The urban farming explosion

[M II A II R II K]

Denver busts urban farming’s yuppie stereotype


7 Jun 2010

Read More: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06...r-urban-farms/

When we were still in Seattle, preparing for this project, a few friends asked if this was a tour of 'yuppie urban farm projects.' Isn't that who participates in the urban farm? they generalized. I will now suggest that they take a few laps on their fixed-gear bikes through Denver. This year, the nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) will support the construction of its 100th community garden. We only had time to visit four of them in the two days we were in town, but we got a kaleidoscope of ages, ethnicities, socio-economic strata, and motivations: the suburbanites in formerly rural Aurora, African and Asian refugees in East Colfax, school students all over the place, and upper-middle-class professionals in Rosedale.

Faatma Mehrmanesh rides the John Deer tractor in style. Her long hair fills a woven cloth hat. Turquoise headphones rest on top so she can rock to the tractor's slow roll over the soil. She's preparing the plot for its first planting: the growing season starts late here at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Through the dust thrown up around the tractor, I see the boxy outline of office parks and new residential developments bordering this property, the 30-acre historic Delaney Farm. Driving out here from Denver, you see the classic 20th century progression of urban development: from dense city to industrial warehouses and trucking yards, to big-box retail centers and the modern-day suburban house farm in the town of Aurora. At Delaney, the beige, paved banality opens to green grasses, faded white farm buildings, and row crops colored by a few individuals weeding, harvesting, or watering.

"Even some of my friends just drive by and think this is a site that's about to be developed. They don't even know we're here growing food every day," says Faatma.

Faatma Mehrmanesh rocking the John Deere at Delaney Community Farm in Denver.(Michael Hanson photos)