscape does not sell any of the food it grows in more attention than vegetables: they are larger, louder,
backyards, corporate offices, or housing developments. and sometimes smellier, need more space and are
“Farmscape has never sold a single carrot,” says Lara mobile. Cities across the country have regulated their
Hermanson, Principal at Farmscape. “Part of the goal is presence for decades, mostly telling chickens, goats, and
to make [farms] an amenity rather than commercial.” pigs, “Keep Out.”
Hermanson compares Farmscape to a landscaping service,
but with the added benefit of proving food and an Urban agriculturalists’ new enthusiasm for livestock has
interactive space for residents and visitors to sites. led some to include them on their farm. Dorsey Barger,
owner of HausBar Urban Farm in Austin, TX, has dozens
Hermanson, who saw how difficult it was to earn a living of chickens, geese, ducks, rabbits, and two small donkeys.
while working on an organic vegetable farm, wanted to Her farm was at the center of a multi-year dispute over
test an urban model that built beautiful gardens, taught urban farming and livestock in Austin after a neighborhood
people to maintain them over time, and pass along the group falsely claimed she was slaughtering 50 chickens
benefits of urban farming without having to sell produce. a day (Barger says at maximum it was 20 chickens a
“Within our work, we say the farmer’s risk is on the client. week). Austin, unlike most cities in the U.S., allows on-site
If a bunny eats your lettuce, it’s not our fault—but we will slaughter and owners can sell up to 10 chickens per week
replant it for you.” per acre of land.

84
 beekeeping in 2010, making urban apiaries legal in the
five boroughs;119 cities like Milwaukee, WI,120 Sacramento,
CA,121 and Fayetteville, AK,122 have done the same through
UA ordinances. These policy steps are opening the
door to responsible animal husbandry in cities, giving
entrepreneurs like Pavlick, Placais, and Barger the chance
to see if good animal care can be good business, too.

Innovative Technologies

Farm in a Box
Unused shipping containers, once seen as an ugly side-
effect of global trade, are now being turned into controlled
environment agriculture (CEA) farms. Entrepreneurs
Hollygrove Market The chickens are well-socialized at
around the country are retrofitting standard containers
Hollygrove Market & Farm thanks to visits from many
customers and community farmers. into hydroponic and aeroponic farms using LED lights and
adaptations of CEA technology. These containers, they say,
In Pittsburgh, PA, Carrie Pavlik and Doug Placais have a can produce the same amount of leafy greens as 4 to 5
small homestead that includes two Nigerian Dwarf goats, acres of field-grown lettuce with a fraction of the water.
the maximum allowed in the city. They sell the babies to
Unlike large-scale CEA operations that benefit from their
others in the city eager to take advantage of Pittsburgh’s
size, containerized CEA units benefit from modularity,
urban farming ordinance allowing goats, to milk them for
says Eric Ellestad, co-founder and CEO of Local Roots, an
their own home use.
“agricultural systems integrator” prototyping such units in
The couple also owns and operates Steel City Grazers, an Los Angeles.
11-goat landscaping company that clears vacant lots and
“I take major issue with the premise that [what we’re
open spaces of brush and weeds. While this type of goat-
doing] is urban farming,” says Dan Kuenzi, Local Roots’
grazing operation is common in California and Oregon,
second co-founder. “What we’re doing can be placed
says Pavlik, Steel City Grazers is attempting to make the
anywhere,” including communities in need of fresh
model work in Pittsburgh where the grazing season is
produce. Kuenzi estimates that each unit could provide
shorter and the public has less knowledge about urban
two jobs growing hundreds of pounds of lettuce
livestock.
each week.
Like cities around the country, Pittsburgh responded to the
Yet, Ellestad acknowledges that to reach true cost parity
demand for including traditional livestock animals—small
with field-grown lettuce from California’s central valley, its
ruminants, chickens, ducks, and bees—by passing a 2015
units and ones like it will require “a lot of automation and
ordinance allowing for limited numbers of such animals on
people who are more technologically savvy.” While Local
residential property.118 New York City lifted its ban on
Roots does not sell the units yet, others like CropBox

118  Ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title Nine, Zoning Code, Article V, Use Table, Section 911.02, and Use
Regulations, Section 911.04.A.2 to expand the allowable zoning districts for all Agricultural Use Zoning Classification categories, and to amend and
add additional standards and procedures; amending and supplementing Chapter 912, Accessory Uses and Structures, by amending the subsection
for Urban Agriculture; and supplementing Chapter 926, Definitions, to supplement standards for Urban Agriculture accessory uses. (2015). City of
Pittsburgh.
119  Smith, M. (2015, March 16). Big Apple lifts beekeeper ban. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Health-Dpt-Lifts-
Beekeeper-Ban-87834542.html
120  Chapter 78-6 Milwaukee Code of Ordinances (2010).
121  Section 9.44.330 of the Sacramento City Code.
122  City of Fayetteville Code of Ordinances. XV 164.04 (C) Urban Agriculture Ordinance: Bees. Passed 2014.

85
and Freight Farms are designing shipping containers for as well as catfish, koi and goldfish. RFC sells its products
individual purchase. Containers vary in sophistication and through a small, affordable-CSA program, and through
price: Freight Farms “Leafy Green Machine” costs $82,000- restaurant sales which help to subsidize the CSA. It has a
$85,000, depending on its features, and the company strong focus on community engagement, education, and
says it costs approximately $13,000 to operate annually, policy advocacy on behalf of urban farming interests.
including electricity and water.
Community engagement and education are also major
J.J. Reidy, a Baltimore-based social entrepreneur who products of Oko Farms, an outdoor aquaponics nonprofit
founded the container-based Urban Pastoral, agrees in Brooklyn, NY. A collaboration with the Brooklyn
that the costs are high. His prototype aeroponic shipping Economic Development Corporation, the 2,500 square foot
container cost nearly $85,000 to build, including tens facility raises catfish, tilapia, and leafy green vegetables
of thousands of dollars in blue and red LED lights, and and herbs. Founder and manager Yemi Amu says that
computerized climate control and nutrient-release systems while she hopes to increase sales at Oko Farms, the
that can be controlled remotely. education mission of the farm is strong and it will continue
to act as a resource to youth and community members
Energy efficiency, steeply reduced water needs and costs, interested in sustainable farming.
community food security, jobs, high yields and high
margins are the promise of mobile units that can be set up
anywhere in a city or rural area. These are just a few of the
opportunities of containerized CEA, say entrepreneurs; it is
a lot to achieve in 320 square feet.

Commercial Aquaponics
Aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture (fish
production) and hydroponics (water-based plant
production),123 has been traced as far back as Aztec
and ancient southeast Asian cultures.124 But today, it is
gaining popularity as a low-resource, closed-loop system
of producing greens and fresh fish protein, particularly in
areas where those foods are hard to find.

Successful for-profit commercial aquaponics farms have

emerged in the United States, often in peri-urban and rural
areas.125 Aquaponics is a form of controlled environment
agriculture, and thus utilizes a smaller footprint than The rear exterior of a Local Roots prototype container
typical rural production. The “stacking” of production—fish farm.
and plants form inputs for each other—not only decreases
inputs, but also allows for more diverse, intensive
production per square foot than other types of farming. RFC and Oko are like many aquaponics farms located
in urban areas. While they are attempting to produce
Aquaponics’ small footprint and productive potential is a commercially, aquaponics has a unique potential to
strong fit for cities, says Marianne Cufone, co-founder of engage people in conversations about sustainable food
the Recirculating Farms Coalition (RFC), a New Orleans- and farming.
based nonprofit that models and advocates on behalf of
urban farming, particularly hydroponics and aquaponics. Nonprofit status does not mean aquaponics facilities
One of RFC’s half-acre lots houses four high tunnels, each are failing to be commercial, says Cufone. “We are not
of which houses aquaponics equipment growing greens embarrassed to be a nonprofit because it helps our

123  https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/aquaponics
124  https://www.milkwood.net/2014/01/20/aquaponics-a-brief-history/
125  Ouroboros Farms in Half Moon Bay, CA (http://www.ouroborosfarms.com) and Sustainable Harvesters in Hockly, TX
(http://www.sustainableharvesters.com/) are two examples of such farms.

86
community,” she says, well aware that New Orleans’ Consideration: Promote urban farming opportunities
reputation as a “food city” is largely for feeding its tourists, that do not rely on owning or renting land.
not its residents. If aquaponics can grow food for people
and improve communities, then it deserves nonprofit Urban-based agriculture entrepreneurs are finding new
status, she says. ways to grow food, jobs, and profits without owning
land. By treating UA similarly to a landscaping or farm
But commercial potential is growing. A recent study box service, UA businesses can involve more residents
of the commercial potential of aquaponics shows that and businesses in UA, provide fresh food, and build
producers predict becoming profitable as their businesses successful businesses without tying up money or assets
mature and operators gain more experience.126 Better in land ownership. This may be particularly attractive in
understandings of aquaponics systems, new technologies, cities where many competing uses drive up the cost of
and a growing network of hobbyists and commercial land. The modularity of some of these innovations opens
producers are growing fish and greens more profitably possibilities for including UA in building designs.
around the United States with hopes of doing the same in
urban centers.
Consideration: Analyze costs and benefits of controlled
environment agriculture technologies.
Recommendations and
The growing popularity of controlled environment
Considerations to Support agriculture promises year-round production of greens,
fish, and more. While the promise of low-water, high-
Innovation in Urban productivity, high-value yields has excited entrepreneurs
and investors, more information is needed to determine
Agriculture the conditions and technologies that support these
businesses to deliver the level of production, jobs, and
return on investment needed for funders to invest in and
Consideration: Identify proactive policies that can cities to provide support to CEA businesses.
revitalize vacant properties to the benefit of farmers,
landowners, and residents.

Policies that directly address the desire for farmers and

property-owners to reap mutual benefits through UA
are a strong strategy for cities to chart a course for UA
and future development. An easily understood policy for
vacant land access for urban farmers can reduce ‘squatter’
farms, encourage participation from vacant property
owners, and improve the character of neighborhoods by
reactivating vacant parcels.

Consideration: Explore urban farming models that can

complement and enhance new development.

New urbanist strategies, revised city codes, innovative

development, and creative public-private partnerships
provide new possibilities for thoughtful integration of UA
into growing communities. A focus on higher-density living
with more green space allows for UA to thrive alongside
residents who can enjoy its benefits. Mechanisms like
community land trusts can also ensure access to such land
is affordable.

126  Love, D.C. et al. (2015). Commercial aquaponics production and profitability: Findings from an international survey. Aquaculture, 435, 67-74.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2014.09.023

87
Chapter 9: Recommendations to Support
Commercial Urban Agriculture
UA has many faces and many purposes. Commercial Enterprising landholders—public, private, or nonprofit—
urban farms—businesses that grow and sell food, provide occasionally create auspicious circumstances for urban
incomes, support jobs, and contribute to the community— farmers by offering creative, non-traditional lease
are ambitious ventures without substantive precedent in agreements. An unused rooftop, excess land trust
the rapidly-urbanizing American cities of the late 20th and inventory, or even overflow cemetery space have become
early 21st centuries. long-term agreements to farmers seeking growing space.
For those who own land not fit for any other use, like an
Commercial urban farms have much in common with oddly shaped San Francisco lot or a warehouse basement,
very small rural farms, including resource constraints and an urban farm is one of the few opportunities for any
a sales strategy that focuses on niche products or direct- activity at all.
to-market sales. Their locations offer some of the place-
based benefits of urban community gardens, including And occasionally landowners simply want to enjoy an
neighborhood revitalization and ecological services urban farm on their property. Whether it is a planned part
managing rainwater and carbon dioxide. Commercial of a community, or a magnanimous gift of unused space,
urban farms share some of community gardens’ these offers are rare partnerships between landowners
challenges, too: accessing land, building community and farmers.
support, and convincing city officials of their value.
In most cases, farmers find access to land far below the
This report presents 14 different models of commercial average urban land cost. Purchasing land is out of the
urban farms, and examines their business strategies for question for most: they either do not have the capital or
achieving viability. It analyzes policies, practices, and will never be able to make back the investment. Below-
expectations that encourage or inhibit CUA, including cost land is not just a value to commercial urban farmers,
those that make it easier for some people to access but typically vital to an urban farm’s ability to exist.
resources than others. Emerging strategies for CUA are
also presented, the innovations of which potentially
indicate new strategies for viability.

Though these exceptional farms are certainly viable by

their own standards, their viability must be analyzed with
the following five considerations in mind.

1. Commercial urban farms often access land through

extraordinary circumstances, including eliminating or
reducing land costs that can be prohibitive to entering
farming (urban or rural).

The legal right and access to land, and its cost, are the
primary determinant of an urban farm’s existence. In
cities like Buffalo, NY, Cleveland, OH, Detroit, MI, or
New Orleans, LA, cities are more likely to sell or lease
land to residents for low cost to alleviate the burden
of maintaining and policing vacant property. Would- Orange County Produce grows on thousands of rented
be urban farmers enjoy low-cost land as an end result acres and heavily invests in land it is on even for a short
of extraordinary urban decay. In other instances, cities time. Here, a fruit orchard has been put in place on a
offer tax rebates to businesses to locate in historically decommissioned military base.
disinvested neighborhoods.

88
2. Commercial urban farms rarely depend on sales of
agricultural products alone.

Commercial urban farms grow and sell food, but for most
that is not their only source of income. Half of case study
farms included other revenue-generating activities like
hosting events or farm dinners, or required that farmers
have other sources of income: a catering company, a
landscaping service, or a sign-painting business to name
a few. Others depend on family members to support the
household with off-farm work, not unlike many rural
farms. Nonprofit farms with commercial-scale production
can solicit grants and gifts to support their operations. But,
in each case, simply selling the food from an urban farm is
not enough to sustain it.

3. Commercial viability for urban farms depends upon Sign at a Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco promoting
continued demand for local food through farmers’ buying local.
markets, CSAs, and locally-centered restaurants
and retailers.
restaurant industry is notoriously fickle, trend-obsessed,
Commercial urban farmers enjoy a proximity to an easy-
and cost-conscious. So while these markets work well
to-access customer base that most small rural farmers
for commercial urban farms today, the future is not
do not. Proximity can result in fresher produce at point
guaranteed.
of sale, stronger relationships, and, perhaps, customer
appreciation of the hard work and dedication farming 4. Commercial urban farms cannot be all things to
requires. Commercial urban farms ingeniously situate all people.
themselves amongst a customer-base that has a new
demand for local food, and who are willing to accept some It is unreasonable to expect a commercial urban farm,
trade-off—higher cost, less convenience of purchase—as or any farm, to produce food, good jobs, education
part of the exchange. and training, food access, racial equity, environmental
improvement, community engagement, and the many
Those same trade-offs make commercial urban farms other promises of UA. It is even more unreasonable to
viable. Markets require specialized production (niche, expect a farm that can take on even two or three of these
high-value, rapid-succession) and/or access to farmers goals to do so at a profit, particularly in a city.
through direct sales. The high-value niche crops come at
a high cost to chefs and high-end retailers, who can justify High costs of UA production—land, labor, and more—are
those costs by serving customers demanding ‘hyperlocal’ most effectively covered by high-value produce. While
produce. While direct sales through farmers markets high-value produce, such as vegetables and sprouts, may
and CSAs do not offer the same convenience as grocery improve the vitamin and mineral content of diets, these
stores, and can limit their reach, they do offer many do not provide essential calories needed for human
other community benefits. Farmers markets can increase nutritional health. Production of calorie-rich crops, such
community cohesion through placemaking and often as grains or potatoes, which can improve food security,
become centers for socializing and celebration for local cannot be grown in a small space like an urban farm
residents. These direct marketing channels also provide without generous subsidies if a farm aims to survive and
access to farmers, who have necessarily become public fairly pay its labor.
figures and occasionally local celebrities. Urban farmers
Education and community participation can run at
thus are even more available to interface with consumers
odds with production, which must be highly-skilled and
than rural ones.
efficient to break even. Community members may want
CUA has expanded with interest in local food, but not to be involved in a farm and even volunteer, but their
without risk. Large retailers and meal-delivery services lack of skill can be more of a burden to a farmer than a
increasingly offer similar ‘local’ product with greater benefit. Education—hosting school groups, conducting
convenience than farmers markets or CSAs. The workshops—takes time, preparation, and space that a
tightly-managed commercial urban farm is not likely
to have.

89
Jobs on commercial urban farms are limited by the size,
revenue streams, income, and labor needs of each farm.
And except for highly-skilled CEA positions or positions
subsidized by grants, they are also unlikely to provide a
comfortable livelihood for city dwellers with high costs of
living. Skills learned on an urban farm can be plied in other
sectors and likely receive better compensation.

In each case, the promise does not and cannot match the
reality. Too much is demanded of all forms of UA, and
commercial urban farming in particular. Commercial rural
farms are typically not asked to be educators, community
activists, and workforce programmers. Schools, community
centers, and job-training facilities are rarely asked to show
a profit in order to receive subsidy from government and
other donors.
Massachusetts Avenue Project tracks its fundraising
The goals of a farm must be wholly its own and must efforts for its new farm house, a combination of office,
match its income streams. If the goal is to have a education, and community meeting space.
sustainable for-profit production-based business, it should
not be asked to offer social goods for free. If the goal is
broad education through small production, it should not
be asked why it is not profitable. UA can do many things,
Concluding Thoughts
but no single urban farm can do everything.
CUA will never be the sole source of food for American
5. Commercial urban farms can provide important social cities, and many commercial urban farms would not be
and environmental benefits. viable if it were not for some extraordinary circumstance
of land, markets, or resources. Nevertheless, they can
Though commercial urban farms should not be expected
be important anchors for neighborhoods and provide
to fulfill in equal measure production, environmental, and
beneficial ancillary services that have been lost in many
social purposes, they do have environmental and social
urban communities: green space, community-gathering
benefits that can be difficult to capture or quantify. Some
space, connection with nature, connection with fresh
can be considered to be social enterprises that aim to
food, invitations for neighbors to interact, and making
serve an environmental or social purpose through their
neighborhoods vibrant, safer, and healthier. In this
revenue generation. Others simply see these benefits—
process, some entrepreneurs and employees may even
from stormwater infiltration to showing children where
earn a living.
carrots come from—as an added value to their work.
Policies, programs, and research already exist to assist
The social and environmental benefits may be intangible
urban farmers and those who support them. Some are
or difficult to measure. They can also be overstated.
designed with urban context in mind; others have been
Attention drawn to some benefits can eclipse negative
traditionally rural resources that hold vast potential to
externalities: the decreased ‘food miles’ in urban vertical
propel CUA. Policy-makers, city planners, UA advocates,
farming obscure the energy inputs vertical farming
and would-be urban farmers would do well to understand
requires; the community benefit of beautifying a
existing resources and the reality of how urban farms
neighborhood can invite gentrification that pushes current
operate as they plan for the future of UA.
residents out. More full-cost accounting of urban farms
must be done to understand their benefits and blind spots Urban farms’ activities and influence vary widely, and
as cities, neighborhoods, and individuals decide the role of should not be conflated into a single definition or set
commercial urban farms. of expectations. This report has collected the insight of
experts across the United States and beyond, and
analysis of their experiences and observations form
the basis of the recommendations and considerations
discussed throughout and listed below. UA will benefit
from supportive policy, planning, programming, and
research that honors and celebrates the promise of its
various forms.
90
Summary of Federal Policy
Recommendations and zz Recommendation: Raise the profile of FSA
Microloan and other USDA programs among urban
Considerations to Secure the farmers. (Ch. 4)

Promise of Urban Agriculture zz Recommendation: Actively solicit urban farms

participation in the Census of Agriculture. (Ch. 4)

zz Recommendation: Clearly target resources

Urban Farmers and grant funding to lead to the sustainable
development of urban agriculture. (Ch. 5)
zz Recommendation: Prior to starting a farm,
understand and engage the communities where the zz Recommendation: Explore new models for
farm could be located. (Ch. 4) incubating collaborative UA strategies. (Ch. 5)
zz Recommendation: Register and receive a farm zz Consideration: Expand the visibility of ‘rural
number through USDA’s Farm Service Agency development’ programs that could assist urban
(FSA) to participate in various loan and cost share farms. (Ch. 4)
programs. (Ch. 4)
zz Consideration: Adapt the Whole-Farm Revenue
zz Recommendation: Participate in the USDA Census Protection Program to meet the risk management
of Agriculture. (Ch. 4) needs of small, diversified farms in urban areas.
(Ch. 4)
zz Recommendation: Incorporate high tunnels and
other season extension into the farm plan. Ch. 4) zz Consideration: Expand visibility of CUA priorities
in future US Farm Bills, to support research and
zz Recommendation: Include personal and family
education on best practices. (Ch. 4)
labor in farm budgets and profit analysis. (Ch. 4)

zz Recommendation: Build crop plans to maximize

return per square foot, using short growing cycle, Local-Level Policy and Planning
high flavor, and rapid turnover crops. (Ch. 4) zz Recommendation: Clearly target resources
zz Recommendation: Diversify farm income to include and grant funding to lead to the sustainable
value added enterprises that celebrate the farm development of urban agriculture. (Ch. 5)
location, such as on-farm workshops, farm suppers, zz Recommendation: Explore new models for
or farm tours for fee. (Ch. 4) incubating collaborative UA strategies. (Ch. 5)
zz Recommendation: Participate in trainings that zz Recommendation: Ensure that UA policies are
build skills for production, business, labor, and risk coordinated with and supported by other municipal
management, even if only available in rural areas. support services. (Ch. 7)
(Ch. 4)
zz Recommendation: Ensure local plans, funding, and
zz Consideration: Charge for farm tours to compensate policies for UA engage and respond to community
for time away from production activities. (Ch. 4) input. (Ch. 7)
zz Consideration: Carefully consider risk management zz Recommendation: Review and revise UA policies to
and liability issues on the farm, for hiring labor, ensure broad benefit by the entire community of
managing volunteers, or hosting visitors on the current and potential urban farmers. (Ch. 7)
farm. (Ch. 4)
zz Consideration: Recognize that public-facing social
zz Consideration: Develop collaborations with enterprises like commercial urban farms can drive
community UA efforts to better leverage social neighborhood revitalization and increase the tax
outcomes possible through urban farms. (Ch. 5) base, with positive and negative consequences to
zz Consideration: Be engaged in local policy and local community residents. (Ch. 5)
planning decisions by working with others to
educate policymakers and communities. (Ch. 7)

91
 zz Consideration: Remember that not all urban farms Research, Extension and Education
aim to be commercially viable through agricultural
product sales alone. (Ch. 5) zz Recommendation: Invest in longitudinal studies to
further explore factors contributing to commercial
zz Consideration: Align UA policies to complement urban farm viability. (Ch. 4)
other urban priorities. (Ch. 7)
zz Recommendation: Create a Small Farm Business
zz Consideration: Identify proactive policies that Summary to support more extensive analysis of
can revitalize vacant properties to the benefit of urban and rural farm sustainability and profitability.
farmers, landowners, and residents. (Ch. 8) (Ch. 4)
zz Consideration: Explore urban farming models that zz Recommendation: Reinvest in urban farm educators
can complement and enhance new development. and service providers to strengthen education and
(Ch. 8) business networks for CUA farmers. (Ch. 4)
zz Consideration: Analyze costs and benefits of zz Recommendation: Expand farm trainings on
controlled environment agriculture technologies. critical issues to support UA farm success, such as
(Ch. 6, 8) maximizing yields through rapid-cycling crops, using
high tunnels, and managing labor. (Ch. 4)
Programs zz Recommendation: Conduct research to place value
on the ecological and social services performed by
zz Recommendation: Expand farm trainings on
urban farms. (Ch. 5)
critical issues to support UA farm success, such as
maximizing yields through rapid-cycling crops, using zz Recommendation: Explore new models for
season extension and high tunnels, diversifying incubating collaborative UA strategies. (Ch. 5)
income streams, and managing labor. (Ch. 4)
zz Recommendation: Conduct independent academic
zz Recommendation: Raise the profile of FSA research on the costs, output, and environmental
Microloan and other USDA programs among urban and social impact of CEA. (Ch. 6)
farmers. (Ch. 4)
zz Recommendation: Conduct case study analyses
zz Recommendation: Encourage more urban farms similar to those in this report on commercial CEA
to participate in the NRCS EQIP and other USDA businesses to assess community, policy and social
programs. (Ch. 4) factors influencing their viability. (Ch. 6)
zz Recommendation: Explore new models for zz Recommendation: Support research on resource-
incubating collaborative UA strategies. (Ch. 5) efficient CEA technologies and approaches. (Ch. 6)
zz Recommendation: Educate city planners on urban zz Recommendation: Sponsor more critical analysis of
farm functions and best support strategies. (Ch. 7) existing UA policies and educate city planners on
urban farm functions and best support strategies.
zz Consideration: Adapt the Whole-Farm Revenue
(Ch. 7)
Protection Program to meet the needs of small,
diversified farms in urban and rural areas. (Ch. 4)

zz Consideration: Invest in workforce development

training to benefit CEA and the entire agriculture
sector. (Ch. 6)

zz Consideration: Explore urban farming models that

can complement and enhance new development.
(Ch. 8)

zz Consideration: Promote urban farming

opportunities that do not rely on owning or renting
land. (Ch. 8)

92
Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Farm & Farmer Description

zz What age/year was your farm established?

zz Primary farm production manager description
}} What is your age, gender, background? (e.g. are they from the city they farm?)
}} What is your previous farm training?
}} What other skills did you bring to the project?
}} How many years have you been with the farm?

zz Founder description (if different than Primary Manager, same Qs)

}} Why did you want to start this farm?
}} What is your current role with the farm?
}} What assets did the founder of the farm bring (e.g. capital, human resources, facilities/land)?

Farm Description and Infrastructure

zz Land/Facility tenure
}} Is the land owned, rented, or leased? If leased, terms? (Incl. rent per month)
}} Are there any risks to losing the site?
}} Do you have concerns for long-term business viability?

zz How did you get through the zoning/permitting process? Who helped?
zz What is your operation type? (e.g. outdoor ground-level, rooftop, adaptive reuse, new construction, combination, etc.)
zz Farm size
}} What is your footprint (total square feet or acres, including buildings and roads)?
}} What area is in active food production (total square feet or acres)?
}} What areas is being cover cropped or being rested?

zz What is the length of your growing season (how many months in production)?
zz What is the length of your sales season (months or weeks)?
zz What available on-farm infrastructure does the farm have?
}} Utilities }} Farm stand
}} Irrigation }} Tools, equipment, tractors,
}} Buildings/Structures }} Fencing
}} Refrigeration, cooling or other post-harvest }} Road frontage
handling equipment }} Vehicles
}} Packing facilities }} Refrigerated trucks

zz Do you have any other businesses operating on your farm and/or are you incubating any businesses?
zz Do you do storage (food or equipment) for another farm? Are you an incubatee of a farm?
93
Farm Community

zz How do you characterize your neighborhood?

zz Why did you choose to farm here? What made farming here a viable opportunity when you started?
zz How has the neighborhood changed since the start of the farm? (Related: is it because of the farm?)
}} Physical changes }} Neighborhood safety
}} Community engagement }} Real estate value
}} Natural resources/environment }} Young people moving in

zz How does your farm engage the larger urban and rural farm community? How has your farm benefited from
connections to other urban or rural farmers?

Farm Business

Crop Production

zz What production practices are employed at the farm (soil cultivation, greenhouse or high tunnels, hydroponics,
aquaponics, vertical gardening, aeroponics)?
zz What growing philosophies does the farm employ (e.g. chemical free, certified organic, “natural”, “conventional”,
permaculture)?
zz What on-farm policies and certifications does the farm have (e.g. GAP, OG, food safety plan, etc.)?
zz Are you aware of new Food Safety Regulations? How will you approach them (e.g. FSMA)?
zz What is the farm’s product mix in 2015?
zz Do you specialize in specific crops and/or are there crops that are the most profitable?
zz Why does the farm grow this product mix?
zz Do you anticipate changes for 2016 or into the future?
zz Do you have a record of the farm’s gross output in 2014 and 2015 (cases, CSA boxes etc.)? If not, can you estimate
the farm’s gross output?

Marketing and Sales

zz What are the farm’s sales channels (direct-to-consumer (CSA, farm stand, farmers markets), direct retail
(restaurants, food coops, farm box programs e.g. Blue Apron), regular wholesale (institutions, large grocery
chains, etc.))?
zz Who are your competitors?
zz Are you scaling up production to increase sales in 2016?
zz Are you scaling up or shifting focus to a specific sales channel? Why?
zz How does marketing happen?
zz How does social media play a part in your marketing strategy?
zz Do you target a particular demographic in your mission?
zz What are the farm’s product/sales philosophies (e.g. affordability, quality, accessibility, high-end/niche)?
zz How has the farm’s customer-base grown or changed (e.g. behavior changes, creating or substituting demand,
increasing consumption of produce, etc.)?
zz Are you involved in the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, SNAP, or other food access programs that bring
revenue to the farm?
94
Other Farm Services

zz What other activities does the farm perform (e.g. training, business incubation, youth or community
programming, value-addition, community kitchen)?
}} What percent of time is spent on these activities? Who does this?
}} What percent of revenue is generated from these activities, if any?
}} Does revenue generated from these activities support production?

zz If the farm has a training program, how many people have been trained?
}} Do trainees get paid as part of their training?
}} How many training graduates go on to work in farming, either urban or rural?

Business and Financial Management

zz Do you have a parent organization? What is your relationship with that organization? What does that organization
provide you with?
zz Do you have a business plan? A marketing plan? How do you use them? Is one more useful than another?
zz What is your business structure (e.g. for-profit, nonprofit, public, LLC, mix, etc.)?
}} Why is this business structure appropriate for your farm?
}} Do you file a Schedule F or Form 990 with the IRS?

zz Have you received loans to support the farm operation?

zz What were the farm’s annual gross income for 2014 and 2015? Did you net positive either year?
zz Have those percentages changed over the past 3 years?
zz What were the farm’s total operating costs in 2014 and 2015?
zz What are other liabilities/loans that the farm currently carries (e.g. loans, etc.) from getting started?
zz Have you ever applied for any local, State, federal grants/programs or private grants/programs?

Taxes & Insurance

zz What taxes do you have to pay (e.g. property, stormwater/sewer, sales tax, etc.)?
zz What insurances do you have to carry to farm? To hold events? Other liability insurance?

Economic Impact

zz How does the farm support other local businesses by purchasing products or services (for inputs, infrastructure,
etc.)?
zz When and how do you track metrics or evaluate the business?
zz What are your key measures of success?

95
Employees

zz What is the composition of your employees (numbers in administration, production (seed to harvest), packing,
sales, distribution, other)?
zz What were your total wages paid out in 2015?
zz How many volunteers do you engage? How many volunteer hours did you log in 2015?
}} What percent of that time was spent on farm-related tasks (e.g. planting, weeding, harvesting, packing,
distributing/selling, land preparation, etc.)?
}} What percent of volunteer time was spent on non-farm activities (e.g. canvassing, event-planning, etc.)?

zz Do you provide training to new employees?

zz Have past employees moved on to other UA jobs?
zz Do you pay minimum wage to starting employees? (confidential)
zz [Nonprofits only]: Are employees classed as farm employees for tax purposes?
zz Do you offer health or other benefits to employees? If so, which?

Resources

zz Did you have access to capital at the start? What kind of access to capital would have been helpful?
zz Who do you go to for education/guidance? Did you ever work with Extension? Rural resources?
zz Have you had any interactions with elected officials? What did that do for you?

Final Questions

zz Have any people/policies come about that have made farming easier in this city? Harder? (e.g. food policy council
work, nonprofits, new plans or ordinances) Why?
zz What are the biggest assets you have that allow you to have a commercial urban farm (e.g. funder, financer,
supportive community, die-hard customers, strong advocates, name recognition)?
zz What are the biggest continuing challenges to your farm’s viability? What policies could change that?
zz What would you like to see come from a study like this?
zz Do you plan to continue to farm in the city? Why?
zz What is the promise of UA?

96
Total Sales 2015

Earned Revenue (Sales) Amount ($)

Crop Sales
Farm Stand
Farmers Markets
CSAs
Restaurants
Direct Wholesale (co-ops, individual grocery
stores, etc.)
Wholesale (distributor, terminal market, etc.)
Onsite Events (parties, dinners)
Education & Training
Offsite Speaking & Events
Offsite Ag/Farm Services
Other (please describe)

Additional Capital
Operations Programming Expansion Other
Income Improvements
Grants
Gifts (incl.
fundraising)
Loans (incl. credit)

Employee Breakdown

How many paid employees do you have? PT = <30hrs/wk.; Seasonal: more than 2, less than 8 months

Employees Full-time Part-time

Year-round
Seasonal

97
Appendix B: List of Expert Interviewees
First name Last name Affiliation UA Role
Michael Ableman SOLE Food Farm Farmer
Lou Albright Cornell University Researcher
Tim Alderson Episcopal Archdiocese of Los Angeles Advocate
John Ameroso Educator
Yemi Amu Oko Farms Farmer
Jennifer Aron BUFA OSU Educator
Jessi Asmussen Mellowfields Farm Farmer
Ashley Atkinson Keep Growing Detroit Service provider
Tyler Baras HortAmericas Farmer
Dorsey Barger HausBar Urban Farm Farmer
Rob Bennaton UCCE Alameda & Contra Costa Counties Educator
John Biernbaum Michigan State University Researcher
Dan Bolin Ancel Glink Lawyer
Marc Bouher-Colbert Farmer
Allison Boyd Farm Alliance Baltimore Service provider
Kris Braman University of Georgia Researcher
Howard Brin Association for Vertical Farming Service provider
Michele Bumbier Fleet Farming Farmer
Megan Burley CCE Erie County Educator
Winona Bynum Detroit Food Policy Council Advocate
Mario Camberdella City of Atlanta Government
Ron Carlton Trust for Public Land Foundation
Tyler Case Mycopolitan Mushroom Company Farmer
Roz Ciulla Evergreen Cooperatives Advocate
Nicole Civita Sterling College Researcher
Virginia Clarke Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders Foundation
Steve Cohen Bureau of Planning and Sustainability Portland Government
Anastasia Cole Plakias Brooklyn Grange Farmer
Challey Comer NYS Dept. of Agriculture Government
Michael Conard Columbia University Researcher
Carol Coren Cornerstone Consulting Advocate
Marianne Cufone Recirculating Farms Coalition Lawyer
Sarah Danly Vermont Law School Researcher
Sam Davis Juniper Gardens Training Farm Educator
Bobbi de Winter Food Well Alliance Foundation
Lucy Deikmann Santa Clara University Researcher
Carolyn Dimitri New York University Researcher
Bridget Dobrowski Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders Foundation
Maggie Donin The Intervale Center Educator
Note: Information provided in this report (including job titles and business descriptions) reflects material provided in interviews conducted
throughout the development of this publication. This information may have changed between that time and the time of publication.
98
 First name Last name Affiliation UA Role
Andrew Douglas Advocate
Daniel Doyle Mississippi Sustainable Ag Network Advocate
Bruce Durbin LA County Department of Regional Planning Government
Eric Ellestad Local Roots Farmer
Alicia Ellingsworth Cultivate Kansas City Educator
Jill Elmers Moon in the Meadow Farm Farmer
Elisa Esposito City of Philadelphia Government
Haley Fager International Network for Urban Agriculture Service provider
Helena Farrell UMASS Amherst Educator
Brian Filipowich Anacostia Aquaponics Farmer
Ben Flanner Brooklyn Grange Farmer
Paula Foore Springdale Urban Farm Farmer
Ray Foxworth First Nations Development Institute Foundation
Bruce Fulford City Soil Advocate
Caitlin Galloway Little City Gardens Farmer
Lovie Gilliam Gilliam Community Farm Farmer
Lindsay Gilmour Organic Planet Advocate
Stacey Givens Side Yard Farm Farmer
Stephan Goetz Penn State University Researcher
Matt Gordon Cully Neighborhood Farm Farmer
Leo Gorman Grow Dat Youth Farm Farmer
Coby Gould The GrowHaus Educator
Nick Greens Nick Greens Consulting Educator
Courtney Guerra Courney Guerra Farms Farmer
Jaime Guerrero Schurz Food Lab Educator
Ed Harwood Aerofarms Farmer
Karen Heisler Mission Pie Advocate
Destinee Henton Ohio City Inc. Service provider
Glenn Herlihy Beacon Food Forest Farmer
Lara Hermanson FarmScape Farmer
David Hooper Neighborhood Association Advocate
Dan Howling Mycopolitan Mushroom Company Farmer
Lay Htoo Karen Fresh Garden Farmer
Olivia Hubert Willerer Brother Nature Produce Farmer
Haile Johnston Common Market Advocate
Matt Kauffman Five Loaves Farm Farmer
A.G. Kawamura Orange County Produce Farmer
Katherine Kelly Cultivate Kansas City Service provider
Sanjay Kharod New Orleans Farm & Food Network Advocate
Brent Kim Center for a Livable Future JHU Researcher
Sam Kiyomi Turner Our School at Blair Grocery Farmer
Barbara Knecht Strategies for Cities Service provider

99
 First name Last name Affiliation UA Role
Tara Kolla Silver Lake Farms Farmer
Maya Kosok Hillen Homestead Advocate
Dan Kuenzi Local Roots Farmer
Rishi Kumar Growing Home, Inc. Farmer
Elisa Lane Two BootsFarm Farmer
Eric Larsen Stone’s Throw Farm Farmer
Pay Lay KiKoKo Farm Farmer
Carolyn Leadley Rising Pheasant Urban Farm Farmer
Mike Lee Community Action Organization Educator
Donna Leuchten The Reinvestment Fund Foundation
Glyn Lloyd City Growers Advocate
Richard Lukas Trust for Public Land Foundation
Becky Lundberg Witt Community Law Center, Inc. Lawyer
Ben Maddox Heifer International Advocate
Edwin Marty Austin Food Policy Manager Government
Olga Masevich Urban Till Farmer
John McMicken Evergreen Cooperatives Advocate
Tom McNair Ohio City Inc. Service provider
John Mitterholzer John Gund Foundation Foundation
Breanna Morrison Los Angeles Food Policy Council Service provider
Danny Murphy Mighty Vine Farmer
Keeve Nachman Center for a Livable Future JHU Researcher
Annie Novak New York Botanical Garden Edible Academy Educator
Rachel Nugent University of Washington Researcher
Sabine O’Hara University of the District of Columbia Researcher
Anne Palmer Center for a Livable Future JHU Researcher
Joel Pannell Trust for Public Land Foundation
Kyle Pattison Hazlewood Farms Farmer
Jonathan Pereira The Plant Chicago Service provider
Alicia Perez The GrowHaus Advocate
Joy Persall Dream of Wild Health Educator
Katie Pfohl Massachusetts Avenue Project Educator
Jeff Piestrak Cornell University Researcher
Richard Pirog Michigan State University Researcher
Kevin Prather Mellowfields Farm Farmer
Andy Pressman ATTRA/NCAT Researcher
Samina Raja University at Buffalo Researcher
J.J. Reidy Urban Pastoral Farmer
Joe Reynolds Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens Farmer
Kristin Reynolds New York University Advocate
Harry Rhodes Growing Home, Inc. Educator
Carrie Richter Garvey Schubert Barer Lawyer

100
 First name Last name Affiliation UA Role
Michael Roberts First Nations Development Institute Foundation
Danielle Rovillo Massachusetts Avenue Project Service provider
Tepfirah Rushdan Greening of Detroit Service provider
Jenny Rushlow Conservation Law Foundation Lawyer
Raychel Santo Center for a Livable Future JHU Researcher
Helen Schnoes City of Lawrence, KS Government
Darci Schofield Trust for Public Land Foundation
Kim Scott Cleveland Planning Commission Government
Kyle Scrimgeour Archi’s Acres Advocate
Carrie Scrufari Vermont Law School Researcher
Ehle Shachter NYS Dept. of Agriculture Government
Hannah Shayler Cornell Waste Management Institute Researcher
Meredith Sheperd Love and Carrots Farmer
Iesha Siler Los Angeles Food Policy Council Service provider
David Silverman Ancel Glink Lawyer
Laurell Sims Growing Power Chicago Educator
Lydia Sission Mill City Growers Farmer
Andrew Smiley Sustainable Food Center Service provider
Alex Sorino USDA RMA Service provider
Janice Stevens Wilson Street Urban Farm Farmer
Curtis Stone Green City Acres (BC) Farmer
Rachel Surls UCCE Los Angeles Educator
Nat Turner Our School at Blair Grocery Farmer
Kathryn Underwood Detroit City Planning Commission Government
Marlene Van Es Trellis LLC Lawyer
Brian Versek Mycopolitan Mushroom Company Farmer
Ietef Vita Green For All Advocate
Josh Volk Slow Hand Farm Farmer
Bobby Walker UFI Educator
Meredith Walrafen Catholic Charities Kansas City Service provider
Karen Washington Rise & Root Farm Farmer
Tyler Watson UCLA Researcher
Chris Wayne Farm Roots Grow NYC Educator
Greg Willerer Brother Nature Produce Farmer
Bobby Wilson Metro Atlanta Urban Farm Farmer
Heather Wooten ChangeLab Solutions Service provider
Malik Yakini Detroit Black Community Food Security Network Farmer
Lea Zeise Intertribal Agricultural council Advocate
Eli Zigas SPUR Advocate
Tezozomoc South Central Farms Farmer

101
Appendix C: Commercial Urban Farm
Case Studies

Mycopolitan Mushroom Company, Philadelphia, PA

Mushroom Production in an Industrial Space
Themes: Signature product — mushrooms

History
“Mushrooms are weird. If you keep putting time in, you get
messages,” says Tyler Case, 31, who has been a mushroom
enthusiast since high school. He has spent years foraging
for wild mushrooms and experimenting with growing them
in a home laboratory.

It was a hobby that Brian Versek found a little odd when

he and Case were researchers at a Philadelphia nonprofit.
Case’s obsession drifted into the workplace, where he
convinced Versek to go mushroom foraging with him one
weekend.

Thus began the partnership that would grow into

Mycopolitan Mushroom Company. Case and Versek Brian Versek of Mycopolitan Mushroom Company.
continued to experiment with growing culinary
mushrooms, and soon began exploring the possibility of
starting a business. businesses to lease space in its building and share its
cold storage, loading docks, and other infrastructure and
In 2012, Case and Versek searched for a home for their to- networks.
be-established business. “We looked everywhere within an
hour of [Philadelphia],” says Case, but from city parkland To finance the deal, which included leasing costs and
to rural farms, they could not find the right fit. building out the entire mushroom-growing operation in
the empty basement, Case called on his childhood friend,
Case posted about their need for space on the Philadelphia Dave Novak. Novak invested the initial start-up capital,
Urban Farm Network, a local Google-group of urban including operating expenses, for a share of equity in
farming enthusiasts and supporters. Lindsay Gilmour, a the business. By the end of 2013, Case and Versek began
chef and food systems consultant who was working with to see their vision take shape and called their urban
Common Market (a nonprofit regional food distributor underground mushroom business Mycopolitan.
operating in the Mid-Atlantic region), saw the post and
invited him to check out the organization’s 10,000 square
foot basement. Community Description
Mycopolitan and Common Market are located at the
It was a great fit. Common Market, a local food distributor, corner of Erie Avenue and D Street in north Philadelphia.
had recently purchased a 70,000 square foot warehouse. An industrial strip between residential neighborhoods,
With this extra space, the leaders of Common Market were tractor-trailers barrel up and down Erie Avenue not far
inspired to begin the Good Food Lab, which invites from the I-95 overpass.

102
Common Market decided to operate in this neighborhood The lease also requires a Common Area Maintenance
not just because the former auto-parts manufacturing fee of $250 per month. The fee covers snow plowing for
building was a good find, but because the organization the parking and maintenance of the bathrooms, service
wanted to bring job opportunities to individuals living elevator, loading docks, and other shared non-refrigerated
here. It’s a bold effort: zip codes immediately surrounding space. Common Market has slowly repaired and
the warehouse suffered from a 25 percent unemployment renovated parts of the warehouse, using this fee for some
rate and 40 percent of all people lived below the poverty of the costs.
line in 2014.127 By comparison, unemployment in the city
of Philadelphia was 6.6 percent in December 2014,128 Electricity is Mycopolitan’s other big cost, at $260 per
and the city’s poverty rate hovers around 26 percent.129 month. It does not require any gas, and is not hooked up
While the warehouse is in a particularly depressed part of to the building’s HVAC unit. It also rents a pallet space in
the city, it is not the only one like it: Eva Gladstein, former Common Market’s 10,000 square foot cooler for $50 per
director of the city’s Office of Community Empowerment month. Any backhauling Common Market’s trucks do for
and Opportunity, said in a 2014 interview that “the single Mycopolitan, as when it picks up grain and flour-waste
biggest predictor of how a child will do in life is the zip from Castle Valley Mill in Doylestown, PA, costs $50 for the
code in which they are born,” noting too that Philadelphia first pallet and $20 for the second.
is one of the poorest large cities in America. Though the costs are substantial, Versek says simply
Philadelphia has a strong history of community gardening being allowed to use the space as they wanted
and is upheld by some of its most veritable institutions. For made Mycopolitan possible. “They were open to this
example, the Philadelphia Horticultural Society runs the theoretically crazy idea other people would balk at,” he
City Harvest program, in which inmates in the Philadelphia says, noting that he and Case were given free rein to build
prison system grow seedlings in greenhouses, which are out the space as they saw fit.
given to community gardeners who agree to make some
of their produce available to low-income residents through
food pantries or farmers markets.

Additionally, Philadelphia is experiencing a culinary

renaissance. The New York Times, Bon Appetit, and
Travel + Leisure have declared Philadelphia a must-visit
destination for its food, famous markets like Reading
Terminal and the Headhouse Farmers’ Market, up-and-
coming chefs, and farm-to-table restaurants.130 It is in this
arena that Mycopolitan found its niche.

Farm Description
Case, Versek and Novak signed a 3-year lease with
Common Market in 2014. The lease, which rented
Mycopolitan the 10,000 square foot basement for $550
per month, was set to double each year of the lease,
Close-up of innocuated bags of mushroom substrate
though Case negotiated to delay that doubling until the 1.5
incubating at Mycopolitan Mushroom Company.
years into the lease, to allow the business to grow.

127 ACS 2014 for zip codes 19134 and 19124.

128 Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016, March). Philadelphia City/County, PA. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.pa_philadelphia_co.htm.
129 Ibid., ACS 2014
130 See for example: Sheehan, Jason. “Travel + Leisure Calls Philadelphia ‘America’s Next Great Food City.’” Philadelphia Magazine, January 16,
2015. http://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2015/01/16/travel-leisure-calls-philadelphia-americas-next-great-food-city/; “Places to Go In 2015.”
New York Times, January 11, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/01/11/travel/52-places-to-go-in-2015.html?_r=0 ; Jenkins, Kristina. “Bon Appetit Magazine Names
Philadelphia’s High Street on Market the #2 Best New Restaurant in America.” Posted August 19, 2014. http://www.uwishunu.com/2014/08/bon-
appetit-magazine-names-philadelphias-high-street-on-market-the-2-best-new-restaurant-in-america/#sm.00000mf7v8h4o9eykqb1u2nrkcjbe

103
Most of Mycopolitan’s infrastructure—its incubation and Once bags start to fruit, they are moved to the grow room,
grow rooms, its home-made sterilizer, its inoculation which is much cooler but still very humid. Mushrooms
room—are moveable; they had to be built piece by piece continue to emerge and are harvested between 1 and 2
underground, which allows them to take most of their weeks after first visible, but before they release spores,
capital investments with them should they decide to move which could contaminate the entire system. After the first
out of the basement. crop of mushrooms is harvested, bags can produce one or
two more flushes but of smaller quantities of mushrooms.
The inoculation room is at the south end of the basement,
upwind of the incubation and grow rooms to prevent Spent substrate and mycelium can be composted to
contamination. The incubation room and grow rooms are form new soil. Mycopolitan has been experimenting
sealed high tunnels, 16x38’ and 15x56’, respectively. Their with vermicomposting and has 20 bins of worms that
entrances face one another, making transport of fruiting consume the substrate blocks. Versek has begun selling
mushroom bags from incubation room to grow room vermicomposting bins as the worms multiply.
easy. Each is fitted with narrow wire racks that hold the
grow-bags of mushroom media, the mushroom inoculum
substrate, mycelium, and, eventually, mushrooms.

