Livingstone College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
An urban farm in Chicago (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Steve Mensing, Editor
♦Yesterday it was announced on area TV that Livingstone College was breaking ground for a 40 acre urban farm by the corner of Brenner Avenue and Standish Street in Salisbury. The Livingstone farm, operated by students and their agricultural mentors, would initially grow fruits and vegetables for sale to the community and to supply their culinary arts program. In the future the college farm will also involve small livestock. Sometime down the road Livingstone’s farm may supply their own farmer’s market and create a restaurant. The college farm will become a part of the local foods and farmer’s market movement. It will be the first large scale urban farm in many years within Salisbury’s city limits.
Hopefully the urban farming movement takes root in Salisbury and makes a major contribution to locally grown food. In season I buy local organically grown food–its simply the healthiest way to eat. Its good to discover that Salisbury is entering the global urban farming movement as witnessed in Detroit, East St. Louis, Camden, Chicago, Mumbai, Havana, and Shanghai. Detroit is developing small energized pockets of much needed urban farming in a city with immense poverty and many neighborhoods without grocery stores and supermarkets. Some neighborhoods now have nutritious food nearby.
With so many unemployed and poverty growing in Salisbury, urban agriculture may one of the ways the unemployed and the poor can become self-employed. Food, like shelter, is a basic human need. Fresh nutritious food, free of GMOs and pesticides, is becoming recognized as a need while processed foods are viewed as a culprit in the age of inflammatory disease.
Urban farming is not a new phenomena–it’s been with us for centuries. Urban agriculture showed up in a big way during the First and Second World Wars when Victory gardens sprung up around the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. These victory gardens supplied folks with needed food and supported the wartime effort with homegrown fruits and vegetables.
Today community gardens grow produce on a smaller scale than a multi-acre farm. During major economic downturns and the Great Depression, urban farming and community gardens helped people eat. Around 800 million people world-wide participate in urban agriculture and many city farms, out of necessity, feed people in their areas. Its estimated that 250 million folks, living in cities, are hungry or starving.
Salisbury has many open spaces and underutilized properties suitable for urban farming and community gardens. Cheap land is available outside the city’s downtown area suitable for small farming. Agricultural knowledge is a few clicks away on the net and now Livingstone College is creating an urban farm. Rowan County is teaming with knowledgeable farmers and agricultural knowledge bases. If the paychecks stopped and unemployment is long gone, it might be smart to size up that unused backyard or side forty.
There’s a definite upside to urban farming:
• People can eat locally grown nutritious fruits, vegetables, nuts, and meats. Healthier eating generally means lower healthcare costs.
• It supplies jobs and recreation.
• Energy efficiencient and leaves less air pollution. Locally grown food requires less transport and saves on transportation costs.
• Soil decontamination from removing hazardous wastes so farming can take place.
Here’s some excellent resources on urban farming:
http://rowan.ces.ncsu.edu/?page=agriculturefood
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/urban-farming-takes-hold-blighted-motor
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