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For-profit urban farming growing in popularity


June 7, 2010

By Julian Martin

Read More: http://eatdrinkandbe.org/article/ind...n_urbanfarming

While backyard gardening remains a popular option for consumers in search of simple and cheap locally-grown produce, for-profit urban farming has not garnered nearly as much recognition. Entrepreneurs throughout the country, however, are working to turn the notion of urban planting for profit into a thriving enterprise. Unlike urban gardening — when produce is grown by individuals and non-profits for themselves and others — on commercial urban farms, people pay a fee to farmers for direct access to their products.

Fans contend local food benefits the regional economy and is more eco-friendly, with reduced carbon footprints and lower distribution costs. For-profit urban farming "makes the most of underused urban natural resources, and provides fresh food to people right where they can see it growing from seed to harvest," said Nicole Jain Capizzi, former director of a for-profit urban farm in Milwaukee, on the website Urban Farm Hub. Interest in the process has been growing in cities nationwide, including Seattle, Detroit, Indianapolis, San Francisco and Austin, Texas. “There’s enormous and unmet demand by individuals within Indianapolis for locally produced fruits and vegetables,” Matthew Jose, the founder and owner of Big City Farms LLC, said to the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Jose’s farm encompasses 10 vacant city blocks in downtown Indianapolis. While landowners have allowed Big City Farms to operate in exchange for cleaning up formerly weed-ridden lots, in some instances property owners receive a portion of the harvest in exchange for their yard space. In Detroit, a city with an estimated 40 square miles of abandoned residential property, according to AFP, urban farming enthusiasts are working to turn abandoned homes and broken-down industrial plants into apple orchards and hydroponic growing facilities. "The farm becomes a tool to reignite Detroit's economy," said Michael Score, president of Hantz Farms, to AFP. The company’s owner, John Hantz, has promised 30 million dollars of his own funds to support year-round, for-profit farming within the city limits. "Rather than wasting resources to recreate Iowa in the middle of Detroit, let's see what we can grow in the city as it exists," he said, according to AFP.