Humidity control is important in the grow room, as it is

one of the conditions of healthy and robust mushroom
fruiting. A homemade humidifier made from a store-
bought fogger on a blower keeps the grow room at the
correct humidity, as does the power-washer used to spray
the interior walls and ceiling of the grow room several
times a day. The steam from the humidifier that’s pumped
into the grow room also helps maintain heat and humidity
in the winter months. The incubation room is not humidity
controlled, though it can become slightly humid as the
mushroom inoculum develops in the grow-bags.

Other infrastructure they have added to the basement

includes their homemade mushroom substrate sterilizer,
handwashing sink, kitchenette, and a cot for long days. Close-up of innoculated bags of mushroom substrate close
to blooming in Mycopolitan’s incubation room.
Production Practices
To grow mushrooms, a batch of substrate comprised of Mycopolitan works with several local vendors to source
the right ratio of ingredients is loaded 6 pounds at a time growing substrate, including Castle Valley mill for bran,
into plastic grow-bags. Mycopolitan uses a mixture of rye grain, and sweepings; La Colombe Coffee Roasters for
woodchips, sawdust, flour dust, rye grain, and chaff from coffee chaff and burlap sacks; and Lehigh Valley sawmills
coffee beans. This substrate is sterilized to kill off any for sawdust, for which it competes with large horse farms
unwanted microbes that could interfere with mushroom that use it for bedding. Much of their spawn is generated
growth. The sterilized substrate bags are then inoculated in a home lab; the remainder is first-generation spawn
with spawn, the living culture of fungal mycelium— purchased online. Purchased spawn accounts for 5 to 10
the threadlike network from which mushrooms grow. percent of their total spawn needs.
Mycopolitan either buys its spawn or experiments with Regarding Mycopolitan’s regenerative practices, Versek
some that Dan Howling, the fourth member of the says, “Mushrooms are typically thought of as a waste-
Mycopolitan team, concocts at his home-lab. product consumer: we’re growing off stuff that other
Inoculated bags are moved to the incubation room, which people wouldn’t really use.” Using local inputs for their
is warm and humid. Depending on the type of mushroom, mushroom substrate keeps costs low while pulling
bags can take anywhere from 10 days to 3 months to materials off the local waste stream.
colonize. Colonization occurs when spawn have grown in
the bag and consumed enough energy from the substrate
to “fruit” or produce mushrooms.

104
“If we went for organic certification, we’d get [certified farm to farm. Every single component effects [mushroom
organic] rye grain and wheat bran, [and] we’d have to get production]. It’s your job to figure out which components
it from somewhere else [further away],” says Versek, “It are [influencing production]. That’s where the learning
would be less sustainable and more expensive in the curve really is.”
long-run.”

Mycopolitan’s growing season usually runs mid- Business Structure

September through June. Though the basement provides “The only thing we really understood was potential yield
a geothermal buffer against temperature extremes, the of mushrooms and space,” says Versek of the launch of
uninsulated warehouse radiates enough heat to make the business. “The whole plan from the beginning was in
mushroom production impossible in summer without Tyler’s brain and morphed into reality depending on the
intense air conditioning. Case, Versek, and Howling decide variables of the next step.”
which varieties of mushrooms to grow throughout the year
depending on the projected and actual temperature of the Case, Versek, and Novak established Mycopolitan
basement. At different points in the season, Mycopolitan Mushroom Company as an LLC in late 2013. Novak, a real-
grows King Trumpet, Lion’s Mane, Pioppini, Nameko, estate investor with a business background, pushed Case
and Shiitake. Usually two or three varieties can grow at a and Versek to “go big,” and committed to helping them
time in similar conditions, though their choices are highly assemble the necessary capital so the business would not
dependent on temperature. risk failure from lack of investment.

“We had heard from the online mushroom community,

‘start small,’” said Case, but Novak was still pushing for
scale. After rejecting a loan offer that was too small with
too high an interest rate, Novak agreed with Case and
Versek to fund the smaller venture.

“[At first] we felt like, ‘Start medium,’” says Case, “but you
see how important it is to start small because with every
generation of mushrooms you’re learning so much. To
jump into it all at once would have been dumb.”

“Unless you’re an experienced grower going into it, you

should take a stepwise approach,” agrees Versek. “In
this economy, you can be an economically functional
and profitable farm, [but] it’s a balancing act. You can
spend a lot of money and build a place that looks like
what you imagined yourself farming in, but the realities
Lions Mane growing on substrate. of workflow and employment would be disastrous if you
started from scratch on that. You have to build your niche:
every environment is different, every locale is different,
Though the business is still relatively new, Case says customers are different, things are always changing. If
mushrooms’ short growing cycle allow them to adapt their you stay small, you’re flexible. And then when you’re
systems rapidly. “It’s an interesting point for mushroom comfortable, you take that next step.”
farms. You get pretty quick feedback; you don’t have to
wait a season. Growth and learning cycles are faster.”
Marketing and Sales
They have visited other mushroom farms to see how other “The market analysis was ambiguous even after some
systems operate, but Versek says it is hard to translate research,” Versek recalls. “You can call people and ask
some practices from system to system. “There are so many them to buy your mushrooms, but if you don’t have the
individual differences in the environment from mushrooms to sell… it’s hard to bring somebody a lion’s
mane you haven’t grown. We shopped around some early
[products], but for the most part, it’s getting a sense of the
pulse of the city for mushrooms.”

105
Philadelphia’s chef community were particularly excited “Because they have to be really careful about their
about city-grown specialty mushrooms. Philadelphia is just culture, it lends itself to food safety,” says Gilmour of the
30 miles from Kennett Square, known as the Mushroom precautions mushroom cultivation necessitates. “They
Capital of the World, where many large mushroom can’t be going in there with dirty hands because they’re
producers are located. Though technically “local,” chefs going to contaminate things. Mushrooms make food safety
were looking for mushroom varieties diners were unlikely an imperative.”
to see from Kennett Square.
“Because there’s such a low risk [of food-borne illnesses
Case and Versek began developing relationships with from properly handled mushrooms], it’s more about
chefs eager to incorporate new tastes and textures into self-preservation,” says Versek. If a customer reports
their menus, particularly in the winter months when a possibility of a food-borne illness from mushrooms,
local produce is hard to come by. By 2016, Mycopolitan GAP procedures enable Mycopolitan to check with other
was serving 15 restaurants and food service companies, customers and confirm whether or not there is cause for
including University of Pennsylvania’s dining program. concern.

Mycopolitan’s reputation for quality mushrooms seems Yet, mushrooms still have an air of the mysterious for
to have surpassed its novelty as an urban mushroom many people. Mycopolitan had stands at several farmers
farm. “[Most people] never even ask if we’re a legitimate markets in Philadelphia, where people expressed fear
business or where we’re growing, unless it’s out of (“Some are poisonous, you know”), false familiarity (“I saw
curiosity,” says Case. Versek continues, “They’re more that growing in my yard”), or simply bewilderment (“What
like, ‘We don’t know what you guys do, we assume you’re IS that?”). “With mushrooms, there’s a learning curve of
doing great. Thanks for the mushrooms.’” the consumer base,” says Versek.

Nevertheless, Mycopolitan is pursuing Good Agriculture To further complicate selling at farmers’ markets, the
Practices (GAP) certification, and is writing it with the height of market season is summer, which is the worst
guidance of Gilmour, the food systems consultant who season for mushrooms. Table displays risked product
helped them access the Common Market space. The plan spoilage. In the end, the effort—physical, logistical,
includes food safety and recall procedures, as well as the mental, and social—was not worth the small earnings from
necessary recordkeeping to show the business and its each farmers market.
employees are in compliance.
“On a good day I would bring in $300—it’s still not worth
it,” says Versek, “It’d be just as easy to spend that time at
the farm and sell to one restaurant that wants to take it
all at once, and get a little less money for it. It’s just time
away from the farm, and not doing [what] you actually
need to do to make the mushrooms.”

To serve individuals directly, Mycopolitan has started a

mushroom CSA, which operates in quarterly cycles and
features its mushrooms and value-added products made
from its mushrooms. In 2016, it had three pick-up locations
around Philadelphia.

Media coverage of Mycopolitan’s rise has helped attract

new customers, says Case, which he thinks “legitimizes us”
in customers’ minds. It has a new website and online store,
and Facebook and Instagram accounts. Instagram, which
many chefs use, has been particularly helpful, as visuals
help get chefs excited about new mushrooms.
Incubation room.

Employees
Dan Howling is Mycopolitan’s only employee, working
50-60 hours a week in the growing season and 30 or less
in the summer. Howling is the backbone of Mycopolitan’s

106
spawn production, inoculation, and growing, while Case
and Versek build the business with new customers and
better equipment. Versek and Case plan to take owner
withdrawals as the business grows. Versek says the
business’s next hires will be himself and Case.

Though they plan to grow to the point of hiring yet

another employee, the prospect is unsettling. “It takes
a special person,” says Versek, “If Dan [Howling] wasn’t
actually a real person, it would be pretty hard to find
somebody to fill his shoes and liberate us enough to get
our sense of what it means to have an operating farm
business.”

“[Production] is the heart of the operation, and it needs

to be chugging along very consistently. So you need
somebody very consistent to do that kind of stuff,” Steam sterilization of mushroom substrate bags.
continues Case. “I wouldn’t even necessarily trust myself
to the level I trust Dan to handle spawn. You have to be
OCD to stay on top of that, and to make sure you’re being
super careful.” has also worked with the Philadelphia Orchard Project,
which plants and supports orchards in Philadelphia, to
“But I do that because I love these guys and know what
demonstrate how outdoor decomposers like Winecap
they want to do,” says Howling. “To hire in that [expertise]
mushrooms can be utilized in forest gardens and orchards.
would be more expensive, because you’re hiring
somebody who doesn’t know these guys.” Case sees education and training as a potential avenue
for Mycopolitan in a few years’ time. “When we are more
The team constantly fields inquiries about internships
established and show that it can be done in an urban
and volunteer opportunities from other mushroom
basement, then we can do more of that [education work].”
enthusiasts eager to see how a small indoor operation
like Mycopolitan functions. But, as Case explains it, the “You can’t gain confidence about something you’ve
highly-skilled work that Howling does—which is the most thought about but haven’t embodied yet,” he says.
interesting to hobbyists—is not the work interns can
do. They have hosted a few interns and volunteers, who “I think there’s so much we could do outside the farm,”
mostly find themselves sweeping and cleaning. It is help agrees Howling, “[Case] puts the majority of thought into
they enjoy, as it frees them up to do higher-order work. that, and the restriction there is that we still need him
at the farm. So the stuff that he could do… realistically
In an ideal world, says Case, an intern would spend a few there’s no time to, because there’s no way to outsource
years doing the lower-skilled work and slowly building something you haven’t developed.”
up to the higher-skilled work. But, he says, Mycopolitan
is years away from providing this type of apprenticeship
experience.
Support
Mycopolitan relied heavily upon Novak’s investment and
Common Market’s eagerness to bring on tenants for its
Other Activities/Services start. But, they were able to win the confidence of their
Education is a strong part of Mycopolitan’s mission. Case investor and landlord because of their own mycological
began teaching a mushroom production class at Saul High expertise. Case, a hobbyist since high school, had taken
School for Agricultural Sciences in Philadelphia in 2012; a seminar with renowned mycologist and author Paul
one of his students was so strong that Case worked with Stamets. Howling had received a scholarship to study at
the high school administration to find a sponsor to pay him Aloha Medicinals in Carson City, NV, training on spawn
to intern with Mycopolitan. production and medicinal mushroom cultivation.
Versek, meanwhile, has taught mushroom classes at urban “[Howling] got little tips and tricks that you don’t start
farms around Philadelphia, and has helped some farms to think about until you’re more advanced,” says Versek,
inoculate logs to grow shiitake mushrooms outdoors. He which are “super applicable to a bunch of schlubs starting

107
a farm who thought they could do the same things as Scaling mushroom beyond the hobby-level into a
when they were just growing mushrooms in the basement. production facility, then growing that facility, is costly.
When you’re running mushrooms in the same space all There is “a leap in infrastructure costs when getting
day long and growing spawn, there are a lot of factors that above a certain size,” says Case. HVAC to allow summer
can derail the whole train.” production and steam sterilization of large volumes of
substrate are two big production hurdles for Mycopolitan’s
They spoke with local extension agents early on, who told expansion.
them about FSA loans. They ultimately decided FSA or
small business loans were not a good fit when their growth A third challenge is one of marketing. Case, Versek, and
trajectory was unknown. Howling have heard of “local” and “small” mushroom
farms outsourcing production to large factories or
“Most ag extension focuses on Kennett [Square] because purchasing ready-to-fruit mushroom blocks from overseas.
it’s the major economic boon in regard to mushroom Though he cannot verify those claims, Case said they are
growing,” says Versek. “We could benefit from information just two ways the ethos of local small production is being
from Kennett Square and we’ve definitely picked up a watered down by larger interests.
thing or two here or there and applied it to us, but growing
button [mushrooms] and creminis is a totally different Mycopolitan’s embodiment of that ethos, however, has
business. helped it attract its biggest assets: the chefs who buy its
mushrooms. Case says chefs appreciate the high-quality
“We are independent and isolated not by choice, but by mushrooms and the ease of communication from placing
the nature of what we’re trying to pull off. What’s behind an order to delivery. And because these chefs value what
us is this cool group of people growing mushrooms as Mycopolitan does, says case, “they are providing us with
hobbyists and sharing information online. They’re doing the dollars-per-pound that will keep us operational.”
what we’ve done, amassing information, small-scale
farming, and making it work in their locality.” The chefs are also willing to be flexible about what
varieties Mycopolitan has to offer. Case describes
Policies Impacting Success Mycopolitan’s ideal customer as “one who orders 40+
pounds each week and will take whatever [varieties] we
Because what it is doing is relatively unprecedented, give them.”
especially in Philadelphia, there are remarkably few
policies that help or hinder Mycopolitan’s mushroom
production. The nature of the business—small,
underground, utilizing former industrial space with few
productive alternative uses—does not create land use
issues. And because waste products are composted and air
is ventilated as an essential part of the production process,
there are few environmental impacts.

Assets and Challenges

Few policy burdens do not mean that Mycopolitan’s path
to success is clear. It is still a very small business, and
Versek and Case do not pay themselves a salary yet. But,
even with just one employee, payroll taxes make it difficult
for them to get by.

“It is difficult for us to pay an employee, let alone pay

the taxes on top of that salary. For every 100 dollars we Nameko mushrooms grown on sterile substrate.
pay our employee, we pay over 40 dollars in taxes—most
of that Federal quarterly payroll taxes,” says Case. He is
committed to hiring employees and paying them a fair
wage, but acknowledges these taxes are “the reason many
farms employ undocumented workers and pay below
minimum wage.”

108
“
Farmers are in a position to help feed the underserved, but as long as we
farmers remain underserved we are forced to sell every last scrap.
— Tyler Case
Mycopolitan Mushroom Company

Promise of Urban Agriculture to the point where they can afford to divert a portion of
cosmetically-challenged produce to systems that prepare
Case, Versek, and Howling are more than mushroom
nutrient-dense and even pharmacologically active foods
fanatics or foodies. Rather, they are deeply invested in
into, say, school lunch programs (and other places with
growing mushrooms because of their unique ecological,
captive audiences of individuals with need for good food),
nutritional, and even pharmacological properties.
then I feel strongly that not only will folks feel better, think
“Considering what foods a lot of folks are eating, better, but there would be savings to be had in areas like
having even one meal a day be packed with things like E.R. visits.”
phytochemicals, fiber, pro-biotics, pre-biotics, beta glucans,
Though Mycopolitan may seem worlds away from
vitamins, minerals, etc. would have a noticeable effect”
community farming and traditional food justice activism, it
on the health of urban populations, says Case. Though
shares the vision of better food for urban people. “Farmers
Mycopolitan’s mushrooms fetch a high price, he hopes it
are in a position to help feed the underserved,” says Case,
can continue to provide education to help Philadelphians
“but as long as we farmers remain underserved we are
think more critically about the foods they eat.
forced to sell every last scrap.”
“Nowhere is the population of folks with inadequate
nutrition and problematic health more concentrated than
in urban areas,” says Case. “If urban farmers are supported

109
Little City Gardens, San Francisco, CA
Risky Business on Land Not Secured
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, Value-added products, On-farm events,
Signature Product — flowers.

History
Caitlyn Galloway and Brooke Budner, friends and artists
who had more than a decade of farming and gardening
experience between them, began growing food in two
backyards in 2008 when they found themselves living in
San Francisco. Avid gardeners surrounded by the city’s
growing interest in local food and urban farming, they
wondered whether people could grow food in the city
and make a living, too. To find out, they went looking for a
larger tract of land to launch their “experiment.”

When they found the property that would become Little

City Gardens in 2009, they knew that permanent was
a relative term. The owner who inherited the weedy,
Little City Gardens co-founder Caitlyn Galloway is
garbage-strewn lot was actively pursuing development.
also a sign-painter, a talent that has come in handy in
However, when Galloway and Budner proposed to farm, promoting her urban farm.
beautify and maintain the lot, the owner offered them a
1.5-year lease, rent-free.
terminated Little City Gardens’ lease at the end of 2016.
The residential parcel has changed hands twice since Looking back on triumphs and forward to an uncertain
then. In 2011 it was sold to a developer, whose proposal future, Galloway says the “experiment” has succeeded in
to build condominiums stalled out before reaching public ways more important than just being profitable.
comment. Following that failure, it was sold again in 2014
to the Golden Bridges School, a Waldorf-inspired school Community Description
with agriculture and outdoor components that intends to
build a campus on the site. Little City Gardens was in the Mission Terrace
neighborhood of San Francisco, just beyond the bustling
The subsequent landowners saw value to continuing Mission. Blocks of single-family homes built in the 1920s
to offer Galloway and Budner rent-free leases as they ring the farm. David Hooper, the President of the New
pursued development. Galloway suspects the farm’s Mission Terrace Improvement Association, which has
tenure has continued in part because she is providing free taken the charge of protecting Little City Gardens from
maintenance and beautifying the lot. The farmers were impending development, says the neighborhood hasn’t
eager to become good neighbors from the beginning, changed much since he moved there 30 years ago: houses
and met with the local neighborhood association to share come up for sale infrequently, and people born in the
their plans before planting their first seeds in 2010. The neighborhood tend to stay there.
neighbors grew fond of the farm, and its presence kept
them at ease. “I think this is different from the rest of the city,” says
Galloway, who can think of only one home on the block in
But, unease has erupted as the neighborhood protests the process of a sale. “It’s hard to say that anyplace in SF
the school’s planned multi-building campus. Beyond the is insulated from development pressure, but it does seem
noise, traffic congestion, and flooding it would cause, they like people are still anchored here. It’s not changing as
said, they would be losing what has become a cherished nearly as quickly or disruptively as other neighborhoods.”
community greenspace and gathering place. Golden
Bridges’ plans ultimately passed the zoning board, and it

110
Before the Mission Terrace neighborhood was built, the Production Practices
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission buried the Islais
Galloway managed the ½ acre of production space
Creek that ran through the neighborhood; hydrology maps
through intensive growing, quick successions planting,
show a creek running directly through Little City Gardens’
and cover cropping. She says she never pursued organic
parcel.131 The underground creek combined with a high
certification because it’s not necessary to appeal to her
water table overloads the aging stormwater sewer system
Bay Area customers, who seem to value her proximity
and causes neighborhood flooding during heavy storms.132
and transparency over certification. “We’ve always
called what we’re doing a hybrid of biointensive with
Farm Description some permaculture philosophies thrown in as well,” she
Little City Gardens thrived on a ¾ acre lot shaped like an says, suspecting that certification would be prohibitively
elongated hourglass, with one means of egress on Cotter expensive for her operation.
Street. Its irregular size is due to street-facing housing
The farm was productive from about February through
development—it is nearly surrounded by the backyards
early December. Salad mix was the farm’s primary crop,
of other homes. Though the parcel does experience
comprised of lettuces, brassicas like arugula and mustards,
occasional flooding in some areas, Galloway still manages
cress, and cuttings from the fava-pea cover-crop mix. The
to cultivate between 1/3 and ½ acre.
amount grown depended on sales. While salad mixing is
The farm had a small greenhouse made of reused a way to be creative and earns good revenue, it is very
materials and two toolsheds. Two sinks with a hose labor intensive.
hook-up acted as a wash-station, aided by a nearby shade
Year-round crops included cooking greens, white turnips,
structure and counters for packing. When they first started
radishes, beets, carrots and culinary herbs in spring and
working the land, they used a rototiller to loosen the soil
fall. Galloway also plants rare and unusual vegetables,
and shape beds. Afterward, production and crop-rotation
both for sale to restaurants and for the curiosity of
were bed-by-bed, and a broadfork, shovels, and hand tools
her neighbors: cardoons, salad burnet, society garlic,
were their primary field equipment.
bronze fennel.
For electricity and refrigerator space, Galloway relied on
Cut flower production increased over time and became
the farm’s neighbor, Bob, who would run an extension
a significant revenue stream in 2015. Galloway likes that
cord from his house if they need power for a tea kettle
flowers can be cut for bouquets, and some can be sold as
or string lights. After getting to know Galloway over the
edibles or part of the salad mix. She’s grown more varieties
first years of Little City Gardens, he allowed them to put
over time and sees it as a way to stay viable, should the
a refrigerator in his garage for cold storage. Bob did not
farm continue.
charge them for electricity, she says; he took his payment
in chard. Given the possibility of losing the farm, Galloway chose
to focus on quick succession crops for the 2016 season.
Water was a similarly neighborhood-affair at the start
She continued to grow flowers, as she says sales picked up
when production was limited. A neighbor several houses
momentum in 2015.
away ran a hose from his spigot under the fence of the
farm. He charged them the difference from the previous
year’s bill, but since it was a top-tier residential rate, the Business Structure
deal wasn’t cheap. Galloway installed a water meter in Galloway and her founding partner Brooke Budner, who
2011 when, after several visits to and conversations with moved from San Francisco in 2012, decided at the outset
the city water department, the department launched a that a for-profit partnership would work best for what they
rebate program to cover the approximate $7,000 cost of called the “experiment.” Both lived in the city and had
installing a meter for garden-use. gardening and farming experience, but they wondered if
they could pay themselves a livable wage by farming. “We
needed jobs and were noticing that in order to have access
to space to grow things, you had to have a lot of free time.

131  Sunnyside History (2015, November 13). The Creek that Ran through Sunnyside. https://sunnysidehistory.org/2015/11/13/the-creek-that-
ran-through-sunnyside/
132  See Lagos, M. (2014, December 25). Low-lying neighborhood flooded again, despite S.F.’s promise.” SF Gate, http://www.sfgate.com/politics/
article/Low-lying-neighborhood-flooded-again-despite-5979140.php. and Mullaney, A. (2015, February 19). Mission Terrace Homes Flood—Again.
Ingleside-Excelsior Light, http://www.ielightsf.com/2015/02/19/mission-terrace-homes-flood-again/

111
[But with] the excitement here and the kind of market and Galloway attributes her increasing sales and profits
industry here to support food production, we just wanted to “getting smarter on what we’re spending our time
to know if it would be possible to make a living, or even a growing.” While she admits her record-keeping is not
supplemental living, doing this work. And if that could lead meticulous, she’s become more focused on testing the
to any more permanence: not relying on constant funding experiment’s financial viability.
and fund-raising grants and make it something a little
more permanent.” Marketing and Sales
“And I think neither of us had a lot of interest or Little City Gardens sold directly to restaurants and had
experience in grant-writing and trying to raise funds,” a CSA. She says the CSA became more flexible in recent
she continues, “and thought that a lot of the benefit that years, running for two-to-three months every spring and
comes from the more nonprofit structures in urban ag—a fall when there was a wide variety of vegetables. Rather
lot of the educational components—could still be inherent than signing up for a season, Caitlyn offered a week-by-
in a business but funded and structured differently.” week CSA, emailing her CSA customer list and taking
pre-orders. She got 10-30 sign-ups each week, though says
Galloway’s social entrepreneurial approach is one of the 20 was the tipping point where harvest and hosting the
reasons Karen Heisler, founder and owner of the social pick-up become viable. Members paid $20-25 per week,
enterprise restaurant Mission Pie, was eager to work with depending on the share.
her. “People in the Bay Area are biased against business
and for-profits,” she says, “But if the resources to support Flowers were the main focus of summer months, which
them decline, then what?” She hopes businesses like Galloway sold as bouquets to restaurants and a few
hers and Little City Garden “can help people in cities independent grocery stores. The 2015 season was the first
understand more about food and make agriculture more year Galloway used this seasonal approach: a spring CSA
accessible.” and lots of salad mix, followed by flowers in the summer,
and as flowers wane in the autumn reintroducing salad
Galloway and Budner wrote a business plan when they and announcing a fall CSA.
were still looking for land and formed a legal partnership.
They had a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for site Galloway sold to middle-to-high-end restaurants nearly the
development: 243 backers pledged over $20,000. Galloway entire harvest season. Salad greens were the bulk of sales,
says the business plan is now superseded by the annual while atypical varieties of culinary herbs, edible flowers,
plan she draws up every year based on the previous year’s and “baby” radishes, beets and carrots round out orders.
yields and sales. The salad mix, which is part of CSA and restaurant sales,
Galloway says was “a mainstay of our identity. We don’t
have much of a logo… but I think our salad mix, funnily
enough, serves as a branding image for us. It’s a product
we’ve created from the beginning, and a unique product
that we continue to market.”

While some restauranteurs, like the world-renowned Bar

Tartine, are accustomed to buying expensive, high quality
ingredients, others, like Heisler whose Mission Pie food
costs are more price sensitive, buy greens and edible
flowers in part to tell the story of Little City Gardens.

Little City Gardens never needed for more marketing, says

Galloway. “We’ve never approached our business the
way others might need to, coming strong out of the gate
with real aggressive promotion or marketing. People from
the beginning have been interested, and that [interest
has] grown. There’s always been a core customer base
Little City Gardens’ greens are one of many local farm at the ready.” She is confident that Little City Gardens
products represented at Mission Pie, the San Francisco has maintained a good reputation among the restaurant
restaurant and social enterprise dedicated to supporting community because of their methods and quality.
local food and good jobs.

112
While restaurant sales and CSA memberships were
attracted mostly by word of mouth, Little City Gardens
also had a well-tended Instagram account. Instagram had
occasionally proven helpful in moving a few extra pounds
of unsold salad mix, Galloway thinks of it as “more of a
communication piece around the running of the farm
and not so much a marketing tool,” though recognizes
pictures of plants being grown and harvested can serve
as marketing.

Though Galloway says there is no intentional demographic

Little City Gardens markets to, she acknowledges that their
produce may not be accessible to lower-income people
(when CSA members signed up for seasons, however, Little
City Gardens experimented with subsidized CSA shares,
but with limited success). Farm visitors included neighbors
seeking recognizable vegetables and green space, and San Caitlyn Galloway talks to neighbor and New Mission
Franciscans from the other end of town who traveled all Terrace Improvement Association President David
the way for the salad mix. Hooper, a key supporter of the farm.

Employees Other Activities/Services

After Budner left in 2012, Galloway farmed Little City Though a production farm, Little City Gardens also doubled
Gardens by herself for one year. In 2014, Galloway’s as a park and community space: “Neighbors have said that
friend Peter Woods joined as an on-farm partner. They we’ve made the neighborhood feel more safe by activating
are the only two people who received an income from the the space. They’re CSA customers or people who like to
farm’s operations. come walk, enjoy the space, bring the kids while we’re
working. There’s an appreciation for us using the space
Galloway says she never intended the farm to provide her this way.”
with full-time income. She says she is more comfortable
approaching it as a part-time job, supplementing her There were formal events, too: Galloway organized poetry
farm income as a sign-painter. While she likes the idea readings, dinners, open houses, and pop-up farm stands,
of earning full-time income from farming (“It’s definitely which provided about 15% of the overall farm income.
full-time work,” she says), their unstable land tenure made Little City Garden hosted a Winter Fair featuring local
having two income streams a risk management strategy. artists and craftspeople selling holiday gifts, music, food,
farm tours, and other activities. The free event also offered
“In talking about the viability of urban farming as a a raffle for prizes donated by partner restaurants and other
profession, I think it makes sense as a part-time profession vendors as a fundraiser for the farm. In May 2016, the
regardless of the cost of living,” she says. Part-time farming farm hosted a Spring Fair with many of the same activities,
affords “the combination of the cultural richness you get and included a plant sale and educational opportunities
in the city and a connection to soil and more natural and to teach attendees how to grow food and flowers in their
agricultural systems.” backyards or on fire escapes.
Little City Gardens offered open volunteer hours 12-4 Sales of crops, however, was the core income for the farm.
pm most Wednesdays. A consistent core of volunteers
participated most of the 2015 season and provided an
opportunity for Galloway to connect with and teach others Support
about farming. One of Little City Gardens’ earliest supporters was its
original landlord. Though he was actively trying to sell
Galloway also offered a summer flower apprenticeship it for development at the time, Galloway says he
program in the 2015 season. During the two-and-a-half- recognized the benefits of having a farm on the once
month apprenticeship, three participants came once each vacant, weedy parcel: “we were actively using the space,
week to learn flower-specific production practices, help keeping it safe and locked-up, generated a lot of neighbor
with harvest, and arrange bouquets. The apprentices goodwill, and [were] essentially his caretakers while he
traded their time and bouquet-making for education, pursued development.”
experience, and produce and flowers to take home.

113
 Mayor Ed Lee, accompanied by Supervisors David Chiu
and Eric Mar, signed the legislation into law. Galloway also
spoke in support of the law and urban farms at the event.

The neighborhood association continued to be a

proponent of Little City Gardens. Their “Save The Farm”
campaign posted yellow signs with the slogan in nearly
every neighborhood window, and when District Supervisor
John Avalos came to the neighborhood association to
discuss the school, 75 of 77 neighbors who attended spoke
to him in favor of the farm.

Policies Impacting Success

Former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an
executive directive in 2009 pushing city agencies to
A neighbor shows support for Little City Gardens by advance policies to provide ‘healthy and sustainable food’
posting “Save The Farm” flyers, as did many of the farm’s throughout the food system.133 Galloway and Budner
neighbors. referenced that directive frequently as they advocated
for zoning changes and raised money for their endeavors,
David Hooper agrees: “[This empty parcel that] had been reinforcing the importance of what Little City Gardens was
kept at arm’s length became a common link [for the attempting to do.
neighborhood]. A few neighbors might not get along with
each other, but everybody gets along with Caitlyn. Instead Little City Gardens gained legal status and legitimacy
of it being a barrier, the farm became a point of unity— following the passage of the UA zoning amendment, but
people wanted this to happen.” it still faced the challenge of land tenure. Even before the
property came up for sale again in 2013, Galloway worked
Neighbors also attended the packed planning commission with several advocates, including Heisler who had previous
meeting where public comment was heard regarding experience with rural land trusts, to determine whether
proposed UA legislation. Galloway and Budner were a land trust purchase might be a viable option. While the
responsible in part for the commission review in the first group could not come up with financial numbers that
place. They had partnered with Eli Zigas of SPUR, a Bay might entice a land trust, it did discuss the possibility of a
Area planning and urban advocacy organization, to petition tax incentive to encourage landowners to work with urban
the commission to allow a zoning change that would make farmers.134
Little City Gardens legal.
Galloway and Budner successfully petitioned the San
When Little City Gardens started, said Zigas, “it was a grey Francisco Public Utilities Commission for assistance
area in planning code.” A zoning administrator determined installing a water meter. Neither of the property owners
that the farm’s produce sales were commercial activity in was interested in paying $7,000 for meter installation, and
a residential neighborhood, which was prohibited. “They the farm could not afford to do it, particularly with no sure
could have decided to pursue conditional use, or try to land tenure. Galloway and Budner met with the water
change the zoning code,” said Zigas. “But Caitlyn and department several times explaining their situation, and
Brooke, being the activists they are, said, ‘let’s change within a year of their conversations, they were invited to
the law.’” apply to be the first grantees of newly-initiated Community
Garden Irrigation Meter Grant Program. The program
The zoning ordinance, passed in 2011, allows, among subsidizes the cost of hook-up and meter installation for
other things, “neighborhood gardens” of less than one qualifying applicants.135 Little City Gardens got its own
acre in any zone, with the ability to sell from the site. Little water meter in 2011.
City Gardens was the site of the press conference where

133  Executive Directive No. 09-03. (2009, July 9) “Healthy Sustainable Food for San Francisco.”
134  California State Assembly Bill 551, establishing urban agriculture incentive zones, was passed in 2013. San Francisco was the first city in the
state to adopt and implement it in August 2014.
135  For more information on grant details and qualifications, visit http://sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=469

114
The city also offers a landscape rebate program, which Ultimately, the local zoning board found in favor of a
offers discounted water use for uses, like agriculture, that developer eager to build on the parcel, and Little City
do not contribute to stormwater runoff into the city’s Garden’s lease was terminated. Galloway now faces
combined sewer system.136 Nevertheless, Galloway says new challenges of determining if and where she might
her water rates, which are based on her residential zoning, farm next.
are still high. “If I had long-term tenure here, and we
were geared up to tackle the next big issue, I would start Promise of Urban Agriculture
arguing for some conversations on water rates for ag use,”
she says. Galloway, an artist as much as a farmer, considers Little
City Gardens “closer to an art project than anything else…
a set of constantly-evolving questions and constantly-
Assets and Challenges evolving techniques and media even [more] than a
Framing Little City Gardens as an “experiment” made conclusive, confident set of answers.”
it easier for Galloway to communicate failures and
challenges. “That framing is helpful for me and the While Little City Gardens became a profitable business
community because the dialogue and the observations supporting two farmers part-time, Galloway says its
we’re collecting are as important as whatever profit we success feels secondary to what happened on the farm.
make or our final product,” she says. “So much of what we do is community-oriented and
community-focused…and it’s clear to me that our selling of
Galloway said that the geological history of the site is one vegetables and marketing of edible flowers and arranging
of her greatest assets because while it was long considered of bouquets is…not so much our product as our currency:
undevelopable, it was suitable for farming. Despite the the way that we allow for the space to exist. To me, the
investment in the soil and creation of a community space, produce and flowers we grow are the means to the end,
Galloway says visiting developers viewed it as an empty which is the existence of this place.”
lot, even as they praise its bounty.
“I think that’s something unique about urban farming.
“A lot of the successes we see here aren’t quantifiable,” Whereas, a rural farm is a place for a family, or a collection
she continues. “Like the relationships and the appreciation of families, or the immediate community, I feel like placing
people have for even just the aesthetics of the site. [And that kind of activity in a city allows for the appreciation

“
that appreciation] gets more developed and nuanced and enjoyment by such an extended community. It doesn’t
from there. But, none of that is quantifiable in the eyes of come across in any of the financial figures—they’re just a
whoever’s wanting to know.” snapshot of how we’re keeping this going. But, what we’re
keeping going is so much more than the business itself: it’s
such a place [we’ve created] in the city.”

This is not an empty lot: it’s got a very valid use on it that a lot of people
appreciate and is productive. But, for all intents and purposes, when you’re
thinking about this as real estate, it’s empty and unused. And that feels like
a real problem.
— Caitlyn Galloway
Little City Gardens

136  http://www.urbanaglaw.org/water/#Water_Discounts_and_Subsidies

115
Karen Fresh Garden, Kansas City, KS
New Americans Rooted through Farming
Themes: Full-time owners, Owner food security, Multi-farm efforts, Incubator farm trainee, Signature
product — ethnic vegetables.

History
“I don’t know if we really have a farm here,” laughs Lay
Htoo, a Burmese refugee in her fifties, as she flicks her
hand toward the area behind her house. She has farmed
for nearly three decades, but her modest one-acre plot
in northwest Kansas City, KS (known locally as “KCK”) is
the first she has wholly owned, since resettling in the
United States.

With her daughter acting as interpreter, she and her friend

and fellow farmer, Pay Lay, agree that American’s “don’t do
farming like they do in Myanmar.” Still, says Lay Htoo, with
her other options of working for a factory or company, she
would rather be farming. “It was my plan when I moved
Lay Htoo shares a taste of her spinach crop with visitors
here,” she says.
to Karen Fresh Garden.
Lay Htoo and Pay Lay are among the hundreds of Burmese
refugees who have settled in Kansas City. They are both provided free of charge. Refugee farmers keep all money
of the Karen ethnic minority, one of 130 recognized they earn from selling their produce. New Roots has
ethnicities in Burma, or Myanmar.137 Other ethnic Karen stands at several area farmers markets where trainees sell
people, including Pay Lay’s sister and farming partner, collaboratively, and as farmers build their skills, New Roots
Beh Paw, as well as other Burmese ethnic groups live in helps them establish their own stands at farmers markets.
northeast Kansas. Somali, Congolese, Bhutanese, and now
Syrian refugees have also been resettled in Kansas City in But, New Roots is more than a farm incubator. Trainees
significant numbers. participate in weekly classes, including interpretive
services for those who cannot understand or are learning
Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas is one of several to speak English. Classes vary based on seasonal tasks,
agencies helping refugees acclimate to their new home. from seeding schedules to marketing skills, and are
It provides immigration and legal services, translation, supported by the option to participate in ESL classes to
English language courses, and connects refugees to help farmers communicate with customers.
other agencies for health, social, and cultural services. In
2008, Catholic Charities launched a new refugee support Katherine Kelly, Executive Director of Cultivate Kansas
program called New Roots for Refugees in partnership City, says the choice to focus on direct retail at farmers’
with Cultivate Kansas City, an urban farm and UA advocacy markets was deliberate. “Farmers markets are the best
organization. The four-year program recruits refugees to place to develop your skills, and your business,” she says,
farm ¼-acre plots at its 9-acre training farm at Juniper particularly because farmers get direct feedback and are
Gardens, a public housing development in northeast KCK. challenged to communicate.

Refugees invited into the program are given their plot to Catholic Charities helps New Roots trainees set up savings
farm all four years they are in the program. Supplies are accounts for their earnings. The goal, says Kelly, is that
subsidized, and tools, refrigeration, and transportation are trainees save the money they earn while farming at

137  Refugee Populations. (n.d.) Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Retrieved from http://www.kdheks.gov/olrh/RefugeePop.htm

116
Juniper Gardens to be able to purchase their own plots Burmese people moving to the neighborhood.” Lay Htoo,
upon graduation. They also help trainees obtain their own Pay Lay and her sister, and another New Roots graduate
tax ID number and FSA farm number and help them set up each have farms within a mile and a half of one another.
their farm businesses as sole proprietorships.

Kelly says engaging refugees in farming works because Farm Description

it is a skillset from their home country. New Roots helps Lay Htoo cultivates about a half-acre of her long, narrow
refugees gain confidence and acumen in other areas by lot. Crop rows run north-south, taking advantage of the
building on their farming skills and desire to farm. For lot’s length. There are several large trees in neighboring
many, it is also an opportunity to grow and sell fruits and yards that provide some early and late-day shade. The
vegetables that are native to their home countries, but lot is fenced in on all sides—low enough to interact with
hard to find in Kansas City. neighbors but not high enough to keep deer out of the
garden. In 2015, Lay Htoo built a high tunnel after receiving
Lay Htoo says she knew she wanted to farm in Kansas City an NRCS EQIP grant.
before she even arrived. Pay Lay agrees, saying she hoped
to do what she had done back in Myanmar. The women Lay Htoo’s farm set-up is similar to her friend Pay Lay’s:
are two of four who graduated as New Roots’ inaugural irrigation is done by hand with a hose—no drip tape—
class in 2011—they expedited their training, and Lay Htoo, which runs off the house meter. They pay residential
who joined in 2010, only farmed at Juniper Gardens for water rates, including sewage and stormwater tax, but
two years before purchasing her own land. According to Ellingsworth says KCK Water Services Department is
Alicia Ellingsworth, the Cultivate Kansas City’s Program working on a solution to this. Neither have a need for any
Manager for the training farm, they are some of the most other utilities on the farm.
successful farmers of New Roots’ graduates.
Tool sheds hold hand-tools (most work is done by hand), as
well as weedwackers and lawn mowers. Lay Htoo and Pay
Community Description Lay each own a Tillie electric walk-behind tiller, which they
Since 2006, 148,957 Burmese have resettled in the use for bed preparation. Pay Lay has a shade structure and
United States. Burmese refugees make up 24 percent of wash station; Lay Htoo does not, but would like to build
all accepted refugees to the United States, more than one. Neither has cold storage, and Lay Htoo says keeping
any other country.138 According to the Office for Refugee produce in her cellar until market does a good job for now.
Resettlement, housed in the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 951 Burmese were resettled in Lay Htoo pays the mortgage on her home and lot, as
Kansas between 2012 and 2015, making up nearly half well as property taxes. Both farmers are required by
of resettled refugees in that time period.139 Though the farmers markets at which they sell, to carry product
KCK’s Burmese refugee population is not the largest in liability insurance at a rate of $35 per week.
the country—parts of Texas140 and Indiana141 outnumber
them—they have been the largest refugee group in Kansas Production Practices
for most of the past ten years. Ellingsworth says there are The farming practices of New Roots graduates are nearly
many ethnic community gardens in KCK, and they are one identical, as all receive the same training. Seeding of early
of the primary places from which New Roots recruits. crops begins in February, and the growing season spans
Lay Htoo’s farm is behind her modest single-story home from April to October.
on the one-acre lot she purchased with her family in 2011. New Roots teaches trainees about using organic practices,
She says she chose this house because it came with good which are not too different from how many trainees were
soil. By all accounts, the neighborhood is changing: though accustomed to farming in their home countries. It does
Lay Htoo’s neighbors are “American,” there are “a lot of not encourage farmers to become certified organic, in part
because their customers do not demand it, and because

138  Zong, J. and Batalova, J. (2015, October 28). Refugees and Asylees in the United States. Migration Policy Institute. Retrived from http://www.
migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states#Refugee%20Countries%20of%20Origin.
139  Office of Refugee Resettlement. (2015, November 24). Refugee Arrival Data. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/resource/refugee-
arrival-data.
140  Toppa, S. (2015, October 13). ‘It Will Be Better’: Burmese refugees struggle on road to America. NBC News http://www.nbcnews.com/news/
asian-america/it-will-be-better-burmese-refugees-struggle-road-america-n440421.
141  Puente, M. (2007, September 30). Buremese refugees find new home in Indiana. Retrived from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.
php?storyId=14841071.
117
obtaining and maintaining certification can be difficult for or sell to friends or other family members. Lay Htoo says
refugees with low English proficiency. Lay Htoo says she she has tried to sell Burmese vegetables at the farmers
plans to pursue organic certification in the future. market, but customers said they did not know what to do
with water spinach, lemongrass, or Thai chili peppers. But,
Ellingsworth and Sam Davis, the site manager at Juniper American customers do like Thai eggplants, she says.
Gardens Training Farm, work intensively with trainees
to keep records: seeding dates, planting and transplant She continues to expand her production as well as her
dates, yields, and sales. They say Lay Htoo is an excellent cropping choices. Lay Htoo grew ginger, turmeric, and
record keeper not shy about her skills. Ellingsworth says galangal for the 2016 season. She also successfully grows
her fellow farmers look up to her for her expertise in tropical papayas and pineapples, and maintains banana
recordkeeping, growing, and marketing. trees—an impressive feat in an area that can chill to -10F.
Lay Htoo is growing more spinach because of her high
Lay Htoo, Pay Lay, and their graduation cohort still learn tunnel, and devoted more space to fall-planted garlic.
from one another. Ellingworth says they often consult with
one another about production issues before asking Davis, New Roots graduates continue to participate in group-
who maintains close relationships with graduates. purchasing of inputs for their individual farms. New
Roots puts in bulk orders for chicken manure, straw, and
New Roots trainees are coached in planting varieties that compost, which graduates pay for and arrange for pick-
grow well and are in high demand, but make their own up or drop-off. Similarly, Catholic Charities purchases
crop planning choices. Instructors give trainees advice but marketing supplies like paper pulp quart containers
don’t prevent them from making mistakes—Davis says it and bags in bulk for New Roots trainees and graduates,
is the only way to become a better grower. Trainees learn reducing costs.
to make annual cropping plans, and Lay Htoo and Pay
Lay say their cropping plans are their primary planning Though graduates like Lay Htoo and Pay Lay know about
documents. They try to rotate crops seasonally and do not crop planning and keeping produce fresh for market, they
practice cover-cropping in winter. are not familiar with other food safety regulations. This,
says Ellingsworth, is one place where New Roots needs
to expand its training. “At Juniper there are workshops
for harvesting and post-harvest handling: keeping food at
temperature, safe handling practices, etc.,” she says. And
though trainees know how to wash produce carefully and
keep it cool, they do not have written plans. She hopes to
incorporate food safety planning and mobile cooling units
for transport to market at Juniper Gardens in the future.

Business Structure
Meredith Walrafen, Catholic Charities’ New Roots for
Refugees Coordinator, says Catholic Charities tries to
make setting up a business as easy and straightforward
as possible for trainees. They help register trainees as
sole proprietors of businesses, and register them for sales
tax ID numbers and licenses in their own names: Kansas
charges sales tax on all food.
Lay Htoo of Karen Fresh Garden erected a high tunnel
The trainees also receive classes in business planning,
in her backyard where she also grows a wide variety of
marketing and sales, and their records and crop plans
crops outdoors.
provide guidance to the business from year to year.
Catholic Charities offers a workshop for all refugees on
Lay Htoo says she grows a little bit of everything. She taxes and works with farmers to report their farm income.
grows “American vegetables” to sell at the farmers market Most farmers and trainees work with a local Burmese-run
like cooking greens, arugula, and spinach. She also grows tax preparation service, which mitigates language and
“Burmese vegetables” and will keep them for home use literacy challenges.

118
Marketing and Sales
New Roots trainees begin selling their produce at farmers
markets around the city, first collectively through the
New Roots stand, then on their own. Once they graduate,
farmers usually stay at the same farmers markets to build
on the customer base they developed over several years.

Lay Htoo sells at two farmers markets in the Kansas City

area, including the Overland Park Farmers Market which
is held on Wednesdays and Saturdays in a large outdoor
pavilion. She used to have a CSA, as Pay Lay does
currently, but stopped it in 2014 because of the growth in
her market sales.

Graduates can also market produce through Cultivate

Kansas City’s Gibbs Road Farm. Gibbs Road Farm is a
model and demonstration farm that hosts workshops Cultivate Kansas City, which runs the Juniper Garden
and apprenticeships, and earns over $100,000 in annual Training Farm, occasionally assists Juniper Gardens
revenue. It sells to farmers markets, its 40-member CSA, graduates with distribution, using its truck to deliver to
and to restaurants, and has started moving extra product local restaurants.
from graduate farms through its own distribution system
to restaurants. The Gibbs Farm coordinates with Lay Employees
Htoo to sell her late-winter high tunnel spinach to area
Lay Htoo does not have any employees. She manages
restaurants, freeing her up to prepare her farm for the
and executes all aspects of the farm, though family
next market season.
members will help her with some tasks. Lay Htoo’s family
The Kansas City metro area had 36 farmers markets is rewarded with access to the produce she grows—an
in 2016, many with two market days per week, and amount that is significant for household security, but
competition for customers is high. Sometimes graduates that she and most farmers (regardless of ethnicity) do
even find themselves competing against the New Roots not track.
stand or other trainee farmers at their farmers markets.
Though Lay Htoo says farmers at her markets are mostly Support
American, Ellingsworth estimates that up to 40 percent
Lay Htoo, Pay Lay, and other New Roots graduates provide
of farmers at all farmers markets in the Kansas City metro
one another constant advice and support. They buy seeds
area (including KC Missouri) are Asian.
together for lower prices, lend one another equipment,
“You have to be really nice to the customers and and talk about production problems.
encourage them to try things,” says Lay Htoo. She knows
New Roots for Refugees provides many support services
enough English to have basic conversations at the market.
to graduates, including technical farming advice,
Customers often ask her about where she comes from and
opportunities to apply for micro-grants, and continued
how people farm in Myanmar.
connection to Catholic Charities’ services. Lay Htoo and
“Even if I can’t speak the language, I will keep smiling and Pay Lay say Davis and Ellingworth are their main sources of
engage them,” she says through an interpreter. “You have information about farming, and Walrafen helps with legal
to try to engage everyone at the market.” She believes that and tax issues.
a farmer has to show up at the market every week and
This tax-filing aid is particularly helpful in filing state sales
have a continuous presence to build customers’ trust.
taxes, which are nearly nine percent on all food in Kansas.
Lay Htoo’s daughter set up a Facebook page for Karen Walrafen explains that sales tax can only be filed online,
Fresh Garden, but Lay Htoo rarely uses it or email. Instead, making it particularly difficult for refugee farmers who
she believes that her best marketing is her market displays. lack English and computer proficiency. And for those
“The merchandising is great, and the produce is really farmers who sell in both Kansas and Missouri, it is a double
pretty,” she says proudly. burden. “The sales tax system is just not set up for small
urban [farm] folks,” she says.

