[M II A II R II K]

One Thing Missing from the Urban Farm Movement: Farmers


Apr 24, 2012

By Nate Berg

Read More: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/nei...-farmers/1834/

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Urban gardens and farms are appearing in backyards, schools and empty lots in cities all over the country. But people with the actual know-how and willingness to tend them – in other words, farmers – are far less abundant. For Dan Allen, this is a critical problem. He's an urban gardener in Los Angeles, and runs a company called Farmscape that helps tend small-scale farms in the city. While there's clearly interest in the idea of making urban areas into not just consumers but also producers of food, Allen sees that interest as fleeting.

- That diligent maintenance is, in another word, work — the kind of work that makes people sweat, gets dirt under their fingernails and maybe even gives them a sore back. Allen says he's seen countless gardens and urban farms wither from lack of pruning, poor attention to irrigation schedules, and just a general lack of understanding about how to turn a plot of dirt into a producer of food. Neglect is rampant in backyard farms and even more so in farms at schools, Allen says. Often the downfall of school gardens is summer. "Everybody goes on vacation and forgets about the garden.

- What these neglected gardens need, he argues, is more consistent and trained minders who have the skills and time to maintain them. He points to the urban farming initiative in Cuba, where the state actively supports the infrastructure and the farmers who, in Havana, are producing an estimated 90 percent of the city's fruits and vegetables locally. Despite growing official encouragement of urban farming from cities like Detroit, strong governmental support like that seen in Cuba is obviously a lot less likely in the United States. This is where companies like Allen's can become part of the picture. Farmscape currently tends about 150 urban gardens a week in L.A.

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