Can City Farmers Stand in for Supermarkets?

With few supermarkets, city dwellers seeking fresh good grow their own.

It's easy to dismiss the growing trend of urban agriculture as a phenomenon for the affluent, given the lofty undertones of most writing on fresh and local food. However, as I tried to point out this New York Times food section piece published yesterday, it's being driven in part by necessity.

You won't find this until the end of the piece, but much of today's city farming--growing food for sale--is tied closely to the lack of supermarkets in urban neighborhoods, particularly poor ones. While these urban farmers often share the ethos championed by Michael Pollan, they're getting their hands dirty for a more pragmatic reason: They can't find quality, fresh food close to home.

That used to be dismissed as simply one of the many inconveniences attached to poverty, but a growing number of studies are suggesting that access to fresh food is key to health. The most recent addition came last week, when the think tank Policy Link published a study of 40,000 Californians finding higher rates of obesity and diabetes in communities that had a disproportionate share of fast food and convenience stores.

And as the price tag for the obesity epidemic begins to eclipse our spending on tobacco-related sickness, public health officials are trying to figure out ways to solve the access problem. Pennsylvania, Baltimore and Washington DC have all experimented with programs to encourage supermarket development.

New York City added its name to the list earlier this week with the release of a study charting out food access in the five boroughs. The primary finding was no surprise, but it was nonetheless sobering: Neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and diabetes typically correlated with those lacking supermarkets.

The one problem with the supermarket model? It takes a near-Herculean effort to get the land, zoning and infrastructure in place to serve it. And that's without the arduous task of convincing supermarket chains, most of whom have built their business model on suburban developments, that it's worth the trouble. Which is precisely where urban growers make their mark: Providing solid proof that, supermarkets or no, even the city's more modest neighborhoods are looking for fresh food.

Comments

[Squalish]

Restrictive zoning is one of the harsh implements with which we pushed out all the development people wanted into suburbia, while the cities rotted from the interior. That's just not good enough anymore. Building residences miles away from any of the daily realities of life, greased all the way to the nearest office park and supermarket by cheap oil, is not sustainable for even another two decades. Right now, it's merely inconvenient.

[Squalish]

The problem is not that your city doesn't have people who want food, or companies willing to provide it, or the land on which to sell it.. The problem is not that your mayor hasn't sat down and said "I knew I forgot something... People to market food!! Oh, how stupid of me. Back to the beginning of the Simcity scenario for me!" It's also not that your mayor hasn't been given the power to kick people out of their homes to do so.

It's that you put epic obstacles in their place. Single-use zoning, or single-landowner rule, is a cancer for any neighborhood. Convenience stores, ethnic grocers, small supermarkets, and the like are absolutely rife in cities without a commitment to preserving little plots of land they like to call "neighborhoods."

My problem with the former approach is not that it outrages me, it's that it is a highly non-resiliant system. Inflexible command economies can't meet everybody's wants and needs - things need to be able to bend a little. If that means zoning a district to have an unspecified, dirty mix of light industry, residence, and commerce instead of lighting up (as a grand feature of "your" city) the fabulous new Hairdresser Row, so be it. If that means letting someone contract with a farmer to sell a few greens out of their rowhouse (*the horror!*) on weekends, so be it.

[sco8d]

I have planted a garden for the last 12 years on a 1/4 acre property in south Jersey. 100% organic and almost no water use at all due to the weather here. I pay about 5 bucks for seed and have to save over $1,000 each summer. Have you ever had a Ripe tomato? Man, you can't get any better than that. Bring back the victory garden!

[strausmark]

One thing the city could do is place greenmarkets in these area's that lack supermarkets. Most immigrants come from cultures that cook. Not being able to get the product is a problem, if the city brought markets into Hispanic areas cooking fresh food would start again. New Yorkers care about the flowers in central park not the fact that their are no farmers markets in the project.

[dadw5boys]

Zoning is a probem they have tried to kill of the communities with subdivision and no side walks, no local grocery store and no local service businesses. Zone them all into managable groups where Politicans usually are the property Owners who lease to the businesses. Isn't great! Have to drive 10 or 20 miles for milk.

[Sumocat]

While the current form of urban farming is woefully inadequate, I am hopeful they will spur the development of vertical farms (think: hydroponic farms in skyscrapers). They require a fraction of the water use of conventional farms, minimal square footage, and minimal, if any, pesticides. I'm planning a personal system for fresh year-round greens.