119
Lay Htoo received a Get Growing KC mini-grant, a grant Assets and Challenges
program set up by Cultivate Kansas City and Kansas City
Lay Htoo is grateful for the support she continues to
Community Gardens which helps urban growers start
receive from New Roots for Refugees and Catholic
and expand their farms. Her award from the NRCS EQIP
Charities. Davis has become a friend, and he helped her
program helped pay for her high tunnel, which in February
till her fields when she first bought the property. He
2016 had already produced more spinach than her farm
and Ellingsworth continue to give Lay Htoo and all other
produced without it in all of 2015.
graduates production advice and sales support.
Lay Htoo is eager to expand her network beyond KCK.
Aside from the deer that continue to wreak havoc
She has attended the Immigrant and Minority Farmers
among the vegetables, Lay Htoo’s biggest challenge is
Conference four times since 2011. The conference is free
communication. While she is talkative and expressive in
for farmers, and all workshops are interpreted. Walrafen,
her own language and highly respected among Burmese
who organizes New Roots trainees and graduates’
farmers, she is reluctant to speak English beyond her well-
conference logistics, says there are many ethnic Karen
rehearsed market conversation.
farmers at the conference. One reason Lay Htoo is eager
become organic-certified is to be able to share this with “In the market, I have to do many things: understanding
other farmers at this conference. paperwork, applications, selling. If New Roots didn’t help
fill out paperwork or translate letters, I would have a much
Policies Impacting Success harder time running my business,” she says. Though she
took English classes when she first arrived in the U.S., she
Kansas City, KS has been slower to embrace UA than
did not have time once she began farming.
Kansas City, MO (KCMO). Cultivate Kansas City, and other
advocacy groups, petitioned the KCMO city council for
zoning ordinance changes to permit UA, which it did Promise of Urban Agriculture
in June 2010. KCK has not passed such an ordinance Lay Htoo says she plans to farm in Kansas City, KS
yet, though agriculture is a permitted use on some “forever.” She has no desire to move to larger land and is
agriculturally zoned parcels within the Unified Government comfortable with the size of her farm and what she is able
of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS. Non-livestock to produce for farmers markets and her family and friends.
agriculture is permitted on some residentially zoned
parcels, including Lay Htoo’s property. While Karen Fresh Garden earns a good income for the
family, it is the food, not the money, that Lay Htoo finds
The Wyandotte County Unified Government Board of the most valuable. She says the promise of UA is “that
Commissioners passed an amendment in 2015 easing we can have our own vegetables and not buy them.
fees and restrictions on farmers markets. The KCK Farmers Unlike families at the market, we do not have to buy
Market Board, recognizing the health and community food.” After years in refugee camps and now 8,000 miles
benefits farmers markets provide, advocated for the from Myanmar, Karen Fresh Garden provides specialty
change, which reduced the special use permit fee required vegetables not locally available and assures food security
to hold a farmers market and lightens the administrative for Lay Htoo and her family.
burden on market officials.142

Ellingsworth says she does not think there are any

particular policies at New Roots that have positioned
farmers like Lay Htoo and Pay Lay to be some of the most
successful farmers the program has ever graduated. She
thinks they may have been some of the best-prepared and
most eager participants, though all program trainees value
the opportunity to farm and learn at Juniper Gardens. “It’s
great if someone has been growing in a community garden
for a couple years,” she says, “because they have an idea
[of what it takes] and a connection [to] farming.”

142  http://growingfoodconnections.org/news-item/coo-wyandotte-county-ks-ordinance-change-keeps-farmers-markets-flourishing/

120
Our School at Blair Grocery, New Orleans, LA
Rebuilding a Community through Farming and Food Access
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, On-farm events, Provides education
and training, Incubator farm trainee, Livestock.

History
“Someone said, ‘Do you want to garden?’ And I said,
‘Sure,’” remembers Nat Turner, 44, founder of Our School
at Blair Grocery (OSBG) in New Orleans Lower Ninth
Ward. From that simple start grew an urban farm and
education center that has faced complex and challenging
circumstances that tested former staff and students’ trust
and his own will to continue the project.

Turner, who is known to all by his last name, is a former

history teacher at New York City’s Beacon School. Three
months after resigning his teaching post in 2008, he
moved to New Orleans, where he had taken his classes on
volunteer-trips since Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
Inspirational messages under a shade structure at Our
decimated the area in 2005.
School at Blair Grocery.
He started a New Orleans garden of his own when Pam
Broome, the former deputy director of the New Orleans 8-month audit of the organization’s finances by USDA,
Food and Farm Network (NOFFN), offered him 25 cubic which eventually cleared it of wrongdoing. Then on July
yards of soil and 25 tomato plants. He planted them 26, 2013, city building inspectors abruptly evicted Turner
next to the building at 1740 Benton Street in the Lower and his staff from the former grocery.
Ninth Ward, formerly a neighborhood store known as
Blair Grocery. Three years later, OSBG is rebounding with a modified
mission. While youth engagement and education are still
The farm came together slowly at first: elderly neighbors central to its purpose, OSBG will refocus its efforts on
would come by to visit the tomatoes, then the baby chicks, providing food for the Lower Ninth Ward. It is expanding to
who eventually roosted in a chicken tractor. Turner was include a new school and a grocery store to serve
joined by former Beacon students to launch an alternative the community.
school in Blair Grocery. Its curriculum would combine paid
farm-work, job-readiness training, and sometimes even a Turner says people often tell him to just focus on one
place to sleep for teenagers in the Lower Ninth Ward. thing. But, if OSBG is only doing one thing, he counters,
“how do I change the neighborhood?”
From its mission to its milieu, Our School at Blair Grocery
quickly became a darling of the UA movement. Local and Community Description
national funders were eager to provide funding for the
project, which addressed the basic needs of some of New Many of the lots around Blair Grocery were abandoned
Orleans’ most resource-poor residents. Since its start, it after Katrina, as were several houses among the ones still
has drawn over 12,000 service learners from 49 states and standing. For the residents who remained, there were few
eight countries to learn and contribute to its cause. services and no grocery store.

Yet, OSBG nearly folded. In 2011, a schism among Turner’s

young staff over management and organizational direction
led to half of the staff and many students abandoning
the organization. Around the same time, OSBG’s handling
of grant-moneys was drawn into question, leading to an
121
 Ninety-six percent of Lower Ninth residents are African-
American. That is a slightly lower percentage than in 2000
(98.6 percent) and far higher than Orleans Parish then or
now (66.7 percent in 2000 and 60.5 percent in 2014).147
The median income in 2014 was around $25,300, with
approximately 28 percent of families living below the
federal poverty level.148

Ten years after the storm the neighborhood still has

very few services. A single small grocery store opened
in 2015 to much acclaim149, offering mostly packaged
and shelf-stable foods. There is one charter school in the
Lower Ninth Ward, one of a network of charters whose
success in improving primary and secondary education
in New Orleans is hotly debated.150 Approximately one in
three neighborhood residents, 18 years or older, has not
Devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward 6 months after graduated from high school.151
Katrina.
Farm Description
The Lower Ninth Ward143 is a 1.6 square mile rectangle OSBG owns six lots, four of which it bought from the
bordered to its north and west by shipping canals, to its New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) and two
east by St. Bernard Parish, and to its south the Holy Cross from private owners. It has typically also farmed other
neighborhood along the Mississippi River. In 2000, the abandoned lots adjacent to its own that are vacant and
population of the Lower Ninth was 14,008144; ten years whose owners either do not visit or cannot be contacted.
after Katrina flooded the neighborhood, the population is They set up an agreement with the Blair family to use its
only 3,300. Though there has been a noticeable increase former grocery for the classroom, equipment storage,
in people moving to the area, the majority of its former Cool-Bot-powered cold storage, and washing and packing
residents have not moved back. space.

Though the population has slightly increased, housing The Blair Grocery building fills the entire corner lot of 1740
stock continues to decline as more abandoned homes are Benton St. The building that housed OSBG’s earliest efforts
demolished. There were 5,600 housing units in the Lower in providing education and a safe space for local youth
Ninth Ward in 2000, just over 2,000 in 2010, and in 2014 is a simple construction of whitewashed cinderblocks
just 1,600.145 The vacancy rate has fallen since Katrina, but and mint-colored siding. Bars on the doors and windows
in 2014 was still an astonishing 34 percent.146 lock out trespassers—in spring of 2016, they were finally
approved for a building permit to redevelop the site.

143  U.S. Census ACS 5-year, 2014.

144  U.S. Census 2000 Demographic Profile
145  U.S. Census 2010 Demographic Profile
146  Ibid. U.S. Census 2000, ACS 2014
147  Ibid. Census 2000, Census 2010 and ACS 2014.
148  Ibid. Census ACS 2014.
149  Netter, S. (2016, April 7). How one man single-handedly opened the only grocery store in one of New Orleans’ poorest wards and inspired
Ellen DeGeneres. Washington Post website. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/04/07/how-one-man-
single-handedly-opened-the-only-grocery-store-in-one-of-new-orleans-poorest-wards-and-inspired-ellen-degeneres/
150  See for example Cimarusti, D. (2015). Policy Brief: should Louisiana and the Recovery School District receive accolades for being last and
nearly last? The Network for Public Education. Retrieved from http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2015/08/policy_brief_louisiana/#_edn1
and Gabor, A. (2015, August 22). The myth of the New Orleans school makeover. New York Times online. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.
com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-the-new-orleans-school-makeover.html
151  Lower Ninth Ward Statistics. (n.d.) The Data Center. Retrieved from http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/neighborhood-data/
district-8/Lower-Ninth-Ward/#educational-attainment

122
Blair Grocery spills over to the adjacent lot where a lean-
to attached to the side of the building provides shade,
storage, and affirmations painted on the building wall
and hanging from the rafters. Across the lot, a handmade
15x50’ high tunnel with a shade cloth houses Rupert, an
enormous pig, and occasionally the 22 white goats that
would rather be in the yard or naughtily exploring the lots
nearby. A chicken run at the back of the property hosts a
handful of hens.

Across Roman Street are OSBG’s main production lots.

A 30’ high tunnel is used for transplant propagation and
sprout-production. The other four on this block are used
for production and composting.

In 2016, OSBG gained access to four more lots on the block

through a NORA agreement, as part of a pilot project for Escaped goats clear the bramble that surrounds the Our
blighted property maintenance. It uses a moveable electric School at Blair Grocery property.
fence to graze its goats on a different portion of the ten
lots under its control to demonstrate an alternative to
traditional vacant property maintenance. Production Practices
“Anyone who was on the fence about the goats are Since 2008, Turner has focused on building up the soil
convinced and falling in love. They are the cutest and over the abandoned lots, which do not show any serious
quietest lawn mowers,” says Sam Kiyomi Turner (no contamination—remarkable since they once held houses
relation to Nat Turner), Projects Manager at OSBG. and then were under several feet of contaminated water.
It is treated with horse-bedding from a nearby stable and
One lot has a water meter hook-up for watering and compost.
irrigation. Overhead sprinkler systems are most often
used for irrigation. The farm has a DIY feeling of reuse and Sorting through compostables and making compost is a
adaptation: plywood is balanced atop old barrels which big task at OSBG. The on-site compost pile is fed by
substitute for greenhouse benches, and most of its donated produce from a Whole Foods Market a few
inputs come from what it can gather for free (see miles away. The farm absorbs 10-15 produce cartons of
Production Practices). compostables five to six days a week. Some compostables
are siphoned off for feeding the animals. The rest goes
The farm’s single piece of large equipment is a “Life Trac” atop a colorful four-foot pile, yielding approximately 130
tractor, designed, built, and donated by Open Source cubic feet of compost.
Ecology, founded and operated by physicist and inventor of
the “Global Village Construction Set” Marcin Jakubowski.152 Still, OSBG chooses crops and planting techniques that
The Erector-Set-like tractor breaks down from time minimally disturb the soil, and in 2016 began to practice
to time, says Turner, who was awaiting Jakubowski’s no-till farming. Its main crop since 2010 has been arugula,
assistance with a recent mechanical problem. In the which Turner says has the double value of being high-
meantime, he and his crew will move compost value to customers and low-value to neighbors who may
with shovels. not know what it is. In the height of the season, Turner
estimates they sell about 100 lbs of arugula a week.

152  Open Source Ecology and Jakubowski’s work have been profiled in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, among other places, and Jakubowski’s
TED Talk has been viewed 1.3 million times. Its partnership with OSBG was turned into a documentary, Reversing the Mississippi, which aired on
the PBS program America Reframed April 14, 2016. For more on Open Source Ecology, see http://opensourceecology.org/

123
Peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant also grow in
smaller quantities. Turner says they are often given away
to youth working for OSBG, neighbors, or disappear, likely
into other homes in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Turner prefers to call the farm “sustainable,” saying

he does not have any intention of certifying the city
properties as organic. In addition to horse-bedding and
compost, the farm uses OMRI-certified fertilizers of blue-
green algae and composted chicken manure, and makes
its own pesticides with soaps, cayenne pepper, garlic, and
essential oils.

Produce is usually harvested and sold within the same

day, and transported into the denser parts of the city in
Turner’s well-worn Subaru. The southern growing season
allows the farm to produce and sell nearly year-round, Microgreens and other starts in the high tunnel balance
though Turner says the summer heat can make it difficult on makeshift tables, part of OSBG’s philosophy of
to convince the youth employed by OSBG to show up repurposing waste.
for work.

The farm now separates its production farming from After losing nonprofit status, two of OSBG’s staff and
its educational garden areas. The strategy gives students Turner’s former high school students, Kiyomi Turner and
a place to learn without damaging crops destined Alex Goldman, split off the production and sales portion of
for market. the business into Blair Grocery LLC. While OSBG sorts out
its business filings, the LLC continues to sell produce and
“There’s a difference between teaching-farming and work to fix other aspects of the business.
production-farming, and often the teaching-farming
messes up the production-farming,” smiles Turner, who The organization’s business difficulties began in late
is eager to do both. Since its inception in 2009, the 2010. That year OSBG received hundreds of thousands of
organization estimates it has grown over 80,000 pounds dollars in grants and donations, including a $50,000
of food. grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and $299,600
in a USDA Community Food Program grant to fund its
Turner, who has no agricultural background, says he youth education program, to help its growing operation
learned farming techniques through trial and error, advice come to scale, and complete other community
from older neighbors who grew up on farms, and from a development activities.
course with Growing Power in Milwaukee. Growing Power
even brought a group of volunteers to New Orleans to help After the organization could not account for how it
OSBG build its sprouting and transplant hoop house, which spent about $200,000 of its grant-money and filed for
Turner says cost about $1,500 in materials to build. an extension on its taxes, its grant was audited by USDA.
The funds were frozen for eight months before the USDA
cleared the organization of any wrongdoing.153
Business Structure
OSBG has been registered as a nonprofit since 2009. Its Kiyomi Turner and Goldman have taken on much of the
nonprofit status was revoked in November 2014 due recordkeeping, bookkeeping, grant-writing and liaising
to delinquent paperwork, according to Turner. NOFFN with city agencies. Meanwhile, Turner focuses on the
continues to act as its fiscal sponsor as it works to regain expansion of OSBG. It received a $150,000 low-interest
its independent nonprofit status. loan through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to
make improvements to its grounds, renovate the grocery
building for educational programming, and start planning
for an actual grocery store.

153  An investigative report of OSBG was conducted in 2011 regarding its finances and staffing (see Employees). Cohen, A. “Pioneer of urban farm
and school learns lessons of his own, hopes struggles lead to success.” The Lens, August 11, 2011. Accessed August 7, 2016 at http://thelensnola.
org/2011/08/18/pioneer-of-urban-farm-and-school-learns-lessons-of-his-own-hopes-struggles-lead-to-success/

124
The planned grocery store is slated to sell OSBG produce In the past, OSBG has hosted Americorp volunteers to
and produce from other local growers alongside pantry work as classroom and farm-based educators. It also
staples and even some packaged and processed foods. It occasionally hosts full-time apprentices from colleges in
may be difficult to get their neighbors comfortable with a and around New Orleans as well as agriculture-oriented
different store environment focused more heavily on fresh colleges around the country. It has hosted and worked
and whole foods, admits Turner. “But then how do we with more than 20 of such long-term staff since its start.
move people a little bit out of their comfort zone to bring
it up a notch? And where are those battles to be fought?” Seven full-time staff, Americorp volunteers and
Turner sees the next battleground for the Lower Ninth apprentices, abruptly left OSBG in 2011 in what Turner
Ward in the grocery aisle. describes as “the coup.” In late 2010, Turner halted the
education program due to budget difficulties that related
to its troubled recordkeeping and cash-based system of
Marketing and Sales farm and program management. Many of the staff, in
Restaurants have been OSBG’s primary sales outlet since their late teens and early twenties, were furious that the
it began to get press in 2010. Celebrity chef Emeril Lagassi programming they were brought on to execute was halted,
began buying from the farm, as does the Link Restaurant and quit.154
Group which includes James Beard Award winning
restaurants Cochon and Pêche. “Some of it feels like the growing pains of a small
organization that grows rapidly,” says Kiyomi Turner, who
Turner says the Link restaurants, which are near one weathered the organizational turmoil. “There wasn’t any
another in the Lower Garden District, are particularly great good system set up for dealing with conflict and differing
customers. Not only does their proximity make delivery ideologies. Also, [the staff were] inexperienced people
easy, but their high standards for quality and freshness, given a lot of say and a lot of power, who had been
along with white-tablecloth prices, mean that OSBG can working for a long time without being compensated much,
charge seven dollars per pound for its arugula. “You can’t and not getting the spotlight or recognition. All those
beat seven dollars a pound with a stick!” declares Turner. things balled up into conflicts.”

Media coverage of OSBG has provided much of its free In addition to building productive conflict resolution and
publicity and marketing. Goldman manages its Facebook, what Kiyomi Turner calls a “lexicon of critique” into its
Instagram, and Twitter accounts after receiving advice organizational culture, the organization is looking to hire
from social media consultants. Social media, says Turner, more experienced staff. “We are moving to having interns
is geared more toward raising awareness about the farm who are coming out of farming programs who come with
and its programming, which attracts customers interested some basic knowledge and recommendation of their
in their work. people,” says Turner, who hopes to have three apprentices
each season.
About 28 percent of OSBG’s total revenue in 2015
came from hosting educational events and trainings, On average the organization employs 12 youth aged 15-18
off-site speaking engagements, and sales of compost throughout the year, though in 2015 it decreased its youth
and merchandise. These earnings plus produce sales staff. Each works for eight hours a week to do basic farm
allowed OSBG to cover 83 percent of its 2015 budget. work alongside OSBG staff and receive $50-100 in cash
The remainder came from grants and fundraising, which per week. According to Turner, most youth do not have
includes fundraising for educational programming and bank accounts, and cash is easier for them to use. OSBG
capital improvements to the farm. staff work with the youth on the same principles they
teach in afterschool programming, incentivizing youth to
participate by paying them for their work.
Employees
OSBG’s staff has grown and shrunk based on its “Having kids [work on the farm] is tough,” says Turner, who
programming and finances. Turner brought on his former relates stories of youth not coming to work yet wanting to
students from the Beacon School, including Goldman and be paid, coming late, doing low-quality work, and lacking
Kiyomi Turner, to help with all aspects of the operation, respect for the people around them. But, that is the work,
from production through educational programming. says Turner, not a deterrent to it.
Turner’s husband, Rob Huffman, does production and
facilities construction at OSBG.

154  Cohen, A. 2011.

125
OSBG gets hundreds of volunteers each year, says Turner. Turner received a scholarship to attend Growing Power’s
“Everyone wants to come save New Orleans,” says Commercial Urban Agriculture training program. Over the
Turner wryly, “especially the poor black kids in the Lower course of the five-month program, says Turner, Growing
Ninth Ward.” Still volunteers from other urban farming Power’s founder Will Allen, gave him stern advice: “You
organizations, schools, colleges, and church groups can’t do educational stuff and grow food—you have to
around the country visit the farm every year to work on do one or the other, Nat.” But Turner, who saw Growing
construction and repair projects at the farm. Power doing both itself, was unmoved and further
emboldened to push forward.
Other Activities/Services
OSBG offers summer and after-school programs and has Policies Impacting Success
worked with over 140 youth in New Orleans. Its after- The New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Council, of which
school program runs for two hours a day, four days a week, NOFFN is a member, advocated with other interested
and is open for youth to join. One hour is dedicated to groups for a change to the city’s comprehensive zoning
classroom time, which focuses on a curriculum meant to ordinance regarding urban farming. The updated
empower youth with life-skills: “being respectful, being on- comprehensive zoning ordinance, released in August
time, respecting yourself and others, dealing with stress,” 2015, allows farm office buildings and water catchment for
says Turner. These topics are reinforced in the second hour farms, both previously illegal.
outside when youth learn about farming principles and can
become responsible for their own projects. Still, there are problems with the ordinance. Marianne
Cufone, Founder and Executive Director of the
OSBG employs its “good work rubric” to help youth Recirculating Farms Coalition and an agriculture lawyer,
develop and measure the growth of their soft-skills and was deeply involved in writing the ordinance, but says
capabilities. The rubric, which OSBG staff use as well, has educating city officials takes time. She and her colleagues
proven effective also at cultivating accountability and are working to amend overly-restrictive portions of the
leadership in participants. ordinance, including a stringent definition of “processing”
(cutting greens off a carrot counts as processing in the
Support current definition) and the inability to sell produce on
the farm.
OSBG is one of the few farming organizations that has
managed to purchase property from NORA. Its original “I’ve seen produce sales happen on the street like drug
purchase of four lots was not part of a program, and deals,” says Cufone, who also works at the state level to
Kiyomi Turner says it has become increasingly difficult to make UA viable.
purchase land in New Orleans.
Cufone also says New Orleans’ Sewer and Water Board
OSBG struck up a new agreement with NORA through its has made it possible for property owners who use a lot
Growing Green program, which manages vacant lots by for nothing other than farming to reduce their water bill
providing them to urban gardeners and farmers. OSBG by eliminating the sewage charge. However, the City’s
maintains Growing Green lots on its block by grazing its demanding requirements to receive this reduction and
goats, piloting a new potential business. Though Growing the high cost of necessary infrastructure do not make it an
Green requires at least one million dollars in liability accessible option.155
insurance, a program through New Orleans nonprofit
Parkway Partners has helped OSBG and other members Prior to these changes, OSBG received a variance to farm
get free liability insurance for Growing Green properties. in 2012. Turner says the process was relatively easy. An
intern at the time compiled agricultural zoning ordinances
OSBG has received funding from several regional and policies from around the country—Cleveland, Ashville,
and national funders, including the Bornstein Family Milwaukee, and others—and the OSBG team compiled
Foundation, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the those they thought the most relevant to their situation
W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the USDA Community and the city. It also asked its neighbors to sign a petition
Food Program (see Finances). It also accepts individual agreeing the farm was a good idea.
donations and regularly applies for smaller grants.

155  Vickery, K.K. 2014. Barriers and Opportunities for Commercial Urban Farming: Case Studies from Austin, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Accessed August 22, 2016 at https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/vickery_report_20142__2_.pdf

126
Yet, gaining long-term access to land is still difficult, says seemed like an afterthought,” he says. He realizes with
Cufone. NORA leases are just two dollars per year, but are hindsight that hiring an accountant, “which seemed like
revocable any time, making it difficult to plan a farming an unnecessary expense” at the time, could have and
business. Parkway Partners offers some land for lease, still can help. “We have some semblance of a system,
but does not sell it. Meanwhile, says Cufone, “There are and it’s working,” says Kiyomi Turner, who still thinks
40,000 empty lots in the city, but nobody can get it. People an accountant or financial advisor would be beneficial
are sitting on it hoping that New Orleans becomes the next and acknowledges that “everyone is more diligent” with
Dubai. And if they’re willing to let you use it, the terms are financial records now.
so disadvantageous as to not be worth it.” Thus it seems
OSBG’s early moves to farm in the city had advantages that OSBG’s positive press and strong partnerships are growing,
are now out of reach for many would-be urban farmers. and Turner is focused on the future ahead: a renovated
school, a grocery store, better jobs for youth, and
eliminating the Lower Ninth Ward ‘food desert.’
Assets and Challenges
Our School at Blair Grocery’s high profile in local and Promise of Urban Agriculture
national media has been both an asset and a challenge.
It has won them customers, funding, and invitations to “If you’re falling off the side of the mountain and I am
speaking events around the country. Yet, it has also drawn helping you up, what’s more helpful? If I grab your finger
negative attention. by my finger, or if I grab your wrist with all five fingers, and
you grab mine?” asks Turner. This is his analogy for how he
“There are so many haters, people who belittle the hopes Our School at Blair Grocery can change the Lower
work we do,” says Turner. “Some people don’t like us Ninth Ward: a wrap-around approach to ending food
because of our ideas,” he says, referring to some of the deserts.
more progressive messages of empowerment and self-
determination OSGB teaches youth. “Open a grocery store in a food desert with its own farm.
Buy as much locally-sourced [product] as you can. Do
But, Kiyomi Turner sees the organization’s “tendency to the impossible,” says Turner. “It’s literacy, poverty, home
blame things on external factors” as a greater inhibitor of environment, schools, violence, drugs, all these things. You
its potential success. “We have a tendency to not ask what have to move all those things to move it along.”
we can do differently, and it prevents us from learning
and growing. We fall easily into holding patterns to wait Like Our School, Turner hopes the future Our Store at Blair
for other stuff to happen rather than chugging along and Grocery can help the neighborhood and pique the interest
adapting. I feel like we’ve wasted time on waiting for of people looking to make changes to their lives or the
things to happen.” world around them.

Another challenge is getting the farm to look presentable “For the Millennial generation, there’s a real interest in
for volunteers, tourists, and neighbors. “We have more changing: themselves, their society, their parents, the
people coming through here, and if I could get some grant things that are wrong, the things that they perceive are
money to just fix it up and make it look nicer, that would wrong,” says Turner. Urban farms, he says, can act as a

“
be great,” says Turner. Though the DIY-approach has showcase for young people looking to make those changes
helped the farm survive, Turner says he thinks it would be and even inspire young people to take up farming.
more successful if the team could “make it look nice: put
up a nice fence, get some tools, rewrap our hoop houses,
so they don’t look so raggedy, buying some real shelving.” The next generation of people who will feed
America will not be born on farms but will
Kiyomi Turner also notes that basic inefficiencies
come from the city and go out onto a farm.
compound over time: “We’ve been working on a lot of
things that take a long time that shouldn’t take as long: That’s what I’m doing with my life.
tools not in the right place, stuff lost, hoses not rolled up.
They become pretty big mental barriers. We waste energy Note: After some hoped-for funding for an urban-rural
and time on things that should be good to go.” hybrid farm fell through, Turner decided to close Our
This lack of detail-oriented organizing impacts the farm’s School at Blair Grocery in 2018. While former employees
financials, too. “I’m still paying for problems from 2009,” of the farm have moved on to other pursuits, urban
says Kiyomi Turner. “No one here really has experience agriculture continues to blossom in the Lower Ninth Ward.
in running a business or nonprofit, so the finances

127
Rising Pheasant Farm, Detroit, MI
Focus on Efficiency and Costs to Farm Debt Free
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners, Community revitalizing, SNAP/Double-up
programs, Owner food security, Signature product — sprouts.

History
“My husband has a degree in urban planning, and I’m
a farmer. That’s how you end up as a farmer in the
city, I guess,” jokes Carolyn Leadley, owner of Rising
Pheasant Farm.

In truth, it was farming that brought Leadley to the city.

After earning a degree in plant ecology at the University
of Michigan, she moved to Detroit to take a job with
Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit organization working to
improve life in Detroit by creating beautiful and productive
green spaces. The AmeriCorps position placed her at
Catherine Ferguson Academy, a public high school for
pregnant teens and young mothers, where she worked
Pea shoots emerging in the greenhouse at Rising
with science teacher Paul Weertz to operate its
Pheasant Farm.
renowned school garden which included orchards,
livestock, and a barn.

That first farm job launched Leadley into a tour of

possibilities for UA in Detroit. She worked for Earthworks shelves in the refrigerator, and began growing sunflower
Urban Farm, a nonprofit farm and project of the Capuchin shoots in the retrofitted grow room. Rising Pheasant Farm
Soup Kitchen east of downtown Detroit. She also worked was born.
on a healthy corner-store project for SEED Wayne with
Dr. Kami Pothukuchi, Associate Professor and Interim The couple moved to the tiny neighborhood known as
Chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Farnsworth at the end of 2009, rented a house from
Wayne State University, whose scholarship made food and Weertz, who had been buying and renting houses in
agriculture part of the urban planning agenda across the neighborhood for several years, and moved Rising
the country. Pheasant to the house’s tiny attic. Space grew tight as
their family grew bigger, and in 2011 they purchased their
In that position, Leadley talked with every liquor store current home in the same neighborhood.
owner on the east side of Detroit about offering fresh
vegetables for sale. “It was a helpful experience,” she says, “When we started, what we were doing was illegal,”
“getting the perspective of these store owners who say, Leadley says. But, through slow, incremental growth from
‘Well, I provide fresh vegetables but they cost money, and the refrigerator to their ¾ acre of land in 2016, Leadley
people don’t buy them, and they rot.’ You sympathize and VanDyke have turned a hobby and side-business into a
with them.” farm that fully supports their family of five.

While she was still working at Earthworks, Leadley thought Community Description
she may try some growing on her own. She and her
husband, Jack VanDyke, were living in a cooperative house, The Farnsworth neighborhood is part of the larger
the garage of which had a broken bar display refrigerator. Poletown neighborhood, so-called because of the high
She borrowed grow-lights from acquaintances, installed density of Polish-Americans who lived there. Today

128
Poletown, like much of the east side of Detroit and Detroit Poletown is a Polish-American and African-American
generally, feels empty: acres of vacant lots are sparsely neighborhood, and most of its older residents weathered
studded with houses—some occupied, some vacant. the increasing vacancies, crime, and economic
disinvestment. The Farnsworth section, however, is
But Farnsworth Street, for which the neighborhood is younger and whiter than the surrounding neighborhood.
named, is an anomaly. Brightly-painted houses with well-
kept yards line both sides of the Farnsworth between Leadley says that if she could start Rising Pheasant over
Elmwood and Moran Streets. Paul Weertz, the Catherine again, she would have made a greater effort to engage her
Ferguson Academy science teacher who retired when neighbors, the long-time residents of the area. It was not
the school shuttered in 2014, had moved to the block until the fall of their first growing season at Moran Street
in the early 1990s and began buying and renovating that she started going door-to-door to neighbors, only to
houses around his own home. Working with other long- learn some were upset about the farm.
term residents of the block, they began to stabilize the
neighborhood and bring in like-minded, community- “I totally blame myself,” she says. “Most people in this
oriented people into the area.156 neighborhood have lived here a long time, are older, and
are often from the south where they have a history of
Leadley and VanDyke moved from their rented house sharecropping in their family or they chose to move a city
on that block to their farm around the corner on Moran to get away from farming. It feels like going backwards [to
Street, which more closely resembles the larger area’s them]. It gave us an existential crisis for a few years and
decimation: empty lots and shuttered or crumbling continues to make us question if we’re doing good or bad.”
houses. But, those vacancies have allowed the couple, as
well as other people in the neighborhood, to access open But, she says, she prioritizes being a good neighbor: taking
space. Rising Pheasant is the only commercial farm in the feedback, being respectful, and keeping the farm looking
neighborhood, but many residents have purchased and tidy. “For the most part, [the feedback] is positive,” she
maintained side lots as small gardens or parks. says, and soothes herself with the knowledge that the
farm is safer and more well-regarded than the drug house
it used to be.

Farm Description
Leadley and VanDyke own 11 total lots, including their
house, for a total land area of approximately ¾ acres. That
same year they began growing food on two lots behind
their house, eventually adding a third. In 2016 they have
ownership of those three lots, the three lots adjacent to
the north side of their house, and another four lots further
north on Moran Street.

They consider the three lots behind their house their

market garden, totaling about one-fifth of an acre. This
area holds their 30x60’ hoop house that they constructed
in 2015 with the help of an NRCS EQIP grant. The
lots adjacent to their house hold their 20x24’ heated
Row covers help extend the season in the high tunnels at greenhouse and packing area—which Leadley now
Rising Pheasant. laments they made too small—and their family garden.
The four lots down the street, purchased at the end of
2015, had not yet been incorporated into production.

Leadley and VanDyke are particularly careful about lead

contamination in the soil. Two of their most recently
purchased lots tested high for lead, and they are weighing

156  For more detail on how Weertz and other residents stabilized the neighborhood, see Jackman, M. “How Paul Weertz helped stabilize the tiny
Detroit neighborhood you almost never hear about.” Detroit Metro Times, May 13, 2015. http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-paul-weertz-
helped-stabilize-the-tiny-detroit-neighborhood-you-almost-never-heard-about/Content?oid=2343926

129
their options on how to proceed. Leadley says she feels Leadley would like to start tracking her time to find out
lucky that there are no lead issues on any of the six lots which of her crops is the most profitable. She does figure
they currently cultivate, as she does not want to risk the for revenue earned per row-foot but thinks when she adds
health of their customers, employees, or family. They time into the equation, crops “that aren’t that sexy, like
have a goal of soil mapping the entire ten lot area to make chard” will prove to be more profitable than high-revenue
smart decisions about where and what they grow. crops like tomatoes. But by far, the tray-grown shoots are
her most profitable crop, and “the bread and butter” of
The first thing Leadley and VanDyke built in their house their operation. Year-round availability and a retail price of
was a 5x6’ walk-in cooler, powered by a CoolBot, a $20 per pound have helped the farm earnings grow by up
controller that will manage an off-the-shelf air conditioner to 40 percent each year since 2009.
such that it can be used to cool a storage space to 36 F
without freezing the unit. They also have tool sheds for
their hand-tools. In early 2016, they received delivery of a Business Structure
BCS walking tractor and 26” mower to mow the new lots Rising Pheasant is a sole proprietorship, a simplicity-
and prepare fields. focused business decision that illustrates Leadley and
VanDyke’s minimalist philosophy. “We appreciate a
Rising Pheasant’s irrigation and wash-water runs off the simple life that doesn’t have a lot of expenses, and our
house water meter, the bill that VanDyke painstakingly business is modeled on a low-resource future of peak-oil,”
separates out at tax-time every year. They are considering says Leadley.
getting flow meters to make this process easier.
They focus on reuse, recycling, and low-impact solutions.
Production Practices “It might take more time, or more creativity, but it can
help your bottom-line business-wise,” says Leadley,
From the ten trays of sunflower shoots she grew each especially because those solutions are less expensive or
week in 2009, Leadley has grown the shoots business to resource intensive.
include sweet pea, mixed radish, and buckwheat shoots,
which she grows year-round in the greenhouse. She grows
10-15 field-based crops each year, focusing on things she
knows she can grow well, succession plant, and maximize
the output of her limited acreage, including scallions, kale,
chard, beets, and sun gold cherry tomatoes.

The field-growing season usually begins in mid-April and

harvest extends through October. She also focuses on
raising healthy transplants to give her crops a strong start.
With the addition of the hoop house in 2015, Leadley was
able to grow spinach most of the winter for sale at one of
their markets. By March 2016 she had already exceeded
spinach sales of the previous year. But, she says, there is
a learning curve with hoop house production, and she’s
eager to improve her systems for better yields.

The extreme caution that Leadley applies to her soil

extends to her plants. Though Rising Pheasant Farm is
not organic certified, she purchases only organic seed for Tomato transplants for the high tunnels.
the sunflower shoots that make up the bulk of the farm
sales. Leadley self-effacingly describes her trepidation
about spraying highly-diluted Dr. Bronners soap in the
high tunnel to ward off the many infiltrating aphids.
Diatomaceous earth and row covers are her typical lines One example of this low-cost, low-impact philosophy is
of defense. the way they transport their produce to restaurants and
farmers markets: by bike. They own a Dutch cargo bike, a
Part of that defense, too, is care for soil. Leadley brings in regular bike, and two cargo trailers made by Iowa company
30 cubic yards of compost each year to turn into the soil. Bikes at Work. Not only do they avoid expenses related
She builds soil by recycling media from transplant trays to fuel, vehicles or insurance, says Leadley, they also get
onto the growing areas. to interact with their neighbors and build familiarity.

130
“Everybody in the neighborhood, whether they know our
names or not, know our kids, and know the crazy bike we
ride them around in,” Leadley laughs.

Leadley registered Rising Pheasant Farm for an FSA farm

number to apply for an NRCS EQIP high tunnel grant, after
which Leadley says, “We [became] somewhat legitimate
in the government’s view.” The registration for an FSA
farm number, which is done at a local FSA or USDA service
center, is a prerequisite for farmers to access USDA
programs, including loans or grants, as well as includes the
farm in the National Agriculture Census.

Marketing and Sales

Rising Pheasant’s first sales were at Detroit’s Eastern
Market farmers market through the Grown In Detroit Sunflower sprouts emerging.
Cooperative, operated by the urban farm advocacy and
support organization Keep Growing Detroit. As part of
the cooperative, Leadley and VanDyke did not have to be
at the market every week or carry the one million dollars Rising Pheasant retails its shoots for between $20 and
liability insurance policy, which they now must hold to sell $28 per pound. “The diversity of customer base at Eastern
at market. Market also gives you a diversity of opinions about what
produce should cost,” she says. “When you’re next to a
“That was wonderful because [customers thought] wholesaler who’s selling a whole flat of strawberries for
sunflower shoots were pretty weird, they didn’t know five dollars, five dollars for a little bag of shoots seems
what to do with them,” says Leadley. But, there were astronomical.” But, she says, Eastern Market’s EBT and
drawbacks: a cooperative table meant she and VanDyke Double-Up Food Bucks program have helped them build a
could not promote their own products, which could base of SNAP-recipient customers to whom a bag of shoots
be overwhelmed by other growers’ produce on the is less risky if they can stretch their money further.
same table.
Restaurants make up the remainder of Rising Pheasants
“When we got our own table at Eastern Market, our sales and are almost exclusively based on shoots. VanDyke
production and sales skyrocketed,” she says. Though they delivers entire trays of shoots, which yield about 1.5 lbs
sell at two other farmers market in the summer, Eastern of product, to eight to ten restaurants each week. One of
Market continues to be their biggest retail location with their first and most consistent customers, Mudgies in the
more than 40,000 visitors every Saturday.157 The Saturday Corktown neighborhood, was buying so many each week
farmers market is open year-round, and Rising Pheasant that Leadley has started cutting, washing, and bagging the
can be there every week with its shoots, and now spinach. shoots for them for a higher price; the restaurant, she says,
They also offer what Leadley calls a “market-based CSA,” is happy to pay it. Restaurants don’t get field produce—
in which a customer invests $100 or more at a time and there is not enough to go around, and sometimes Rising
can draw down from his or her account through farmers Pheasant struggles to have field produce at Eastern Market
market purchases. The investments are tiered, and with past noon on Saturdays.
each increasing tier Rising Pheasant credits the customer “With the limited field produce we don’t want to stretch
an extra percentage to spend at their farm stand. ourselves thin by going to more markets, but just
Leadley says that the system is a win-win for both adding Tuesday [at Eastern Market] and a new market in
customer and farmer. “They don’t have to remember Corktown on Thursday evening, even though those are
to bring cash, we don’t have to box CSAs. They can pick smaller markets, just being able to get more shoots out in
whatever they want, not come for a month and come the week has made a big difference. And we’ve increased
back, go on vacation and not miss out on shares. And they our restaurant sales as well. We used to only sell
have the flexibility of using it beyond the main season.”

157  “Saturday Market.” Eastern Market website: http://www.easternmarket.com/attend/saturday-market

131
sunflower, but now people are getting the variety. More “As a small business owner, you’re constantly thinking
offerings for restaurants helps. But, each year the soil is about the pay-back to you. Not to sound selfish, but I only
better, I am getting better. Productivity is improving on a have so much time or energy. How much is [an intern]
square-foot basis.” going to benefit the business?”

Rising Pheasant’s least profitable, but in some ways most

important, market is right outside their house. Since 2012 Other Activities/Services
they have had a farm stand on the corner of Moran and Having worked for several educational and nonprofit
Frederick Streets. “Sometimes we’ll make five dollars, but farms, Leadley values the work they do but does not
that’s not the point,” she says. “It is a nice way to [interact attempt to do it at Rising Pheasant Farms. “Through my
with] people who were interesting in buying stuff, but also nonprofit experience, I realized that farm education with
people who had questions or concerns, just to be open youth was probably the most important work going on,
and available to them, so they have the opportunity to but not necessarily the work I was meant to do,” she says,
make connections.” with the exception of educating her own three children.

Leadley now sits on the board of Keep Growing Detroit

Employees and has hosted the organization’s farming classes at Rising
Leadley ran Rising Pheasant Farms by herself at its start Pheasant. The farm is a frequent stop on Detroit farm
while VanDyke had a non-farm job. But, as both the tours, which Leadley says is brief but valuable outreach.
business and their family grew, Leadley says, “It got to the
point where, with small kids, either we needed to pay for Support
childcare or all put into this effort together.” Leadley and
VanDyke work full-time on the farm, about 40 hours per Rising Pheasant Farms owes much of its expansion to
week each. It is their sole source of income. Leadley’s strategic application and creative use of small
grant funding. They received a grant from the Eastern
They hire one part-time employee for the season, about Market Co. and Citizen Bank’s collaborative Growing
mid-March through October. The employee focuses on Communities Micro-Grant Program in 2012 to build their
production and deliveries, working about 30 hours per greenhouse, and a second one the following year for
week at the height of the summer. irrigation inside the greenhouse.
Leadley typically pays between $9-11 per hour, based They were able to purchase and install the heating
on experience. The 2015 season was their first in which system for the greenhouse with the help of a $10,000
the worker was an official employee, rather than an New Economies Initiative grant from the Community
independent contractor. Leadley says that, in that Foundation for Southeast Michigan. Paul Weertz helped
transition, “we realized that if we paid him a living wage, Leadley and VanDyke install it, bringing his Bobcat to dig
he’d be making more money per hour than we were. I am the trench.
all about the $15 minimum wage, but I don’t make $15 an
hour. It’s hard to imagine paying an employee more than “He’s a very generous person who sees the big picture,”
you pay yourself when you’re taking on all the risk and says Leadley of Weertz. “It’s relatively recently that people
trying to feed a family.” like us are buying houses, becoming owners and investing
instead of renting. He wants to encourage that growth of
Rising Pheasant Farms does not have many volunteer support for the neighborhood.”
opportunities. Leadley says that “Unlike a lot of farms that
can benefit from a huge swarm of volunteers, I don’t ever Keep Growing Detroit has also been a big supporter,
want my farm to look that bad that I need a huge swarm of Leadley says. Not only does it include Rising Pheasant on
volunteers to weed everything. It’s small enough that I try its farm tours and provide educational resources, but it
to keep it neat and tidy.” also disseminates information about grant opportunities
relevant to urban farms.
Nor does it host interns or apprentices. Leadley says her
previous work experiences frustrated her with the lack of Leadley sees many opportunities where grant funding
quality, reliability, or consistency in volunteer labor. She would be helpful. She is in touch with the local NRCS office
likes the idea of hosting a seasonal Detroit youth intern about another EQIP grant for a second high tunnel, having
but also needs to do what is best for the farm. experienced early success with the first one. It would likely

132
go on one of the new parcels of land, the improvement of transferred all vacant parcels. The land bank processes and
which is Leadley’s next big priority. The land will require a approves sales and rehabilitates vacant homes for auction.
water hook-up and possibly some soil remediation or new Leadley says that despite the streamlining the land bank
soil additions. In the meantime, she will mow them with was meant to provide, she knows many urban growers
her BCS walking tractor, which was also purchased with an who are still not able to purchase the land they farm.
Eastern Market grant.
She is not sure whether the legalization of urban farming
has helped or hurt land acquisition. When she applied for
Policies Impacting Success her parcels, she listed the reason for purchasing them as
The 2013 passage of Detroit’s UA ordinance was a relief “greening,” as urban farming was still then illegal. Though
to Leadley and VanDyke, who had knowingly farmed the it is now legal, she sees fellow farmers having a more
empty parcels behind their house since 2011 before they difficult time purchasing through the land bank.
owned the land. While the city never investigated them,
they feared that a neighbor’s complaint could shut down Leadley is now thinking about how to protect that land.
the farm. Rising Pheasant has a one million dollar market insurance
policy for its farmers’ markets, but she does not have a
They have been visited by city inspectors on multiple home or farm insurance policy. She is thankful, however,
occasions for “blight violations” and were cited for illegal for expanded Medicaid, which allowed her entire family
dumping after finished compost had been delivered to to have health care. “We consider our food budget part of
their property,. “To someone who doesn’t know what it is, our health care budget, but being able to have emergency
it looks like illegal solid waste dumping,” Leadley admits, services and not having to worry as much is huge.”
“so there’s been a lot of back and forth about what is
and isn’t solid waste.” She says some neighbors, who are Assets and Challenges
unfamiliar with finished compost, worry about rats and
call the city, but the city does not come to the farm on its Its land and surrounding community are Rising Pheasant’s
own accord. biggest assets, and its most consistent challenge. Leadley is
eager to get her newly-acquired land into production and
“There are lots of blight violations in the neighborhood! expand her market. She knows that she and VanDyke have
But, the city doesn’t drive around giving people tickets. It’s been able to expand at the rate that they have, in part,
complaint based.” because of policies that make it easier and less expensive
to purchase land.
Kathryn Underwood, the city planner with the Detroit
City Council’s Legislative Policy Division and the so-called
“godmother of urban agriculture”158 in Detroit, says it is
not just neighbors who lack knowledge. Despite passing
the UA ordinance, city agencies do not cooperate with one
another regarding UA, and many agency personnel lack
sufficient knowledge to apply the ordinance appropriately,
as in the case of a pile of finished compost.

Leadley and VanDyke purchased three of their 11 parcels

from private owners and the rest from the City of Detroit.
Three lots were purchased through the city’s side lot
program, which allows residents to purchase lots adjacent
to their homes for $200 per lot through an expedited
purchasing system. The city had more complex rules for
purchasing non-adjacent lots, though Leadley and VanDyke
went through that process as well.

Leadley applied directly to the City of Detroit for the

purchase of all the city-owned lots, including five that were Late harvested beds from the previous season.
purchased from the city that were not part of the side lot
program, for $300 each. Since then, the City of Detroit set
up the Detroit Land Bank Authority in 2014, to which it

158  As described by Winona Bynum, Executive Director of the Detroit Food Policy Council, in a phone call January 19, 2016.
133
At the same time, with that ownership comes risk. Leadley
is reluctant to leave any equipment or obviously valuable
permanent infrastructure on those lots because they
are farther from the house, and harder to watch. Crime
still exists in Farnsworth. The family’s home has been
burglarized, and arsonists still burn down houses, including
one across the street. She wants Rising Pheasant to be
open and available to neighbors, but not vulnerable to
neighborhood crime.

And while Rising Pheasant Farm and the family that runs it
have been embraced by their immediate community and
the larger Detroit food scene, Leadley recognizes that urban
farmers like her, who moved from the suburbs when in
their 20s and buy or squat on empty lots, are controversial.

“There are a lot of dynamics that differentiate; class and

racial dynamics of the city are extremely important and
intense. All folks growing in the city, especially if they’re
new to it, [race and class] have to be at the forefront of
the work they’re doing, even if they’re not a social justice
organization or nonprofit. You can’t ignore it in Detroit.”

Leadley makes clear that she does not think that Rising
Pheasant Farms represents all of UA in Detroit. “We’re just
doing what we do, and there are amazing people doing a
variety of work. I’ve lived here ten years, but wouldn’t want
to give the impression that we represent ‘urban’.”

Promise of Urban Agriculture

Is Rising Pheasant Farms an average urban farm? An
exception? These are the questions Leadley asks when she
thinks about the larger world of UA. She confesses that she
is focused on her farm and family, and wonders how the
farm compares to others around the country.

