MANSFIELD, Ohio – Local interest in urban agriculture was apparent Tuesday evening with more than 50 people packing the North End Community Improvement Collaborative (NECIC) community room. Speakers noted that it doesn’t take a lot of space to grow a garden that can serve a community.
“We are looking forward to getting lots of people interested in gardening in the city. You don’t have to have acres and acres to grow a garden,” said Vickie Eichof, local foods VISTA at NECIC.
Mike Hogan, Ohio State University Extension educator and associate professor, gave a presentation on the basics of Urban Agriculture and the actuality of urban farming in Mansfield and Richland County.
Hogan said The Ohio City Farm, just west of downtown Cleveland, is one of the largest urban farms in the United States. The urban farm sits on the once polluted bank of the Cuyahoga River.
“This is also the site of a large metropolitan housing center that failed and was torn down,” he said. “I think it’s neat that it’s now producing food for the neighbors there.”
Urban agriculture is not the most efficient food production system and the food is more expensive to produce, Hogan said. But the financial benefits and having access to fresh foods in urban areas are just some of the many positives of producing food in the city.
Hogan explained that a community garden is where a non-profit organization will buy or have a plot of land and community members can come and plant their own crops, whereas an urban farm is not determined by shape or size but by the motivation to make a profit.
Urban agriculture unlike traditional agriculture is unique because size doesn’t matter, Hogan said. “People can grow a lot of food in very small areas.”
As an example, he showed a picture of a house in the Columbus suburb of Clintonville with cement path surrounding a four sizes of the brick home.
“They have pots the entire way around this house,” Hogan said. “They are producing a significant amount of food in those pots. They had herbs, vegetables and I think even a blueberry bush. The point I’m trying to make is that just because something doesn’t look like a farm, doesn’t mean it can’t produce a fair amount of food.”
There have been certain trends, Hogan said, that have contributed to the recent growth of urban agriculture which include population shifts of people out of post-industrial cities (like Cleveland) and a need to re-vamp vacant lots. There have also been population shifts of people moving into cities (like Columbus) where the people are interested in access to local, fresh foods.
Another trend is food security and access to fresh foods to people in urban and rural areas.
“If we can produce food closer to where those pockets of poverty are and make that food available to those people that are food insecure, that will certainly be a positive,” Hogan said.
Many urban areas are food deserts where there is no grocery store to get fresh fruits and vegetables. “The entire north end is a food desert,” said Jean Taddie, NECIC community garden/ local foods coordinator. The only grocery store moved out of the area last year.
The benefits to urban agriculture are numerous: food security and access increases, it promotes physical activity, it adds additional “green” space by reducing urban heat island effect, reduces storm water runoff and sequesters additional carbon. Urban ag can also promote a sense of community, decrease crime, raise property values and reduce the cost of community services.
For more information on urban agriculture visit www.extension.osu.edu.
NECIC will offer community garden grants in February and is looking to hire a part-time community garden organizer. Contact Jean Taddie at 419-525-3101 for details.
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