I Scootered To A Working Farm Yesterday
Few people on small 49cc scooters make it out to rural farm country. While I did visit a farm yesterday, it wasn’t a long trip through the ring of sprawl to reach my destination . My Environmental Planning class at Saint Louis University visited the New Roots Urban Farm on St. Louis’ near north side.
New Roots is located on Hogan Street adjacent to the vacant but stunning St. Liborius church.
You can almost just pass right by — the quarter acre urban farm is very unassuming with the exception of the lively sign.
Rows of basil yet to be picked. Mmmmmm, pesto! Newer homes, set a suburban distance back from the street, complete the block and much of the street to the east.
Above, wire fencing guards the hen house.
Today was a day for members to pick up their weekly veggies. Above, a father and daughter make their way to the pickup area.
Co-founder/Farm & Program Manager Trish Grim was our instructor and guide. In the span of four years this cooperative group has gone from four vacant city lots to a working farm that feeds themselves and 25 shareholders per season. Their annual budget is now up to $50,000. Yes, a mere $50K annually. They have roughly 4 people that work full time as well as numerous volunteers and interns. Clearly they are not in this for the money.
Payments from members of the CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) make up roughly 25% of the budget, the balance coming from various grants. These members get “10-15 pounds of produce” each week during the growing season. There is a waiting list to be a member. New Roots has teamed with the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group on the North City Farmers’ Market which opened this season on 14th Street across from Crown Candy Kitchen. Saturday is the final day for that market this season — they are ending with a big “Hoe Down” with BBQ, games and music (9am-1pm).
New Roots also teamed up with St. Patrick’s Center and Gateway Greening on the City Seeds project at 22st & Pine. Where you say? The leftover/wasted land at the old 22nd Street interchange. Here the homeless are hired at minimum wage to work 3 days per week on this 2-1/2 acre farm. New Roots provides the expert knowledge on the project and another grant funds the wages for the workers. A couple of years ago I argued with developer Kevin McGowen about this project — I wanted the land to be reused in the future when the excess roadway was removed. I am correct in that in the future it will be hard to take back the land for development but I think Kevin was right — this is really a good project. Produce grown on this urban farm is sold at the North City market and the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market.
One of their goals is to be sustainable — environmentally and fiscally. So far, they are quite environmentally sustainable given their practices which includes transporting goods to the North Side Market via bicycle carts. Fiscally, however, they are not so sustainable yet. Trish referenced groups in other parts of the country —- one getting as much as 70% of their funding from sales of product.
Lest you think this is all some hippie festival, I happen to know at least one self proclaimed Republican that is a member. In fact, the supporters tend to be more affluent types which allows New Roots to sell their produce at very fair prices to lower income folks at the local market (all are welcomed regardless of income). To me there is something really neat about seeing our food being grown on a real working farm so close to downtown.
Be sure to check out their website at www.newrootsurbanfarm.org and especially their unique newsletter.
We need more neighborhood farms. But we greatly need more commuters like you who go car-free and understand how using autos for travel leads to unfriendly environments. Space that is dedicated to autos could be used for productive and environmentally friendly businesses like these instead of destructive parking lots.
I guess the north side decay has come to this; lots formerly holding houses are now being used for farm land. Chickens replacing people. On the surface it seems pathetic but I suppose this is land re-use which I kind of like. Also better this than a McMansion or vinyl sided 2-car attached which less keen eyes of other entrepreneurs may have produced. Organic farming and urban farmer’s markets are no hippie outfits. It’s folks disenfranchised with the modern day chain grocery store.
There are community gardens in most of the city’s neighborhoods and at a good many produce (veggies, fruits, herbs) as well as flowers are grown. We have neighborhoods with high end housing stock as well as neighborhoods with board-ups that are home to urban farming. In some cases, the city could indeed make a nice profit selling off the lots for development. It doesn’t do so because the residents are dedicated to putting in the time and energy to maintaining the land as a communal asset.
Harper’s Magazine had a great article about urban farming in Detroit in the June or July issue. Worth finding and reading.
I started writing something yesterday but ran out of time.
I think it’s kind of a shame so much has been posted over this in such a short time, I’m afraid that this post might have been lost in the shuffle for many.
Espeically if you believe (accept) Kunstler’s Long Emergency scenario, and oil closing about $90 for the first time yesterday doesn’t help, food access issues will become critically important in the near future. And as we all know, we’ve bulldozed up some of the most fertile farmland in the country to create Shady Acres Estates, The Boulevard Shops at The Pointe, and whatever other clever marketing titles you want to come up with.
As I go around the city I see all these vacant tracts of land and wonder if we might be in a position to see theses as positive assets. Can much of North St. Louis become the new agricultural disctrict for the city? Will we get to a point where we put a fence around Tower Grove Park (hopefully similar to Lafayette Square, aesthetically) and have herds of sheep go from park to park, grazing and fertilizing?
It’s not that different than TOD, with the idea being to capitalize on our areas of density and also capitalize on our areas lacking density. I see a much greater potential to recreate an integrated urban/agricultural living arrangement in North St. Louis than I do pretty much anywhere in Suburbia.
Here’s another option: http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek07/1026/1026d_mithun.cfm
Oh, and as a shareholder – New Roots is awsome! Even with the self-proclaimed Republican.