Much of the promise for Rising Pheasant is rooted in

staying true to its philosophy of minimalism.

“It’s a constant debate: ‘is the key to our success our

scale?’” Leadley states. She says she knows farmers with 40
acres and large CSAs bringing home about as much money
as she and VanDyke do from their 1/5 acre and greenhouse
full of sprouts because Rising Pheasant’s costs are so low.
They spend $20 in fuel a year and have the ability to ride
a bike to their customers, which would be impossible on a
rural farm.

She and VanDyke will continue that debate as they think of

expanding their production—who can they sell to on their
current bike routes? Should there be a minimum order?
How could they get into a major grocery store? While
they envision growing their business, they believe that
expansion should not compromise the values by which they
grew Rising Pheasant from a retrofitted refrigerator into a
thriving farm.
134
Growing Home, Inc, Chicago, IL
Providing Job Readiness Skills through Farming
Themes: Urban ag policy, Community revitalizing, SNAP/Double-up programs, On-farm events,
Provides education and training.

History
The idea that became Growing Home, a nonprofit
dedicated to helping chronically unemployed,
underemployed, and housing-insecure people gain job
skills through farm work, was hatched nearly two decades
before its first training session. William “Les” Brown,
founder of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH),
had been helping people find permanent housing and
jobs when he realized that a suite of services, including
workplace readiness training and work that produced
tangible results, could help people gain and maintain
employment.

Brown hired Harry Rhodes in 2001 to realize this vision.

One of Growing Home’s urban farm sites in the
If one of the main barriers to ending homelessness
Englewood neighborhood of Chicago.
is employment, then one of the main challenges to
employment is giving people job experience and teaching
them job skills. Rhodes’ charge was to teach those skills
through farming. the rural farm and giving back its other sites to invest
fully in the community. Since 2002, it has graduated over
Nine people enrolled in Growing Home’s inaugural 2002 400 people from its job training program, contributed
program at its farm in Marseilles, IL, 75 miles southwest to rewriting the city’s zoning policy, and has made a
of Chicago. CCH acquired the ten-acre parcel through the significant impact on Chicago’s UA movement.
Federal Surplus Property Program via the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Community Description
Growing Home expanded to urban sites, including in the Englewood faced several decades of disinvestment
Englewood neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. following its population height at more than 97,000
Broadly known for crime and unemployment, Rhodes residents in 1960.159 The 2010 census recorded 37,260
and Growing Home were eager to bring its job training residents in the three square mile census area;160 though
and employment program to area residents. Ultimately, Rhodes says Growing Home reaches to the greater
Growing Home chose to root itself in Englewood, selling Englewood area, home to around 65,000 people.

The neighborhood is 97 percent black, and nearly half of

residents live below the poverty line.161 It has one of the
city’s highest rates of crime, including violent, property,

159  Englewood. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Chicago website. Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/426.html

160  Englewood neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois (IL) 60621 detailed profile. (n.d.). City-Data.com Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/
neighborhood/Englewood-Chicago-IL.html
161  ibid.

135
drug and vandalism crimes,162 though overall crime has housing administrative offices, classrooms, a wash station,
decreased since a 2006 peak.163 The unemployment rate walk-in cooler space, and storage and potting areas. A
has hovered around 21 percent since at least 2010.164 covered pergola attached to the building near the Wood
Street entrance acts as the farm stand site. The farm runs
Englewood has officially been called a “food desert,”165 the length of the lot to Honore Street.
with little access to healthy food. Through summer 2016,
Greater Englewood was served by one grocery store and Walk out the Honore Street exit and turn left, and just
an ALDI discount grocery store. A Whole Foods store under the culverted tunnel beneath a former elevated
opened in the neighborhood in fall 2016,166 and has rail line is Growing Home’s second farm, which was
been making efforts to hire new employees from the started in 2011. The Honore Street Farm parcel (0.9 acres)
neighborhood.167 was the result of a partnership with NeighborSpace,
an independent nonprofit community land trust with
In 2006, Growing Home started a farm on their Wood support from city agencies, which manages Chicago’s open
Street property in Englewood. Rhodes says that the spaces. NeighborSpace has given land to and helped start
neighborhood has made significant changes since the community gardens, but Growing Home was the first farm
farm started in this location. The farm was started in on trust-protected land in the city limits.
conjunction with the Green Healthy Neighborhoods plan,
which includes building an Urban Agriculture District in
Englewood.168 Rhodes says the plan would turn vacant land Production Practices
into productive space including farms, community gardens, Growing Home cultivates 0.8 acres of the 1.5 it controls,
produce stores, farmers markets, cafes and restaurants. including its five high tunnels. Initially, the growing areas
were covered in at least 12 inches of wood chips and
Farm Description compost to compensate for the compacted earth beneath.

Growing Home began the precedent-setting process of Both farm sites are certified organic by the Midwest
acquiring its Wood Street property in 2006. It worked Organic Services Association. One of Growing Home’s goals
with several city agencies for over a year to develop a since its start, says Rhodes, is to demonstrate and promote
redevelopment agreement and arrange the transfer of the organic farming as a means of caring for people and the
city-owned land to Growing Home. Because there was no environment.
definition of “urban farm,” the City designated Growing
Home as a “technical institute,” which added expensive Production is overseen by Farm Enterprise Director
landscaping and parking requirements. Stephanie Douglass, who coordinates the planting of
50 different crops representing over 200 crop varieties.
With the transfer settled and ready to start building, She says that while the farm grows varieties well-known
Growing Home faced another 9-month delay in attempting by most Chicago residents, there are chefs, artisans and
to get building permits. The problem, says Rhodes, was wholesalers interested in a wider variety of produce.
that “there hadn’t been a permit for a farm building in 100 “We’re trying to figure out how we can diversify so we’re
years [in Chicago], so how do you do that?” not as deeply dependent on direct sales, but for the next
few years that’s going to be the bulk of sales,” she says.
The Wood Street Farm finally opened its doors in the
summer of 2009 to a 0.6-acre farm with three high
tunnels, outdoor growing areas, and a two-story building

162  Tu, Chau. (2013, February 11). An economic breakdown of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Marketplace website. Retrieved from http://
www.marketplace.org/2013/02/11/wealth-poverty/guns-and-dollars/economic-breakdown-chicagos-englewood-neighborhood
163  Crime reports in Englewood. (n.d.). Crime in Chicagoland website. Accessed December 6, 2016 at http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/
community/englewood
164  Ibid.; Marketplace (2016).
165  Chicago Policy Research Team. (2010, May). Deserted? A policy report on food access in four South Side Chicago neighborhoods. University of
Chicago.
166  Bomkamp, S. (2016, January 7). Whole Foods gets personal in effort to impress Englewood. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.
chicagotribune.com/business/ct-whole-foods-englewood-0107-biz-20160106-story.html
167  Englewood Whole Foods sessions for prospective workers begin this week. (2016, March 15) Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.
chicagotribune.com/business/ct-englewood-whole-foods-jobs-0316-biz-20160315-story.html
168  Green Healthy Neighborhoods. (n.d.). City of Chicago Planning and Development. From http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/
supp_info/green-healthy-neighborhoods.html

136
Fred Daniels, Site Manager and 2010 graduate of the job about, ‘you have to be [financially] sustainable! You have
training program, says salad greens tend to be the most to make it on your own!’ But, it’s not really possible for our
profitable crop. The high tunnels he manages are able to programs,” he says.
produce kale, arugula, lettuce, mizuna and other Asian
greens year-round. In 2015, the farm produced over Marketing and Sales
30,000 lbs of produce, earning revenues close to $100,000.
According to Rhodes, the only way to have a successful
social enterprise and turn out successful graduates is “to
Business Structure have a successful farm and good product.” Though moving
Beyond demonstrating organic practices, Growing Home toward more wholesale sales is a goal, about 90 percent
demonstrates social entrepreneurship. While Rhodes has of sales occur at one of two Chicago farmers markets or at
a goal of increasing the percentage of the total budget the weekly farm stand on Wood Street.
covered by earned revenue every year, he acknowledges
that it is a serious challenge. In 2015, earned farm revenue Growing Home has a stand at the Green City Market near
covered 1/3 of the farm budget, and just under ten Lincoln Park from April through December on Saturdays,
percent of the organization’s total annual budget. and at the Logan Square Farmers Market on Sundays.
The customers have different attitudes from market to
One of the biggest challenges to the nonprofit, says market, says Rhodes. This gives trainees, who sell at the
Rhodes, is the cost of wages, which has driven up the stands, a key experience: customer service. And while
overall budget. Employee-enrollees of the job training farmers markets make a lot of money and are a chance to
program earn minimum wage, which is set to increase in talk about the mission, Rhodes knows “you can’t just say,
Chicago from $8.50 in 2014 to $13.00 by 2018. Though ‘We have a great social mission! Buy our food!’ You have
job training organizations were exempt from the increase, to have a really good product.” And it is their certified
trainees and full-time staff wanted to see Growing Home organic, hyper-local produce that distinguishes the farm
progress with other employers, and trainees were paid from other vendors, says Rhodes.
ten dollars per hour in spring 2016, and $10.50 per hour
starting in July 2016. Both markets accept SNAP, via Illinois Link Card, and
participate in the LINK Up double-dollar program: for each
Rhodes agrees with this philosophy as livable wages are a dollar charged to their Link Card, patrons can receive an
goal of social entrepreneurship. Yet, it is difficult to earn additional dollar to spend on fruits and vegetables at the
enough income to cover all costs, he says. “Everybody talks market.169 Growing Home added its own double-dollar
program and now uses grants from Kraft Heinz Company
Foundation and others to offer additional SNAP-based
incentives to market shoppers.

Though the farmers markets and farm stand are highly

successful, Rhodes agrees with Douglass’s assessment
that more focus on restaurants and wholesale is critical to
working toward greater financial sustainability. Farmers
markets’ weather dependency can make sales unreliable,
and though Growing Home can donate unsold produce on
Monday morning, developing wholesale relationships will
make for more stable income.

Growing Home began working with Local Foods, an

upscale locally focused grocer in trending Bucktown
neighborhood. After unexpectedly high potato yields in
2015, Douglass has sold over 1,000 pounds to the market-
café hybrid. Douglass is thrilled to continue to work with
Low tunnels add further protection to crops in a high the store, though laments that its model is not affordable
tunnel. to Growing Home’s target audience.

169  Link Up Illinois. (n.d.). Experimental Station website. Retrieved from http://experimentalstation.org/linkup-overview/

137
Employees
Growing Home has 15 full-time employees, including
six full-time, year-round farm employees. Another goal
of the training program is to hire graduates as full-time
employees. In 2016, three of the six farm employees were
program graduates.

Forty people were employed as trainees in 2015, over the

course of three training seasons (spring-summer, summer,
and summer-fall). Trainees work six hours a day: four in the
field working alongside farm staff, and two for classroom
study and training in customer service, soft skills, and
interview techniques.

“That’s one of the keys…giving trainees a real salary,” says

Rhodes. “It is not enough to make a living, but it is enough
to give them stability until they find full-time work.” The Fred Daniels, the site manager at Wood Street Urban
fast-paced environment of a production farm is a great outside one of its several high tunnels.
training ground, and Rhodes says staff regularly hear from
former trainees that it is a transformational experience.
want to do with their lives, many of them have never
Full-time staff also includes a director of community been asked that. But here, for 14 weeks, they’re given an
outreach who organizes volunteers. “There is more opportunity to be more introspective and figure out what
interest in volunteering than we have projects for them to they’re good at and what they want to do, rather than
do,” says Rhodes, “But now having a director, we’re able work at McDonalds for three to four months and find they
to provide more volunteer opportunities. Regular weekly can’t make a living and then go do something else.”
volunteers work with staff on production-related activities,
Training sessions run March through October, though
while schools or other groups work on separate projects.
Rhodes would like to expand to a 1.5-acre parcel to extend
But, Growing Home is not dependent on volunteers for
training year-round. By the end of 2016, over 400 people
their labor. “For the people we’re training, it’s important
will have graduated from the program.
that we rely on them for their work,” says Rhodes.
The program tracks its graduates for three years to find
Other Activities/Services out what happens after the program. In 2014 and 2015, 85
percent of graduates found full-time jobs (up from 70-75
Growing Home’s commercial farm is designed to meet its
percent since starting in 2002). Most work somewhere
social mission: impact and transform people’s lives. It’s a
along the food chain and Growing Home works with
curriculum-based training with a combination of work and
employers to help keep graduates in their jobs. Now that
classroom time. Trainees also have time with an on-staff
new indoor farms, like Gotham Greens, have moved into
case manager who works with trainees to get their lives
the Chicago area, graduates have the opportunity to
on-track and connect them to legal services.
continue to work in food production.
More than 60 percent of graduates have some sort of
felony background, and about 90 percent have some Support
contact with the criminal justice system. Growing Home’s
This highly-supportive, integrated training program
graduate recidivism rate within three years is around 13
requires a lot of individual attention, expertise, and other
percent, compared with 50 percent for the state.
resources. About ninety percent of Growing Home’s
“When people come to us, they’re very much in survival budget is funded by foundation and corporate grants,
mode: they want a job,” Rhodes says. “But when you talk government grants and programs, and individual donors.170
to them one-on-one and ask them what they Relying on outside funding for the majority of the budget
can lead to financial uncertainties that hinder growth and
make business timelines unpredictable. One contract with

170  For an example of donor lists and annual financial reports, see Growing Home Annual Report 2012-2013. Retrieved from http://
growinghomeinc.org/docs/GrowingHome12-13AnnualReport.pdf

138
the state’s Department of Corrections for $50,000, small Policies Impacting Success
but still significant, was held up for nine months as the
Growing Home, AUA, Growing Power Chicago, and several
state’s budget crisis froze such disbursements.171
other organizations influenced the rewrite of Chicago’s
Rhodes says most of the foundations interested in their zoning policy regarding UA. Following Growing Home’s
work are Chicago-based, though he hopes there may be three-year process to open its Wood Street Farm and
national foundations who see value in Growing Home’s other similarly onerous processes, the city started to look
mission. They have received two USDA grants: a 2011 at the zoning code in 2010.
FMPP grant for $79,300 to build the farm stand and cold
Six-term mayor Richard Daley’s administration first
storage, and support programming; and a 2015 LFPP
supported passing a UA ordinance, but its late 2010 draft
planning grant for $25,000 to conduct a community
ordinance was largely criticized by UA practitioners and
engagement outreach process for farm and program
advocates as being too restrictive.172,173 After Mayor Rahm
expansion.
Emanuel took office in 2011, advocates convened to advise
Chicago has several food policy and farming advocacy on a revised ordinance, which was passed in September
organizations that have brought food and farm issues to 2011.
the fore [see Policy]. Advocates for Urban Agriculture
Chicago’s UA ordinance expressly defines community
(AUA), of which Rhodes was a founding member, is a
gardens and urban farms, outlines zones where each
coalition of individuals and organizations focused on
activity is permitted by right or as a special use, identifies
community gardens and urban farming issues in Chicago.
where sales of farm product may take place (including
While he sees its value in informing Chicagoans interested
on-farm sales), and exempts urban farms from some
and active in UA, he says it lacks diversity.
landscaping and parking requirements in some areas.174
“If you look at AUA, it is mostly a white membership. And, The codification in the zoning code was intended, in part,
it’s something we talk about. People doing community to make launching new urban farms easier, as it was for
gardens are often people of color. Maybe they don’t Growing Home in 2011 when they started the Honore
see a need to be involved, or maybe there is a lack of Street Farm.
awareness,” he wonders. Which is why he is part of
The city’s Green Healthy Neighborhoods Plan, passed
another group called Grow Greater Englewood, started
in March 2014, goes further to put efforts like UA at the
by former Growing Home and led by then Growing Home
fore in Greater Englewood and other neighborhoods.175 It
Outreach Director Sonya Harper. Rhodes says that though
envisions an integrated transit system, clustered housing
he has been working in the neighborhood for a decade,
and retail around transportation centers, and more
some meeting attendees are suspicious of his presence
opportunities for open space and productive landscapes.176
since he doesn’t live in the community. Despite Growing
Growing Home was praised for its groundbreaking work
Home’s progress, racial tension continues among South
in the neighborhood, and is written into the plan as a
Side communities.
cornerstone for UA in the community.

171  The state of Illinois did not pass a budget for over one year, and had not passed a full budget as of December 2016. See Belkin, D. and Pierog,
K. (2016, June 30). Illinois lawmakers pass bills to unblock state’s budget impasse. Reuters. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-
illinois-budget-idUSKCN0ZG16N.
172  Eng, Monica. (2011, January 3). The city that grows. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-01-03/news/
ct-met-urban-agriculture--20101228_1_city-farm-urban-farming-urban-agriculture/2
173  Rhodes, H. (2011, April 12). Consensus still lacking in Chicago on proposed urban agriculture zoning changes. Mother Earth News. Retrieved
from http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/urban-agriculture-zoning-chicago-zb0z11zkon.aspx
174  Substitute Ordinance. (n.d.). City Council of the City of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/
Sustainable_Development/Publications/Urban_Ag_Ordinance_9-1-11.pdf
175  Green Healthy Neighborhoods (n.d.). City of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/
Sustainable_Development/Publications/Green%20Healthy%20Neighborhoods/GreenHealthyNeighborhoods_PC_Low_Res_pt_2.pdf
176  Drummer, D. (2014). Green Healthy Neighborhoods Plan Adopted by Chicago Plan Commission. Teamwork Englewood. Retrieved from http://
www.teamworkenglewood.org/news/7457

139
“The City seems to catch up after things happen on the The question of competition is particularly difficult for
ground,” says Rhodes, smiling. “But a lot of [the recent a social enterprise that aims to promote urban farming,
work] is focused on farming and food policies. [I’ve] provide job training and affordable food, all while paying
certainly seen a lot of policy change since I got started a living wage. And as the minimum and living wages
in 2001.” continue to rise in Chicago, Rhodes says these will
continue to be the most persistent challenges for
Assets and Challenges Growing Home.

Growing Home enjoys many of the assets afforded

to Chicago nonprofits doing similar work, including Promise of Urban Agriculture
Growing Power Chicago (offshoot of the Milwaukee Growing Home’s urban farm is a path to better job
organization) and Windy City Harvest, an accredited opportunities and livelihoods for trainees, and better
apprenticeship program of the Chicago Botanic Garden. healthy food access to Chicagoans in Englewood and
These organizations and others have been instrumental beyond. Farming, paired with mentorship and social
in changing city policy while fulfilling social missions to services, has proven to be a successful model for
support farming and healthy communities across Chicago increasing job opportunities and wellbeing for Chicagoans
and beyond. with few resources or supports. Its graduates draw on
their new skills and experiences to get and keep jobs all
“[Nonprofits like us] share a lot and work together,” along Chicago’s food value chain.
says Rhodes. “We talk about programming and different
funding streams. But, when it comes to going after them, “Most of the people we train are not interested in going to
we each have our own funding department.” rural farms. They grew up in Chicago and aren’t interested
in leaving,” says Rhodes, who emphasizes that farming’s
Rhodes says he has seen funders increase the level for transferrable skills make graduates excellent candidates to
competition, too. For example, the Kinship Foundation’s work in food production, processing, restaurants, or other
“Food to Market Challenge” Competition will award green industries in Chicago.
$500,000 in October 2016 to a team that “can conceive
the most innovative solution to what we see as one of And that is why “home” is as important to the mission as
the biggest barriers to local and sustainable farming.” 177 “growing.” “Our vision has been ‘Healthy People, Healthy

“
While these types of pitch-contests are not new, Rhodes Communities,’ and that’s the bottom line of what we’re
says he would rather see funders incentivize groups to measuring,” Rhodes says, “that we’re able to help
work together to address Chicago’s complex problems, and people become healthier and help the community where
share funding and resources. we’re working.”

Farming is a great way to get people back into the workforce. It teaches skills
they might not learn at other jobs, like working in a fast-paced environment,
quality control, seeing the process of prepping beds, planting seeds, seeing
things grow helps people grow. We hear regularly from people who’ve been
through the program that it’s a transformative experience.
— Harry Rhodes
Growing Home, Inc.

177  Family Farmed. (2016, February 1). Food to Market Challenge offers $500,000 for best idea to grow Chicago’s good food supply chain. Goodo
Food on Every Table. Retrieved from http://goodfoodoneverytable.org/2016/02/01/food-to-market-challenge-offers-500000-for-best-idea-to-
grow-chicagos-good-food-supply/

140
Brother Nature Produce, Detroit, MI
Integrating Urban and Rural Production and Value Added
Products
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners, Community revitalizing, Value added products,
Owner food security, Signature product — salad mix.

History
Not long after Greg Willerer bought his house in Detroit’s
North Corktown in 2005, he planted a garden. He was a
teacher in the Detroit Public School system at the time and
hoped a garden would help make him more self-sufficient.
In 2008, after 15 years teaching, he quit to farm full-time.

Olivia Hubert, his wife who joined him in co-operating

Brother Nature Produce, has had a green thumb much
longer. Her horticultural interests started in elementary
school and led her to pursue agri-science vocational
training in high school, a horticulture degree from
Michigan State University, and a year of intensive study
at the Royal Horticultural Society in London. During Greg Willerer looks out at the winter fields near a
this internship, she learned plant-breeding techniques, sculpture on the farm.
effective and efficient use of hand cultivation tools, and
best practices for managing vegetable production in
small spaces.
Community Description
Today the couple’s backyard production has grown to “This used to be the most densely populated
nearly an acre over ten lots on their block of North neighborhood in Detroit,” says Hubert of North Corktown,
Corktown. They have also become vocal advocates for a neighborhood of older homes and, now, vast tracts of
urban farms and gardens, meeting with other urban vacant land. Formerly an Irish immigrant neighborhood
farmers and talking about common concerns. They raise named for County Cork, Corktown is Detroit’s oldest
awareness about farmers’ issues at local government neighborhood and once one of its most vibrant.178
meetings, as well as, the issues of the neighborhood,
community, and cultural organizations in which Irish-Americans began moving out of the neighborhood
they participate. at the end of the 19th century toward more upscale
neighborhoods north and west of Corktown.179 Polish
“A lot of people who are making more money [than us] immigrants, who were the largest immigrant population
are not activists. That takes up a lot of our time. It’s easy in Detroit during the early 1900s,180 began moving to
to focus on making money when you’re not involved in the Corktown, as did, African Americans and immigrants from
community,” says Hubert. Brother Nature Produce is a lot Mexico and Malta.181
more than just growing produce.

178  Corktown Historic District (n.d.) Detroit Historical Society. Retrieved from http://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/
corktown-historic-district
179  Corktown Historic District (n.d.) Detroit1701.org. http://detroit1701.org/Corktown.htm
180  http://polishroots.org/Research/History/detroit_immigrants/tabid/230/Default.aspx
181  Woodford, F.B. and Woodford, A.M. (1969) All Our Yesterdays: A brief history of detroit. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

141
Starting in the 1950s through 1970, new freeways land has heavy clay soil and is much wetter than their
intended to promote economic development in downtown urban plots. It is also about ten degrees cooler than
Detroit cut off and cut through Corktown. Businesses Detroit, says Hubert, which allows them to extend their
began leaving future highway corridors like Corktown season on some cool-weather crops.
long before the highways came, beginning an era of
depopulation and neglect. The portion of Interstate 75 The Willerers move their New Holland tractor between
that runs through Detroit was completed in 1970, Detroit and Riley on a dump trailer to prepare fields.
three years after race riots devastated the city, isolating They have a rototiller attachment, plow attachment, and
Corktown’s African American and Polish residents Brushhog “for when things get a little out of control,”
physically and culturally from the rest of the city and says Willerer. Other equipment includes a walk-behind
creating North Corktown. rototiller, a six-row seeder, and a Quick Cut Greens
Harvester from Johnny’s Select Seeds. But,
Some of those older residents still live nearby, says most labor is done by hand, from bed preparation to
Willerer, and have been his source of information about greens harvest.
lots that used to hold the clapboard houses that stood
edge-to-edge along the sidewalks. He says houses stood as
recently as 2004 on some of the lots he now farms. Several
of these homes were demolished and dropped into their
basements and then covered with fill dirt, leaving a lead
Land Access in Detroit
legacy of paint and pipes behind well below ground level.
Greg Willerer’s experiences attempting to purchase
Since the early 2000s, Corktown has been one of the sites land have been notably different than Rising
of Detroit’s revival.182 Locally-minded restaurants and Pheasant Farm’s Carolyn Leadley. Leadley was
new businesses run by native Detroiters and recently- able to purchase her non-adjacent parcels directly
arrived residents are some of the neighborhood’s biggest from the City of Detroit before it moved land
attractions. Though this most recent wave of renewal has transactions like these to the Land Bank Authority.
not spilled into North Corktown yet, the neighborhood’s
many vacant parcels are an opportunity for people like According to Detroit urban planner Kathryn
the Willerers. Underwood, the Land Bank Authority is holding
onto land more tightly than the City did, in part to
leave room for potential—though not planned—
Farm Description typical development and economic opportunities
The Willerers farm on just less than an acre of land on one (housing, retail, etc.).
contiguous block in North Corktown. Willerer was able
to buy the lot (typically 30 feet by 100 feet) behind his Winona Bynum, Detroit Food Policy Council
house through Detroit’s Side Lot Sales program,183 and his Executive Director, says the council and Detroit’s
neighbors bought three others for him to farm. He also Food and Fitness Collaborative have been working
bought the house two lots south of his, whose lot is also to identify the source of these problems. She
being cultivated. says two areas have been preliminarily identified.
First, farmers point to inconsistencies in the land
The Willerers also farm on several lots still owned by the acquisition process. Second, some Land Bank
city, which they have been unsuccessful in purchasing officials report that farmer applicants appear
from the city or from Detroit’s Land Bank Authority. “They unprepared to manage or without a business plan
would throw out our application every year for the other for the property, leading to fears that the land will
lots,” Willerer says, “Someone at the city said that if they remain or become an eye-sore in the community.
see the application is for a farm, they throw them out.” Bynum and others are working to educate
farmers and the Detroit Land Bank about how
Deterred by difficulties with the city and eager to keep
they can make land transfer easier by addressing
farming, the Willerers purchased nearly seven acres in
these issues.
Riley, MI, about an hour’s drive northeast of Detroit. The

182  There’s a reason for all the hype about Corktown. (2013, February 18). Visit Detroit. Retrieved from http://blog.visitdetroit.com/entry/there-
s-a-reason-for-all-the-hype-about-corktown.html
183  Side Lot Sales (n.d.). Buiding Detroit. Retrieved from http://www.buildingdetroit.org/our-programs/side-lot-sales/

142
Willerer tested the soil on the lots several years ago and “That’s why hoop houses are so important,” says Willerer
found that despite their history lead contamination was about Brother Nature’s winter production. By winter 2017
low. He built up the soil with topsoil brought in to increase they hope to achieve year-round production. The Willerers
depth, and continues to build the soil with compost he also have one of their acres in Riley in arugula production,
makes using manure from the Detroit Zoo, spent brewers’ though they say the area floods with heavy rains.
grains from a nearby brewery, coffee grounds, and cut-
down trees and leaves from the property. The couple does not use any synthetic sprays on their
crops and focuses on weed control, through plastic mulch
Water for drop and spray irrigation is drawn from and manual labor. They add compost at every planting and
the Willerers home meter. This includes irrigation for have seven to eight percent organic matter in the fields.
their three hoop houses, in which they have been
experimenting with overwintering cold-hardy greens for A good portion of their production is for their own home
winter salad mix. They would like to put hoop houses on use. Willerer says they try to grow new things every year,
their Riley property in the future, as well as, build a small including 300 lbs of potatoes Hubert grew for home use.
home there in order to stay longer than the one or two They have a converted trailer which houses laying hens,
days a week they spend there currently. whose eggs they eat or barter with friends for goods for
their own use. He hopes one day to have feeder pigs,
presently illegal under Detroit zoning laws.184
Production Practices
Brother Nature Produce’s production is centered around Business Structure
their salad greens, which have become their signature
product. The salad greens account for the majority of crop Willerer incorporated Brother Nature Produce as an LLC
sales, including at farmers markets and to restaurants (see in 2011. The business currently supports the couple and
Marketing & Sales). their daughter, Wren, and accounts for about 70 percent
of their total income which Willerer says about equals
“Olivia made [the salad mixes] more standardized, because his former teaching salary. The business has grown by
some greens are spicy,” says Willerer. “When we were still approximately five to ten percent each year, but “it’s also
dating, she made a mild, medium, and spicy [mix], like two steps forward, six steps back occasionally.”
hot sauce.” Hubert explains her rationale was consistency,
which customers could count on.

Their salad mix changes throughout the season and

includes spinach, arugula, field peas, baby cabbages,
mizuna and other Asian greens, as well as nasturtiums and
other edible flowers. They also grow kale, collards, herbs,
and what Hubert calls “CSA vegetables” like tomatoes and
peppers, which supply their CSA (see Marketing and Sales).

They have even started crossing varieties and saving

seeds of plants that overwinter particularly well. Hubert
taught Willerer how to cross varieties and harvest seeds
from bolted greens, which he stores in an old library card
catalog. They hope by saving winter-resilient seed, they
will be able to produce locally adapted varieties all year
long and be less dependent on commercial seed sources.

Brother Nature Produce experiments with no-till, using a

black plastic weed barrier over its winter cover crops.

184  At the time of writing (September 2016) it was not legal to have any type of livestock in the City of Detroit. An effort was underway to legalize
chickens, bees, rabbits, and goats. See: Detroit Code of Ordinances §6.1.3; and Sysling, A. (2016, February 2). “From Cars to Chickens: urban
livestock ordinance considered in Detroit.” Seedstock. Retrieved from http://seedstock.com/2016/02/02/from-cars-to-chickens-urban-livestock-
ordinance-considered-in-detroit/

143
“One of the issues is that we keep expanding the farm and This convenience model has been a great way to grow
have to rearrange things,” says Hubert, who is also the the business, says Willerer, but he is wary of adding more
farm’s bookkeeper and accountant. “People talk about toppings or homemade dressings. The USDA permit
making $140,000 on an acre and a half. That’s easy to do allows for a farm product pack, but more ingredients or
if you’re not expanding your size, building outbuildings, processing would require health department permits and
and renovating a house.” Meanwhile, increasingly inspections—costs and complications that he and Hubert
unpredictable weather like Michigan’s extreme heat in do not think will earn them more revenue.
the summer of 2016 threatens the farm’s viability,
Willerer says. The family was happy to help launch the Corktown farmers
market in 2015 both as an asset to their neighborhood and
as a convenient sales outlet just one mile from their home.
Marketing and Sales They say promoting the market to chefs was a great start,
Brother Nature Produce makes the majority of its sales as chefs at new Corktown restaurants would come to buy
at three Detroit farmers markets. Other sales are through ingredients. But, their commitment waned, says Willerer,
their CSA and to restaurants, though Willerer says they as the summer wore on and restaurants slowed in the
tend not to focus on restaurants because they are summer months.
inconsistent purchasers or go out of business as
trends change. Brother Nature Produce’s CSA has been a decreasing share
of the farm’s income over the past several years. At one
Brother Nature Produce has stands at Eastern Market, the point, says Hubert, they had 30 CSA members, but would
Wayne State University Farmers Market, and the Corktown often find themselves with leftover CSA shares when
Farmers Market (which they helped to start in 2015). The members did not come for pick-up.
Detroit Institute of Bagels, a shop in Corktown, started
a weeknight farmers market in its parking lot, which Now, says Willerer, the five paying members of the
Willerer and Hubert, who are community activists in the CSA are loyal and come back year after year. “We don’t
neighborhood, helped advocate for, organize, advertise it,” he says, “People find out about us by word of
and publicize. mouth, and that’s who we want. We don’t want to twist
someone’s arm to come here.”
Eastern Market, their highest-volume sales outlet, has
slowed in sales in recent years, says Willerer, even as They also offer CSA members the opportunity to work on
attendee volume of the market has grown. Eastern Market the farm for their share in full, which makes up a small
Corporation, which runs the farmers market and other pool of volunteers who help on the farm. Willerer says
markets and events in the space, has promoted the market he doesn’t badger volunteer members into working, as
as a destination for Detroiters and tourists, and raised he finds that people are eager to work for their share
millions of dollars to renovate the sheds under which the and have a deeper commitment to the farm after having
Saturday farmers market and other events are hosted. helped grow its produce.
But, as more out-of-towners visit the market, Hubert has
noticed regular Detroit customers have stopped coming. Employees
“You used to see a lot of middle-aged black women coming CSA volunteers help with bed preparation, seeding,
down there with their daughters or granddaughters, weeding, compost application and harvesting. Willerer
[but] you don’t see a whole lot of black people down estimates that volunteer time makes up between five
there anymore,” she says. She and Willerer also complain and 20 hours of total work hours at Brother Nature
that parking is so bad that they have been blocked in per week. And while he and Hubert could run the farm
by visitors. They suspect it is one of many reasons their without volunteers, the longer days, greater stress, and
former customers no longer shop at the Eastern Market. forced mechanization are not as promising as working
Meanwhile, they have seen sales go up at the Wayne with others.
State University farmers market, a much smaller market Willerer and Hubert work full-time on the farm, including
by comparison. The Wednesday market is an opportunity staffing farmers’ markets. They hope to hire an employee
for Brother Nature Produce to offer a value-added product who would live in one of the houses they own, which
that has gained popularity: prepared salads. They got a would make it easier for them to split time between their
USDA permit to produce salads in a restaurant kitchen, urban plots and their rural acreage.
prepared from their own greens and edible flowers,
packaged in clamshells for purchase by university students
and staff.

144
Other Activities/Services Support
When they are not farming, the Willerers spend much of Eastern Market vendors are eligible for its Growing
their time serving their community both as volunteers Communities grant program, which will fund up to $5,000
and fee-for-hire. Willerer provides custom farm work and for capital investments to grow urban farm businesses.
will take his tractor to other farms in the neighborhood to Brother Nature received grants in 2012, 2014 and 2015
plow and till lots, usually in early spring and late fall. “It’s which allowed them to purchase a pressure canner,
something we do because we want to grow a movement,” dehydrator, the greens cutter, its plow, and a 96’ hoop
he says. house kit.

He also uses the tractor in winter for snow removal on the The farm also received a NEIdeas grant through the
parking lot next door to their house. The winter of 2015- Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan’s New
2016 was a snowy one, and Willerer spent a lot of time Economy Initiative. The $10,000 grant helped purchase a
plowing for that lot and other businesses. He says that tractor and begin the custom tilling service to assist
earnings from snow removal could be up to a third of the other residents with converting vacant land into gardens
family’s income. and farms.

Willerer and Hubert are thinking about business expansion Keep Growing Detroit has been a longtime supporter of
through value-added processing. They ferment their Brother Nature. Early in the farms development, it sold
own apple cider vinegar from apples they gather from greens at the Grown in Detroit table run by Keep Growing
abandoned trees around the neighborhood, which the Detroit at the Eastern Market. Keep Growing Detroit also
Michigan Cottage Food Law185 allows them to sell. They brought out volunteers to help build the farm’s hoop
hope to make salad dressings made from their own house. This type of in-kind labor assistance is most favored
vinegars and herbs, too: “If we sell salads, we should sell by the Willerers, who say they would rather barter, trade
salad dressing!” Willerer reasons. and grow their community than apply
for grants.

This mentality of involving people to grow a movement

that Brother Nature Produce presents is instilled in its
operators in part by Paul Weertz, the former science and
agriculture teacher at Catherine Ferguson Academy. “We
try to give something back the way he has done,” Willerer
says of the man who has supported many urban farmers
at their start and helped to revitalize his neighborhood. As
he is for Carolyn Leadley at Rising Pheasant Farm, Weertz
is a handy farm resource for Willerer and Hubert. Willerer
will swap out tractor attachments with him, driving the
three miles between their two houses to switch out
equipment—about 30 minutes by tractor.

Policies Impacting Success

“Before the [UA] ordinance passed,186 there were a few
The winter fields at Brother Nature Produce against the crazy people like me who didn’t care if it was legal or not,”
low horizon of the surrounding neighborhood; many of says Willerer. He easily purchased the lot behind his house
the nearby homes were razed during Detroit’s recession through the city’s adjacent lot purchase program; his
and its recovery. neighbor used the same program to purchase three lots
which he offered to Willerer to farm.

185  Michigan Cottage Foods Information. (n.d.) Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. Retrived from http://www.michigan.
gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-50772_45851-240577--,00.html.
186  Underwood, K.L. and Buhl, L. (2013). City of Detroit Urban Agriculture Ordinance Abridged. Retrieved from http://detroitagriculture.net/wp-
content/uploads/2013_Sharable_UA-Ordinance.pdf.

145
The UA ordinance, passed in 2013, affirmed UA as a by- to supplement their home consumption and trade with
right land use on residential parcels like the lots Brother others. The house could also be future employee housing,
Nature Produce farms. This means an applicant who as an employee would enable them to care for both their
wishes to purchase city land either directly from the city or urban and rural plots and take on more side-jobs like
the land bank can list “urban garden” or “urban farm” as tilling, snow removal, and value addition.
their intended use of the land.187
Whether or not they could continue to farm all the land
But, in Willerer’s experience, the combination of Detroit’s under cultivation as Brother Nature Produce is unknown.
UA ordinance and the creation of the Detroit Land Bank They continue to prepare the fields on city-owned plots
Authority have made accessing farmland in Detroit more they hope to someday legally own as part of Brother
difficult. Willerer suspects that the City of Detroit and the Nature Produce and are hopeful that new illustrated plans
land bank are not eager to sell city property for UA. He will sway Detroit’s Land Bank Authority toward allowing
would apply to purchase the land every year, and every them to purchase land when they next apply.
year he would get no response to his applications.

“We don’t really want more land in the city, we just want Promise of Urban Agriculture
ownership of what we’re growing on right now,” says “Every year we have a theme,” says Hubert, who declared
Willerer, who in spring 2016 was gearing up for another 2016 “the Year of Permanence and Efficiency.” With two
attempt to purchase land on his block. Still, their rural farms, two houses, three hoop houses and a full market-
land is insurance against continuing difficulties with land season ahead, thinking about how they can grow more on
purchases. their land is as important as gaining tenure to that land.
Willerer does see the ordinance as good for Detroit’s Willerer and Hubert are proponents of Detroit’s UA
urban farming movement they so strongly support. “Now movement as a way to reclaim land, and also as a way
that it’s technically legal, you see a few more people taking to reclaim their family’s food sovereignty. Their plans
a risk to build a farm,” he says, “It’s not a guerrilla act of for future farm enterprises—livestock, fruit—might be
defiance anymore.” marketable, but are primarily designed to save money on
their grocery bills. In so doing, they can remain committed
Assets and Challenges to some of the community development activities that
compete for attention with rows of arugula and mizuna.
It is clear that Willerer thinks one of Brother Nature
Produce’s biggest asset is his wife, Olivia. With her The promise of UA that Willerer and Hubert seek—
extensive education and experience as a horticulturalist, activating vacant land, growing healthy food, supporting a
he says, she has helped him become a better farmer. family, and fostering a community—is embodied in Brother
Nature Produce. Rachel Baker, a Ph.D. candidate at York
“She’s coached me on how to rake it so it’s concave in the University and one of the farm’s long-time volunteers, says
center and higher on the sides, so the seeds don’t wash no one in Detroit could do it better. “I think that everybody
out the side when they’re pelted with rain,” he says, as in Detroit sees Greg and Olivia as the big crazy dreamers,
Hubert recalls exams at the Royal Horticultural Society but they actually follow through on everything they say.
where holding a rake wrong or using it incorrectly could They’re doing it all.”
fail a student.

Hubert has also taught Willerer the art of seed collecting

and saving, helping them to become ever more self-
sufficient, one of their primary goals at Brother Nature.
They believe the house they recently purchased will help
them toward self-sufficiency: they hope to install a sunken-
pit greenhouse in the lot between their two houses to
start growing dwarf tropical and sub-tropical produce

187  Detroit’s urban agriculture ordinance differentiates gardens and farms by size: an urban garden as less than one acre, and an urban farm as
one acre or more. See Underwood, K.L. and Buhl, L., p. 3

146
Side Yard Farm, Portland, OR
Chef’s Hobby Becomes Vibrant Farm Business
Themes: Full-time owners, Value-added products, On-farm events, Provides education and training,
Signature product — flowers.

History
Stacey Givens, 34, came to farming through the kitchen.
A professional chef at notable restaurants in Portland,
Oregon, her first experiences growing food were on the
rooftop of Rocket, the restaurant where Givens worked
in 2006.

Rocket’s rooftop garden began with the help of Marc

Boucher-Colbert, a career farmer with experience in rural
and urban settings. His community-supported farm, Urban
Bounty, which he later formed into the nonprofit Zenger
Farms, was one of the first in Portland.

At Rocket, Boucher-Colbert was responsible not just for

designing its innovative rooftop garden, but for coaching At Side Yard Farm from left to right, the edge of the
its chefs on herb and vegetable varieties, harvest office, the walk-in cooler and lean-to, a tool shed, and, at
techniques, and seasonality. “Having the rooftop garden, far right, a pergola for gatherings along the edge of Side
makes a wider range of options available for the chefs,” Yard Farm.
says Boucher-Colbert, who, in winter 2016, was producing
specialty winter endives atop the building for Rocket’s thriving, stepped away from the endeavor but continued
successor sister-restaurant, Noble Rot. Givens, who joined to act as Givens’ mentor over the next seven years, as she
Rocket’s opening team, was enthralled. While chefs help assembled three parcels that became collectively known
with harvest daily, Givens volunteered to participate as The Side Yard.
further—weeding, transplanting, and lugging soil to the
top of the four-story building. Community Description
“Being a cook, being able to grow things and bring it to the Portland is a city of nearly 602,000 residents.188 Notable
kitchen and be in charge of that process was new to me among Portland’s land use policies is its urban growth
and a connection I never had before,” Givens says. boundary (UGB), a designated development area designed
to restrict development on farm and forest land outside
After leaving Rocket when it closed in 2008, Givens the UGB. Oregon passed its Oregon Land Conservation
asked Boucher-Colbert to collaborate on a new urban and Development Act in 1973, a measure to curtail
farm project. They looked for land in the northeast Cully sprawl189 and is one of three states (plus Washington and
neighborhood, where inexpensive rent and a smattering Tennessee) that requires its cities to designate UGBs.190
of homesteaders welcomed agricultural experimentation. Portland’s UGB covers the City of Portland and portions of
Boucher-Colbert, whose own urban farming business was three counties surrounding the city.191

188  U.S. Census. 2010 American Community Survey 5-year estimate; 2014 American Community Survey 5-year estimate.
189  Abbot, C. and Howe, D. (1993). The Politics of Land-Use Law in Oregon: Senate Bill 100, twenty years after. Oregon Historical Quarterly, 94(1),
4–35.
190  Oregon Senate Bill 100. (1973).
191  For an in-depth description of Portland’s UGB, including its borders and regulations, visit Urban Growth Boundary (2016, September 2).
Metro. Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/urban-growth-boundary

147
The Metro Council, the regional nonpartisan legislative like the Side Yard, and growing pressure on rents and
body that oversees the UGB, declined to extend its density in Portland’s urban core (see Policy section) led
boundaries in 2015, the first time in its history.192 Instead, to an influx of new residents. “Maybe three years ago,
it opted to increase density in the Metro area, including houses were selling for $175-200k,” says Givens. “And
recommendations to encourage the development of more now they’re going for $400k.” A recent search on the
condominiums and multi-family homes.193 real estate website Zillow found 11 homes for sale in the
neighborhood found an average sale price of $437,600.202
From 2010 to 2014, the 7-county Portland metropolitan
area population grew by 5.2 percent.194 This includes
migration from California as Silicon Valley employees Farm Description
relocate to the so-called “Silicon Forest” of Oregon’s In 2015, the Side Yard Farm was made up of three
booming tech industry.195 The influx of high-earning young residential parcels that total about 1.75 acres, of
people searching for lower rents and an alternative urban which approximately 60 percent (1.2 acres) was under
lifestyle has in-part ushered in skyrocketing rent prices at cultivation. Its main location is one acre on Simpson Street
an annualized rate of 14 percent in 2015.196 And while new which includes an office building, a small greenhouse, a
residents and the developers who cater to them can afford 30x72 foot hoop house, washing and packing stations, a
higher land prices,197 young people in the creative and walk-in cooler, shade structures, and a cob oven under a
service industries of Portland are finding it harder to rent single-pitch pole barn. There are three off-street parking
or buy. spaces, including one handicapped space. Givens gained
access to the Simpson Street site at the end of 2014 when
The tree-lined Cully neighborhood in northeast Portland is homeowners on the property abutting the back of the lot
approximately three square miles, with the majority zoned acquired it and provided her a 12-year lease for farming at
for high-density single-dwelling residential units198. “The $150 per month, significantly lower than market value.
Cully,” as some residents call it, is a diverse community.
While majority white (62 percent),199 its significant The growing site (1/3 acre) at Givens’ own rented home
minority groups include African Americans, Latinos, and houses a wash-pack station, a tool shed, and a space for
Hmong and Somali refugees.200 Approximately half of chickens and goats Givens kept in the past. Givens original
the dwelling-units are owner-occupied, the rest rented. ¼-acre site is just blocks from the Simpson Street farm,
Lot sizes in the Cully are variable, from as small as 5,000 and was rented on a year-to-year agreement with the
square feet up to an acre or more.201 landowners. She will lose the site after the 2016 growing
season, however, when it is developed for housing.
Givens was drawn to the neighborhood with its plentiful
backyards, low rents, and open-minded property The farm’s full name is The Side Yard Farm & Kitchen,
owners who have farm aspirations of their own. But, combining Givens’ other passion: cooking. The Side Yard
as her business has grown, so has the neighborhood’s runs a year-round catering company and supper club,
attractiveness: easy access to some of Portland’s main purchasing food from its own farm, as well as, other urban
transportation arteries, alternatively-minded operations and nearby rural growers. The Side Yard hosts dinners and
events at its one-acre Simpson Street location, including
movie screenings and grief groups.

192  2015 growth management decision. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/Growth-management-

factsheet-20160115.pdf
193  ibid.
194  Christensen, N. (2015, March 26). Portland region grows to 2.35 million residents, Census estimates, with newcomers leading the way. Metro
News. Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/portland-region-grows-235-million-residents-census-estimates-newcomers-leading-way
195  Rogoway, M. (2015, October 18). Portland tech’s gains add to city’s housing strain. The Oregonian. Retrieved from http://www.oregonlive.
com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2015/10/portland_tech_booms_adding_to.html.
196  Hammill, L. (2015, October 14). 14 percent annualized rent growth in Portland ‘landlord’s market,’ report finds. The Oregonian. Retrieved
from http://www.oregonlive.com/front-porch/index.ssf/2015/10/14_percent_annualized_rent_gro.html
197  Rogoway, M., 2015.
198  Single Dwelling Zones. (n.d.) City of Portland Zoning Code. Retrieved from http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/64609
199  2010 Census Data for Portland. City of Portland. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oni/56897
200  Cully Main Street: A plan for community-serving improvements. (2009). PSU Planning Workshop Project. Retrieved from https://www.pdx.
edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.usp/files/CullyMainStreet_FinalReport.pdf.
201  Cully-Concordia Community Assessment. (2008, September). City of Portland Bureau of Planning. Retrieved from https://www.
portlandoregon.gov/citycode/?c=35201&a=272094.
202  Search conducted on March 22, 2016 on www.zillow.com.
148
“Starting a catering company and a supper club wasn’t parcel where a home had stood some years prior. NRCS
even in my mind until the second year,” Givens says. She provided soil testing and necessary soil amendments (lime,
uses kitchen space at a nearby restaurant to which she azomite). Givens also brought in soil to build 3x50 foot
also sells produce. The Side Yard also has a catering trailer. raised beds.
When she started, Givens worked full-time at the farm and
full-time in restaurants to get the operation going. But, she Givens has an electric walk-behind cultivator which she
left restaurants behind when the catering business took uses to build beds at each site. The soil type varies, and
off: for the past five years, Side Yard takes about 80 hours she is attempting to build organic matter in the sandiest
of her week during the growing season. soils on the new Simpson Street site. There is composting
at each site, though it is insufficient for the farms’ needs;
Givens purchases compost for all three sites each spring,
Production Practices which costs about $1,200 each year.
Givens grows a variety of vegetables, specialty culinary
herbs and edible flowers in her acre-plus of production The Side Yard’s growing season starts in late-February or
space. The Side Yard relies on high-value, quick-succession early-March and produce is marketed to its customers
crops for restaurant sales. Givens planted persimmon, from late-March through November. The catering
fig, apple, and heirloom peach tree on the site of her business, however, operates year round and purchases
rented home, which she hopes to purchase in order to approximately 25 percent of The Side Yard’s total yield of
secure access to its land. She has also planted grapes and produce and flowers. The remaining 70 percent is sold to
blueberries on the Simpson Street site. She grows using the Side Yard’s 15 restaurant clients. The Side Yard does
organic practices, but does not feel the need to become not have a traditional CSA; instead, it grows approximately
certified organic: “The chefs know I’m organic [in my five percent of its produce to provide to employees and
growing practices]. That’s the only way to grow interns as a “free-SA.” This weekly box of farm-produce,
in Portland.” plus meals at the farm, and free tickets to on-farm events
comprise part of employee and intern compensation.
The Side Yard also has a high tunnel in which Givens
grows kale and other hardy greens through much of the Business Structure
winter, though usually only enough to supply the catering
business. The high tunnel was constructed in 2015 via an The Side Yard has been incorporated as an LLC since 2008.
NRCS EQIP grant. She worked closely with her local NRCS At first, Givens says, she started the farm “mostly to stay
office to improve soil quality management on the one-acre connected to growing my own food. There wasn’t really a
motive—I didn’t have a business plan in place at the time, I
just wanted to get a piece of land and start growing food.”

