Urban Farming

Previously, we discussed how many people in inner cities do not have access to quality, fresh foods. ​As metropolitan areas continue to sprawl outwards it turns local farmland into subdivisions and asphalt, eliminating the ability for a community to provide its own food. There are several ways communities are trying to combat this problem through farmers’ markets and healthy corner stores. An increasing popular approach is through “urban farming.” Using small vacant lots and rooftops for farming gives easy access to locally grown healthy foods and has environmental benefits.

urban roof top farm
Photo Courtesy of: sustainablesouthsound.org

The benefits of urban farming go beyond creating a healthy, local food source as detailed in this report for Boston. Farming creates dozens of direct, local jobs as well as hundreds of indirect jobs. The increased city greenery reduces greenhouse gas emissions and lowers a city’s heat-island effect. Best of all this is accomplished by utilizing previously unused urban land and rooftops.

Farming in Chicago has had more benefits than expected. Not only has the farming been used to change eating habits it has also impacted people’s lives. Farming has been an educational tool to teach families where their food comes from. Many of those who have worked on the farm have also started their own gardens at home and many have started up at local schools.

In Hawaii 80-90% of the food consumed is not produced on island, meaning it traveled thousands of miles to get to our plate. Food that travels is less fresh and costs more due to shipping and preservation costs (not to mention the impact transit has on our environment).  An upcoming documentary “Ingredients Hawaii” looks at our food system in Hawaii and ways to encourage more local food production for the people who live here.

​If you want learn more about urban farming in your neighborhood and to get involved look up and see if there is a Food Policy Council in your area. ​A Food Policy Council is an organized group of various stakeholders, policy makers, food producers and consumers, who evaluate the needs of their community. The goal of most Food Policy Councils is to create sustainable food systems.

Scoring Your Community

When people imagine an ideal neighborhood or community for their families they envision a place that has a cozy downtown, they can walk to parks, has mass transit, and is bike friendly. This neighborhood feels safe and friendly, with high social capital. But how does one find such a community in this age of urban sprawl? We summarize some user-friendly online tools to help you check your current community or prospective home.

Walkscore.com is a great resource that evaluates the walkability of a neighborhood. Walkscore has collected data around the United States (and some international locations) and scored neighborhoods based on their walkability from 0 to 100. Community members of cities a with higher walking scores are happier, weigh 6-10 lbs less, and have less stress. Not only is walking good for you and the environment, it also increases land value. According to this recent report one walkscore point adds $3,000 to a homes value, think about that next time you wonder why certain neighborhoods cost so much.

Community with a high walkscore
image courtesy of http://www.walklive.org

Walkscore was such a huge success they created two other databases, for bikeability and transit. Bikescore.com scores communities based on their bike lanes, hills, destinations and road connectivity, and bike commuting mode share. Currently bikescore only evaluates the top 10 most bikeable large cities in the U.S. and Canada, they encourage you to “Tweet” to ask for a bikescore of your city. Transitscore.com grades the largest 25 cities in the United States on their transportation network. It values things like frequency, types of transit available, and distance between stops. This is a great tool for people in larger cities looking for a new apartment wanting access to public transit.

The Trust for Public Land created Parkscore and has info about the 40 largest cities in the United States and promises more to come. Parkscore evaluates a city’s entire park system and grades it on acreage, services, and access. They also rate each aspect of the park system to show where the city needs improvement.

Using these tools in your community can help to show areas that are lacking and help to create sustainable, healthy, complete streets. Although these tools offer guidance and a starting point for evaluation there are certain qualitative aspects of a community that are unquantifiable, such as place-making, social capital, and its citizens.