Givens said she thought about incorporating as a nonprofit

when proposals arose for adult education workshops,
a kids’ summer camp, and other educational activities.
Ultimately she decided, “I’d rather do workshops that are
sliding-scale and [pay] the [guest-instructor] who’s hosting
it all of the money,” less any materials Givens provides for
a workshop. “Because our rent is so cheap, I want to give
back what my [Simpson Street] landlords have done for
me. And my other landlords don’t charge me that much,
so, why profit [from workshops]?”

While she has basic business plans, Givens says she largely
grows her business in her head. “I think, ‘Next year we’re
going to do this.’ And I’m happy I have a great bookkeeper
who keeps track and [tells me], ‘This is what’s working,
Late-winter permanent rows and NRCS-reimbursed high this is what’s not.’”
tunnel at Side Yard Farm.
Givens is hoping to expand the catering portion of The
Side Yard in the coming years, building out a catering
kitchen and other facilities. At that point, “Yes, I will
have an updated business plan,” she says. That plan is to

149
build a catering kitchen that can double as a sliding-scale
commissary for small food businesses and food trucks.
“[Portland commissaries] have gone nuts charging people
[running food carts and other start-up food businesses]
$25-30 an hour [to rent kitchen space]. How can a food
cart make money? We want to do $10-15 an hour, sliding
scale.” As with The Side Yard at present, Givens sees the
future of her business built by supporting others doing
similar work in and around Portland.

Marketing and Sales

Givens began by selling to restaurants where she knew
and respected the chefs. She slowly grew her business
with restaurants, and also began hosting suppers and
workshops. For the first two seasons, she continued to
cook in restaurants, working at the farm all day and in The Side Yard Farm’s catering trailer.
restaurants all night. But, as catering scaled up in 2011,
she quit restaurant work to focus on her business Givens says that while a formal Grange never formed,
full-time, or more: on average 80 hours a week during farms respect one another’s relationships with customers.
the growing season. When a nearby farmer asked a restauranteur for the
The Side Yard has been selling to restaurants since its Side Yard’s price sheet, then dropped his prices to sell to
inception, Givens says, because “I just wanted to supply that same restaurant, Givens says, “it took a lot to get it
my buddies with the best stuff.” She built a customer through [the farmer’s] head that we’re in this together.”
base from chefs she’d worked with previously in But, Givens does not expect to be her restaurants’ sole
restaurants. “We have the same food philosophies. We source of local produce. “There’s no point [competing]
choose each other.” when someone else has more land and can [grow
something] better than me. So why not put [my land] into
Givens relies heavily on word of mouth to connect with something like arugula that pays nine dollars per pound
new restaurant and catering clients. Because production and get two or three harvests out of one bed.”
is limited and the Side Yard can design catering menus to
absorb any excess production, she has no problem turning Though the Side Yard has more than 1,700 followers on
chefs down whose attitudes or philosophies do not match Instagram and posts frequently, Givens says that both
with her own. “I don’t sell to just anybody because they’re chefs and catering clients are more likely to “choose me
a big name,” she says, preferring to stay loyal to chefs who because they like what I do. It’s urban, and it’s fresh,
visit the farm and attend brunches and suppers which and we’re harvesting it day-of, so it’s going to last a long
affirms “we really understand each other.” time. They spend a little extra money, and they’re okay
with that.”
Givens takes orders by call and text, and she or one of her
farm managers delivers to clients Tuesdays and Fridays. Employees
Harvest is complete no later than 2:00pm, and deliveries
follow, usually complete by 5:00pm. The Side Yard employs two part-time farm managers
through the season (March through November). Givens
More urban farms have cropped up in the Cully since 2008. says her best farm managers have both farm and culinary
“There’s a little bit of competition, but for the most part experience. In 2016, one such farm manager will also
[the Cully urban farmers] are all buddies,” Givens says. At be Givens’ sous chef and help with some large catering
one point, the farmers attempted to start a Cully Grange to events. Farm managers work about 25 hours per week,
work together and discuss common issues. Some farmers usually Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They work
proposed selling collectively to restaurants and through a with Givens on production and distribution, including
combined farm stand. For Givens, whose hybrid business seeding, transplanting, cultivating, harvesting, packing and
has well-established relationships that create a balance delivering orders, and farm maintenance and projects.
between catering and farm sales, such a marketing Farm managers are paid $12.50/hour and receive produce
collaboration wasn’t attractive. Instead, she encouraged as part of their compensation.
the other urban farmers to build new restaurant
relationships and “spread the love” of urban farms.
150
The Side Yard also offers space for two internships each Givens also points to the assistance of Boucher-Colbert:
season, often as part of a culinary or urban farming “[Marc] helped me start the Side Yard when it came to
program. Interns work 15-20 hours per week, are finding the property, all the licensing, the irrigation…
trained by Givens and the farm managers, and perform he’s always been my mentor.” Boucher-Colbert strongly
the same tasks. believes season-extension like a hoop house “can launch
you into a different level. If you struggle along with wrong
The Side Yard’s managers and interns have gone on to equipment or scale, you may fail not because you’re not
work on other farms and, in one instance, start her own driven or smart, but because you couldn’t step up to the
farm.203 Givens plans to continue to offer formal and level of production.” Givens feels well equipped to work
informal learning opportunities, and hopes to grow toward that scale.
the business in order to provide more consistent hours
for employees. Steve Cohen, Manager of Food Policy and Programs at the
City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability,
People often ask to volunteer at the farm, and support also provided key support as Givens navigated Portland’s
basic maintenance, production or larger projects. Givens yet-untested application and permitting process for urban
believes these opportunities provide impromptu education farms. While building the Simpson Street site, Cohen
and community connection. She tells the story of a helped Givens assemble appropriate documentation to
Spanish-speaking neighborhood woman who asked if challenge zoning requirements that would have forced
there was an opportunity for her adult daughter, who was Givens to install a sidewalk, a fight Cohen was happy
suffering from depression, to help at the farm. Engaging to take on, as Simpson Street does not otherwise have
people in the therapeutic, hands-on work of farming is a sidewalks.
point of pride for Givens.
Givens also attributes the Side Yard’s initial success to her
The Side Yard also hires servers and dishwashers for appearance and win on the Food Network’s “Chopped.”
catering events. These independent contractors make an Not only did she gain local fame, she was also able to
hourly wage plus tips. Givens also hires culinary students invest her prize money into the farm. “They keep showing
looking to gain catering experience to assist her with on- reruns,” she says, and so the Side Yard stays on television.
site preparation and presentation.

Policies Impacting Success

Other Activities/Services
Three key activities since the early 2000s have supported
Farm tours, dinners, and brunches are where the Side UA development in Portland. First, a group of food system
Yard’s farm business and catering business converge. activists convened a Portland Food Policy Forum in early
Visitors to the Side Yard include students of the Oregon 2002, which led to city and county resolutions; establishing
Culinary Institute, Portland Community College, the the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council (FPC)
National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, as well as that May.204,205 The FPC, which served from 2002-2012,
apprentices with Oregon State’s Beginning Urban Farmer was instrumental in educating city and county bureaus
program. Most visiting groups offer to pay for their visits. on food-related issues. These issues included zoning
barriers for food-based businesses, inspiring healthy retail
Support initiatives, and convening actors across the regional food
The Side Yard benefitted from knowledge and resource system to integrate food access, justice, production, and
support throughout its evolution. Along with the high distribution into city and county plans.
tunnel grant from NRCS EQIP, two of her landlords Second, under advisement from the FPC, the City created
have furnished her with equipment, like a walk-behind a Food Policy and Programs Manager position under its
cultivator or financial support to offset the costs of Office of Sustainable Development (later moved into a
establishing the farm. combined Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, or BPS).206

203  See for example Lacey Riddle’s Small Heart Farm in Portland: www.smallheartfarms.org
204  City of Portland Resolution No. 36074. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/481225
205  Multnomah County Resolution No. 02-093. Retrieved from https://multco.us/file/17026/download
206  Interview with Steve Cohen, January 27, 2016

151
 Beginning Urban Farmers Apprenticeship
Givens and other urban farmers have accepted Along with tours and catered lunches, The Side
interns and taken on employees who have Yard hosts dinners featuring produce from the
participated in the Beginning Urban Farmers farm and other nearby farms. “Dinners are now
Apprenticeship (BUFA) program through Oregon an average of $80 (per person), and that’s with
State University Extension. BUFA offers separate alcohol pairing. So, it’s a pretty good deal. If we do
community farming and market farming tracks, more than four courses, then it may go up to $100-
with the more intense market farming track 120. But usually, it’s about four courses. If it’s a big
comprising of more than 75 hours of classroom collaboration dinner with other chefs, we’ll charge
instruction and 500 hours of field instruction over more so everyone gets paid out.” Despite the high
the course of a season. ticket price, the farm does not see much profit
from the dinners. “Those are all for marketing.
BUFA instructor Jen Aron starts talking to students They don’t make that much money,” she says.
about profitability and the bottom line from the
first day. She grows high-value crops alongside A regular community has begun to develop around
melons and other space-hogs so students can the Side Yard brunches and dinners: regular
see for themselves how unprofitable some crops attendees include local chefs who buy from or
can be. know Givens, other farmers, and, in a sign of the
changing Portland demographic, more affluent
Aron’s advice to trainees? “Don’t quit your day job. people from Portland’s wealthier neighborhoods
And hone your skills.” But, those that do so can be and similarly-endowed recent arrivals. “You can
big assets to area urban farmers. spot them when they pull up in the BMW or Range
Side Yard’s reputation has extended all the Rover. It used to be the old Hondas and now it’s
way to Japan, where she has traveled for the a mix.” Givens is happy to see new people are
past four autumns to meet with farmers, getting excited about urban farming, and for the
business executives, and other activists who, Side Yard those visits have the potential to spark
like Americans, are concerned about their aging future catering opportunities.
farmer population and the dearth of young people The Side Yard hosts free movie screenings and
in the profession. Her visits inevitably spike further other informal events during the summer at its
curiosity, and Japanese educational and tour main location. Givens talks with pride about the
groups visit the Portland farm throughout the farm’s grief group, which convenes about four
season. Visitors pay for a farm tour and catered times each year. After losing her father in 2011,
on-farm lunch, and discuss with Givens how to Givens wanted to create a safe, non-triggering
raise the “cool-profile” of farming for Japanese space for people dealing with the loss of a loved
youth. These groups see Portland, with its many one to share stories and provide support. Called
urban farms and reputation as a hip, young city, “The Lost Table,” the events are potluck style, and
as a useful model to inspire more young farmers discussion is driven by attendees. “We eat, share
in Japan. our stories, cry, laugh. It’s nice. Farming is really
therapeutic,” she says, and is happy to make the
farm a place of healing.

152
Steve Cohen has held this position since its establishment amendments in 2012, which included, among other things,
in 2003. As one of the first cities in the U.S. to install a designation for “market gardens” which made sales-
full-time staff support to understand and integrate food driven farm operations an accepted use on all residentially
systems issues into city policy and programs, Portland zoned parcels.
reflected its reputation as a food-conscious community by
adding food and agriculture to its planning agenda. Yet, changes to zoning code did not necessarily equate to a
shared understanding of agricultural use and appropriate
This planning agenda as related to UA was largely shaped permitting among the city’s other bureaus. For Givens,
by the third major policy event: the Diggable City project. this resulted in a long and costly build-out of the Simpson
Conducted in three phases between 2005 and 2007, this Street parcel. “Every [city agent] would [say something]
series of reports identified city-owned land with potential different every time they came here,” she says of the lack
for agricultural use. The reports inventoried all open of coordination among of the Portland City bureaus. “Yes,
city-owned land, launched pilot projects on three sites urban farms are commercial by nature, but we are allowed
owned by different city bureaus to test the mechanisms to farm on residential land. But, they slapped me with a
for farming on city-owned property, and then evaluated bunch of commercial fees.”
both the pilots and the initial land inventory to present
a measured assessment of agricultural potential on city Building her office and storage space was slow and
property. The 2007 Diggable City Phase III report found expensive: “The permitting fees [for the building] alone
just 13 sites where urban agricultural activity was possible. were just as much as this building. It was about $7,000,”
It also noted that much of the vacant city-owned land she says. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Transportation,
identified in Phase I would be needed for housing or other considering the Side Yard a standard commercial site,
uses in the future to maintain the UGB.207 required handicapped parking (“It cost about $4,000,” says
Givens).
Steve Cohen suggests that a growing population within the
static confines of the UGB will continue to put pressure Givens enlisted the help of Steve Cohen in 2015 when the
on urban farmers. Though he manages food policy Bureau of Transportation told her she would have to put in
including UA for the city, Cohen is also pragmatic about sidewalks near the street. “There are no sidewalks in the
reserving city land for future development. The city keeps Cully, [but they told me] ‘Well, then you’re going to have
an inventory of land for future housing, commercial, and to appeal.” Cohen and Givens documented the farm site
light industry needs in order to encourage development and the neighborhood to show the inconsistency of the
within the UGB. Cohen says he and the city planners sidewalk requirement and contextualize the urban farm. It
he works with have to ask themselves, “Do you want to took another month and a half from the appeal until it was
grow food for a few families or do you want to put houses processed and Givens could proceed with construction.
in? What are the needs of the city? If we don’t have the Informed in part by his experience helping Givens appeal
inventory [of available land for development of residential, to the Bureau of Transportation, Cohen suspects education
commercial, or agricultural activities], we’d have to [place on dealing with market gardens is still needed at the
that development] outside the UGB,” which is antithetical city level. “I’ve been focused on external education for
to its anti-sprawl purpose. a while,” he says, “Now it’s time to do some education
Limits on city-owned land access did not stop urban within the bureaus.”208
gardeners and would-be farmers from planting seeds. BPS
conducted a 2011 study, with funding through Centers for Assets and Challenges
Disease Control and Prevention’s Communities Putting Givens identifies challenges beyond the difficult permitting
Prevention to Work program, of Portland’s zoning. The and building process. The farm pays residential rates for
study recommended draft zoning policy changes regarding water, which in FY 2015-2016 were $3.94 per hundred
agriculture. City Council adopted the report with cubic feet (or 748 gallons) plus service fees, as well

207  For an excellent summary of Diggable City and other pertinent history, please see Hatfield, M.M. and Cohen, S. (2016). A Case Study: Urban
agriculture in Portland, Oregon 2002-2012. In S. Brown, K. McIvor, and E.H. Seyder (Eds.) Sowing Seeds in the City, 373-388.
208  Steve Cohen Interview, January 27, 2016

153
“
If you struggle along with wrong equipment or scale, you may fail not
because you’re not driven or smart, but because you couldn’t step up to the
level of production.
— Stacey Givens
Side Yard Farm

as taxes like storm-water tax.209 Portland offers non- building. When Givens paid for the street trees to be
residential, commercial, industrial and institutional water trimmed back in 2015, they accepted the service in lieu
users a Clean Water Charge rate ($0.96 per hundred cubic of rent; as of January 2016, they had not charged her for
feet) for water that is diverted through a storm sewer using the land.
other than a combined storm sewer;210 Givens says this
does not apply to irrigation, and the rule assumes irrigation Promise of Urban Agriculture
water goes into the storm sewer. However, the City does
eliminate sewage fees for urban farms. Without “black No matter how large the catering business becomes,
and white urban agriculture laws” about how to categorize Givens expects she will always have the Side Yard Farm.
farms at every level of government, Givens fears that “We will never be a bigger scale farm. I like being here,
even education within city bureaus will not help farmers being urban. We can be so many different things because
navigate through paperwork and bureaucracy to establish of where we’re located and what we do. There are more
urban farms. things that we can create and do than [if we were] a large-
scale [rural] farm that mass-produces.”
As for financial challenges, the farm was able to pay for its
employees and its water in 2016, which can be more than Givens hopes more urban farms pop up in the future, but
$600 quarterly. The catering portion is more profitable, fears “we’ll see less and less [of them] unless there are
and from which Givens is able to pay herself. She is hoping good people like my landlords who are willing to let people
to grow the catering side of the business to sustain the farm.” “Being urban and being able to connect with regular
farm, and find funding or other assistance to build a people every day is important,” whether through a hands-
catering kitchen and reach critical scale. on course, a casual group-therapy potluck, or a sit-down
dinner for 100. “We change people’s lives in different
For Givens, the greatest asset the Side Yard possesses is its ways,” says Givens, and growing food is only one of them.
landlords. Their generosity not only helped establish the
Side Yard, it also helped pay for the expenses that came as
a result of a formalized zoning code. The Simpson Street
landlords paid for the permitting fees for the office

209  Rates & Charges (n.d.) Portland Water Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/29415
210  Sewer and Drainage Rates and Charges (2016). Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/article/538411

154
Wilson Street Urban Farm, Buffalo, NY
Family Homestead Incubates a Farm Business
Themes: Land access, Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, Owner food security,
Multi-farm efforts.

History
“I run an oversized hobby,” laughs Janice Stevens,
describing Wilson Street Urban Farm. When she and her
husband, Mark, decided to move from rural Covington,
NY, 50 miles west to the east side of Buffalo, they did not
plan to become well-recognized urban farmers. Rather,
they intended to live much as they always had—including
growing their own food.

Janice, Mark, and their eight children moved to Buffalo

in 2007 as part of what Janice refers to as the family’s
“missionary” vision211. Homesteading and practicing self-
reliance in rural Wyoming County was their philosophy,
says Janice, but the family was eager to incorporate
Onion flowers emerging midsummer at Wilson Street
a broader community. By bringing their home and
Urban Farm.
homestead to the city, their simple way of life could
touch more people and strengthen communities beyond
their household.
News of the Stevenses’ farm aspirations spread quickly.
A friend living on Fillmore Avenue on Buffalo’s East Side Local activist and the city’s unofficial anthropologist, David
told the family when the house next to his went up for Torke, volunteered to help Mark and Janice navigate city
sale. The large house came with a second adjacent lot—a bureaucracy to get a land lease. Torke connected the
must for the Stevenses—and backed up to a large tract of Stevenses with Brendan Mehaffy, who then worked for
vacant land. Conveniently, their friend and new neighbor the City of Buffalo’s legal department. The former land
also worked at Buffalo’s City Hall, and helped the family use lawyer drafted the Stevenses’ first lease—a five-year
approach city government to get access to that land. agreement to use 25 lots on Wilson Street for farming for a
total cost of one dollar per year
The lots on the Stevens’ side of their Fillmore Avenue
block back up to Wilson Street. Formerly a street of The Stevens have purchased two of the 25 lots from
smaller clapboard houses behind the grand homes the city, which they did in preparation for a sculptural
of Fillmore, the lots had been vacant for many years, installation meant to connect art and agriculture.212 They
demolished as Buffalo’s population declined by more than would like to purchase the remaining lots, but at $1,500
half in the second half of the 20th century. Perhaps, they per lot are reluctant to do so without financial assistance.
thought, they could get permission to farm the vacant lots.

211  Parisi, N. (2021, May). “Wilson Street Farm: The Stevens Family.” Buffalo Spree. Retrieved from http://www.buffalospree.com/Buffalo-Spree/
May-2012/WIlson-Street-Farm-The-Stevens-Family/ .
212  As of July 2016 the art project, Art Farms, had stalled and the Stevens had not been contacted by organizers about installation of the
sculpture.

155
The city has not renewed the Stevenses’ lease since it Polish-Americans began moving away to nearby suburbs
lapsed in 2014. Mehaffy, now Executive Director of the in the 1940s, and the city’s African-American population,
city’s Strategic Planning Department, told them they would which grew from 17,000 in 1940 to nearly 100,000 in
go month-by-month as the city finalizes its Green Code, 1970, began to move to the East Side.216 As the city’s
a comprehensive land use plan based on Smart Growth manufacturing sector moved away over the same period,
principles that have been translated into a form-based the predominantly African-American East Side—a
code.213,214 Centered on appropriate use and sustainable collection of neighborhoods spanning the five miles from
practices, the code aims to green and revitalize Buffalo, the edge of downtown to the city border217, 218—became
and include UA. known for its crime and poverty.

Still, the Stevenses are operating on an informal Wilson Street is near the middle of the 14212 zip code
agreement—nothing has been signed since their initial which runs along Broadway and encompasses much of
lease. And while land tenure looms in the background, she the district, where the unemployment rate was around
finds herself daily more consumed with another situation 16 percent in 2014,219 compared to the city’s 5.6 percent
that seemed unlikely back in Wyoming County: turning the unemployment rate at the end of 2014.220 The poverty rate
“oversized hobby” that made the family into the face of is about 35 percent, with a median household income of
Buffalo UA into a business. $34,089.221 Whites make up 46 percent of the population
(many of Polish ancestry), African-Americans make up 37
Community Description percent, and the district is home to a growing population
of Bangladeshi Muslims moving from New York City to
Wilson Street is a far cry from Wyoming County. One block Buffalo.222,223
from the epicenter of the city’s Broadway-Fillmore district,
one can hear thoroughfare traffic and frequent police Though vacant lots and boarded-up buildings still
sirens from the farm. The farm is bordered by a dollar characterize the neighborhood, Janice says new
store parking lot to its south on Broadway, dilapidated immigrants and young people have begun rehabilitating
homes up the block to its north, and the backyards of some neighborhood homes. Surprisingly, she says, there
homes on the next block to its west. is not much palpable racial tension. “All types of people
come to the farm stand,” she says, “And their feedback is
The Broadway-Fillmore district had been home to all positive.”
Buffalo’s swelling Polish population in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries.215 The Broadway Market, which is That does not necessarily mean the neighborhood is well-
still in operation one block from Wilson Street Urban integrated. The Stevenses started a block club on their
Farm, is still considered a Polish-American cornerstone of street when they moved in, seeing that residents were
Buffalo, boasting retailers selling kielbasa, pierogis, babka disenfranchised from participation in local government.
and more. Block club members are mostly new residents, but
members of the longtime African-American community
“don’t seem to trust it,” says Janice.

213  For more information, visit the Buffalo Green Code website at http://www.buffalogreencode.com/
214  The City of Buffalo released an updated version of its Green Code on September 15, 2016, and held two public hearings in November 2016:
http://www.buffalogreencode.com/September2016/UDO_Complete_Sept_2016.pdf
215  Excerpts from Broadway-Fillmore, Buffalo, NY Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey (n.d.). Buffalo Architecture and History website.
Retrieved from http://www.buffaloah.com/h/pol/hist/#History
216  Hsu, Charlotte. (2010, April 17). Exodus: A quick-and-dirty history of Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore Community. The Buffalo Story Project
website. Retrieved from http://www.buffalostoryproject.com/2010/04/17/exodus/
217  East Side Maps. (n.d.). University at Buffalo Map Collection online. Retrieved from http://library.buffalo.edu/maps/buffalo-wnymaps/
location/buffalo-neighborhoods/es.html
218  Buffalo District Map. (n.d.). Buffalo Architecture and History website. Retrieved from http://www.buffaloah.com/a/bamsec/buffalodist.jpg
219  American Community Survey, 2014 for zip codes 14206, 14211, and 14212.
220  Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2014, December). Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Retrieved from https://
data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUMT361538000000003?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_view=data&include_graphs=true
221  ACS 2014.
222  Ibid.
223  Esmonde, Donn. (2016, May 28). Muslims moving against East Side blight. The Buffalo News. Retrieved from http://www.buffalonews.com/
columns/muslims-moving-against-east-side-blight-20160528

156
“There is a lot of churning in this neighborhood,” The land is still considered “vacant” for tax purposes, but
says Janice, referring to the transient nature of some the Stevenses do pay user fees, including trash collection.
neighborhood residents. Still, the farm has proven to be an Janice hopes that the Green Code will recognize urban
unlikely neutral territory, and the Stevens have seen very farms as sinks rather than generators of waste and
little gleaning or vandalism over the years. stormwater, though is not confident the code will be
approved any time soon.
“We try to keep the farm clean and fit into the
neighborhood,” she says.
Production Practices
Farm Description The Stevenses grow a wide variety of vegetables and
rotate their plantings as much as possible, from year
Wilson Street Urban Farm is comprised of 25 contiguous to year, to reduce pest pressure. Pests are still an issue,
lots totaling 1.75 acres. About a half-acre was in however, and their crop mix has adapted to those
production in 2016, with the rest left for setback, pressures. They have a screened-in cucumber house
pathways, and a cut-through path to the adjacent street. to keep out cucumber beetles, and have moved their
The growing area is split into 11 30x60’ beds, a small pepper production to the lot next to their house to reduce
strawberry patch, and two high tunnels which are in pressure from pepper maggots.
production most of the year. The family originally began In addition to building soil with peat and compost,
growing in boxes and on raised beds, but has begun they get bedding from a nearby equestrian center. The
planting in the ground as they improve the soil. compost is from the Farmer Pirates’ compost program, of
The heavy clay soil is low in organic matter and suffers which Wilson Street Urban Farm is a founding member.
from high alkalinity. Though the houses that once stood The burgeoning compost program has residential and
here did not have basements, construction debris and commercial compost pick-up contracts, and receives
low-quality fill resulted in high soil pH. The Stevenses deliveries of compostables from the city’s waste
apply compost and peat heavily, and cover-crop in winter department.
to build up the soil. The soil can be difficult to work, “The compost is getting better,” says Janice Stevens, who
particularly in dry spells, though the family is aided by says weed seeds have been a big problem in the compost.
its 30hp Kubota tractor, and a BCS walk-behind tractor it She says leaf mulch, which does not have weed issues,
purchased in 2015.

Other than soil alkalinity, the Stevens biggest production

hurdle is water. They have two 350-gallon rain catchment
tanks filled off the roof of their greenhouse, and two more
Farmer Pirates
on their own property across Wilson Street. But, aside
from the greenhouse, which is drip-irrigated, the rest of The Farmer Pirates are a cooperative of Buffalo
the farm is hand-watered. While Western New York was urban farms that seeks to support and offer
experiencing a drought in July 2016, the Stevenses were services to others growing food in the city. A
spending four to five hours a day hand-watering their struggle for land access as well as land retention
crops from two water tanks pulled behind the tractor and after improving it through farming brought the
filled from a hose at their house. Eventually, says Janice, Pirates together as they wanted to be proactive
she and Mark would like to dig a well on one of the two to retain use of their plots. They share a farmers
farm-lots they own, and run an irrigation system from it. market stand, discuss policy and neighborhood
issues, share knowledge and equipment
It would be easier to make that commitment if the resources, buy farming inputs in bulk, and started
Stevenses owned all of the land they farm, though Janice a composting project called Compost Buffalo.
says that, as a pilot-project of the city of Buffalo, their Working with the City of Buffalo to receive leaves
lease was lenient and no city officials came to monitor the left curbside by residents, it composts leaves, lawn
farm. During the lease, she submitted annual reports to clippings, and some food scraps for use by the
Mehaffy, and though the lease has lapsed, she is confident other Pirates and, if there is extra, to sell to
that Mehaffy’s relationship with the farm will protect area gardeners.
their tenure.

157
mixed with peat and covered in plastic mulch was one of
the best combinations for bed-preparation she has tried
yet. Heavy feeding brassicas were responding beautifully
to the treatment.

Business Structure
Wilson Street Urban Farm is the accidental poster child
for UA in Buffalo, largely because the Stevenses did not
initially have a plan to grow it into a business. Nearly half
of the food grown on the farm feeds the Stevens family of
seven children plus Janice and her husband Mark (their
oldest child has moved from home and has her own
farm nearby). But, Janice says a recent expansion of its
production space aims to meet the demand for
its produce.
Cabbage being grown on black plastic to improve growth
“We would be doing this whether we made money off of it and with row covers to protect plants from insects.
or not. It’s just what we do,” says Janice.

The farm’s income is supplemented by Mark’s work as “I want to get better [at recordkeeping], [the farm] needs
a carpenter, it looks more and more likely that the farm to make more money than it does now, but it doesn’t
could earn enough to be the family’s sole source of need to be all-consuming 12-months of the year,” she
income, and Janice has dedicated herself to treating what continues. “When I go to Bidwell [Market] and [farmers
was a hobby more like a business. are] all selling all this stuff, it just makes it easier for me to
“I am trying to separate all the finances out and think sit back and say, “I don’t need it because I’m doing okay.”
more strategically in my planting and different markets,” Why should I stress about making it huge? Or go beyond
she says, “and make sure that I have enough and think my comfortable stress-level? I don’t need to find 100
more economically. Using my space a little more wisely, markets because I can probably do what I need to do with
pulling things out if they’re not worth keeping instead the markets that I have already. If I just get a little better
of saying, ‘Oh wait, that will give me one more picking- organized and cut out some of its inefficiencies… it makes
-I can’t throw that out!’ But yeah, I can, because it’s not my dreams more reasonable. If [we grow] beyond that,
economical to keep it.” fine, but I don’t need to.”

Recordkeeping has proven particularly difficult, especially Marketing and Sales

as she tries to determine what kind of records she needs
to keep. Though recordkeeping and paperwork take up Wilson Street Urban Farm has a 14-member weekly CSA
more of her time than ever before, she says it has helped that runs 22 weeks from early June through the end of
her think about her goals for the farm, which are not October. CSA members are some of her best advertisers,
necessarily to make as much profit as possible. says Janice, and many new members or customers at the
farm’s stand or farmers market stall hear about the farm
She says putting parameters on what she wants to by word of mouth.
achieve—not just on the farm, but in life—has helped
her to focus on increasing her efficiency and maximizing It operates its on-farm stand every Saturday starting in
the sense of enjoyment and well-being she derives July, which is frequented by neighbors from the area. The
from farming: clientele, says Janice, is completely different from her
customers at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market, as are
“These people who make six digits on half-an-acre, [I their tastes.
think], ‘I could do that!’, but then [realize], ‘No, you don’t
need to. Relax. You can enjoy this, too.’” “At the farm we sell a lot of collard greens, mustard
greens, okra, and turnips,” says Janice, “but at Bidwell
people ask, ‘What is a turnip? What do you do with it?’”
Farmers market customers are more likely to buy the
farm’s Swiss chard, kale, and heirloom tomatoes.

158
The Stevenses sell at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers a laboratory for learning science, math, mechanics and
Market, in the more affluent Elmwood district, with their more. It is also one of their responsibilities, and their
fellow Farmer Pirates. The market accepts SNAP and fourteen- and fifteen-year-old children will spend four to
offers a Double Up Food Bucks program. Unlike some of five hours a day in the summer watering, weeding, and
the other Pirate farms, the Stevenses do not have an EBT harvesting alongside Janice and Mark, when he is not
reader for their own farm stand, though they believe many working off-farm.
people who visit likely receive SNAP benefits.
The other four children who live in the house also work
Wilson Street Urban Farm also sells its produce to a on the farm, but less frequently, between four hours and
handful of restaurants in downtown Buffalo, though one day a week (their eldest, Alex, is married and operates
Janice admits she does not know the best way to work a farm a mile away with her husband and oversees the
with restaurants. She says her scale is not quite right Farmer Pirates’ compost site). Their work is project-based:
for restaurants, even though they are happy to get her tractor-work, landscaping, or building a new washing
produce. Any excess produce after markets, CSAs, and station and rain catchment system.
restaurant sales is easily absorbed into the Stevens
family larder. The Farmer Pirates also assist one another, but usually only
for large projects like building high tunnels. Occasionally
Along with excellent media coverage and Janice’s blog, they do more formal work-exchanges, but the labor
which she shares on the farm’s Facebook account, Wilson primarily comes from the family.
Street Urban Farm is a frequent stop on bicycle tours
of the area. Tour de Farms, organized in part by the “I am losing my labor force,” says Janice of her maturing
Massachusetts Avenue Project, is an annual bike tour children. It is further incentive to make the farm run more
of urban farms, where the Stevens’ farm is often a stop. efficiently, she says, hoping that she could afford to hire
David Torke also leads bicycle tours of Buffalo’s urban one person with greater efficiencies that grow more crops
decay and forgotten landmarks, and rides cyclists down with less labor.
Wilson Street for a refreshing look at the city’s potential.
Other Activities/Services
Along with her own farm, the block club, and the Farmer
Pirates, Janice provides technical assistance to Journey’s
End Refugee Services, Inc. The Christian community-based
organization with a strong inter-faith approach provides
services for refugees relocated to the Buffalo area, many
of whom are Muslim. Their programming includes the
Green Shoots for New Americans program, which builds
upon refugees farming skills with business and marketing
training. Janice has worked with program coordinators and
participants on basic organic farming practices, potentially
growing the number of urban farmers in the area.

Support
The Stevens family’s early support from neighbors and
advocates eager to see positive change on the East Side
Janice Stevens in her high tunnel. helped them connect with the city officials who eventually
approved their lease. Though the family initially wanted to
purchase the land, the permissive lease they negotiated
made it possible to start the farm.

Employees News of their victory in winning over city officials spread

The Stevens’ family operates like many farm families do: and the Buffalo News published an article that galvanized
every family member does something on the farm. The support for the project. It also led to them being asked to
Stevenses home-school their children, and the farm is participate in many organizations and projects to revitalize
Buffalo, including adding their voice during the formation
of the Green Code.

159
Interest in urban farming and zoning changes are
happening in tandem, says Janice, though one is not
directly related to the other. Mark Stevens served on the
city’s steering committee for community gardens when the
family arrived in Buffalo, which was an early precursor to
the Buffalo-Erie Food Policy Council that formed in 2013.

Asked if she is worried about changes to the zoning code

threatening the farm, Janice says, “I think [the City] knows
if they tried to do anything, that they would be facing a
huge battle. We are the face of urban agriculture in the
city right now.”

The Stevenses have never applied for or received a grant

or any other monetary support from outside sources,
though they do benefit from free, no-tax access to 23 city
lots. They also did not take on any loans to start the farm Row covers help protect plants from insects and can speed
and are debt free, a fact Janice considers an asset in itself. plant growth.
She is looking into possibilities, however, for leveraging
grant support to make capital improvements. A new
“Not to sound selfish, but probably our biggest asset is our
irrigation system and a walk-in cooler are sorely needed,
determination: this is who we are and this [is] what we do.
she says, but would be easier to invest in if she and Mark
If you give me ten square feet, I’m going to garden it. If you
were able to purchase the land—another area where they
give me two acres, I’m going to garden it.”
could use assistance.
One of their greatest challenges, however, is gardening
Policies Impacting Success these particular soils. Low fertility and weed pressure
are persistent problems for any farmer, but on Wilson
Wilson Street Urban Farm has thrived as the result of a Street the Stevenses started at almost rock-bottom. And
lack of policies around urban farming in the City of Buffalo. compost, which can increase their organic matter, can also
The Stevenses and their supporters were able to convince increase their pH, which borders on too high.
the City to pilot the land-lease project. Prior to this, the
city leased land for farming only to community-gardening Labor and land tenure are longer-term challenges, but
and farm-education-based organizations like Grassroots Mark and Janice are working toward solutions slowly as
Gardens for Western New York and the Massachusetts the threats become clearer, and the means of solving
Avenue Project. Because of this first lease to an individual them more viable. Improving business operations and
farm, Wilson Street Urban Farm is demonstrating what a intensifying their growing with tighter succession planting
commercial urban farm might look like in Buffalo. and judicious use of space could help the family earn
more, and potentially purchase land or afford to hire an
Janice has many ideas of how policies could be shaped to employee once the children leave home.
encourage responsible urban farming that would be good
for farmers, neighborhoods, and the City. Stormwater In the meantime, Janice is working on recordkeeping
diversion, for example, is a huge benefit of 1.75 acres systems in order to analyze the business, and is hopeful
of greenspace, particularly for Buffalo’s aging combined for more networking opportunities to learn from others.
sewer system. “If we could get credit for as many gallons The Stevens family finds itself at the forefront of Buffalo’s
of water we save the city [from processing]…” says Janice burgeoning UA movement, a position they did not expect
wistfully. “But that’s probably too far reaching.” or prepare for when they moved to the city, but are eager
to see how others have found success as urban farmers.
Assets and Challenges
Janice says that without many of the people and Promise of Urban Agriculture
circumstances that exist—finding the house, gaining the Though the Stevenses became Buffalo’s preeminent urban
support of influential people, receiving their initial lease farmers just by being themselves, Janice Stevens thinks
agreement, or getting help from their children—Wilson Buffalo is finally ready to embrace farms in the city. “Green
Street Urban Farm would not look the way it does. But, space is huge, vitally necessary, and appreciated by the
she says, that doesn’t mean they would not grow food. neighborhood. Whether they know that they want that

160
greenspace, when they see it, it’s a breath of fresh air. for it, people are more aware of their food, governments
Over and over again, we get that feedback, so it’s satisfying are becoming more aware of the fact that there is poor
on the community level. access to good food... I think there is a place.

“I don’t know that you’ll make a million dollars off of it. “The atmosphere will improve. As long as we do it right,
There are a lot of people that hand you that hope, those being mindful that we are in a city setting and not in a
people that make 6-digits are exceedingly efficient. And rural setting. We do not have the right to farm, this is not
more power to them. a “right to farm” neighborhood! And so we have to be
very careful about how we proceed. We can’t have shoddy
[But] I think there is an aspect of independence [to compost piles that have rats everywhere, we can’t be
urban farming]. On so many levels it’s so satisfying: doing stinking up the place, we can’t be leaving weeds growing
something beautiful, nurturing something, those spiritual, all over and not making it look like a park.”
psychological needs that we have are met very easily in
urban agriculture.” “The promise is that it will be embraced by cities. It is
being embraced by cities, and it will be embraced by
“The atmosphere right now is a lot of demand for local Buffalo … I think that it will get easier as governments
food. So there is a place for urban agriculture, and it is realize that progress doesn’t always just mean better
well received. A lot of the people who are into urban streets and bigger buildings and more people. Progress
agriculture are young, 20- or 30-somethings, without a lot means a better way of living.”
of experience. But, I think that because there is a demand

“
I think that [running an urban farm] will get easier as governments realize
that progress doesn’t always just mean better streets and bigger buildings and
more people. Progress means a better way of living.
— Janice Stevens
Wilson Street Urban Farm

161
Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens, Decatur, GA
Unique Partnership with Homeowners Secures Farm’s Future
Themes: Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, On-farm events, Multi-farm efforts, Provides
education and training.

History
Love Is Love is not a physical place. Rather, says its founder
and farmer Joe Reynolds, it is the business name and
farming philosophy that he and his wife, Judith Winfrey,
have cultivated since its establishment in 2008. The farm’s
name comes from a song lyric: “love is love in the shape
things take,”224 as Reynold’s farming endeavors have taken
many shapes over his farming career.

Reynolds began farming in 2004 in a “very part-time”

position at Crystal Organic Farm in Newborn, GA. Over the
next four seasons, he transitioned to more full-time work,
commuting the 50 miles between the farm and his home
in Atlanta, occasionally bringing restaurant deliveries back
A poem and mosaic greets visitors to Gaia Gardens.
with him. He took on production, marketing, sales, and
helping to open a retail space in Atlanta, which was open
two-and-a-half days per week.

He says that experience helped him learn not just how to the region.225 Gaia Gardens’ farmer at the time, a friend of
grow, but how to think about profitability and marketing. Reynolds, encouraged him to apply to work its land. The
Reynolds says he was shocked when customers started to community invited him to become its farmer, and Love Is
treat him as a produce expert. Love started his 2011 season at Gaia Gardens.

“I would have to learn more about the produce than I Land—where to find it, who owns it, how to care for it,
necessarily would have if I had just been working on the and how to protect it—is often on Reynolds’ mind. Love Is
farm,” he says. “I developed that interest in the customer Love at Gaia Gardens is a profitable farm with a growing
interaction side, sharing the excitement of what’s business on protected land.
happening on the farm.”

With the encouragement and mentorship of Crystal Community Description

Organics’ farmer and other rural growers they had come to Gaia Gardens is five acres of open space and woods, part
know, Reynolds and Winfrey accepted an offer to farm at of the 20 acres that make up East Lake Commons, a co-
Glover Family Farm in Douglasville, GA. There they began housing community in Decatur, DeKalb County. Just four
Love Is Love, and for three years leased a portion of the miles east of downtown Atlanta, its 67 densely-clustered
certified organic land to grow produce for sale at farmers townhouses are arranged around pedestrian pathways,
markets in and around Atlanta, where they still lived. and residents park their cars near the entry gate at the
property’s edge. Residents share resources, agree to
Reynolds heard about an opening for a farmer at East Lake sustainable living practices, and participate in a variety of
Commons’ Gaia Gardens, a planned community with a cooperative governance committees through the East Lake
1.5-acre farm in Decatur, through the then-small network Commons homeowners’ association (HOA).
of young growers who circulated among leased parcels in

224  Lungfish. (2003). Love Is Love. Love Is Love. Dischord Records.

225  Geering, D. (2010, October 29). One farmer’s switcheroo sparks opportunities for others. Atlanta magazine. Retrieved from http://www.
atlantamagazine.com/dining-news/one-farmers-switcheroo-sparks-opportunities-f1/
162
One HOA committee oversees Gaia Gardens, which is Farm Description
partially separated from the houses by a large stormwater
The East Lake Commons HOA leases Reynold the 1.5-acre
catchment pond. Five farmers, each for several seasons,
growing area at Gaia Gardens for one dollar each year with
have been invited to farm at Gaia Gardens since East Lake
two-year leases. The farm is zoned residential, though the
Commons was founded. The entire HOA contributes to
HOA covenant states the five total acres of Gaia Gardens
the farm’s budget through its HOA fees, which the
will remain a farm and open space. The covenant states
committee oversees and the farmer manages. The
either party can void the lease with 90-days’ notice, but
budget includes money for purchasing and maintaining
builds in clauses that encourage mediation of differences
equipment, utilities, soil testing, and fees associated with
to maintain the farmer-community relationship.
organic certification.
East Lake Commons is sited on an old dairy farm, and Gaia
Reynolds says the structure is rooted in the question,
Gardens has always been open, undeveloped space. As a
“How could someone make a living, living in the city,
result, says Reynolds, the soil is rich and well cared for—a
and running a really small farm operation, and create a
rarity amongst heavy Georgia clay. A robust cover-cropping
relationship between the community and the farmer?”
and composting program has been in place for the 19
It was developed with the intent of having a professional
years it has been farmed.
farmer, not the residents, grow food for the community,
though residents do use the farm’s pathways for The farm is bordered by woodlands and a stormwater
recreation, and will also pick the blueberries on catchment lake that Reynolds uses to drip irrigate
the property. crops. There is also an irrigation meter installed to
draw municipal water, which does not incur sewage
East Lake Commons, where the majority of residents are
fees. Reynold says he prefers to irrigate from the lake
white, is in the primarily African American neighborhood
by pumping it through his drip irrigation rather than
of East Lake.226 Reynolds says early residents of East Lake
municipal water. Though he does not pay his utility fees,
Commons considered the area dangerous, but crime
Reynolds is dedicated to making as much of the farm
has decreased since then. Much has changed in the
thrive off natural systems as possible.
neighborhood since then, and partnerships between city
agencies and nonprofits like the East Lake Foundation have Wet fields are a constant challenge at Gaia Gardens.
brought mixed-income housing, youth programming and Reynolds has seen wetter springs and heavier rainstorms
even a grocery store to the neighborhood. since he began farming in 2004. At his previous farm, his
fields were washed out by a flood. Assistance with erosion
control, from both the HOA and NRCS EQIP, has helped
mitigate the impact, but Reynolds says extreme weather
has impacted his and other farm businesses in the area.

The sloped growing area is separated into 11 fields and has

one 30x100’ high tunnel, helping Reynolds to grow nearly
year-round. A pole barn houses the HOA-owned Kubota
tractor, BCS walk-behind tiller, washing station and hand
tools. There are also two free-standing walk-in coolers,
a small toolshed, and a glass greenhouse Reynolds uses
for seed propagation. Stone paths connect the primary
growing area to the residences, the blueberry patch and
bee hives on the opposite side of the property, and to
a large compost area managed by Compost Wheels, an
Atlanta-based compost pick-up company.

“It’s a beautiful farm, and it’s a benefit, right?” remarks

Favas, onions, and beets thrive in the 100 ft. high tunnel Reynolds. “I don’t have to pay to have access to this primo
at Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens. farm with primo infrastructure.” Reynolds has a lot of
respect for how the community is trying to support this
small farm, and says he hopes to leave the farm even

226  U.S. Census 2010.

163
better than the pristine shape in which he came to it. If he “The biggest thing I try to promote is the ecology of the
ever moves on from Gaia Gardens, he may be taking his farm,” says Reynolds. “How does the farm impact the
t-posts and trays, but will leave the greater improvements, water, the creatures that live in the woods and the air and
like the hoop house, for the next farmer. around the pond? I focus on the ecological benefit of a
farm and how we try to minimize the impact that farming
Production Practices has. Farming is manmade and a pretty destructive thing to
the environment. Even in the way we [farm], we walk that
Gaia Gardens is certified organic, and Reynolds maintains line all the time.”
its organic practices and records while the HOA organizes
and pays for inspections through Florida-based Quality
Certification Services. He grows around 60 types of Business Structure
vegetables, plus blueberries, grapes, fruit trees, and Love Is Love is registered as an LLC in Atlanta, GA. Reynolds
shiitake mushrooms he grows on inoculated logs in the has registered with DeKalb County’s FSA board and has
wooded areas. The perennials were planted by earlier a farm number. He never mentions thinking about other
farmers or the community. business structures, having learned to farm from for-profit
organic farmers and similarly treating Love Is Love as his
The farm is contractually obligated in its lease to grow a business and full-time occupation.
variety of food crops. “Literally in my lease it says that I
have to, and that’s what my customers want from me,”
says Reynolds. “But we don’t have to grow a diversity of
food crops that don’t make a profit if we can find ways to
keep the diversity theme without spreading ourselves
too thin.”

Love Is Love has less land at Gaia Gardens than it did at its
previous location, and Reynolds says he is always aiming
to be more productive and efficient to net a higher profit
from the smaller space. He eliminates any varieties he
cannot produce in great enough quantity to supply his
110-member CSA.

Reynolds says he can grow 12 months a year, but his ability

to produce in marketable quantities in winter is limited.
“A lot of people would tell you the season looks different
[now]. We’ve got a very short springtime, cool weather.
But, then we have a very short fall, but we have a monster Joe Reynolds looks out at the innoculated mushroom logs.
summer. And in that sense, we do grow crops seasonally. Homes in East Lake Commons can be seen behind the
Things that are leafy or root crops you just can’t grow trees. The farm and the neighborhood are inextricably
through the bulk of the summer,” he says. The market linked since their founding and have developed in
season wraps in mid-December, and he begins seeding concert.
again in mid-January.

Aside from profit, two of Reynolds’ measures of success

Marketing and Sales
are soil organic matter and biodiversity in the field. Every Love Is Love’s lease requires that it offer a CSA and that the
field is cover cropped at least once in the season. He community get first access to join the CSA. If the farmer
tests the soil biannually, and the water from the pond has extra capacity, says the lease, he or she can offer it to a
is tested annually by the farm or the community for wider community.
contamination. Because it’s a small space, says Reynolds,
Reynolds does just that in his 110-member CSA, which he
physical observation of wildlife—birds, frogs, insects—is
offers in two sessions to cover the long growing season.
their primary means of measuring biodiversity, but he and
To give financial incentive to the East Lake Commons
the community, which holds the wetlands and woodlands
residents, he charges non-resident CSA members a
in equal regard to the farm, always work toward mediating
“membership fee,” which he then distributes as farm-
between wild areas and the farm.

164
product coupons to all residents—whether or not they
choose to become CSA members. He also offers plant sales
or weekly pre-order opportunities for residents who want
less-than-CSA quantities.

Love Is Love’s weekly CSA is $28 per week and includes

products Reynolds cannot produce himself, like goat
cheese from a nearby dairy. For the first time in 2016, he
partnered with another farm to expand the CSA offerings
and open it to more members. Matthew Bagshaw, a
former employee at Love is Love who left to farm in the
Northeast, returned to the Atlanta area and opened
Hungry Heart Farm: a diversified vegetable farm on land
rented from a goat dairy. Reynolds and Bagshaw planned
their crops to complement one another, and Bagshaw
grows produce to supplement Gaia Gardens’ CSA.
Pepper seedlings in Love Is Love Farms at Gaia Garden’s
Reynolds says he is different from previous farmers at Gaia heated greenhouse. Some will be planted in the field,
Gardens in that 75 percent of his sales are through CSA, while many will be sold at the annual spring plant sale.
as opposed to a more even split between CSA and farmers
markets. Love Is Love has sold at two farmers markets in and Instagram. Reynolds says Twitter supports professional
the past, but Reynolds planned to cut out produce sales name recognition among industry leaders, while Instagram
at farmers markets in 2016, do spring plant sales at two and Facebook are ways for people to interact with
farmers markets and at Gaia Gardens, increase his the farm.
CSA membership to 130, and more seriously pursue
restaurant sales. Love Is Love Farm has partnered with Wholesome Wave
Georgia to accept SNAP benefits via EBT for its CSA shares,
“The number of farmers [at farmers markets] has grown as well as benefit from its double-dollars program.227
vastly, but the growth has been uneven,” says Reynolds. Reynolds has not sold a CSA share this way yet and expects
He says the proliferation of farmers markets means he it will take time to reach people, particularly renters in
sees other farmers going to two, three or more farmers the adjacent neighborhoods, who use SNAP benefits and
markets to sell what, in previous years, a farmer should get them involved. “It will be a great way to connect,
be able to sell at one market, which is the reason for his especially as we’re trying to pull back the marketing from
marketing switch. other neighborhoods,” says Reynolds.
The name, ‘Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens,’ is a
branding compromise Reynolds struck with his HOA Employees
committee, which was happy to have his business’s name Reynolds has one full-time year-round employee, less the
so long as he maintained theirs. Reynolds, who serves on month the farm is not in production, and one half-time
the board of Georgia Organics and served on his farmers employee who works nine months of the year; both are
market association board, sees Love Is Love as a personal, focused on production tasks. He has also hosted summer
as much as a business brand, and his involvement in interns from colleges and businesses, including students
farming and food organizations as a way he markets from Emory University who are paid by the university for
himself and the farm. their time.
The CSA is marketed primarily by word of mouth. “There is “[The Emory interns] make more than anyone who works
a mythology that it’s impossible to get in,” says Reynolds, here gets paid. The university has a living wage initiative,
which seems to create excitement and more demand so they get paid $14 an hour,” says Joe with a wistful smile.
from would-be members. The farm launched a revamped
website in 2016, and has a presence on Twitter, Facebook,

227  Double Value Coupon Program. (n.d.). Wholesome Wave Georgia. Retrieved from http://www.wholesomewavegeorgia.org/double/

165
Love Is Love also has volunteers, primarily through CSA Residents of East Lake Commons derive services from
workshares, in which members get a discount on their the farm beyond food production. They appreciate it for
CSA if they help with harvest or pick-up days. While this its beauty, and as a place to exercise or walk their dogs.
does provide some needed extra labor in the height of the Residents will also volunteer to help with large farm
season, it is also an opportunity for Reynolds to grow the projects, like building the irrigation pipe system from
farm community and share more about the farm. the pond.

Though it can be difficult to find knowledgeable,

dependable people to hire, says Reynolds, “I’ve always Support
liked the people who work for me: they’re always Reynolds’ first experiences farming in rural Georgia
interesting and exciting, and I’ve always tried to make still inform how he operates Love Is Love Farm at Gaia
opportunities for them as I can.” Gardens. He considers the farmers at Crystal Organics,
and others selling at the same markets as mentors, and
He imagines fostering those relationships in a future says he still calls them with questions. He thinks about the
version of Love Is Love Farm. “It’s a pie in the sky dream, previous farmers at Gaia Gardens the same way, and has
maybe, but instead of me going out and buying that one built professional relationships and friendships in which
Love is Love farm and farming it myself, maybe I gather up they can mutually support each other’s farming endeavors.
people who’ve worked with me, and we all have diverse
skills and we form a partnership and buy a common piece East Lake Commons homeowners are supportive in
of property and work it together. So you sort of have their governance, financing, and general enthusiasm.
everybody do something they’re good at, and have that Contributions through HOA fees fund farm utilities,
community aspect.” equipment, maintenance, infrastructure, and even cover
crop seed. The committee in charge of Gaia Gardens and
“You hear that from people further out [in rural areas]: the farm’s budget meets with Reynolds once per month to
that it just gets really lonely.” discuss plans and issues that may arise, a
level of communication he says he did not have with
Other Activities/Services other landowners.
Besides his work on various boards and organizations, While this level of landowner involvement keeps good
Reynolds does not do much off-farm work. He does, will strong and problems small, Reynolds says it can be
however, make opportunities for entrepreneurs to use challenging to receive constant feedback. In one instance,
Gaia Gardens to develop complementary businesses. some homeowners wanted to ensure that the farm
For example, he works with a professional beekeeper did not encroach on the wild areas of Gaia Gardens, a
to keep honeybees on the property, which pollinate the
blueberries.

He also helped broker the arrangement to have Compost

Wheels develop a site at Gaia Gardens. Compost Wheels
picks up compostable materials from restaurants and
residential customers, and brings it along with sawdust
and woodchips to Gaia Gardens. HOA residents can also
bring compostables to the site. Compost Wheels helps
Reynolds build his composting skills to manage the
compost, which is then available for use by Love Is
Love Farm.

Love Is Love Farm has worked with East Lake Commons

to host farm dinners, harvest festivals, and bazaars with
activities, bands, and aerialist performers, which helps
generate about 19% of the farm income.

“I think my customers get really excited about [farm

Love Is Love Farm pays tribute to its supporters
events]: seeing the interdependent nature between the
each year.
farm with the community and with the ecology around the
farm,” says Reynolds.

166
principle with which Reynolds agrees but took a long Aside from an FAQ-sheet outlining how to permit and
time to negotiate. “Then there’s the dog poop issue,” says register an urban farm business in DeKalb County,
Reynolds, smiling about some of his feedback to residents. Reynolds says he would like to see more policies to
“It’s everything from very serious things to things that keep space open and available for agriculture. East Lake
aren’t necessarily deal-breakers.” Commons’ covenant states that it will not develop the
five acres set aside for Gaia Gardens regardless of its
“They’re very thoughtful,” he says. “They see the farmer as zoning. Reynolds fears that new development threatens
the expert in residence.” open space, and advocates that the city of Atlanta and
Reynolds continues to hone his expertise through surrounding counties use conservation easements to
involvement with organizations like Wholesome Wave prevent encroaching development.
Georgia, Georgia Organics, and the National Sustainable But, he is heartened by the political support behind local
Agriculture Coalition, each of which, he believes, is and urban farming: “When I first started working on
effectively promoting support for and consumption of farms, to think that the mayor of Atlanta would say how
small-farm grown and organic food. He has also been the important agriculture or local food is to the city… I just
beneficiary of support for beginning farmers, including would’ve never thought that [could happen].”
the NRCS EQIP grant that assisted with his high tunnel
and implementation of a soil quality and erosion control In 2010, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced the Power
program. to Change plan, a sustainability plan for the city that
includes a goal to bring local food within ten minutes of 75
Media coverage of Love Is Love, and other beginning farms percent of all city residents by 2020.229 And in 2015, Mayor
has helped promote local, and particularly urban farms Reed hired the city’s first Urban Agriculture Director, Mario
says Reynolds, “It captured their attention for a while,” he Cambardella, who is charged with making accessible local
says, though now perceives media interest waning. But food a reality.
media, particularly the internet, has helped him become a
better farmer. Though Love Is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens is outside
of Atlanta’s jurisdiction, this positive political influence
“The internet is awesome! Insect identification is 1000 is stretching beyond the city limits. Cambardella is
times easier now because you’ll be like, ‘Which insect folds developing land use policies through which landowners
the leaf of your beet plant and makes a web,’ and you look
it up, and it’s the coddling moth, and you’re like, ‘What is
that? I’ve never seen it before!”

Policies Impacting Success

East Lake Commons, including Gaia Gardens, is zoned for
small-lot residential mix, which DeKalb County determined
was appropriate zoning for what the zoning ordinance calls
“urban or community gardens” under five acres.228 Gaia
Gardens, thus, operated in a grey area for many years as
farming was not technically legal on the property. The
county changed its zoning code in 2015, prior to which
growing produce for sale was illegal.

Though the legislation change has brought peace of mind,

says Reynolds, it has not changed the way he or other
DeKalb County farmers outside the city of Atlanta do
business: “Nobody’s gone and gotten permitted or gotten Spring fava beans blossom in the Love Is Love Farm
licenses. I don’t think anybody’s quite figured out where high tunnel in mid-February, months before field crops
to go, and the county hasn’t come knocking just yet. When emerge.
they do, I reckon [licensing] will happen.”

228  Draft Zoning Code. (2015, January). DeKalb County. Retrieved from http://planningdekalb.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/
finalDraftZoningCodeJan20151.pdf
229  About the Office of Sustainability. (n.d.). City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office. Retrieved from http://www.atlantaga.gov/index.aspx?page=153
167
can receive tax incentives for hosting an urban farm for Human-created environmental impacts are also a
ten years. He has also compromised with the city’s water challenge. “I spend a lot of time thinking about gas stations
authority to change water meters on vacant residential lots or dry cleaners, or being next to residentially dense areas,”
to irrigation meters, eliminating stormwater and sewage Reynolds admits. Several years ago, an underground gas
fees, for any registered community garden or farm that storage tank was uncapped, polluting the stormwater
applies. Such policies, if adopted across the Atlanta metro catchment pond and requiring serious remediation. Urban
region, could usher in many new community gardens and farms are by nature very vulnerable to what goes on in the
urban farms. surrounding neighborhood, says Reynolds, whether social
or environmental.
Assets and Challenges Should he decide to move Love Is Love Farm away
Love Is Love Farm has grown and thrived, in large part, from Gaia Gardens, Reynolds says he sees far more
because of the East Lake Commons HOA commitment to opportunities than ever before that would not require that
incorporating a farm in their co-housing development via he start from scratch. The farm has primarily acted as an
Gaia Gardens. The HOA does not pay Reynolds a salary, incubator, says Reynolds, as young farmers have launched
and all money he earns through the farm belongs to their businesses and then moved on, though he believes
his business, which is central to Gaia Gardens purpose: the HOA’s original intent was to find a farmer to use the
provide a farmer with the land and tools to make a land for his or her entire career.
sustainable livelihood.
While he plans to continue to farm at Gaia Gardens, he
“[The homeowners] worked hard to make sure that both says his brain works differently now and he still thinks
parties are really comfortable. And you won’t find that sort of creative ways to grow Love Is Love. Reynolds is not as
of agreement [with other landlords],” says Reynolds. worried about the next shape Love Is Love Farm takes, as
he sees new possibilities for land tenure abound, so long
Reynolds points out that the HOA also benefits. as he is flexible enough to realize them.
Beyond access to fresh produce and a beautiful natural
environment to enjoy, the $3,700 annual farm budget from
HOA dues is likely far less than the HOA would have to Promise of Urban Agriculture
pay a gardener or landscaper to maintain a nonproductive By incorporating UA into urban design, Reynolds hopes
space. And the farmer and residents mutually benefit from cities will become more accountable for the way policies
a sense of community and respect. impact the environment. “Thoughtful design can reap
pretty large rewards,” he says, and sees East Lake
Though access to Gaia Gardens is the biggest current asset Commons and Gaia Gardens as a leading example of how
to the Love Is Love Farm’s viability, the arrangement does communities can support UA.
have some drawbacks. Reynolds does not own land or any
of the infrastructure at Gaia Gardens, and he agreed to He hopes that growing food in a population-dense
leave his hoop house should he ever stop farming there. area can make cities consider appropriate land use in a
different way. An environment fit to support urban farming
His agreement with the HOA also limits how much land he should be the standard, not the exception. If an area is
can bring into production. Homeowners value wooded and environmentally unsafe for growing food because of water
open spaces for recreation, says Reynolds, and he cannot or air pollutants, can a municipality really claim to promote
likely grow Love Is Love’s footprint beyond its current 1.5 sustainable land use?
acres. This limits business growth, the ability to retain
employees as inflation pushes up labor costs, and how Reynolds thinks that Love Is Love at East Lake Commons’
much Reynolds can pay himself. Though he pays himself Gaia Gardens can prove that thoughtful land use can
a salary, he recognizes that Winfrey, his wife who left include thriving agriculture. “Most of our victories have
farming to work with a start-up business, will continue to been through winning people over with the farm’s
make double his salary despite his long hours. inherent beauty,” says Reynolds. And he is much more
powerful protecting that beauty, and productivity, with his
“We’re at that scale where everything has to count,” he CSA members, his customers, and the entire community of
says. “If we can’t get the tractor in the field, maybe we East Lake Commons behind him.
can do something else, but we’re a little too big to do it
all by hand and a little too small to say, ‘Wet fields are
inconsequential.’”

168
Springdale Farm, Austin, TX
Multiple Business Ventures Support Farm’s Growth
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, SNAP/double-up programs, On-farm events, Multi-farm efforts,
Provides education and training, Livestock.

History
Glenn and Paula Foore bought a five-acre tract of
commercially-zoned land two miles from downtown
Austin in 1992 to house their landscaping business, Texas
Trees and Landscapes. The land, which came with a low
interest rate and a requirement that they hire low-income
employees, was part of Austin’s Economic Redevelopment
Program designed to bring new businesses to the
economically depressed east side of the city.

For 15 years, the Foores operated a successful landscaping

business as the Austin housing market grew, and then
bubbled. In 2007, as the housing market crashed and
the country began to slip into recession, says Glenn, his
Hours, prices, and goods for sale are written on the
customer base began shrinking, as did his interest in
blackboard wall inside Springdale Farm’s main building,
landscaping.
which serves as a storefront, staff kitchen, and an office
“He just wasn’t fulfilled anymore planning St. Augustine for the farm and its caterer partner.
lawns,” remembers Paula.
in the neighborhood when its black soldier fly compost
“I almost talked myself out of jobs,” Glenn adds. system malfunctioned. Thus began over three years of
protests, planning commission meetings, and public
Eager to keep their six employees on full-time payroll,
debate over whether urban farms should continue to be
they began to think about how they could activate their
legal in Austin.
own five acres. “We’d always had a good play-around
garden, half an acre-ish, and we could share food with Arguments against urban farming included everything
our neighbors,” says Glenn, who has a horticulture degree from noise and odors to race and gentrification.
from Texas A&M. Opponents were few but vocal and politically influential,
and it took three years for the Foores to reestablish
Though Paula realized it would take “quite a few bunches
Springdale Farm under the new zoning code that resulted
of greens” to support the property, the business, and
from the fracas.
their employees, in 2008 they shifted their focus to
growing and selling food. At the time there were three In 2016, with the legality to farm and hold events
other urban farms in East Austin taking advantage of the reestablished, the Foores wonder what lies ahead for
former floodplain’s alluvial soil, inexpensive (at the time) Springdale Farm.
land prices, and an eight-year-old zoning revision that
permitted urban farms. The Foores built relationships with
these farmers and grew into the three acres of production Community Description
that is now Springdale Farm. Race and racial tensions characterize the evolution of the
area east of Interstate 35 known as East Austin. Austin
As the farms grew, opposition to the farms also grew, and legally segregated African Americans from whites and
in 2012 came to a head when HausBar Farm, less than a Hispanics in its 1928 master plan that identified East Austin
quarter-mile from Springdale Farm, caused a literal stink as the “Negro district.”230 As Austin closed segregated

230  Clarksville, TX. (n.d.). Texas State Historical Association website. Retrieved from https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hpc01
169
schools and stopped providing services to African
Americans in other parts of the city, African Americans
moved to East Austin.231 Home-based businesses sprouted
up next to formal ones while the city neglected to enforce
zoning codes in the area.232

Austin has experienced rapid growth since its founding,

with its population doubling roughly every 25 years.233
Its most recent migratory influx, fueled largely by Austin-
housed tech companies that are one of the city’s economic
engines, saw a concurrent and dramatic increase in white
non-Hispanic residents in East Austin.234, 235, 236 Enclaves
of hip restaurants and shops catered to younger white
residents, while middle-class black residents have moved
out of East Austin to better school districts beyond
city limits.237
Paula Foore looks at the farm’s spring greens.
According to the 2014 American Community Survey, 53
percent of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino in the
cost of residential properties in what was a low-resource
78702 zip code, down from nearly 68 percent in 2011.
area, and existing zoning that made urban farms legal—as
In the same area, 30 percent identify as non-Hispanic or
a catalyst for gentrification.
Latino White (up from 7.5 percent in 2000), and around 16
percent identify as non-Hispanic or Latino Black or African- When a foul odor began emanating from HausBar Farm,
American (down from 24 percent in 2000).238, 239, 240 neighborhood activists rallied against it and three other
farms within one-quarter mile, including Springdale. Led
This demographic and economic shift characterizes the
by People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her
gentrification of East Austin.241 Some residents saw white-
Resources (PODER), an environmental activist group with
owned urban farms—made possible, in part, by the low
a majority Chicana/o staff and board working on behalf
of communities of color, UA opponents cited historically
racist zoning policies, the decreasing stock of affordable

231  For a map of racially-motivated planning policies, see History of Austin’s racial divide in maps. (n.d.). Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved
from http://projects.statesman.com/news/economic-mobility/
232  For a rich description of this period see, Hill, S. (2016, June 3). The Empty Stairs: The Lost History of East Austin. Urban Renewal Trumps
Historic Preservation. Retrieved from www.gato-docs.its.txstate.edu
233  City of Austin. (2009, December 11). Demographic and Housing Trends. In Community Inventory Report. Retrieved from ftp://ftp.ci.austin.
tx.us/GIS-Data/planning/compplan/community_inventory_Demographcs_v1.pdf
234  Tang, E. and Ren, C. (2014). Outlier: The case of Austin’s declining African-American population. The Institute for Urban Policy Research and
Analysis, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/cola/iupra/_files/pdf/Austin%20AA%20pop%20policy%20brief_
FINAL.pdf
235  Top ten demographic trends in Austin, TX. (2016). City of Austin Planning and Zoning Department. Retrieved from http://www.austintexas.
gov/page/top-ten-demographic-trends-austin-texas
236  Petrilli, M.J. (2012, June 14). The 50 zip codes with the largest growth in white population share, 2000-2010. Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Retrieved from http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/the-50-zip-codes-with-the-largest-growth-in-white-
population-share.html
237  Top ten trends (2016).
238  Selby, W.G. (2013, October 30). Austin’s 78702 may have surged in white residents, but it’s not second in the nation in gentrification.
Politifact. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/oct/30/daniel-llanes/austins-78702-has-gentrified-its-not-no-2-
gentrifi/
239  U.S. Census 2000
240  ACS 5-year 2014; Ibid.
241  Selby (2013).

170
housing, environmental concerns, and traffic congestion Additional infrastructure for the farm includes hand tools,
as reasons to ban urban farms. But, the racial undertones a tractor and two 30x100’ high tunnels, which the Foores
causing these deep divisions were also clear: one PODER used when the landscaping business was more robust.
representative declared “the whole urban farm movement Today, one high tunnel grows crops and the other acts as
is generally a white movement.”242, 243 a greenhouse for seedlings and winter crops. The Foores
have never had to fire their 250k BTU heater in their
Farm Description greenhouse: heat mats and extra lights do the job.

The Foores cultivate approximately three acres of their As he did as a landscaper, Glenn hard-pipes irrigation
five-acre commercially zoned parcel. Their house is underground and uses volume-controlled emitters
also on-site, as well as storage for equipment used for spaced one foot apart, which run off their own well. The
landscaping and farming. The property is registered as farm landscaping itself is pristine: manicured entryway,
agricultural for tax purposes, less one-half acre for the well-kept lawn and pathways, and tools and compost
house. A creek bisects the property and causes the only strategically hidden by fences and ornamentals. Glenn says
gap in its perimeter fencing. his landscaping background helps keep the farm looking
good for them, their staff, visitors, and neighbors.
Visitors parking includes ADA parking spaces as required
by the conditional use permit they needed to continue to
farm after the zoning was changed in 2013. A one-story Production Practices
building just off the parking lot hosts the farm stand on Austin’s year-round growing climate allows the Foores
Wednesdays and Saturdays, as well as offices, and a small to grow at least 75 different varieties of vegetables, fruit
kitchen. Other buildings include toolsheds and a large and herbs at Springdale, as well as raise chickens and
walk-in cooler. One unique asset is a mobile kitchen trailer ducks for eggs and keep bees for honey. They say Glenn’s
for Eden East, a farm-to-table prix fixe restaurant by Chef horticulture background was good preparation for growing
Sonya Coté, who has rented space for the trailer and a wide variety of produce. In 2015, they grew and sold
collaborated with Springdale Farm since 2013. approximately 38,000 lbs of produce.

In 2015, Springdale received a grant from the Austin Food

& Wine Alliance to subsidize growing experimental crops
for area chefs. Their trials included luffa gourds: they sold
young luffa as a zucchini substitute to chefs, and let others
mature to dry into luffa sponges which they sell at their
farm stand. Paula is working on an all-natural soap line to
sell with the luffas as a value-added product.

Glenn says they are trying to reduce tilling and do as

much crop rotation as they can on their three acres. The
year-round harvest season means they don’t often plant
cover crops, though they do add compost each time they
prepare the soil for a new planting.

Springdale Farm is not certified organic, though they use

organic practices and invite anyone to visit their farm on
Wednesdays and Saturdays during market hours. “Our
Beyond the gate is the trailer and picnic area where Eden deal is, come and see [the farm],” says Glenn. “The chefs
East hosts dozens of guests for dinners and special events. wonder why we would need to [be certified organic]. Well,
we want to be the best. [But] they say, ‘Well, it looks like
you’re already there now.’”

242  Toon, A. (2013, April 12). Communication Breakdown. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2013-04-
12/communication-breakdown/
243  The public dispute over East Austin farms’ rights to farm and other issues cited by the opposition are too complex to thoroughly discuss
herein. We attempt only to highlight the issues that impact the viability of Springdale Farm. More thorough reporting of the issue can be found in
The Austin Statesman, The Austin Chronicle, and other local publications.

171
 Glenn and Paula saw the farms as allies, not competitors.
They remember talking with Carol Ann Sayle of Boggy
Creek about scheduling their farm stand on different
days than hers out of respect for her clientele. Paula
remembers that Sayle, rather than feel threatened by the
Foore’s farm stand, encouraged them to have it on the
same day to make the East Side of Austin a destination.

“That’s kind of the spirit that’s around our four little urban
farms,” says Glenn. Whether Rain Lily needs fennel for
deliveries, or HausBar needs eggs for a hosted brunch, the
farms act more as collaborators than competitors.

Springdale and Boggy Creek’s coordinated farm stand days

have succeeded in making East Austin a destination for
chefs. Both farms operate first-come-first-served, rarely
Springdale Farm has fostered relationships between local taking preorders or letting a single chef take all of any
food and farm businesses, and proudly acts as a connector. single product. Most chefs go to both farms, creating a
chef community on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at
the Springdale.
Business Structure The chefs themselves have helped to grow Springdale’s
Springdale Farm is “Doing Business As” (DBA) the Foores’ business. The Foores fondly remember the farm’s
original landscaping S-corp, Texas Trees and Landscapes, early days when one chef who, upon hearing they had
which is still in business. Paula says the move from thousands of pounds of unsold tomatoes, immediately
landscaping to farming was not difficult on the business started texting colleagues. “Within a half hour, all those
administration side, though she says, “I haven’t read tomatoes were sold. That was our first foray into this food
a novel since we started farming. Just research and community,” says Paula.
development.”
Springdale offers chefs a ten percent discount, which
But, even with their agriculture exemption on property while Paula admits is not much, business is still booming:
taxes, their profit margins were much better in the farm supplied produce to 50 restaurants in 2015.
landscaping. Their taxes on 4.5 acres of agricultural land She remembers Sayle advising them early on, to know
were about $17,000 in 2015. They also pay stormwater their costs and not sell themselves short. “We are
tax for the footprint of their land, but no sewer tax on really conscious of our pricing here, we don’t want to
irrigation, which is drawn from the well. be undercutting [the other farms],” says Paula, though
they price competitively and do not try to be the most
At the end of 2014, they launched a nonprofit, Springdale expensive farm in the area.
Center for Urban Agriculture, to separate their educational
activities from production. It is the nonprofit world, The farm stand is open to the public, too, and customers
says Paula, that is much different from anything she and often chat with chefs about how to prepare produce. The
Glenn have ever done. They updated their general farm farm now accepts credit cards, and because of the credit
insurance policy at the beginning of 2015 to cover the card reader’s transaction tracking, they can see that at
increasing number of school groups and children touring least 30 percent of customers each week are first-time
the farm, which they hope to subsidize through grants to shoppers. It is a sign that their customer base is growing.
the nonprofit.
Springdale Farm worked with the Sustainable Food Center
(SFC), an Austin nonprofit that builds community capacity
Marketing and Sales to strengthen the local food system, to begin accepting
The Foore’s launched Springdale Farm in the shadow of SNAP benefits. SFC secured city funding to help underwrite
two well-known urban farms less than a quarter-mile a dollar-for-dollar matching program (up to $30 per
away: Boggy Creek Farm, founded in 1992 and serving person) to extend SNAP, WIC and FMNP benefits. SFC also
Austin-area chefs; and Rain Lily Farm, founded in 2000 helps farms like Springdale navigate the USDA system and
and launching pad for the proprietor’s second business, get free wireless EBT terminals. The Foores haven’t yet
Farmhouse Delivery, a local food home delivery service. received many SNAP-benefit sales, but planned a farm

172
open-house for the neighborhood to advertise that they The Economic Redevelopment Program through which the
accept SNAP. In the three census tracts within one mile of Foores originally bought their land in 1992 required that
the farm, approximately 1,200 households, or 28 percent they hire people from the neighborhood to ensure the
of total households, received SNAP benefits in 2014, the business’s economic benefits stay in the neighborhood. All
most recent year for which Census estimates six employees, live nearby, and some have been with the
are available.244 Foores for over a decade.

Besides open houses and the advertising from being listed Paula says hiring people from the neighborhood is the
on chefs’ menus, Springdale Farm markets itself through ethical thing to do, and the loyalty between the Foores
Facebook and Instagram. Paula and Glenn, both in their and their employees is one of the reasons they started
fifties, barely used Facebook and had never used Twitter farming: to keep their people employed. And while Paula
or Instagram before they started farming. But, after seeing and Glenn were doing battle with the planning commission
new people come to the farm because of a picture of their and city agencies, “our wonderful crew picked up our slack
tomatoes posted to Twitter, they took to it immediately. for sure,” says Paula.
Now, says Paula, her pictures of produce artfully displayed
on Instagram are the availability list for chefs. Both Foores do a bit of everything to keep the farm going,
including production, sales, education, and outreach.
They also invite volunteers to help out at the farm stand,
restocking and cashing out purchases. The Foores and
employees are the only production-tasked people
at Springdale.

Other Activities/Services
The Foores have been pleasantly surprised by how much
interest people have in Springdale Farm, and many of their
non-farming activities have evolved from the expressed
interest of outsiders.

During a fundraising event to help launch the farm in 2009,

a volunteer approached the Foores and asked if she could
get married at the farm. Thus began their wedding and
event business; since then they have hosted dozens of
weddings, private dinners and other functions on the farm.
Austin’s Springdale Farm sign. “It takes a special person that wants to get married [here],”
says Paula. “The compost pile is right behind the wedding
tree [where ceremonies take place]. But, people wanted
to come! People never wanted to come when we were a
landscaping business.”
Employees Other groups started coming to visit, too: school and
Springdale Farm/Texas Trees and Landscapes has six full- university classes, visiting officials, and people interested
time, year-round employees who work on both the farm in starting their own gardens and farms. The Foores
and its landscaping maintenance contracts. Often two say it feels like a civic duty, as an urban farm, to make
employees work on the farm, and the other four help only themselves available to give tours and answer questions,
when there is a big job, like installing infrastructure or despite that it takes time away from production.
harvesting sweet potatoes.

244  U.S. Census ACS 2014, census tracts 8.01, 9.02, 21.11.

173
Paula is adamant: “If we’re as passionate as we are Andrew Smiley, Deputy Director of SFC, which helped
about [farming], then we have to catch these kids” and Springdale accept SNAP, says that, while careful not to
teach them about growing and eating healthy food. The engage in the fray around race and class differences,
combined sense of duty and business sense led them his organization supported urban farms like Springdale
to launch the Springdale Center for Urban Agriculture. because of what they could do—offer accessible, fresh,
Their goal is to build a curriculum to use with schools and healthy food. Besides being part of the larger local food
support farm visits for children from low-resource families economy, that is providing jobs and healthy food, he says,
through grant funding. these urban farms were a small part of the “shifting sands
neighborhoods” of East Austin and could not be proven to
Springdale charges visiting school classes a per-student drive up property values with so many other factors
sliding scale between $0-20 for a visit that includes a farm at play.
tour, different activity stations, and an opportunity to dig
in the dirt. This last portion, says Paula, is still evolving— Over the multi-year ordeal, the Foores invited and gave
separating production from young people eager to pull tours to nearly every commissioner in two city council
carrots out of the ground is difficult. cycles, planning commissioners, and county legislators
(who determined whether Springdale Farm qualified for
She is hoping to get funding through the nonprofit to an agricultural tax exemption—it did), trying to convince
support their educational work. As of February 2016, them of urban farming’s legitimacy. It even continued
the Springdale Center had yet to receive funding, due to host out-of-town visitors for tours and events at the
in part, Paula suspects, to resource competition with request of other city agencies eager to show how urban
other land and farm based education centers. She hopes farms contribute to Austin.
to use funding to work on curricula with an education
professional. Glenn says that, for most people, once people came to
the farm, they understood it. “We challenged [officials]
The capstone event of each season that combines straight on up,” says Glenn. “Come on out, get out of your
education, farming and food is the East Austin Urban cubicle, come to the farm. If we’re not legit, we’ll back off.”
Farm Tour. Organized by Springdale and the three other
nearby urban farms, the guided tour gives the community “We got pretty good at it,” he continues. “[Some officials]
an opportunity to get to know the farms and farmers, would say, ‘who’s running y’all’s PR campaign? We’ve
and share a meal prepared by local chefs. The fundraiser never seen a grassroots thing like this. We’ve never seen
benefits the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, a national handwritten letters [of support].’ But, it’s us and our
independent advocacy organization for farmers and people. That’s our thing. Everybody’s writing their own
ranchers, and has started selling out every year. letter and telling you how they feel, not a form letter. We
had a lot of support.”
Interest continues to grow, but as the Foores look back
over the past several years of turmoil, they recognize that
peoples’ desire to be on the farm is largely why the farm
has survived. “If that girl hadn’t asked if she could get
married here,” says Glenn, “and we said we don’t really
do weddings, but we’ll try one... we’d be out of here. This
land would probably be developed.”

Support
Chefs and customers eagerly supported Springdale Farm
when its right to farm and hold events was called into
question. After HausBar’s compost system went awry, all
four farms in the neighborhood were targeted by PODER
and a few activist politicians that identified urban farms as
the catalyst for the gentrification of East Austin.

Springdale Farm keeps it outbuildings and grounds

tidy as it often serves as a wedding venue and outdoor
restaurant.

174
Policies Impacting Success At the beginning of 2016, with three years of opposition
and zoning changes behind them, the Foores estimate they
Before the 2013 and 2014 zoning changes that followed
have spent upward of $80,000 for the right to farm as they
the public debate spurred by PODER, urban farms
had farmed prior to 2012.
were approved uses in most zoning districts, including

“
all residential districts. Raising small animals including “I thought we’d plant a seed and it’d be a quiet thing,” says
chickens and ducks was allowable, as was animal Paula, “But it was public and political.”
slaughter (with a limit on number of animals per day),
and onsite sales.

But, some activities were oddly illegal. The Foores We are probably the only farm you’re
remember the first day a local baker, who bakes in a going to come across in America that has
commercial kitchen, brought her pies to the farm stand illuminated exit signs that glow in the dark
to sell. The city health department arrived 20 minutes in case anyone should get caught on the
later after reading a tweet about the pies and forced their farm in a fire.
removal because Springdale does not have a commercial
kitchen, even though the pies were baked, packed, and
labeled by another legal operation.
Assets and Challenges
The 2013 ordinance revisions loosened some rules—sales The Foores are heartened by their victories, but are no
of value-added products produced off-site are legal if less secure in their future. “Just as we got our revenue
they account for less than 20 percent of retail space—and increasing and things starting to go good, we got into this
tightened others, including banning animal slaughter in fight and every nickel went that direction,” says Glenn “We
residential zones and limiting events on residentially-zoned just finished this $30,000 parking lot project, and we’re
farms to six per year. wondering ‘Can we make it? Can we get our head above
water?’”
Springdale, the only commercially-zoned farm in Austin,
still faced challenges after new zoning measures were They attribute much of the farm’s success to its location.
passed. By 2013, a large part of its business relied on They say rural farmers visiting Springdale marvel that
events—it could not survive on six per year. The city their urban operation brings people to the farm in a way a
said the Foores must get a conditional use permit. In so rural farm never could. The proximity to downtown Austin
doing, they discovered the property was in an outdoor also helps maintain strong relationships with chefs, who
entertainment overlay district that prevents landowners the Foores say are some of their biggest advocates and
from holding spectator events including music festivals, advertisers.
formula one races, and, incongruously, weddings.
The Foores plan to capitalize on these assets to grow and
A new wave of anti-farm activism began, focusing on sustain the business. They are eager to find an employee
Springdale’s events and Eden East’s presence on the farm, to help with fundraising for the nonprofit and further
which account for at about 25 percent of the farm’s total develop its education program, which will subsidize the
revenue. Banning events, which the council did briefly, time spent on education rather than producing on the
would force the farm to close. farm.
It took another year of council meetings, letter writing, Another area they want to expand is value-added
and rallying advocates before Springdale Farm negotiated production and adult-classes, made possible by installing a
a change to the overlay and received its conditional use commercial kitchen. From preparing high-end ingredients
permit. The agreement limits it to 20 events per year with their own produce to hosting and teaching food
and being closed by 9:00pm on Fridays—a condition, says preservation classes, they hope Springdale will become a
Glenn, that was a demand from a hold-out councilmember place for adults to learn as well as shop.
who was a critical vote to passing the regulations.
These multiple revenue streams which make Springdale
The Foores say that while the city seemed to try viable are challenging to manage. “I don’t know if we’re
to understand what they needed to survive, some the poster child” for urban farming, says Paula, “because
requirements of their conditional use permit were this place seems very unique to me. The location is good,
onerous. “We are probably the only farm you’re going to it’s beautiful, we still have a maintenance business, we can
come across in America that has illuminated exit signs that have a food truck at the front and rent that space, we can
glow in the dark in case anyone should get caught on the have events here. But like my mother says, it’s like holding
farm in a fire,” laughs Glenn. three basketballs under water.”
175
Promise of Urban Agriculture
Springdale Farm is unique in its set of activities, but not
in its reliance on multiple revenue streams. Paula looks
at the neighboring urban farms and sees each relying
on other revenue streams to keep farming in Austin:
Boggy Creek has 20 acres in a rural county, Rain Lily has
its distribution business, and HausBar has a bed and
breakfast and off-farm income.

“I’m concerned that people are learning more about

[urban farming], and think it sounds cool, it’s a pretty
hip thing to talk about, but the economics are bad,”
says Glenn. He says it is a dark joke not too far from
truth among the East Austin farmers when they tell one
another they’ve only lost $5,000 in the past month.

Even as they look toward retirement, the Foores

insist that healing the wounds in the community and
expanding their business are a far better option than
selling their property to would-be buyers who knock at
their door.

“We tried to figure out how it got so heated,” says

Paula of the protests against the East Austin urban
farms. “People look at white people farming in black
communities, and it looks bad. I don’t want it to be that
way.”

“Gentrification is real,” she continues, but wishes

the community could remember back to 1992 when
they bought the property and hired people from the
neighborhood. If Springdale had lost its zoning battle
and been forced to close, says Paula, unless a PODER
supporter had purchased the land it would have likely
become dense condominiums inaccessible to low- and
middle-income residents.

“The farm is so beautiful, and we want people to feel

welcome here,” says Paula, hoping it can be a platform
for community healing.

“We’re not done with this yet,” says Paula, “The people
we touch, the good we do. And now we’ve launched the
soap business! I mean, we’re just not done yet!”

NOTE: While the farm is going stronger than ever, Paula

and Glenn will be retiring in August of 2018 for personal
family and health reasons. Another local urban farmer
will be assuming leadership for the farm.

176
Brooklyn Grange, Brooklyn and Queens, NY
Intensive Roof Top Farm Managed for Profit per Square Foot
Themes: Land access, Full-time owners, On-farm events, Provides education and training.

History
Ben Flanner, 36, the president and farmer of Brooklyn
Grange (the Grange), is an industrial engineer by training.
After college, he found himself working at desk jobs
crunching numbers, building databases, and conducting
cost-based analyses of large businesses. While working
at a consulting company, he spent four months with the
company in Australia conducting business analysis for
a winery and became fascinated with the agricultural
side of the numbers he had gotten good at crunching. “I
wanted to move more, and was always fascinated with
agriculture,” says Ben. “I thought I could do a pretty good
job with it.”
Brooklyn Grange’s roof top farm at the Navy Yard.
Flanner had no agricultural experience, but started
connecting with other New Yorkers whose expertise
meshed with his vision: a farm on a roof. In 2009, he
co-founded Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn’s The mixed commercial-industrial strip of Northern
Greenpoint neighborhood with Annie Novak, Manager of Boulevard has remained relatively stable while these two
the Edible Academy at the New York Botanical Garden and neighborhoods have experienced rapid gentrification over
longtime local farm and food advocate, in partnership with the past decade.245
green roofing company Goode Green and building-owner Five miles south, Brooklyn Grange’s second site sits atop
Broadway Stages, which agreed to use of its rooftop. Building #3 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Flushing Avenue
Throughout 2009, Flanner met likeminded people who in Brooklyn. The city-owned former navy shipyard on the
also dreamed of farming on the roofs of the city. He left East River has been reinvented as a modern manufacturing
Eagle Street late in the 2009 season and, with four others complex, where traditional fabrication and distribution
who shared his vision for a new rooftop farm, incorporated companies neighbor movie production studios, artists,
as Brooklyn Grange. craftspeople, and a coffee roaster.

Like Long Island City, this area saw a several-decades

Community Description decline that has made a rapid turn in recent years. With
the reemergence of small manufacturing in the Navy
Brooklyn Grange started not in Brooklyn, but in an
Yard has come a housing boom along Flushing Avenue:
industrial and railroad corridor dividing the neighborhoods
developers have quickly constructed both income-
of Long Island City and Sunnyside in Queens, NY.
restricted and market-rate condominiums, with some
fetching prices nearing two million dollars.246

245  For documentation and commentary, see Malone, N. (2013, July 8). Sushi, Muffins, and Hipsters. New Republic. Retrieved from https://
newrepublic.com/article/113759/new-york-times-gentrification-guide, Goldschein, E. (2011, November 10). Gentrification can’t come fast enough
for the new residents of Queens. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/gentrification-cant-come-fast-enough-for-the-
new-residents-of-queens-2011-11, and Abt Associates. (2015, May 21). The effects of neighborhood change on New York City Housing Authority
Residents. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/ceo/downloads/pdf/nns_15.pdf
246  Hughes, C.J. (2015, October 30). Reinventing the Brooklyn Navy Yard. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/
realestate/reinventing-the-brooklyn-navy-yard.html?_r=0

177
Farm Description The Grange pays for electric (for its small office and
Coolbot) at both sites, and water at its Brooklyn site only.
Flanner and his partners secured a ten-year lease for
It is looking into large-scale rain-catchment systems that
the Queens site, its first, at the beginning of 2010. The
could feed irrigation lines and other innovations to reduce
negotiation was made more appealing to the building
its need for piped water; New York City water for irrigation
owners by the New York City Green Roof Tax Credit (see
can be a large expense for Brooklyn Grange
Policies Impacting Success). The team fundraised the
$200,000 to purchase materials to start the farm, and in
the spring of 2010 began bringing soil and compost onto Production Practices
the roof and commenced planting on nearly one acre Flanner can say with confidence which of the farms
of space. performs better on a square-foot basis because the
Grange’s production practices are rooted in knowledge of
Two years later, they secured the second site in the
each crop’s impact per square foot. “We list our crops in
Brooklyn Navy Yard. Atop the 11-story ‘Building #3’ at the
a spreadsheet, and look at different sales channels—CSA,
Navy Yard, the Grange has 1.5 total acres of growing space,
Market—the area it occupies, and get a metric of dollars
more than doubling its original capacity. The founders
per square foot. To do it as accurately as possible, we
negotiated a 20-year lease with the nonprofit Brooklyn
incorporate a unit of time. We look at [costs] in terms
Navy Yard Development Corporation, which oversees the
of square-foot per season, but it is hard to get [an exact
complex. This time, the deal was secured when the Grange
estimate] per unit of time.”
and the Development Corporation co-applied for and
received a New York City Department of Environmental This is some of the same analysis Flanner performed in his
Protection Green Infrastructure Grant of nearly $600,000. previous career, but with farming he sees the nuance that
Each entity kicked in $100,000 to complete the $800,000 dollars-per-square-foot doesn’t capture. “Certain things,
farm installation. The Navy Yard’s support and NYC DEP like ground cherries, have a high value per square foot,
funding were essential for Brooklyn Grange’s expansion to but they’re not scalable,” Flanner says. The Grange focuses
a second site. many dozens of crops with different yields, but puts
an emphasis on high-value crops like salad mixes, leafy
Both roofs feature 42” exterior walls and are interrupted
greens, edible flowers, specialty peppers, and tomatoes.
by exhaust outlets, elevator equipment encasements, and
other roof structures typical of industrial buildings. The Microgreens are grown for restaurants year-round in
remainder, which Flanner estimates is a bit more than two the greenhouses, with production slowing in order to
acres, is prepared with several membrane layers meant accommodate the start of the outdoor planting season in
to protect and waterproof the roof and provide drainage. mid-April. The main outdoor harvest season is from May
Using cranes and blower tubes, they installed Rooflite, a through November. The farms use a combination of drip
green roof growing medium that is lighter than typical soil. irrigation and low-set ‘wobbler’ type sprinklers to minimize
After years of yield assessment, the Brooklyn site has been irrigation water lost to the winds that perpetually blow off
more productive on a square-foot basis than the Queens the East River.
site, for many reasons, though in part, because they
worked with the Rooflite company to come up with a more Because of the shallow depth of the growing medium
vigorous agricultural mix. (12”), most work is done with hand tools. The farm
harvests its salad greens with knives and a Farmer’s Friend
The Brooklyn site has a freight elevator that goes to the baby leaf harvester.
roof, while the Queens site has a roof-access passenger
elevator and a top-floor freight elevator. Both farms “But there’s a certain pride in growing some calorie crops
have wash-stations and CoolBot-powered cold storage: versus just garnishes,” says Flanner, who wrestles with
4x8’ in Queens, and half of an 8x20’ shipping container the rooftops’ soil depth, drainage, and the high costs of
in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn site has a second shipping production to both earn a profit and be as accessible as
container that has been retrofitted as an office, as well as possible for the outer-borough communities in which it
an outdoor kitchen that is used for workshops, events, and farms. “Garnishes are not feeding people in the same way.
staff cooking. They also have an office on the 11th floor of I don’t think I’d still be doing this if all we did was grow
their Navy Yard building. There are two greenhouses in garnishes,” says Flanner.
Brooklyn and another in Queens, each around 12x32’.

178
The type of crop analysis Flanner conducts to make Business Structure
cropping plans from year to year has been crucial to
Year-to-year cropping plans and analyses are more
Brooklyn Grange’s success. Flanner oversees production
influential than each farm’s pre-launch business plan,
on both farms, though each has a separate farm manager
which Flanner says the team still looks at occasionally.
and different, but complementary, annual crop plans
The plan was always to be a for-profit farm, but since the
based on each farm’s unique environment and soil
beginning, the founders recognized that education would
conditions. According to Flanner, when discounting for the
be part of their mission, particularly involvement with
huge capital expense in getting the Brooklyn farm up and
K-12 schools.
running, the Grange began to be net positive in 2012.
In 2011, Brooklyn Grange splintered off its youth education
“The truth is the numbers don’t lie. You can use them to
functions to support the founding of City Growers, an
help guide your decisions: what to plant this season, or
independent 501(c)3 that runs hands-on educational
what to focus on today. Time is always limited.”
programming for inner-city students. Since its founding,
These numbers result from activity-based cost accounting, more than 20,000 children have visited Brooklyn Grange,
the method Flanner uses to calculate net dollars-per- where City Growers rents plots for educational purposes,
square foot, which includes depreciation, amortization, for field trips, multi-visit workshops, and afterschool
and allocation of resources like compost, water, and programming.
electricity.
“There’s only so much you can focus on,” says Flanner
A wider variety of crops in small quantities do appear. “It’s regarding youth education at Brooklyn Grange. “If we
for our CSA, farmers market, and our general ethics and had set up an education focused arm of the Grange, how
philosophy, we want diversity on the farm,” he says. While would the financials look, who would run it, and where
they have mostly stopped growing deep-feeding brassicas would the passion come from? Better to have a separate
like broccoli and cabbage, there is still an emphasis on partner organization that has the passion and primary
variety: “When there’s more variety, [there can be] less mission, and work together as partners in the same space.”
risk,” says Flanner, referring to pests, crop failure, and even Instead, Brooklyn Grange has remained focused on their
Brooklyn Grange’s diverse revenue streams (see Other mission of profitable farm production.
Activities/Services).

“At beginning, everyone wanted us to grow different

stuff, but we’d grow it, do the numbers, and [realize we
should’ve] said no. Now I have an intuition about what’s
going to be good. If we’re 90 percent sure it’s not going
to work we say no.” Brooklyn Grange doesn’t require
contracts to grow for restaurants, so rather than waste
time and space, and risk disappointing customers with
no or unpredictable harvests, Flanner says they would
rather experiment on their own and offer options to chefs.
Instead, the farm maintains the flexibility to grow what
sells well and works with trusted customers, who share
that flexibility to incorporate Brooklyn Grange’s produce
into their menus or on their shelves.

The farm uses organic practices but is not certified. They

are working on a Food Safety plan, GAP, and HACCP plan,
which will be helpful for future growth and events at the Flavorful shushito peppers growing on the roof.
farms. Restaurant clients are not particularly concerned
with food safety certifications or labels—knowing the
farmer and the social cachet of purchasing high quality
products from an urban rooftop farm are enough to
make sales.

179
Marketing and Sales
Brooklyn Grange has three main marketing channels
for its crops: a farm stand on Saturdays at its Queens
location, a booth at the McGolrick Park Farmers Market in
Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and direct wholesale to restaurants
and small groceries, which are the majority of its sales.

The farm stand is also an opportunity for people to visit

the Queens farm, while the farmers’ market stand is the
Grange’s opportunity to be out in its community, sharing
the work it does. It also hosted a few U-Pick events in
2016, as a similar community outreach measure.

The CSA, which runs for 24 weeks and has in the past
swelled to more than 70 members, was cut back to 55
members in 2016 in order to improve the quality and shift
more produce to lucrative restaurant sales. The shift makes Mixed lettuce greens being grown in a special soil mix
it easier to execute the CSA and keep quality higher for all suited to rooftop farming.
sales channels. Small adjustments among sales channels
happen every year to help the farm stay efficient.
But, chefs are also a consistent, year-round market.
Brooklyn Grange has had a restaurant presence since its Farmers markets typically fetch a higher price, but require
founding, aided by Flanner’s experience and connections – more labor and have more variables affecting sales.
some going back from working with Eagle Street Farm, and
even older. Direct wholesale became more efficient and “If you looked at it financially, you’d say, ‘Maybe we should
made its trajectory clear as the farm’s bread-and-butter, drop the farmers market,’ but it’s crucial to everything we
when one of Flanner’s partners took on sales as a nearly do: have that variety there and our prices are totally fair.
full-time endeavor in 2013. That consistency meant more And, people can interact with us. And, being there and
standing orders and someone ready to take a call from a meeting people leads to other opportunities. Plus, it’s fun
chef at any time. (but tiring). It’s a balancing act between a philosophy and
having to make it work financially.”
The Grange owns a gutted minivan used for Tuesday
restaurant deliveries in Brooklyn. For nearly three years, “You may get pushed toward [growing] more expensive,
it worked with a small local distributor to do Friday high-end [products], but at the same time we’re [thinking]
deliveries in Brooklyn and Manhattan deliveries both days. about how to keep this approachable,” says Flanner.
But, when the distributor closed its doors in summer of Though it prices its produce competitive with other
2016, the Grange went back to doing its own deliveries farmers market stands, its executive team is conscious that
again—a move it had avoided because it does not own a the farm has a reputation for being out-of-reach for many
refrigerated van. Maintaining high product quality with low-income or low-access Brooklynites.
proper post-harvest handling is particularly important for Despite its deep thinking regarding its production and sales
working with chefs, says Flanner, who have high standards philosophy, Brooklyn Grange does not spend much extra
for their ingredients. time, beyond direct-sales interactions, on marketing: “We
“Chefs are challenging because you can miss an order just focus on marketing events and workshops and installations
by missing one phone call,” says Flanner. “They’re cooking, of other farms more, because the vegetables don’t really
they get 15 minutes to do the ordering, and if you don’t need it as much right now,” says Flanner. “We focus
answer they might go on to the next option. They also text [marketing] efforts primarily on things that can grow.” [See,
you at midnight. It’s exhausting for farmers to keep up Other Activities/Services]. “But of course we try to post
with sales in this manner. Chefs and other customers can frequent engaging photos of our harvests, farm crew at
make orders to most large distributors, sometimes past work, farm stands, and urban ecosystem up at the farm.”
midnight, and the product will be at their before noon the
next day.”

180
Facebook and Instagram are its main marketing tools. As the farm-to-table movement has taken Metropolis
Though Flanner can’t quantify the value of a good by storm, there is an increasing demand from urbanites
Facebook account, he does believe there is some value who want to experience a farm without leaving the city—
to it, including perceived legitimacy from a customer with a great view, to boot. Events like farm dinners and
perspective, contributing to its name recognition. In years weddings have grown to become a key component part of
past, the Grange had goals for Facebook followers (it has the overall business. Flanner says that doing these types
over 15,000 “likes” as of May 2016), and has recently of events regularly, and having the staff and infrastructure
come to appreciate the power of Instagram (over to do so, is what makes them a good business financially.
30,000 followers). They also hosted between eight and ten weddings in 2016.
The events are an important stabilizing revenue stream
“I’ve had random people in Soho tell me they follow our with healthy margins, plus deposits often come in during
Instagram when I was shopping for shoelaces and showed the winter months when cash flow is tight.
them my card,” says Flanner, “It’s a pretty powerful tool.
We don’t really have a specific message on social media— The Grange also hosts many workshops and educational
it’s mostly just branding, engagement, and only a message events, including adult-education workshops. Backyard
if we have one or are helping someone else spread the gardening, mushroom cultivation, starting a small
word about something.” A dedicated staff member tends business, and more have been subjects of workshops
social media, and posts are meant to draw people in and taught by Grange staff or outside instructors. “We’re
be interesting and fun. pretty generous with sharing of pay with instructors and
some material costs,” says Flanner. Because of their high
Employees overhead and limited upside, however, these events
are not critical to the bottom line. Still, workshops, like
Brooklyn Grange has twelve full-time year-round events and photoshoots are excellent tools for community
employees, including Flanner and three other original engagement and marketing.
founders. There are also over a dozen part-time seasonal
employees, who work in farming, events, and offsite The Grange achieves direct community engagement
installations and maintenance. through partnerships with other organizations, such as
City Growers and the Refugee Immigrant Fund, as well as
Flanner says the founders weren’t specifically friends the farm’s own programs aimed at creating access points
prior to launch, which they’ve agreed was good luck for as diverse as the populations it serves. It also offers three
business: “We have respect for each other, can have different types of tour-opportunities. The farm hosts an
business conversations and be frank with each other, open house every Saturday, in season, which is free and
which might [be] more challenging if you’re also best
friends.” Today co-founder and Vice President Anastasia
Cole Plakias heads up communication and events, and co-
founder and Chief Operating Officer Gwen Schantz leads
external projects including rooftop garden installation and
consulting, as well as many facilities improvements.

The Grange has also taken on part-time apprentices

enrolled in Farm School NYC, a UA education and
certificated program housed within Just Food NYC. Some
Brooklyn Grange apprentices have gone on to start their
own farms in both urban and rural areas.

Other Activities/Services
While Brooklyn Grange is a production farm, it does a lot
more than just production. “At any given moment, you go
up there and it’s kind of great, like a zoo: kids group on one
end, harvest on another end, there might be a tour, there Farming on a roof includes working around building
could be a photoshoot happening, and we may be setting infrastructure.
up for an evening event.”

181
open to the public. Ticketed, public tours are offered four grain and coffee grounds, respectively. While the pilot
times per week for ten dollars per person, and private produced good compost, Flanner says the operation
tours for groups of up to 25 attendees range from $175 to was not sustainable at its small scale: “If you’re paying
$500 for one to two hours. someone $15/hr to turn it manually, the price per yard is
probably at least $400 or $500.” Both farms make compost
“We consciously decided that’s what the {tours} are worth, from organic waste produced on the roof, and have other
and should cost,” says Flanner. “The tours are critical to sources for good compost at a reasonable price when it
our mission, but they decrease what we can accomplish is needed.
in a day, and we take pride in following through with
promises to our team, fixing things promptly, and
supporting each other with tasks.” The Grange priced the Support
tours based on the value of their institutional knowledge, Though Flanner did not have any agricultural training
which they share during the visits in keeping with their before leaving his desk job to start Eagle Street Farm,
philosophy that an industry as nascent as UA requires and then the Grange, he says that his previous career
open discourse and shared information to evolve. “crunching numbers, building databases, making slides
showing growth trends and how to cut costs” “helped a
Regularly found on the roofs are one of several groups who lot.” The information that helped him start and expand
rent space from the Grange. City Growers rents plots for farming operations came from “books, conferences,
its workshops and demonstrations, as do small composting instincts, and lots of mistakes.”
and flower-growing start-ups. Flanner calculates the rental
costs based on his average per-square-foot revenue from In addition to the NYC DEP grant, financial support
the previous year; as their production becomes more came from selling equity, holding fundraising events at
efficient, the rental price rises with it. restaurants and galleries, a Kickstarter, and private loans.
The Grange raised $200,000 to launch its first farm in 2010
“Rentals are based on opportunity cost,” he says. “What and another $160,000 in 2012 for expansion.
revenue would we make otherwise? What else would we
do with the space? That makes it fair.”
Policies Impacting Success
Installation of rooftop gardens on other buildings “fell The first Brooklyn Grange site launched with help from a
into our lap in 2012,” says Flanner. The West Village Italian creative funding source: the New York City Green Roof Tax
restaurant Rosemary’s wanted a farm on their roof to Abatement program. When the program launched in 2008,
supply the restaurant. Since then, COO Gwen Schantz it allowed a one-year tax abatement of $4.50 per square
has led installations as well as maintenance contracts for foot up to $100,000 or the total tax liability of the building,
rooftop farms, green roofs, and some potted vegetable whatever is less.247,248The Grange’s landlords in Queens
gardens at residences and restaurants. The revenue from were able to take advantage of that tax abatement after
installation and maintenance has been a large area of installation in 2010.
growth for the company, and constitutes a substantial part
of the Grange’s total revenue. Green roofs and rooftop production can improve
local stormwater management. The NYC DEP Green
The Grange also received a SARE Sustainable Community Infrastructure Grant program, which awarded nearly
Innovation Project grant in 2013 to pilot a composting $592,730 to the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development
facility serving the Navy Yard. The $14,900 grant helped Corporation in its first round of granting in 2011, is
to pay for infrastructure, coordination, and staff time designed to incentivize private property owners in
to operate a ground-level container-based composting combined sewer areas to divert at least one inch of
facility. Navy Yard neighbor, Kings County Distilling, and rainwater from their impervious surfaces. DEP provides
nearby Brooklyn Roasting Company brought their spent the funds to design and construct the green infrastructure

247  Green Roof Tax Abatement. (n.d.). New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/gbee/html/
incentives/roof.shtml
248  New York State, which grants the authority to New York City to offer property tax abatements, expanded and extended the program in 2014,
increasing the per square foot abatement to $5.23 up to $200,000. See: New York Real Property Tax Law § 499-bbb. Real property tax abatement,
retrieved at http://codes.findlaw.com/ny/real-property-tax-law/rpt-sect-499-bbb.html
For history of the bill, see Crauderueff, R., Dalski, E., and Margolis, S. The New York City Green Roof Tax Abatement Policy Lessons. Retrieved from
http://swimmablenyc.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SWIM-Green-Roof-Assessment_paper.pdf
182
system, which can include an agricultural component. The free time. And you want to reward people with raises—it
Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation has a goal might not be much, but it has to be something. We have

“
of making the site “the greenest industrial park in the young, ambitious, talented people, and keeping everyone
country,” and had the goal of managing over one million incentivized and excited to stick around is important.”
gallons of stormwater per year, partly facilitated through
the Grange project.249
If you looked at it financially, you’d say,
While Flanner points to these two policies as key to the
Grange’s success, he has developed a deeper relationship ‘Maybe we should drop the farmers market,’
with rural farmers and would like to see policies that but it’s crucial to everything we do people
benefit them as well. While he sees new large urban can interact with us, and being there and
farming operations, like Aerofarms in Newark, NJ, as a meeting people leads to other opportunities...
potential benefit to a struggling city, he recognizes “rural It’s a balancing act between a philosophy
economies are also struggling all over New York State, all and having to make it work financially.
over every state. We need to look after cities because we
know they’re going to continue to grow, and they’re
crucial to our future, but also we don’t want to forget
about rural economies.” Promise of Urban Agriculture
Flanner is realistic about the power of UA, and of larger
Assets and Challenges institutions to support it. “I am a big believer in urban
agriculture, and we have been very grateful for the
Forward-thinking landlords, long-term leases (10 and 20 advice and support from agencies and institutions. But,
years), and buildings built for both snow-load and access if institutions like USDA and American Farmland Trust
(passenger and freight elevators) are some of Brooklyn want to support urban agriculture, we [need to be clear]
Grange’s most crucial assets, says Flanner. While it was on goals, especially if it’s not always a workable urban
challenging to find a building of the right size with these agriculture business model.”
assets, he suspects “it would be difficult to get a 20-year
lease at ground level anywhere in the five boroughs of He also recognizes that the Grange business model, while
New York City.” The lease for the Queens site has been profitable, is “fun and challenging and focused on high
renewed until 2024. Brooklyn Grange will also launch its quality, it’s not feeding the city. The scale is not there.”
third site in 2017 in the Sunset Park neighborhood But, just because Brooklyn Grange cannot be everything to
of Brooklyn. everyone doesn’t mean it isn’t making an impact: “We’ll
see what kind of legacy it has. These are tiny bites at
The added asset of the tax abatement, stormwater change for society, but it’s certainly helping make change.”
management grant, and support from landlords allowed
Brooklyn Grange to hit firm financial footing more quickly, “I consider it a blessing to do these things, which are
says Flanner. The Navy Yard’s willingness to contribute mostly rural activities and extremely exciting to me, and to
to the cost of installation also helped the Grange reach a do them in a place that I love.” says Flanner. “We’re proud
financially-stable scale with less debt and investor equity. of what we’ve accomplished in seven seasons farming on
New York City’s rooftops, but we have a lot of progress
Expansion has its challenges, especially for a farm with so to make. We hope to contribute our findings in areas
many activities happening simultaneously. Flanner says the such as nutrient management and water savings towards
leadership team is figuring out how to grow the different the larger community of agrarians both urban and rural.
revenue streams of the business—production, sales, We will continue to strive to engage more community
events, consulting, education—at the same time and in the members through programming and events, and adding
right proportions to balance goals with time. Meanwhile, green space to New York and other cities around the
he sees staff retention as crucial, especially as he and his world. We can help to change the way urbanites think
team are getting older: “we’re not all in our 20s, as we about food and farming, and make positive changes to
were at the beginning; people are having kids and want how cities are developed and designed in the future.”

249 Sklerov, F. and Saucier, M. (2011, June 9). DEP Awards $3.8 million in grants for community-based green infrastructure program projects.
New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/11-46pr.shtml#.
V0MS25MrKRt

183
Mellowfields Urban Farm, Lawrence, KS
Incubating a Business to Eventually Scale up on Rural Land
Themes: Land access, Urban ag policy, Full-time owners, SNAP/Double-up programs, Multi-farm efforts,
Provides education and training, Incubator farm trainee.

History
When Jessi Asmussen and Kevin Prather moved to
Lawrence, KS, in 2005, the decision was not farm-based.
Asmussen, the daughter of a row crop and small grain
farmer in South Dakota, and Texas-native Prather met in
college. They spent time after college falling in love with
their big vegetable garden near Asmussen’s hometown.
Itching for a new environment, they moved south to
Lawrence with vague ideas of pursuing their interests for
growing food.

While the couple got “day-jobs”—Prather a public school

history teacher, Asmussen in social work—they continued
to dream of their own farm. Prather got a seasonal job
Jessi Asmussen and Kevin Prather stand one of the
at Wakarusa Valley Farm outside of Lawrence, and that several greenhouses they will co-operate as an indoor
farmer helped Asmussen get an internship with another farm and seedstarting business in addition to their 3-acre
farm in the same organic CSA cooperative. “I loved it, and I farm nearby. The building is a former nursery and also
learned a lot,” says Asmussen. offers an opportunity for a permanent retail outlet.
The following season Asmussen was accepted into the
Growing Growers program,250 a farmer apprenticeship Tired of the commute between farms and eager to find
and training program offered by Kansas and Missouri a place of their own, the couple applied to the City of
extension, land grant universities, and farmer advocacy Lawrence’s brand-new Common Ground program in 2012,
organizations. For one season, her on-farm work a community garden and farm incubator program utilizing
was complemented by the program’s workshops and city-owned vacant land to grow food. Their application was
internships. “I was immersed in it,” Asmussen recalls, “I accepted, and they started growing on two acres at the
felt like I had the tools to do something.” incubator farm just a three-minute drive from their house,
where they still farm.
After the program, and while Prather was teaching full-
time and Asmussen took on more non-farm work, they In 2016, Asmussen, Prather and their four-year-old son,
continued to grow produce in their 1/3 acre backyard—far Elliot were preparing to grow on three acres in their first
more than they could eat. They started a friends-only CSA year as a certified organic farm. But, there are more ways
in 2007, and began leasing land elsewhere to grow their to grow, they say, whether or not they stay “urban.”
burgeoning business. Mellowfields Farm was born.

By 2009 the couple was ready to open their CSA to a wider Community Description
audience. Asmussen had quit her job and started farming Lawrence, KS, about thirty miles west of Kansas City, KS,
full-time. As the business continued to grow, they rented is a college town most notable as the home of University
more land, and for three seasons were farming on up to of Kansas (KU) and in 2012 had a full-time population of
five different plots spread throughout Lawrence. around 90,000 plus a student body of just over 23,000.

250  Growing Growers. http://www.growinggrowers.org/about.html

184
 Farm Description
Common Ground Asmussen and Prather cultivate approximately 1/3 acre at
their home. They built a 25x55’ high tunnel, which they
The City of Lawrence’s Common Ground program use for season extension. They also built a 6x12’ cedar-
has made land available to dozens of community sided walk-in cooler that can be moved on skids. The
gardens and urban farms on ten sites, including a cooler is next to their outdoor washing and packing area.
community orchard and cooperatively-managed In addition to some row crops, which are covered with
permaculture garden. In return for land access, low tunnels at cooler parts of the year, they have planted
farmers and gardeners create a Community Benefit perennial berry bushes and plan to do more perennials in
Plan, which can include activities that give back to the future.
the community such as donating produce to a local The couple shuttles tools between their home farm and
food bank and hosting workshops to build skills. In the Common Ground Incubator Farm just over a mile away.
2015, its 186 gardeners and farmers donated 1,900 Common Ground is designed to incubate commercial farm
lbs of produce, valued at $54,300. businesses by offering them land and water access to
expand their production. The flat five-acre site borders a
floodplain and features Class I soils.

According to a study by the City of Lawrence, nearly Mellowfields started with one acre at Common Ground in
75 percent of the population has earned an associate’s 2013, added a second acre in 2014, and was given access
degree or higher, with 23 percent holding an advanced or to a third acre after another incubatee left. Two other
professional degree.251 commercial production farms at Common Ground cultivate
the remaining 1.6 acres at the incubator. A city-subsidized
The North Lawrence neighborhood where Asmussen water hook-up and water meter were installed at the front
and Prather live is cut off from the rest of the city by the of the property. The three farmers share via spigots along
Kansas River. Their half-acre property is twice the size of the alleyways for crop irrigation and split the water costs.
most others in this residential neighborhood, and ideal for
their home farm site. Asmussen and Prather bought a 37hp Kubota tractor
to work their new land, as well as disc, single-bottom
The Common Ground site, just up an old commercial strip plow, middle buster, cultivator, Brush Hog, flame weeder
at the intersection of two major roads, is five acres of and a handmade bed shaper Prather fashioned from an
river bottom land at the edge of a floodplain, and held by old cultivator. They store their implements in a garage
the city as overflow space for the neighboring cemetery. shared with the other farmers at the front of the property.
“When you’re out there it feels pretty rural,” says Prather built a hiller from the base of an old cultivator to
Asmussen of the city-annexed area: just beyond the site start establishing permanent beds. The area is open with
are fields of corn and row crops for miles. no tree-breaks, resulting in winds that can blow off cold-
Lawrence’s proximity to rural land and their strong local season row covers. The couple uses drip irrigation at
food movement can make for a welcoming but competitive both farms.
market, Prather says. “There’s a lot of demand, but The Common Ground program offers the farmers three-
there’s also a lot of supply. [When you hear of farms] year rolling leases for one dollar per acre per year.
where there’s a lot of demand but not much supply, they Currently, the rolling lease means that if the City asks
can have a 250 member CSA. We can’t get that because them to leave, they can still finish out the season and the
there are so many CSAs in this small town, the demand two following before relocating. This, rather than formal
is saturated.” Yet, it is this dedication and enthusiasm education or provision of professional services, is the way
that lead the city to launch Common Ground and other the City incubates the farms, allowing them to grow their
programs to support local food and farmers. businesses without the ambiguity of a year-to-year lease.
While the three-year limit has not been strictly enforced
in the past, this may change in the near future as the
City considers the best ways to support new farmers at
Common Ground.

251  City of Lawrence. (2013, November). Local Economic Profile. Retrieved from http://lawrenceks.org/assets/ecodev/Final--Economic_Profile_
Report.pdf

185
Production Practices
Mellowfields offers 30-40 different crops throughout the
season to supply their CSA and farmers market stand. In
their first few seasons at the incubator farm, they were
able to grow all they needed for both markets on two
acres and planted the remaining acre in “placeholder
crops” like corn and winter squash to keep the space in
production without intensive labor.

Asmussen says that will change in 2016 as demand

has increased (see Marketing and Sales). Gone are the
placeholders to make way for high-value small crops like
salad greens, which can be planted in rapid succession.
Innovative growing strategies, like the use of stale
seedbeds and flame weeding to control weeds, have
helped decrease labor costs. Prather says they have
Jessi Asmussen and Kevin Prather built a two-zone walk-
honed their production and products to what they know
in refrigerator at their home. The unit is built on pallets
they grow well and can sell, and have let go of novelty and can be moved by forklift.
vegetables with less marketability.
“We had a lot of things going that made us stand out”
2016 is also the first year that Mellowfields operates
among applicants, says Asmussen. The farm had a growing
as a certified organic farm, which the couple has been
market base, and Asmussen was one of the founders
transitioning to since their first season in 2013. “I don’t
of the community-based Lawrence Food Garden Tour, a
think [organic] certification has as many barriers as people
volunteer-run self-guided annual tour of personal and
think it does,” says Asmussen. “Once we actually went
public gardens.
through the process it was easier than we thought.” She
said the certification has taught them to keep better The farm also had to submit a Community Benefit Plan to
records and laughs saying, “but we have had people telling meet Common Ground’s Community Benefit Agreement
us since the beginning that we have to keep records.” requirement. Their plan includes volunteer and education
opportunities at the farm for new farmers, commitment to
Business Structure provide assistance with farm-to-school efforts to two local
elementary and middle schools, and produce donations to
Asmussen is the sole proprietor of Mellowfields Urban
Just Food. Asmussen says that donations make up a small
Farm. “Kevin [Prather] is my volunteer,” she jokes, though
portion of their total product and they have enough unsold
both work the farm full-time and their household draws
produce to meet the agreement.
from the farm’s profits. The decision was based on ease
of tax filing, and has not inhibited them from growing the
business. Marketing and Sales
There are many farmers in and outside of Lawrence
Asmussen developed a business plan through a small farm
working for a piece of the city’s enthusiasm for locally-
business planning course taught through the Kauffman
grown food, and Asmussen and Prather have worked
Foundation in Kansas City, MO, which offers grants and
hard to stand out. Asmussen credits her husband’s
programming to foster entrepreneurship.252 She said the
“high aesthetic standards” for much of their success at
business plan resulting from that course, as well as the
Lawrence’s Saturday farmers market.
production and marketing plans she developed while
enrolled in Growing Growers, prepared them to apply for “Jessi [Asmussen] did a nice job giving us the right
the Common Ground program. materials—tablecloths and baskets—to make [the
market table] look nice, then it’s my job to lay it all out
on Saturday and do the merchandising. I’m pretty uptight
about how it looks,” Prather admits.

252  Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. http://www.kauffman.org/who-we-are

186
“That’s been part of how we’ve been able to compete in a When Asmussen and Prather launched their CSA in
pretty tight market,” he continues. “Lawrence isn’t big, and 2009, they traded a share to a designer who created the
there are already quite a few vegetable growers. But, the Mellowfields logo and a flyer for advertising. “It’s the
way we’ve been able to get our foothold is standing out fanciest thing we’ve ever had,” reminisces Prather. Since
from the others aesthetically. We set a high price, but we then, they have grown the CSA through farmers market
make it look like it’s the best that’s available.” interactions.

Pricing, Asmussen says, is informally determined at the That branding carries through to their Facebook page,
farmers market. “There’s an understanding among vendors Instagram account, and website, which they update
that we don’t want to undercut--we all know how much frequently. “I’m not really convinced that Instagram or
work it takes. As a community of vendors, we’re always Facebook lead to more sales,” says Asmussen, “but maybe
trying to see what we can get for it. We do not want to there’s some education happening, and engagement with
take advantage of customers! So we ask one another, the public that have to be somewhat beneficial.”
‘What’s the price of spinach this year?’”
“It solidifies the community,” agrees Prather. “It doesn’t
Still there is competition among the vendors. Together necessarily grow it a whole lot, but it reminds people of
with Jill Elmers, owner of Moon on the Meadow Farm at us. And they get to feel more part of the farm. If they scroll
the edge of Lawrence, they’ve coined it “cooperatition.” through their feed, they may think of us.”
Prather says some farmers at the market resent
Mellowfields’ no-cost land access, but he sees it as an But Asmussen says they are not out to make farming
opportunity to scale up their systems and marketing, always look pretty and easy. “The trend with social media,
similar to many of the next-generation farmers at market or just how humans are, is that we highlight the positives.
who inherited land. I think a goal [of our social media presence] would be to
be honest.”
The Lawrence Farmers Market accepts SNAP and
participates in the Double Up Food Bucks program through Employees
Heartland Collaborative, a double-dollar program for SNAP
customers.253 In a stroke of luck, Mellowfields’ booth is In addition to their own full-time labor, Asmussen and
the nearest to where customers get their Market Match Prather hire two part-time employees to work with them
tokens, and while Mellowfields’ prices are higher than throughout the season. The two new crew worked with
many other farms at the market, says Asmussen, they get a the couple at the start of the 2015 season, and the quality
lot of token-based sales. of their labor inspired the couple to give them a one dollar
per hour raise within their first month.
Their higher prices at market covered their costs while
transitioning to organic, and Prather suspects organic The two employees are coming back in 2016, and have
certification will open the doors to more robust wholesale been given another raise to $11 an hour. “They’re so
accounts. Mellowfields sells to the Merc Co-op in worth it,” Asmussen says, “We felt like we could afford
Lawrence, which was eager to buy more variety and in [to pay their employees more] to avoid having to train
greater quantities as certification grew nearer. someone over and possibly risk getting a dud or someone
we couldn’t rely on.”
Organic certification was spurred, in part, by an
opportunity to join Common Harvest CSA, the only all- Prather adds, “[Their new raise] pretty much eats up any
organic CSA in the Lawrence area. Five area organic of the profit that we make with their help, but we found
farms, including Mellowfields, grow produce for the 200+ that with their help, our stress level goes way down.”
member CSA. This will represent a significant portion of Adding labor allows the couple to focus on improving their
Mellowfields’ production starting in 2016. Asmussen says crop selection, production and handling systems, and
they will shrink their own CSA, which had 40 members marketing, all to boost income.
in 2015, but because of the strong relationships with “Eventually we’ll be able to grow to the point where
members couldn’t think of giving it up completely. we’ll still be paying $11 an hour and make more profit,”
Asmussen says.

253  Douglas County previously ran a highly successful double-dollar program called Market Match. Based on its success, it collaborated with Fair
Food Network, the Mid-American Regional Council, and other partners to launch the regional program. According to Helen Schnoes, Sustainability
and Food Systems Planner for Douglas County, the collaborative includes Cultivate Kansas City whose double-dollar program, Beans & Greens,
similarly has been folded into the Double Up Food Bucks Heartland Collaborative (http://www.doubleupheartland.org/).)
187
Mellowfields offers one day a week for volunteers to come
to the farm. Regular volunteers will text whether they
are coming and Asmussen and Prather make a plan for
their help. While volunteers are not as efficient or reliable
as paid employees, they say, working alongside people
interested in farming is a chance to interact with others.

“And make friends!” cries Prather. “It’s hard to make

friends. We need an opportunity to hang out with people.”

Other Activities/Services
Though farming and raising a family takes up a lot of their
time, Asmussen and Prather are active in the local food
scene beyond their work at Mellowfields. Asmussen co-
founded the Lawrence Food Garden Tour, which has led
seven successful tours. She also worked with the Sunrise The Merc Coop sells produce from many local growers,
Project, a local nonprofit organization focused on social including Mellowfields Urban Farm.
justice through food and environment, to launch an annual
plant sale. Another early Mellowfields supporter was Linda Cottin,
Prather and Asmussen have taught classes at The Merc who owns Cottin’s Hardware in Lawrence. Before buying
Co-op as well. They see these one-off paid classes, with their house, Asmussen and Prather lived near downtown
themes like “prepping your garden for spring,” as an Lawrence across the street from Cottin’s where they grew
additional marketing opportunity for their produce in produce and distributed their CSA. When weather forced
the store. them to find an indoor space for CSA pick-up, Linda Cottin
offered space in the hardware store. Customers liked the
Prather is currently on the board of the Sunrise Project, availability of fresh produce so much that Cottin decided
and says the experience has been valuable for its to open her parking lot to start a weekly Thursday night
connection to the community and for expanding their farmers market. Cottin’s Hardware Farmers Market has
professional circle. While Asmussen would like to lessen grown to over 20 vendors, a local brewer, and live music
her time volunteering, she agrees with Prather that it since 2010.
builds Mellowfields’ reputation and helps market
their brand. “Having [Cottin as] a commercial neighbor helped with
marketing,” Asmussen says, which, along with access to
land and building relationships with neighbors, is one of
Support the benefits of being urban.
Asmussen credits her farm internship, along with the
Growing Growers program and the Kauffman Foundation’s Prather’s part-time winter job not only supports the
business planning course as instrumental to Mellowfields’ family, but has grown its circle. He packs orders for Seeds
growth. But, those were facilitated in part by the strong From Italy, owned by Dan Nagangast and Lynn Byczynski,
community of farmers in Lawrence. the founder and former publisher of the popular farmer
newsletter “Growing for Market.” “They’ve been so
Mark Lumpe’s Wakarusa Valley Farm, Prather’s first farm encouraging and so willing to give their information
employer and where the couple once rented land, has and their resources,” he says, from giving away pallets
been an informal incubator to several newer farmers to watering the transplants Mellowfield grew in their
in the Lawrence area. Elmers got her start there, as did greenhouse.
another farm member of Common Harvest CSA. “Probably
to [Mark’s] chagrin,” laughs Prather. “[Mark] is not all that Asmussen and Prather have not yet applied for grants.
excited about growing the competition, but he’s done a lot They are interested in getting an NRCS EQIP grant to build
to help people learn in their own way.” a larger high tunnel, but have held off because of space
constraints and possible moves. “We’ve always been
hesitant to invest in large structural stuff,” says Asmussen,
as there is always a thought that larger acreage could be
on the horizon.

188
The couple nearly purchased 80 acres with another agriculture that is operated for commercial purposes and
farming couple, and was approved for a loan before they is a larger scale than other forms of agriculture (home
decided against it, as the farm was far from Lawrence. or community gardens, residential limits on numbers
While they got assistance from family as the farm grew to of animals).”255 Urban farms will need to apply to the
scale, they have never taken out a loan or mortgage and, planning commission for a special use permit, though
Asmussen says, they are reluctant to do so, “I think people urban farms existing before the amendment is adopted

“
who own 40 acres will tell you that having a loan on 40 will be grandfathered in with an automatic special
acres isn’t necessarily something you strive to do.” use permit.256

“Helen and Eileen [Horn, Sustainability Coordinator for

the city and county] are extremely supportive. [What]
I think people who own 40 acres will tell
they’ve worked on with Common Ground has created
you that having a loan on 40 acres isn’t policy that has made it possible to farm the way that we
necessarily something you strive to do. have,” says Asmussen. But, she and Prather are skeptical
whether a new UA ordinance will be helpful to their
operations, though are happy it will galvanize support in
Policies Impacting Success the community.
Common Ground was one of the first programs to Prather and Asmussen are disappointed that the zoning
come out of a food system assessment initiated by text amendment does not include a policy to subsidize
the Douglas County Food Policy Council. A county-led water meters for agricultural use. “That was my biggest
initiative launched in 2010, it became a joint city-county hope—that there’d be a way to incentivize additional
advisory board in 2013 intended to address barriers to a [agriculture] meters or changing the metering for
“successful, sustainable local food system” in the county.254 properties” that have farms, says Prather. They said the
Lawrence-Douglas County Planning staff decided water-
Helen Schnoes, Food Systems Coordinator for Douglas
related programming was out of its purview.
County, says the Common Ground program intentionally
did not set up many restrictions in order to encourage
creative use of the spaces. Aside from the incubator farm,
sites include several community gardens, a community
orchard, and a demonstration permaculture garden.

“Agriculture has always been allowed in city code.

Production of food is not something we’ve had to
reinstate,” says Schnoes. While this has advantages,
Schnoes, who is part of a team that worked on a new UA
ordinance, says defining an urban farm in a rural county
is difficult. She says the question they faced was “How do
we recognize [urban farms] given that we are a city with a
strong rural influence on its fringe?”

In May 2016, the Lawrence City Commission passed a UA

text amendment to the city’s zoning code. Among other
advances like the inclusion of bees and small livestock in
residential areas, it defined an urban farm as “urban A repurposed tiller becomes a homemade tiller at
Mellowfields’ farm on land rented from the City of
Lawrence.

254  Food Policy Council. Douglas County Kansas. http://www.douglascountyks.org/fpc/who-we-are

255  Miller, M. (2016, February 17). Memorandum City of Lawrence Douglas County Planning & Development Services. Retrieved from http://
worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/news/documents/2016/03/19/Urban_Ag_changes.pdf
256  ibid.

189
Asmussen thinks a handful of these types of policies could In the meantime, when difficulties from financing to
be helpful for urban farmers who want to grow their childcare come up, Asmussen and Prather say they can
businesses, including subsidizing utilities for urban farms, still rely on their families to help. “They don’t totally
or creating tax incentives to make property taxes more in understand what’s going on,” says Prather, but “they give
line with rural land tax rates. She says she suspects she and a lot of encouragement.” Speaking of Asmussen’s farmer-
Prather would have used other programs, like micro-loan father, Prather says, “He’s coming from a different kind of
programs for infrastructure, had they not had the capital farming. He saw what we were doing as having a garden. I
to build their cooler and high tunnel. don’t think he understood that there’s a potential to make
a living off it.”
Assets and Challenges
Asmussen says their best asset at the moment is access to Promise of Urban Agriculture
the Common Ground land: “We have it good. So, it may Asmussen jokes they can always drop the “Urban” from
make us spoiled. We don’t want to leave this good thing the farm’s name, but recognizes being in Lawrence
unless there’s something really good.” benefits the business and their lifestyle. “I don’t know if
Mellowfields will be IN the city. It depends on the land.”
Despite this expanded acreage, they still face space
constraints at their house where the high tunnel, washing But, she looks at herself and Prather as examples of how
station, crops, and a personal flock of chickens all compete growing in urban areas can move young people into
for space. Asmussen says their neighborhood is eclectic farming. “Drawing young people into farming in the urban
enough that all of this activity does not phase neighbors, setting, and as they gain more experience and passion,
but she knows that might not always be the case. moving that into the rural realm could be a way to move
people into agriculture in general,” she says. “You start
“This isn’t a permanent situation,” she says of working at small, and you move from the city to the country. I think

“
Common Ground, “Our goal is to move to our own land.” it’s valid and so valuable.”
But, she says waiting for the right farm to come on the
market has been a challenge. “Soil and location. We’re
looking to be close, and we’re not going to settle for
Drawing young people into farming in
second-class soil. The types of markets we do, we can’t
be 60 miles from Lawrence, or even be 30 miles from the urban setting, and as they gain more
Lawrence. Childcare, time and gas would eat it all up,” experience and passion, moving that into
she says. the rural realm could be a way to move
people into agriculture in general.
Time has been a challenge all along. “Having the time and
energy to make creative markets,” says Asmussen, has
been difficult, giving as an example the five years it took NOTE: After several years of a nomadic farm existence,
to get their organic certification that has now opened up Mellowfields farm has now graduated to four acres on the
many new market opportunities. outskirts of Lawrence, Kansas.

“But as an organic farmer, we are creating a wonderful

soil. It takes years,” Asmussen says, and will be difficult
to start over. They’ve struggled with many of these more
permanent decisions: perennial crops, semi-permanent
structures, a larger hoop house. “There’s a lot we would
like to do [on the Common Ground] land but can’t do
because it’s not ours, and it wouldn’t be worth it.” Still, she
is willing to be patient for the right opportunity.

190
Green City Growers Cooperative, Cleveland, OH
Year Round Employment Through Hydroponic Lettuce
Themes: Land access, Full-time owners, Community revitalizing, Provides education and training,
Signature Product — lettuce.

History
Looking over the hundreds of floating rafts upon which
thousands of heads of lettuce are growing, it is hard to
remember that Green City Growers is just one piece of an
initiative to rebuild the greater University Circle area of
Cleveland. Its hydroponic system grows lettuce and herbs,
but the business is part of an effort to grow community
wealth and the local economy.

Green City Growers is the third worker-owned cooperative

incubated by Evergreen Cooperative Corporation (ECC),
a 501(c)3 founded as part of the Cleveland Foundation’s
Greater University Circle Initiative (GUCI). GUCI was
launched to address systemic inequities and disinvestment Green City Growers seeds and grows its greens in mobile
in some of Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods. Supported rafts under a greenhouse structure. Rafts move down the
by some of Cleveland’s largest anchor institutions, GUCI 300 ft long pools as plants grow, and are harvested at
planned to tap into these institutions to spur new business the far end. Above, automatic shades extend and contract
development to serve institutional needs. as sun intensity changes, keeping the light optimal for
plant growth.
Founded as the Evergreen Cooperatives Initiative in 2008,
before securing its nonprofit status as ECC, Evergreen
was created with a mission to provide economic Similarly, Green City Growers was conceived to supply
opportunities for residents and rebuild the local economy. anchor institutions with fresh local greens year-round.
Its cooperatives target residents of the surrounding low- It would be a more capital-intensive project than the
income community to employ full time in living wage first cooperatives, and Evergreen raised $17 million in
jobs and with no-cost health benefits. Its cooperative financing, largely low-interest loans. The funds helped
model also provides for wealth-building opportunities, identify developable parcels; relocate three families to
as member-employees can buy ownership in the new homes; purchase, assemble, and remediate the land
company and share in its profits. It is loosely modeled into one 11-acre parcel; build its 5.35 acres production
on the Mondragon Corporation cooperative model from facility, which includes 3.25 acres of indoor plant growing
Spain’s Basque country, a federation of more than 250 space; and provide for some working capital.
cooperatively-managed businesses and ranked the best
employer in Spain.257 Green City Growers officially opened for business in 2013.
Its successful fundraising effort, strong support from
Evergreen’s first two cooperatives, Evergreen Laundry politicians and media, and few significant operational
and Evergreen Energy Solutions (formerly known as hiccups as the facility came on-line were a strong start.
Ohio Cooperative Solar), were opened in 2009 and 2010 However, sales-related difficulties, including market
respectively. Both social enterprises were designed penetration and pricing, kept it from self-sustaining as
to address needs presented by anchor institutions, early as Evergreen leaders had hoped. In 2016, it was
particularly hospitals, which became core customers as the moving closer to profitability, having learned some tough
businesses expanded. lessons about agriculture and community-focused business
development along the way.

257  See Mondragon Corporation, http://www.mondragon-corporation.com/eng/

191
Community Description have automatic retractable shade curtains that mute
light too bright for the crops and reduce winter heat
The Green City Growers facility is located in the Central
loss. There is also rooftop and side ventilation for airflow,
neighborhood, adjacent to Cleveland’s University Circle.
which decreases disease pressure in the warm, humid
University Circle is home to many of the city’s landmark
environment.
educational, cultural, and healthcare institutions including
Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Botanic Within the greenhouse, 13 330-foot hydroponic ponds are
Garden, and the Cleveland Clinic. Roughly, one out of eight fed by filtered, oxygenated water with added nutrients
full-time jobs in Cuyahoga County are at Greater University to grow GCG’s lettuces, herbs, and microgreens. Eighty
Circle anchor institutions.258 percent of the water comes from rain run-off or snowmelt
from the greenhouse roofs. At any given time close to
Though University Circle is an economic driver for
one million gallons of water are circulating through the
greater Cleveland, the neighborhoods surrounding it,
facility. Water, nutrients, energy and other operations
including Central, have seen decades of rapid decline
are monitored and adjusted using systems from Priva,
and disinvestment. In the 1950s while manufacturing
a Canadian controlled environment agriculture (CEA)
moved outside the city, jobs left the neighborhood,
systems manufacturer.
incomes shrank and the housing stock, already old, fell
into disrepair. The seeding room, where plants are started before
being transferred to the ponds, is adjacent to the large
Today the neighborhood experiences around 31 percent
greenhouse. This is also where GCG experiments with
unemployment. More than half of all people live below
new varieties of greens and tests alternative hydroponic
the federal poverty line, with more than 70 percent of
and aeroponic growing methods to improve its own
children under 18 living in poverty.259 The story is the same
production strategies.
in the other neighborhoods bordering University Circle:
the average household income in this area is $18,500.260 The GCG facility has a separate packing line in which staff
cull, package, and box lettuce for wholesale and retail
About 87 percent of Central residents are African
sales. A large walk-in cooler holds the day’s yield, which is
American; ten percent are white, and two percent identify
usually picked up by distributors or delivered in less than
as Latino. The Cleveland Foundation acknowledges that
24 hours.
racial tensions in the neighborhood have existed for
decades, fueled by unrest over poor living conditions Evergreen’s CEO John McMicken and several other
and contentious relationships with law enforcement.261 ECC staff have their offices at GCG. There are also staff
Evergreen Cooperatives chose to focus on the breakrooms and lockers, and a large conference room
neighborhood to end the cycle of joblessness and poverty, where member-employees gather for meetings.
and help restore community vitality and engagement.
Production Practices
Farm Description GCG grows a variety of lettuces and tender herbs,
Green City Growers (GCG) sits on ten acres of land including butterhead, green leaf, red oak leaf, basil,
purchased from the City of Cleveland at fair market value, and Cleveland Crisp, their trademark brand. Cleveland
over $350,000, by the Evergreen Real Estate Corporation, Crisp was developed by a Dutch company specializing in
a for-profit entity also under the ECC umbrella. The hydroponic greens, and is marketed as an iceberg-romaine
total facility is 5.35 acres, including the 3.25-acre glass cross excellent for salads and sandwiches.262
greenhouse.
Greens are seeded in the seeding room, then once they
The greenhouse takes advantage of natural sunlight, have developed a true leaf is transplanted to a growing raft
supplementing with 1,200 thousand-watt light fixtures on that can hold 36 plants. They are floated in the nutrient-
cloudy days for consistent production. Its ceilings dense water until they grow large enough to transplant

258  Glanville, J. (2013). Cleveland’s Greater University Circle Initiative: Building a 21st century city through the power of anchor institution
collaboration. The Cleveland Foundation.
259  American Community Survey 2014
260  Glanville (2013).
261  Ibid.
262  Chilcote, L. (2015, August 24). Green City Growers doubles sales in the past year. Crain’s Cleveland Business. Retrieved from http://www.
crainscleveland.com/article/20150824/BLOGS16/150829915/green-city-growers-doubles-sales-in-the-past-year

192
into a second raft of the same size, but with 12 spaces for Business Structure
plants, increasing their growing acre. Rafts are labeled
All Evergreen cooperatives have parallel business
in date-coded lots, so member-staff know the age of the
structures, and though they operate independently from
plants and how close they are to harvest.
one another they do share oversight from Evergreen. Each
Time elapsed from seeding to harvest is about 40 days, cooperative’s finances, business development, and human
though McMicken says that depending on changes made resources are managed by Evergreen Business Services, a
to production to meet future demand, the life cycle separate LLC operating within ECC.
might be shortened. Each head of lettuce consumes
The reason for the strong ECC presence in GCG was a
approximately one gallon of water during its growing
lesson learned from ECC’s first two cooperatives. Originally
cycle. Rafts are harvested at one end of the ponds near
cooperatives ran their businesses independently, but faced
the entrance to the packing line. Some lettuce is harvested
difficulty when member-employees, many of whom lacked
with roots intact (aka “living lettuce”) and others without
financial skills or management experience, were asked to
roots, depending on customer specifications. Heads weigh
make decisions beyond their capacity. Eventually, when
between seven and nine ounces.
the cooperatives are mature and member-employees have
Lettuce is sold in a 16-count box for wholesale, or in 12 gained more skills and experience, business operations will
individually-packed clamshells per case for retail sale. In be brought back in-house.263
May 2016, GCG produced 5,000 cases per week, which
Cooperative membership is similarly staged to meet the
represents about 86 percent production capacity using
needs of Evergreen’s target population: residents of the
current production methods.
GUC who are low-income, formerly incarcerated, refugees,
GCG releases about 9,000 ladybugs each week to new Americans, and/or other low-resource groups.
keep aphids and other common lettuce pests in check. Rather than a traditional buy-in model, in which members
Ventilation has also proven an issue, as the initial contribute money to become co-op members, cooperative
ventilation system did not move enough air to keep leaf member-employees build toward their own membership
tip burn and disease pressures at bay. In the spring and through work. If a person works for the co-op for one
summer of 2016, it installed downdraft fans to increase year, they can be voted into the co-op by other member-
ventilation to reduce these issues. employees and receive a raise of one dollar per hour. Of
that one dollar, $0.50 pays for the member’s share via
payroll deduction, until the member pays the share price
of $3,000.

Membership empowers member-employees to be part of

group decision-making with other members and Evergreen
staff, and gives access to a patronage equity account. The
Evergreen goal is to have each equity account be worth
$65,000 in less than ten years, funded by company profits.

Though GCG had 17 member-employees as of September

2016, GCG had yet to become profitable. McMicken
estimates GCG’s greenhouses must operate at 90 percent
capacity to break even or start seeing a profit. As of
September 2016, it was operating at about 86 percent
capacity to match production to sales and market demand.

“[Our breakeven point is] a moving target because we

Green City Growers upholds high quality standards. haven’t needed to push [our production] yet,” says
These heads of lettuce have been deemed not appropriate McMicken, who notes that tighter environmental controls
for sale. over carbon dioxide, light, and heat could raise the
facility’s productivity.

263  For an excellent summary, see Anderson, J. (2015). Impact to Last: Lessons from the Front Lines of Social Enterprise: Evergreen Cooperatives.
REDF.org.

193
Despite that GCG is a controlled environment, its
productivity slows in overcast conditions and in winter’s
deep chill. Heating and lights stave off sluggish growth, but
the high cost of electricity keeps GCG far from profitable
in cloudy or winter months. McMicken believes that
lower electricity costs through negotiation with its utility
company and retrofitting with LED lights for additional
energy savings could improve profitability year-round.

Marketing and Sales

Another reason that GCG is hovering below profitability,
says McMicken, is that its prices are lower than they
should be for a high-end product like pesticide-free,
just-picked living lettuce. Grocery stores retail a clamshell-
packed head of living lettuce for about $2.99, though
during the early summer when Ohio and Michigan farmers Green kale microgreens at Green City Growers.
harvest field lettuce the GCG retail price dropped to two
clamshells for three dollars. Sales typically dip during field
Though California-grown lettuce is always a competitor,
lettuce season.
McMicken believes GCG has differentiated its lettuce as a
McMicken says about 35 percent of the retail cost of higher-quality local product. While other large hydroponic
a head of lettuce is packaging, but is an expense the growers do exist within the regional market, he says
cooperative cannot do without, to preserve the quality customers are beginning to value GCG as the local choice.
of the crop. Marc’s Stores, a local grocery chain, was the
The local choice is still difficult for many GUC institutions
first big retailer to start carrying GCG’s Cleveland Crisp and
to make. University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic
butterhead lettuces, and now carries it in 60 of its stores.
offer GCG lettuce in their executive dining rooms and
While most GCG produce is marketed under its own brand, cafeterias, but Roz Ciulla, ECC’s Director of Finance, says it
the cooperative does have private labeling contracts with is still too expensive to put on patients’ plates. Institutional
some area produce brokers. Thirty percent of its total food service, particularly those operated by food service
production in 2016 was private labeled for brokers selling management companies like Bon Appetit or Sodexo,
into grocery stores. typically have multi-year contracts locking in their supply
and low prices, a reality for which ECC had not prepared.
GCG relies on regional and broadline distributors to access
both retail and wholesale markets. It owns a small cargo Furthermore, GCG does not offer the chopped, bagged
van to deliver locally and to its stand at the Westside lettuce upon which many institutional kitchens rely. It
Market (see inset), but distributors run all other logistics. is hard to know whether adding convenience through
chopping and bagging would convince institutions to
“It makes it tough for sales,” says McMicken, who works buy, however, as light processing further adds to the
with GCG’s one full-time sales person on sales and wholesale price.
marketing. “Opportunities come up to sell to places like
Buffalo [NY], but we couldn’t get [the product] there.” Despite this, some GCG produce does get to those most
in need. As part of its launch, GCG signed an agreement
Despite its logistical issues, GCG’s distribution partnerships with the Cleveland Food Bank to donate a minimum of one
have moved its product and sphere of influence far beyond percent of its production in perpetuity. It donated far more
Cleveland. Retailers in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis than that as its production and marketing stabilized: ten
receive weekly deliveries of its lettuce and herbs. While percent in its first year, five to six percent in its second. In
GCG’s goal is to serve more customers in a tighter radius 2016, donations were approaching the one to two percent
to Cleveland, it spreads its market-reach as far as possible range. GCG also donates to many smaller organizations like
to make sales, manage risk and get the business off churches and soup kitchens, so long as recipients can pick
the ground. up the product at the GCG warehouse.

194
Employees
GCG had 36 full-time employees in summer of 2016 and
plans to have 50, when it has reached its full production
capacity. Seventeen have become member-employees,
and two more were preparing to join them on the GCG
board of directors later in 2016.

Employees start at ten dollars per hour. On-the-job training

is provided to new employees, and employees specialize
in seeding and transplanting, harvesting and packaging,
sanitation and food safety, or facilities maintenance.

After one year, employees are eligible for a minimum one

dollar raise and can be considered for member-employee
status. Current member-employees vote whether to invite
candidates to become member-employees based on their
commitment, reliability, and teamwork. If a candidate is Lettuce heads leave the Green City Growers packing room
voted in, they can buy equity in the business and share in boxes ready for shipment.
its future profits. It is at that point that $0.50 per hour is
deducted pre-tax toward the purchase of an equity share Both programs are available only after an employee
priced at $3,000. has been voted in as a member-employee. Member-
employees interested in the program must participate in
Member-employees can continue to earn raises, with a financial training and meet certain qualifications before
goal of attaining a living wage of $12/hour as quickly as they can be part of the program. Loan payments for both
possible. Meanwhile, they are building equity and will programs are payroll deductible.
share future profits, helping to build their long-term
wealth. Member-employees also receive free health care
coverage, disability coverage, and no-cost life insurance. Support
Just as its sister companies had, GCG received
Other Activities/Services overwhelming political, media, and financial support as it
was developed and launched. At its launch party in 2013,
ECC offers additional programs to build member-employee Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson declared GCG “a model of
wealth and eliminate barriers to full-time employment. how Cleveland can become truly sustainable.”264
Transportation is one such barrier, as car ownership is low
among neighborhood residents. Through a pilot with the U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown helped secure a U.S. Dept.
Cleveland Foundation, ECC began offering low-interest car of Housing and Urban Development Section 108 Loan
loans to member-employees who qualify, helping them get (HUD 108 loan) for ten million dollars. U.S. Rep. Marcia
to work and purchase a vehicle. Fudge was on hand to express their support. Fudge,
who advocated for New Market Tax Credits to fund GCG,
The Evergreen Housing Program similarly helps heralded it as “an outstanding example of the promise and
member-employees purchase low-cost homes in GUC potential for urban agriculture.”265
neighborhoods in need of revitalization. Working with
the Cleveland Housing Network, the program helps PNC Bank and the National Development Council
member-employees purchase a home in five years with purchased the New Market Tax Credits, the money
low mortgage payments and property tax abatements. from which was made available to build GCG through
Eliminating housing instability and helping locate member- the Evergreen Real Estate Corporation. The Cleveland
employees close to work helps with retention and Foundation and the City of Cleveland also contributed
employee success, says McMicken. funds, including a $450,000 loan from the city.

264  Nation’s largest urban food production greenhouse officially opens in Cleveland. (2013, February 25). The Cleveland Foundation. Retrieved
from https://www.clevelandfoundation.org/news_items/12501/
265  Ibid.

195
Much of the support was based on the vision developed “Most of Green City Growers’ debt is real debt,” says
by ECC’s original leadership and the work of the Ciulla. Though she suspects GCG could not have launched
Democracy Collaborative, policy and research organization without New Market Tax Credits, she would have preferred
which investigates community wealth building and to see ECC sell equity rather than saddle the young
social entrepreneurship policy. Democracy Collaborative cooperative with so much debt.
principals introduced the Mondragon model as a
possibility for Cleveland, a concept that resonated with Ciulla also says a lack of working capital for its first several
anchor institutions and investors. years kept GCG from being agile enough to adapt to
market realities. “You can’t think, ‘if you build it, they will
Evergreen Cooperatives have enjoyed overwhelmingly come,’” she says, noting that anchor institutions are still
abundant and positive coverage of their efforts to turn slow to purchase GCG greens. Though GCG’s customers
around ailing neighborhoods and give low-resource pay quickly and it carries almost no inventory from day to
people the opportunity to become business owners. But, day, it still lacked sufficient working capital to get over its
ECC leadership has become wary of continued publicity, early sales hump.
particularly as GCG and its sister businesses have struggled
to deliver on some of their early promises. “Retailers and restaurants have [procurement]
relationships in place already. You have to break through
the relationships. That takes time,” she says.
Assets and Challenges
Scaling operations is the key to GCG’s success, says Some of the core aspects upon which GCG was built
McMicken, who was brought on as ECC’s CEO shortly after continue to be assets. Water, states McMicken, is the
GCG launched to correct mistakes and miscalculations in company’s biggest operational asset. Using rainwater
its design, business model, and operation. ECC leadership and snowmelt runoff from its roof, he says, is a positive
readily admit that a lack of industry experience led them environmental impact that keeps costs low. And because
to assume that anchor institutions would purchase their hydroponically-grown lettuce uses less water per head
product immediately, and have steadily built their sales than field-grown lettuce, he says, it is a more efficient and
force and connections to anchor institutions. predictable production method.

After three years at the helm of ECC, McMicken sees However, it is its commitment to its member-employees—
profitability within reach. The key, he says, is scale. Ninety and their commitment in return—that sets GCG apart
percent capacity is still the projected magic number to from other hydroponic operations. “Without overlaying
start to see profits, though McMicken acknowledges that Evergreen’s member-employee model and the associated
the greenhouse’s high-energy costs and slim margins are
not ideal for fast wealth-creation.

Still, he sees opportunities to increase profits by

decreasing other costs. ECC’s board and anchor partners
are working with it to negotiate lower electricity rates with
the city-run utility company. They are also looking into
renewable energy options, though their attempt to build
a wind turbine on-site stalled because their proximity to
GUC hospitals was a danger to emergency helicopters.

ECC is also hoping to retrofit the greenhouse with LED

lighting to increase efficiency. When the greenhouse was
constructed in 2012, says Ciulla, LED technology was not
sophisticated or affordable enough to install. Four years
later, she expects the retrofit will cut GCG’s electricity costs
in half. It is looking at alternatives to loans to raise the one
million dollars the retrofit would cost. Green City Growers’ incubation room is also an area to
experiment with microgreens.

196
social mission, we would just be a small lettuce farm!” he
says. Ciulla agrees, saying that GCG’s dedicated staff who
believe in its promise of wealth creation and business
ownership are one of its strongest assets. Ohio City Farm &
Promise of Urban Agriculture
West Side Market
Green City Growers promised living-wage jobs, profit- Across Cleveland on the west bank of the
sharing, individual and community wealth-building, Cuyahoga River, the formerly low-resource
neighborhood revitalization, local economic development, Ohio City neighborhood has become the city’s
and a local supply of high-quality, nutritious, fresh produce premier food destination. Since 2010, Ohio City
year-round. After its first three unprofitable years, Inc., a community development corporation, has
Evergreen leadership is optimistic about its future, but spearheaded initiatives to decrease vacancy on its
leery of building similar businesses without serious market retail strip, add affordable housing, and increase
investigation and guaranteed sales. alternative transportation and accessibility for
“You have to have a purchase contract [from a customer] neighborhood residents.
in hand before you start,” says Ciulla, who saw GCG One place it saw room for improvement was
struggle to secure purchasing agreements. a vacant 6-acre lot owned by the Cuyahoga
But, customers, particularly distributors serving retailers Metropolitan Housing Authority. Near the
and restaurants, have caught on, and sales are growing. riverbank and too unstable to build on, Ohio City
“We have now proven that the market will pay more for Inc. approached the housing authority with the
product grown within a model like ours,” says McMicken. idea of installing a farm featuring one-acre plots
to be farmed by qualified growers. Today, Ohio
McMicken has confidence in GCG’s hydroponics, City Inc. pays CMHA one dollar per year for its five
anticipating that volatile weather and drought will year lease, and leases land to a nonprofit refugee
threaten traditional agriculture in the western U.S. from education and training program, a work-program
where most field lettuce originates “For consumers east for adults with developmental disabilities, and the
of the Mississippi River, we will need to farm more food CMHA Green Team made up of residents from a
closer to where it is consumed,” he says. senior housing complex adjacent to the farm.
Though a grim forecast for the climate, McMicken’s Ohio City Farm’s farmers sell their produce at
predicts Green City Growers’ path to profit and promise- a farm stand on Saturdays, taking advantage of
fulfillment is based on its increasing competitiveness in the draw from the West Side Market just half a
the fresh greens market. It is a lot to deliver, but Green block away. Over 10,000 people visit Ohio City
City Growers’ stakeholders and member-employees are every Saturday to shop at the city-owned market
counting on it. with permanent stalls in the main building and
local produce vendors in a separate building,
including Green City Growers. Ohio City Inc. has
been instrumental in pushing for changes and
renovations to the market, which has become the
centerpiece of its redevelopment strategy.

Tom McNair, Ohio City Inc.’s Executive Director,

says Ohio City Farm is also crucial to the area’s
redevelopment. Rather than gentrification, the
urban farm draws together long-term residents,
new residents, new Americans, and visitors to the
entire neighborhood’s benefit.

197
Bibliography
Abbot, C. & Howe, D. (1993). The politics of land use law in Oregon: Senate Bill 100, twenty years after. Oregon Historical
Quarterly, 94(1), 4–35.

About the Office of Sustainability. (n.d.). City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office. Retrieved from http://www.atlantaga.gov/index.
aspx?page=153

Abt Associates. (2015, May 21). The effects of neighborhood change on New York City Housing Authority Residents.
Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/ceo/downloads/pdf/nns_15.pdf

Ackerman, K. (2012). The Potential for Urban Agriculture in New York City. Urban Design Lab at the Earth Institute,
Columbia University. Retrieved from http://urbandesignlab.columbia.edu/files/2015/04/4_urban_agriculture_nyc.pdf

ACS 2014 for zip codes 19134 and 19124.

ACS 2014.

ACS 5-year 2014; Ibid.

Adam, K. (2006) “Community Supported Agriculture.” ATTRA. www.attra.ncat.org.

Ag Decision Maker. (2012, November). Selected alternative agricultural financial benchmarks. Iowa State University
Extension and Outreach. Retrieved from https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c3-65.html

Albright, L.D. (2015, April 7). Urban Plant Factories: High in the Sky or Pie in the Sky? [Presentation].

American Community Survey 2014

American Community Survey, 2014 for zip codes 14206, 14211, and 14212.

Anderson, B. (2016, June 28). Food adds flavor (and value) to real estate: ‘Agrihoods’ and other food-based concepts.
Urban Land. http://urbanland.uli.org/sustainability/food-adds-flavor-value-real-estate-agrihoods-food-halls-food-based-
concepts/

Anderson, J. (2015). Impact to last: Lessons from the front lines of social enterprise: Evergreen Cooperatives. REDF.org.

Aquaponics. (n.d.). USDA National Agricultural Library. Retrieved from https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/aquaponics

Bagnoli, L. & C. Megali. (2011). Measuring Performance in Social Enterprises. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,
40(1), pp. 149-165. DOI: 10.1177/0899764009351111

Baltimore Farm and Food Map Project. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Retrieved from http://
mdfoodsystemmap.org/farm-food-storymap/
Banaeian, N., Omid, M., & Ahmadi, H. (2011). Energy and economic analysis of greenhouse strawberry production in Tehran province
of Iran. Energy Conversion and Management, 52, 1020–1025. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2010.08.030

Barbosa, G.L et al. (2015). Comparison of land, water, and energy requirements of lettuce grown using hydroponic vs.
conventional agricultural methods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(5): 6879-6891.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph120606879

Barth, B. (2014). Agriculture as an emergent land use: Case studies of municipal responsiveness. Zoning Practice,
American Planning Association, 8.

Belkin, D. & Pierog, K. (2016, June 30). Illinois lawmakers pass bills to unblock state’s budget impasse. Reuters. Retrieved
from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-budget-idUSKCN0ZG16N.

198
Block, D.R., Chavez, N., Allen, E., &Ramirez, D. (2012). Food sovereignty, urban food access, and food activism:
Contemplating the connections through examples from Chicago. Agriculture and Human Values, 29(2), 203–215.

Bolund, P. & Hunhammar, S. (1999). Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecological Economics, 29, 293-301.

Bomkamp, S. (2016, January 7). Whole Foods gets personal in effort to impress Englewood. The Chicago Tribune.
Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-whole-foods-englewood-0107-biz-20160106-story.html

Boston Redevelopment Authority. (2014). Article 89 Made Easy: Urban Agriculture Zoning for The City of Boston.

Bradley, K. (2014, January 20). Aquapoincs: a brief history. Retrieved from https://www.milkwood.net/2014/01/20/
aquaponics-a-brief-history/

Brin, H., Murayama, D., Landau, J., & Kalva, P. (2016). The State of Vertical Farming [white paper]. The Association for
Vertical Farming.

Brown, K.H. & Jameton, A.L. (2000). Health Implications of Urban Agriculture. Journal of Public Health Policy, 21(1), 20-
39.

Buckley, J. & Peterson, H.C. (2011). Preliminary Cost-Benefit Analysis for Urban Agriculture. Community Food and
Regional Food Systems Project.

Buczynski, B. (2014, May 14). Agrihoods taking farm-to-table living mainstream. Retrieved from http://www.shareable.
net/blog/12-agrihoods-taking-farm-to-table-living-mainstream

Buffalo District Map. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.buffaloah.com/a/bamsec/buffalodist.jpg

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2014, December). Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Retrieved from https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUMT361538000000003?amp%253bdata_tool=XGtable&output_
view=data&include_graphs=true

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016, March). Philadelphia City/County, PA. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.
pa_philadelphia_co.htm.

Campbell, B., Khachatryan, H., Behe, B., Dennis, J., & Hall, C.(2014). U.S. and Canadian Consumer Perception of Local
and Organic Terminology. International Food and Agriculture Management Review, 17(2). Retrieved from http://
ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/167903

Castillo, S., Winkle, C., Krauss, S., Turkewitz, A., Silva, C., & Heinemann, E. (2013). Regulatory and other barriers to urban
and peri-urban agriculture: A case study of urban planners and urban farmers from the greater Chicago metropolitan
area. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.
org/10.5304/jafscd.2013.033.001

Chicago Policy Research Team. (2010, May). Deserted? A policy report on food access in four South Side Chicago
neighborhoods. University of Chicago.

Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project. Retrieved from http://cuamp.org/#/

Chilcote, L. (2015, August 24). Green City Growers doubles sales in the past year. Crain’s Cleveland Business. Retrieved
from http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20150824/BLOGS16/150829915/green-city-growers-doubles-sales-in-the-
past-year

Christensen, N. (2015, March 26). Portland region grows to 2.35 million residents, Census estimates, with newcomers
leading the way. Metro News. Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/portland-region-grows-235-million-
residents-census-estimates-newcomers-leading-way

Christian, S. (2010). A Growing Concern. Earth Island Journal. Accessed August 7, 2016 at http://www.earthisland.org/
journal/index.php/eij/article/a_growing_concern/

199
Chumbler, M. H. (2015). The Tax Implications of Urban Agriculture: Liabilities and Incentives. In M. Chumbler, S. Negro,
and L. Bechler (Eds.), Urban Agriculture: Policy, Law, Strategy, and Implementation. American Bar Association, 177-183

Cimarusti, D. (2015). Policy Brief: should Louisiana and the Recovery School District receive accolades for being last and
nearly last? The Network for Public Education. Retrieved from http://networkforpubliceducation.org/2015/08/policy_
brief_louisiana/#_edn1

City of Austin. (2009, December 11). Demographic and Housing Trends. In Community Inventory Report. Retrieved from
ftp://ftp.ci.austin.tx.us/GIS-Data/planning/compplan/community_inventory_Demographcs_v1.pdf

City of Austin. (2013, November 21). Ordinance no. 20131121-105. Retrieved from http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/
document.cfm?id=205937

City of Lawrence. (2013, November). Local Economic Profile. Retrieved from http://lawrenceks.org/assets/ecodev/Final--
Economic_Profile_Report.pdf

City of Portland Resolution No. 36074. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/article/481225

City of Portland. Office of Neighborhood Involvement. (2010). Census Data for Portland Neighborhoods. Retrieved from
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oni/56897

Clarksville, TX. (n.d.). Texas State Historical Association website. Retrieved from https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/
online/articles/hpc01

Clendenning, Dressler, & Richards, 2016.

Clendenning, J., Dressler, W.H., and Richards, C. (2016). Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of
urban food movements in the United States. Agriculture and Human Values, 33(1), 165-177.

Cobb, T.D. (2011). Reclaiming Our Food. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing.

Cohen, A. (2011). Pioneer of urban farm and school learns lessons of his own, hopes struggles lead to success. The Lens,
August 11, 2011. Accessed August 7, 2016 at http://thelensnola.org/2011/08/18/pioneer-of-urban-farm-and-school-
learns-lessons-of-his-own-hopes-struggles-lead-to-success/

Cohen, A. 2011.

Cohen, N. and Reynolds, K. (2015). Resource needs for a socially just and sustainable urban agriculture system: Lessons
from New York City. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(1), 103-114.

Community of Gardens. (n.d.). Pingree’s Potato Patches. Accessed August 1, 2016 from https://communityofgardens.
si.edu/items/show/29.

COO Wyandotte County, KS ordinance change keeps farmers markets flourishing. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://
growingfoodconnections.org/news-item/coo-wyandotte-county-ks-ordinance-change-keeps-farmers-markets-
flourishing/

Corktown Historic District (n.d.) Detroit1701.org. http://detroit1701.org/Corktown.htm

Corktown Historic District. (n.d.). Detroit Historical Society. Retrieved from http://detroithistorical.org/learn/
encyclopedia-of-detroit/corktown-historic-district

Crauderueff, R., Dalski, E., & Margolis, S. (2012). The New York City Green Roof Tax Abatement: Policy lessons. Retrieved
from http://swimmablenyc.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SWIM-Green-Roof-Assessment_paper.pdf

Crime reports in Englewood. (n.d.). Crime in Chicagoland website. Accessed December 6, 2016 at http://crime.
chicagotribune.com/chicago/community/englewood

Cully Main Street: A plan for community-serving improvements. (2009). PSU Planning Workshop Project. Retrieved from
https://www.pdx.edu/sites/www.pdx.edu.usp/files/CullyMainStreet_FinalReport.pdf.

200
Cully-Concordia Community Assessment. (2008, September). City of Portland Bureau of Planning. Retrieved from https://
www.portlandoregon.gov/citycode/?c=35201&a=272094.

Daniel, P. (2013). Dispossession: Discrimination Against African American Farmers in the Age of Civil Rights. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press.

Detroit Code of Ordinances, §6.1.3

Detroit Land Bank Authority. (n.d.) Side lot sales. Retrieved from http://www.buildingdetroit.org/our-programs/side-lot-
sales/

Dimitri, C., Oberholtzer, L., & Pressman, A. (2016). Urban agriculture: connecting producers with consumers. British Food
Journal, 118(3), 603-617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2015-0200

Dobernig, K. & Stagl, S. (2015). Growing a lifestyle movement? Exploring the identity-work and lifestyle politics in urban
food cultivation. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 39, 452-458.

Double Value Coupon Program. (n.d.). Wholesome Wave Georgia. Retrieved from http://www.wholesomewavegeorgia.
org/double/

Draft Zoning Code. (2015, January). DeKalb County. Retrieved from http://planningdekalb.net/wp-content/
uploads/2015/01/finalDraftZoningCodeJan20151.pdf

Drummer, D. (2014). Green Healthy Neighborhoods Plan Adopted by Chicago Plan Commission. Teamwork Englewood.
Retrieved from http://www.teamworkenglewood.org/news/7457

Duell, R. (2013). Is ‘local food’ sustainable? Localism, social justice, equity and sustainable food future. New Zealand
Sociology, suppl. Special Issue Antipodean Agrifood Futures, 28(4), 136

East Side Maps. (n.d.). University at Buffalo Map Collection online. Retrieved from http://library.buffalo.edu/maps/
buffalo-wnymaps/location/buffalo-neighborhoods/es.html

Eichenlaub, S.C., Tolnay, S.E., & Alexander, J.T. (2010) “Moving out but not up: Economic outcomes in the Great
Migration.” American Sociological Review, 75(1) 101-125. DOI: 10.1177.0003122409357047

Ekers, M., Levkoe, C., Walker, S., & Dale, B. (2016). Will work for food: agricultural interns, apprentices, volunteers, and
the agrarian question. Agriculture and Human Values, 33, 705–720. doi:10.1007/s10460-015-9660-5

Elkington, J. (2004), Enter the triple bottom line. In Henriques, A. and Richardson, J. (Eds), The Triple Bottom Line: Does It
All Add up? Earthscan, London, pp. 1‐16. http://www.johnelkington.com/archive/TBL-elkington-chapter.pdf

Eng, Monica. (2011, January 3). The city that grows. The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.
com/2011-01-03/news/ct-met-urban-agriculture--20101228_1_city-farm-urban-farming-urban-agriculture/2

Englewood neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois (IL) 60621 detailed profile. (n.d.). City-Data.com Retrieved from http://www.
city-data.com/neighborhood/Englewood-Chicago-IL.html

Englewood. (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Chicago website. Retrieved from http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/426.

html

Esmonde, D. (2016, May 28). Muslims moving against East Side blight. The Buffalo News. Retrieved from http://www.
buffalonews.com/columns/muslims-moving-against-east-side-blight-20160528

Excerpts from Broadway-Fillmore, Buffalo, NY Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey (n.d.). Buffalo Architecture and
History website. Retrieved from http://www.buffaloah.com/h/pol/hist/#History

Executive Directive No. 09-03. (2009, July 9). Healthy Sustainable Food for San Francisco.

Fair Labor Standards Act of 2011, 29 U.S.C. § 203(f)

201
Family Farmed. (2016, February 1). Food to Market Challenge offers $500,000 for best idea to grow Chicago’s good food
supply chain. Good Food on Every Table. Retrieved from http://goodfoodoneverytable.org/2016/02/01/food-to-market-
challenge-offers-500000-for-best-idea-to-grow-chicagos-good-food-supply/

Farrell, H. (2011). Illuminating Urban Agriculture: a new framework for understanding complexity. Landscape Architecture
& Reigonal Planning Masters Projects, 29. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.umass.edu/larp_ms_projects/29

Ferris, J., Norman, C., & Sempick, J. (2001). People, land and sustainability: Community gardens and the social dimension
of sustainable development. Social Policy & Administration, 25(5), 558-568.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2007). Profitability and sustainability of urban and peri-urban
agriculture. Agricultural Management, Marketing and Finance Occasional Paper. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/a-
a1471e.pdf

Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990. 7 U.S.C. §3103 (19).

Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, 7 U.S.C. §8791 note

Frenay, E. (2011). “Farm profit: making a life and a living from your farm.” Small Farm Quarterly. Retrived from http://
smallfarms.cornell.edu/2011/07/04/farm-profit-making-a-life-and-a-living-from-your-farm/

Funders Network. (2011). Investing in Healthy, Sustainable Places through Urban Agriculture. Translation paper 5(2).

Gabor, A. (2015, August 22). The myth of the New Orleans school makeover. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://
www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-the-new-orleans-school-makeover.html

Geering, D. (2010, October 29). One farmer’s switcheroo sparks opportunities for others. Atlanta Magazine. Retrieved
from http://www.atlantamagazine.com/dining-news/one-farmers-switcheroo-sparks-opportunities-f1/

Geolytics (2000). Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) Tract Data from 1970-2000.

Glanville, J. (2013). Cleveland’s Greater University Circle Initiative: Building a 21st century city through the power of
anchor institution collaboration. The Cleveland Foundation.

Glovas, K. (2014, November 17). “Philadelphia’s poverty rate declined in 2013, but not by much.” CBS Philly. Retrieved
from http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/11/17/philadelphias-poverty-rate-declined-in-2013-but-not-by-much/

Golden, S. (2013, November 12). Urban Agriculture Impacts: Social, Health, and Economic: An Annotated Bibliography.
Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis.

Goldschein, E. (2011, November 10). Gentrification can’t come fast enough for the new residents of Queens. Business
Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/gentrification-cant-come-fast-enough-for-the-new-residents-of-
queens-2011-11

Goldstein, M., Bellis, J., Morse, S., Myers, A., & Ura, E. (2011). Urban agriculture: A sixteen city survey of urban
agriculture practices across the country. Turner Environmental Law Clinic, Emory University.

Gottlieb, R. & Joshi, A. (2010). Food justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Gray, M. (2013). Labor and the locavore: The making of a comprehensive food ethic. Berkeley: University of California
Press.

Green Healthy Neighborhoods (n.d.). City of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/

depts/zlup/Sustainable_Development/Publications/Green%20Healthy%20Neighborhoods/GreenHealthyNeighborhoods_
PC_Low_Res_pt_2.pdf

Green Roof Tax Abatement. (n.d.). New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/
html/gbee/html/incentives/roof.shtml

Growing Home Annual Report 2012-2013. Retrieved from http://growinghomeinc.org/docs/GrowingHome12-

13AnnualReport.pdf
202
Guitart, D., Pickering, C., and Byrne, J. (2012). Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11(4), 364-373. doi:10.1016/j.ufug.2012.06.007.

Guthman, J. (2008). “If they only knew”: Color blindness and universalism in California alternative food institutions. The
Professional Geographer, 60(3), 387-397.

Guthman, J. (2008). Bringing good food to others: Investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural
Geographies, 15, 431–447.

Guzmán, M. (2016, March 30). Black farmers in Detroit are growing their own food. But they’r ehaving trouble owning
the land. PRI. Retrieved from http://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-30/black-farmers-detroit-are-growing-their-own-food-
theyre-having-trouble-owning

Hamilton, N. (2002). Putting a Face on Our Food: How State and Local Food Policies can Promote New Agriculture. Drake
Journal of Agricultural Law, 7(2), 407-454.

Hammill, L. (2015, October 14). 14 percent annualized rent growth in Portland ‘landlord’s market,’ report finds. The
Oregonian. Retrieved from http://www.oregonlive.com/front-porch/index.ssf/2015/10/14_percent_annualized_rent_
gro.html

Handcock, M.S. & Gile, K.J. (2011). Comment: on the concept of snowball sampling. Sociological Methodology, 41(1),
367-371. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9531.2011.01243.x

Harbick, K. and Albright, L.D. (n.d.) Comparison of energy consumption: greenhouses and plant factories. Acta
Horticulturae. In Press.

Hatfield, M.M. and Cohen, S. (2016). A Case Study: Urban agriculture in Portland, Oregon 2002-2012. In S. Brown, K.
McIvor, and E.H. Snyder (Eds.), Sowing Seeds in the City (pp. 373-388).

Helmsing, A.H.J. (2015) Conditions for social entrepreneurship. International Journal of Social Quality, 5(1), 51-66. doi:
10.3167/IJSQ.2015.050104

Hendrickson, J. (2005, October). Grower to grower: Creating a livelihood on a fresh market vegetable farm. University of
Wisconsin. Retrieved from http://www.cias.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/grwr2grwr.pdf

Hendrickson, M. & Porth, M. (2012). Urban Agriculture: Best practices and possibilities. University of Missouri Extension,
Division of Applied Social Sciences.

Herman, V. (2016, May 21). Silver Lake Farms owner says goodbye. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.
latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-silver-lake-farms-20160521-snap-story.html

Heumann, L. (2013). Urban agriculture for food security: Good but not enough. The Urban Fringe [Blog]. Retrieved from
http://ced.berkeley.edu/bpj/2013/03/urban-agriculture- for-food-security-good-but-not-enough/

Hill, S. (2016, June 3). The empty stairs: The lost history of East Austin. In B. Tipton Wilson (Ed.), Intersections: New
Perspectives on Texas Public History, 1. Retrieved from http://gato-docs.its.txstate.edu/jcr:e08c7244-9193-49b1-b4d8-
6cb3e4c4daab/The%20Empty%20Stairs%20The%20Lost%20History%20of%20East%20Austin.pdf

Hill, S. (2016, June 3). The Empty Stairs: The Lost History of East Austin. Urban Renewal Trumps Historic Preservation.
Retrieved from www.gato-docs.its.txstate.edu

History of Austin’s racial divide in maps. (n.d.). The Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved from http://projects.
statesman.com/news/economic-mobility/

Hodgson, K., Caton Campbell, M., & Bailkey, M. (2011). Urban agriculture: Growing healthy, sustainable places. Chicago,
IL: American Planning Association Planning Advisory Service.

Hsu, C. (2010, April 17). Exodus: A quick-and-dirty history of Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore Community. The Buffalo Story
Project website. Retrieved from http://www.buffalostoryproject.com/2010/04/17/exodus/

203
Hughes, C.J. (2015, October 30). Reinventing the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.
nytimes.com/2015/11/01/realestate/reinventing-the-brooklyn-navy-yard.html?_r=0

Jackman, M. (2015, May 13). How Paul Weertz helped stabilize the tiny Detroit neighborhood you almost never hear
about. The Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved from http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/how-paul-weertz-helped-stabilize-
the-tiny-detroit-neighborhood-you-almost-never-heard-about/Content?oid=2343926

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. 2016. Food Policy FAQs: Property Tax Credit for Urban Agriculture Uses.

Johnson, R. (July 10, 2014). “Specialty Crop Provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill (P.L. 113-79).” Congressional Research
Services. Retrieved from http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/assets/crs/R43632.pdf

Jones, I. (2011, February 16). A Food Crisis is Coming, but Urban America Already has it Solved. Colorlines. Retrieved from
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/food-crisis-coming-urban-america-already-has-it-solved

Kanani, R. (2014, March 15). How to measure social impact: New research and insights. Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2014/03/15/how-to-measure-social-impact-new-research-and-
insights/#4dfa0c4274be

Kaufman, J. & Bailkey, M. (2000). Farming Inside Cities: Entrepreneurial Urban Agriculture in the United States [working
paper]. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Knowlton, A. (2014, August 19). The Hot 10 2014: High Street on Market, Philadelphia (No. 2). Bon Appetit. Retrieved
from http://www.bonappetit.com/restaurants-travel/best-new-restaurants/article/high-street-on-market

Korten, D. (2010). Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, 2nd. ed. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-
Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Lagos, M. (2014, December 25). Low-lying neighborhood flooded again, despite S.F.’s promise. SF Gate. Retrieved from
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Low-lying-neighborhood-flooded-again-despite-5979140.php.

Lawson, L.J. (2005). City Bountiful: A century of community gardening in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lepeska, D. (2013). Betting the Farm: Is there an urban agriculture bubble? Forefront, 2(40). Philadelphia: Next City.

Link Up Illinois. (n.d.). Experimental Station website. Retrieved from http://experimentalstation.org/linkup-overview/

Lombardi, P. et al. (2010). Marketing high quality Thai organic products in Europe? An exploratory approach. In R. Haas et
al (Eds.), Looking east, looking west: Organic and quality food marketing in Asia and Europe. Wageningen, Netherlands:
Wageningen Academic Publishers.

Love, D.C. et al. (2015). Commercial aquaponics production and profitability: Findings from an international survey.
Aquaculture, 435, 67-74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2014.09.023

Lower Ninth Ward Statistics. (n.d.) The Data Center. Retrieved from http://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/
neighborhood-data/district-8/Lower-Ninth-Ward/#educational-attainment

Luke, B., Barraket, J., & Eversole, R. (2013). Measurement as legitimacy versus legitimacy of measures: performance
evaluation of social enterprise. Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, 10(3/4), 234-258. doi: 10.1108/
QRAM-08-2012-0034

Lungfish. (2003). Love Is Love. Love Is Love. Dischord Records.

MacDonald, J.M., Korb, P. & Hope, R. (2007, April). Experience Counts: Farm Business Survival in the U.S. Amber Waves.
Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2007-april/experience-counts-farm-business-survival-in-the-us.
aspx#.V_1EHZMrKRs

Mair, J. & Marti, I. (2004, March). Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight
(working paper). University of Navara. Retrieved from http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/di-0546-e.pdf

204
Malakoff, D. (1994). Final Harvest. Community Greening Review, 4-12.

Malone, N. (2013, July 8). Sushi, Muffins, and Hipsters. The New Republic. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/
article/113759/new-york-times-gentrification-guide

Mansfield, B. & Mendes, W. (2013). Municipal food strategies and integrated approaches to urban agriculture: Explore
three dases from the Global North.” International Planning Studies, 18(1), 37-60.

Mares, T. & Alkon. A. (2012). Mapping the food movement: Inequality and neoliberalism in four food discourses.
Environment and Society, 2(1), 68–86.


Meenar, M. & Hoover, B. (2012). Community food security via urban agriculture: Understanding people, place, economy,
and accessibility from a food justice perspective. Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 3(1), 143-160.

Metcalf, S. & Widener, M. (2011). Growing Buffalo’s capacity for local food: A systems framework for sustainable
agriculture. Applied Geography. doi:10/1016j.apgeog.2011.01.008

Metro. (2016). 2015 growth management decision. Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/default/files/

Growth-management-factsheet-20160115.pdf

Michigan Cottage Foods Information. (n.d.) Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. Retrieved from
http://www.michigan.gov/mdard/0,4610,7-125-50772_45851-240577--,00.html.

Miller, M. (2016, February 17). Memorandum City of Lawrence Douglas County Planning & Development Services.
Retrieved from http://worldonline.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/news/documents/2016/03/19/Urban_Ag_changes.
pdf

Mincyte, D. & Dobernig, K. (2016). Urban farming in the North American metropolis: Rethinking work and distance in
alternative food networks. Environment and Planning A, 48(9), 1767-1786. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X16651444

Minnesota Department of Agriculture. (2013). Minnesota Specialty Crops: An analysis of profitability and performance
2009-2012. Retrieved from https://www.mda.state.mn.us/~/media/Files/food/organicgrowing/specialtycrop2009-12.
ashx

Mullaney, A. (2015, February 19). Mission Terrace homes flood—again. Ingleside-Excelsior Light. Retrieved from http://
www.ielightsf.com/2015/02/19/mission-terrace-homes-flood-again/

Multnomah County Resolution No. 02-093. Retrieved from https://multco.us/file/17026/download

Nation’s largest urban food production greenhouse officially opens in Cleveland. (2013, February 25). The Cleveland
Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.clevelandfoundation.org/news_items/12501/

Netter, S. (2016, April 7). How one man single-handedly opened the only grocery store in one of New Orleans’ poorest
wards and inspired Ellen DeGeneres. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
inspired-life/wp/2016/04/07/how-one-man-single-handedly-opened-the-only-grocery-store-in-one-of-new-orleans-
poorest-wards-and-inspired-ellen-degeneres/

New Markets Tax Credit Program. (n.d.). CDFI Fund. Retrieved from https://www.cdfifund.gov/programs-training/
Programs/new-markets-tax-credit/Pages/default.aspx

New Markets Tax Credit, 26 CFR 1.45D-1(d)(5)(iii)(C).

Oberholtzer, L., Dimitri, C., & Pressman, A. (2014). Urban agriculture in the United States: Characteristics, challenges, and
technical assistance needs. Journal of Extension, 52(6).

Ohio Department of Development. (2008, December 19). Fisher announces more than $83 million in
Neighborhood Stabilization Program awards (news release). Retrieved from https://development.ohio.gov/files/cs/
NSPAwardAnnouncement.pdf

Oregon Senate Bill 100. (1973).

205
Osberg, S.R & Martin, R. (2015, May) Two keys to sustainable social enterprise. Harvard Business Review.

Parisi, N. (2012, May). Wilson Street Farm: The Stevens Family. Buffalo Spree. Retrieved from http://www.buffalospree.
com/Buffalo-Spree/May-2012/WIlson-Street-Farm-The-Stevens-Family/.

Passidomo, C. (2014). Whose right to (farm) the city? Race and food justice activism in post-Katrina New Orleans.
Agriculture and Human Values, 31(3), 385-396.

Peredo, A.M. & McLean, M. (2006). Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept. Journal of World Business,
41(1), 56-65.

Petrilli, M.J. (2012, June 14). The 50 zip codes with the largest growth in white population share, 2000-2010. Thomas B.
Fordham Institute. Retrieved from http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2012/the-50-
zip-codes-with-the-largest-growth-in-white-population-share.html

Pfeiffer, A., Silva, E., & Colquhoun, J. (2014). Innovation in urban agriculture practices: Responding to diverse production
environments. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(1), 79-91.

Postel, S. (2015, January 8). Securing Water for Urban Farms. National Geographic. Accessed May 24, 2016 at http://
voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/08/securing-water-for-urban-farms/.

Prager, D. (2015). Glossary. USDA Economic Research Service website. Updated November 24, 2015. Accessed August 7,
2016 at http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/glossary.aspx

Puente, M. (2007, September 30). Buremese refugees find new home in Indiana. National Public Radio. Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14841071.

Rabin, J., Zinati, G. & Nitzche, P. (2012, September) “Yield expectations for Mixed Stand, Small-Scale Agriculture.
Sustaining Farming on the Urban Fringe, 7(1). https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/urbanfringe/pdfs/urbanfringe-v07n01.pdf

Ramírez, M. (2015). The elusive inclusive: Black food geographies and racialized food spaces. Antipode, 47(3), 763.

Rates & Charges (n.d.) Portland Water Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/water/29415

Real Property Tax Abatement, New York Real Property Tax Law §499-bbb.

Refugee Arrival Data. (2015, November 24). Office of Refugee Resettlement. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/
resource/refugee-arrival-data.

Refugee Populations. (n.d.) Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Retrieved from http://www.kdheks.gov/olrh/
RefugeePop.htm

Reynolds, K. & Cohen, N. (2016). Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City. Athens:
University of Georgia Press.

Rhodes, H. (2011, April 12). Consensus still lacking in Chicago on proposed urban agriculture zoning changes. Mother
Earth News. Retrieved from http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/urban-agriculture-zoning-
chicago-zb0z11zkon.aspx

Rich, S. (2012). Urban Farms. New York: Abrams.

Rogoway, M. (2015, October 18). Portland tech’s gains add to city’s housing strain. The Oregonian. Retrieved from http://
www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2015/10/portland_tech_booms_adding_to.html.

Rogus, S. & Dimitri, C. (2014). Agriculture in urban and peri-urban areas in the United States: Highlights from the Census
of Agriculture. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 30(1), 64-78.

Roman-Alcalá, A. (2013). Urban ag: Taking steps toward political ecology. Retrieved from http://civileats.
com/2013/03/05/urban-ag-taking-steps-toward-political-ecology/#more-16950

206
Roman-Alcalá, A. (2015). Concerning the unbearable whiteness of urban farming. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems,
and Community Development, 5(4), 179–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2015.054.031

Royte, E. (2015, April 27). Urban farming is booming, but what does it really yield? Retrieved from https://ensia.com/
features/urban-agriculture-is-booming-but-what-does-it-really-yield/

Santo, R., Palmer, A., and Kim, B. (2016). Vacant Lots to Vibrant Plots: A review of the benefits and limitations of urban
agriculture. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future.

Saturday Market. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.easternmarket.com/attend/saturday-market

Schmelzkopf, K. (2013). Incommensurability, land use, and the right to space: Community gardens in New York City.
Urban Geography, 23(4), 323-343.

Schneider, S., Civita, N., & Bernadett, L. (2015). Local Food Policies: Reconnecting People to Their Food. In M.H.
Chumbler, S.E. Negro, and L.E. Bechler (Eds.), Urban Agriculture: Policy, Law, Strategy, and Implementation (pp. 49-63).
American Bar Association.

Selby, W.G. (2013, October 30). Austin’s 78702 may have surged in white residents, but it’s not second in the nation in
gentrification. Politifact. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/oct/30/daniel-llanes/austins-
78702-has-gentrified-its-not-no-2-gentrifi/

Semaan, W.E. Jr. (2014). Cultivating Capital: A Look at the Issues Affecting Urban Farms as a Business and How New
Innovative Policy Changes at the Federal and State Level Will Impact the Financial Sustainability of Urban Farms.
University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, 91, 317-344.

Sewer and Drainage Rates and Charges. (2016). City of Portland. Retrieved from https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bes/
article/538411

Sheehan, Jason. (2015, January 16). Travel + Leisure Calls Philadelphia ‘America’s Next Great Food City.’ Philadelphia
Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2015/01/16/travel-leisure-calls-philadelphia-americas-
next-great-food-city/; “Places to Go In 2015.” New York Times, January 11, 2015.

Side Lot Sales. (n.d.). Detroit Land Bank Authority. Retrieved from http://www.buildingdetroit.org/our-programs/side-lot-
sales/

Single Dwelling Zones. (n.d.). City of Portland Zoning Code. Retrieved from http://www.portlandoregon.gov/bps/
article/64609

Sission, P. (2016, October 31). As vertical farming grows, a new real estate opportunity takes root. Retrieved from http://
www.curbed.com/2016/10/31/13476888/real-estate-warehouse-vertical-farming-aerofarms

Sklerov, F. & Saucier, M. (2011, June 9). DEP Awards $3.8 million in grants for community-based green infrastructure
program projects. New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/
dep/html/press_releases/11-46pr.shtml#.V0MS25MrKRt

Soil. (n.d.). Urban Ag Law website. Retrieved from http://www.urbanaglaw.org/soil/#Index_of_Existing_Soil_Safety_

Requirements_by_Location

Specht, K. (2016). Socially acceptable urban agriculture businesses. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 36(17). doi:
10.1007/s13593-016-0355-0.

Specht, K., Siebert, R., Hartmann, I. et al. (2014). “Urban agriculture of the future: an overview of sustainability aspects
of food production in and on buildings.” Agriculture and Human Values, 31(1). doi:10.1007/s10460-013-9448-4

Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004, 7 U.S.C. §1621 note

Staff reporter. (2016, March 15). Englewood Whole Foods sessions for prospective workers begin this week. The Chicago
Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-englewood-whole-foods-jobs-0316-biz-20160315-
story.html
207
Statement at Detroit Food Summit 2016, March 10, 2016.

Substitute Ordinance. (n.d.). City Council of the City of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/
dam/city/depts/zlup/Sustainable_Development/Publications/Urban_Ag_Ordinance_9-1-11.pdf

Sysling, A. (2016, February 2). From Cars to Chickens: urban livestock ordinance considered in Detroit. Seedstock.
Retrieved from http://seedstock.com/2016/02/02/from-cars-to-chickens-urban-livestock-ordinance-considered-in-
detroit/

Tang, E. & Ren, C. (2014). Outlier: The case of Austin’s declining African-American population. The Institute for Urban
Policy Research and Analysis, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/cola/iupra/_files/pdf/
Austin%20AA%20pop%20policy%20brief_FINAL.pdf

Tang, Y., Gómez, M. & Park, K. (2014, November). A Case Study of Price Premiums for Local Foods in Tompkins County,
NY. Smart Marketing.

The Creek that Ran through Sunnyside. (2015, November 13). Sunnyside History blog post. Retrieved from https://
sunnysidehistory.org/2015/11/13/the-creek-that-ran-through-sunnyside/

The Polish immigrant in Detroit to 1914. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://polishroots.org/Research/History/detroit_

immigrants/tabid/230/Default.aspx

There’s a reason for all the hype about Corktown. (2013, February 18). Visit Detroit. Retrieved from http://blog.
visitdetroit.com/entry/there-s-a-reason-for-all-the-hype-about-corktown.html

Thomas, M. (2015, April 24). What happened to America’s black farmers? Grist. Retrieved from http://grist.org/food/
what-happened-to-americas-black-farmers/

Toon, A. (2013, April 12). Communication breakdown. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved from http://www.austinchronicle.
com/food/2013-04-12/communication-breakdown/

Top ten demographic trends in Austin, TX. (2016). City of Austin Planning and Zoning Department. Retrieved from http://
www.austintexas.gov/page/top-ten-demographic-trends-austin-texas

Toppa, S. (2015, October 13). ‘It Will Be Better’: Burmese refugees struggle on road to America. NBC News.
Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/it-will-be-better-burmese-refugees-struggle-road-
america-n440421.

Totorello, M. (2012, October 31). Growing everything but gardeners. The New York Times.

Travaline, K. & Hunold, C. (2010). Urban agriculture and ecological citizenship in Philadelphia. Local Environment, 15(6),
581-590.

Trelstad, B. (2008). Simple Measures of Social Enterprise. Innovations, 105-118.

Tu, C. (2013, February 11). An economic breakdown of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Marketplace. Retrieved from
http://www.marketplace.org/2013/02/11/wealth-poverty/guns-and-dollars/economic-breakdown-chicagos-englewood-
neighborhood

U.S. Census ACS 2014, census tracts 8.01, 9.02, 21.11.

U.S. Census ACS 5-year, 2014.

U.S. Census Bureau (2010).

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000).

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). Demographic Profile

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). Demographic Profile

208
U.S. Census. 2010 American Community Survey 5-year estimate; 2014 American Community Survey 5-year estimate.

Underwood, K.L. and Buhl, L. (2013). City of Detroit Urban Agriculture Ordinance Abridged. Retrieved from http://
detroitagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2013_Sharable_UA-Ordinance.pdf.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2011, December). Evaluation of Urban Soils: Suitability for Green
Infrastructure or Urban Agriculture. EPA Publication No. 905R1103

Urban Agriculture and Community Gardens. (n.d.). San Francisco Water, Power, and Sewer website. Retrieved from
http://sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=469

Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act, Cal. State Assemb. B. 551 (2013), Chapter 406 (Cal. Stat. 2013).

Urban Growth Boundary. (2016, September 2). Metro website. Retrieved from http://www.oregonmetro.gov/urban-
growth-boundary

USDA Census of Agriculture. (Last modified 2015, November 16). 2012 Census Highlights. Retrieved from. https://www.
agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resources/Highlights/Farm_Economics

USDA RMA. (2016, April). Whole-Farm Revenue Protection. Retrieved from http://www.rma.usda.gov/pubs/rme/
wfrpfactsheet.pdf

USDA Service Center Locator, https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app

USDA Urban Agriculture Toolkit

USDA. 2012. Table 65 “Summary by Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold: 2012.” Census of Agriculture, v.1 c.1.

USDA.2012. Table 64 “Summary by Size of Farm: 2012,” 2012 Census of Agriculture, v.1c.1.

Ventura, S. and Bailkey, M. (2017). Good Food, Strong Communities: Promoting Social Justice through Local and Regional
Food Systems. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Vickery, K.K. (2014). Barriers and Opportunities for Commercial Urban Farming: Case Studies from Austin, Texas
and New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved from https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Sustainability/vickery_
report_20142__2_.pdf

Vitiello, D. & Wolf-Powers, L. (2014). Growing food to grow cities: The potential of agriculture for economic and
community development in the urban United States. Community Development Journal, 49(4), 508-523. doi:10.1093/cdj/
bst087.

Voicu, I. & Been, V. (2008). The effect of community gardens on neighboring property values. Real Estate Economics,
26(2), 277.

Walker, S. (2016). Urban agriculture and the sustainability fix in Vancouver and Detroit. Urban Geography, 37(2), 163-
182. doi: 10.1080/02723638.2015.1056606

Wasserman S, Pattison P, & Steinley D. (2005). Social Networks. Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science. Hoboken,
NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Water. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.urbanaglaw.org/water/#Water_Discounts_and_Subsidies

Weber, C. & Matthews, H.S. (2008). Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States.
Environmental Science & Technology, 42(10), 3508-3513.

Weeks, J.R. (2010). Defining Urban Areas. In Rashed, T. & Jurgens, C. (Eds.), Remote Sensing of Urban and Suburban
Areas, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010. pp. 33-45. ISBN 978-1-4020-4385-7

Wilkerson, I. (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Random House.
Also Tolnay, S.E. (2003).”The African American ‘great migration’ and beyond,” Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 209-232.

209
Winne, M. (n.d.). List of Food Policy Councils in the USDA. Retrieved from http://www.markwinne.com/list-of-food-
policy-councils-in-the-usa/

Woodford, F.B. & Woodford, A.M. (1969) All Our Yesterdays: A brief history of Detroit. Detroit: Wayne State University
Press.

Zong, J. & Batalova, J. (2015, October 28). Refugees and Asylees in the United States. Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved
from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states#Refugee%20Countries%20of%20Origin.

210