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Issue Brief

Urban Agriculture - Overview

Goal Statement   one sentence that further defines the topic

• To increase the practice of growing, harvesting, processing, and distributing food in and around urban areas for the purpose of: localizing food growth, increasing fresh food access and added health benefits, increasing food education, decreasing Urban Heat Island Effect, using vacant urban land, decreasing storm surge runoff, decreasing the distance food travels post growth/harvest, and feeding the growing urban populations around the world.

Local/State/National Information    additional information on this topic at the local, state, national, global level

• Urban Agriculture - USA 

• Urban Agriculture - New Jersey

• Urban Agriculture - New Brunswick, NJ 

Policy Options / Model Programs   link to profiles of specific policies or program models, grouped by type 

• Model Programs 

• Community Gardens
• Detroit Black Community Food Security Network 
• American Community Gardening Association: USA (Could be a key org on USA page) https://www.communitygarden.org/about
• Detroit AgriHood - https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/11/05/food-community-detroit-garden-agriculture/
• Fleet Farming Orlando https://fleetfarming.org/about/
• Village Harvest - https://www.villageharvest.org

• Urban Farming
• Red Hook Farms^[1] -  
• The Food Project: Eastern Mass.  
• https://thefoodproject.org/What%20We%20Do/
• Urban Growers Collective: Chicago Illinois https://urbangrowerscollective.org/about-us/
• Bonton Farms: Dallas Texas –– urban farming, housing, for-profit branch https://bontonfarms.org/about-2/
• ISLES - Trenton - https://isles.org/about-us/who-we-are/
• Why Hunger - USA - https://whyhunger.org

• Adopt-A-Lot 
• The Resource Center: Chicago https://theresourcecenterchicago.org 
• City Growers - Mas. - https://citygrowers.wordpress.com/farm-sites/  

• Food Co-ops / Food Hubs
• The Food Group, Minnesota & Wisconsin 
• Model Program: https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2838&context=iqp-all
• Urban Acres - Dallas - https://urbanacresfarmstead.com/our-story/ 

• Food Forests
• Beacon Food Forest, Seattle, WA 
• Pittsburgh Food Forest
• Innovation Food Forest

• Policy Options 
• use NJ Urban Ag Recommendations PDF 
• Jersey City + Aero Farms

• Federal Grants 
• USDA Grants for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production
• https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/newsroom/releases/?cid=NRCSEPRD1582621

• Land Ownership
• Land Banks
• http://www.syracuse.ny.us/BuyProperty.aspx
• https://shelterforce.org/2018/11/13/how-to-fund-land-banks/
• Coyahoga Land bank – http://www.cuyahogalandbank.org
• Adopt-A-Lot gov. Program - Baltimore 
• https://www.baltimorecity.gov/initiatives/power-in-dirt
• Community Gardens on Public Lands - Baltimore 
• https://bcrp.baltimorecity.gov/special-programs/farms
• Cleveland - Urban Garden District Ordnances 
• http://growingfoodconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/gravity_forms/7-1d999688265744f48ad862bf97cf7ab9/2015/04/document-2.pdf 

• Garden Allotment Government Programs
• https://www.nsalg.org.uk/#

• Urban Ag. Policy Hubs, Tool Kits, Guides
• USDA Urban Farming Toolkit
• UrbanAgLaw.org 
• http://www.urbanaglaw.org/non-profit-urban-ag/
• Cornell Urban Guide to Farming
• https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/resources/guides/urban-guide-to-farming-in-ny/   

Glossary of Terms   key words or phrases that the layperson needs to know to understand this issue 

• Aquaculture - farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. 

•  Bee Keeping - Having bees within an urban environment to help pollinate plants.  Concerns of city ordinances and regulations of bee hives.

•  Community Supported Agriculture - Community based organization of producers and consumers. The consumers provide direct up front support for local growers who in turn produce the food. The growers agree to do their best to produce the appropriate quality and quantity that consumers want. 

• Farmer's Markets - markets where local farmers can come into a community and sell their products directly to consumers or small businesses 
  

• Food Co-ops - worker or customer owned businesses that provide grocery items of the highest quality and best value to their members.  
  
• Hoop Houses, High-Tunnels, and Greenhouses - Alternative gardening structures which could allow growing seasons to be extended in regions where cold climates dictate a large part of the year. 
• Rooftop Gardens - growing edible fruits and vegetables on unused rooftops within the urban environment has many benefits including need food, infrastructure/environment cooling, stormwater runoff buffering, etc. 
  
• SPIN Farming - Small Plot INtensive farming on sub-acre plots of land in urban environments to maximize output with minimal input 

• Urban Agriculture - Urban agriculture is a viable solution to solving the food access issues in low income urban areas. Urban agriculture can take many forms including backyard, rooftop, balcony, and community gardens, beekeeping, and even raising livestock, such as chickens

• Urban Orchards (Fruit Trees) - Cultivating orchards in the urban landscape.  Fruit bearing trees can help support access to healthy food locally.
• Food Forest -A forested garden that utilizes the benefits of different fauna in the same space to prosper from each other. Such fauna includes canopy cover trees (dogwood), small trees (fruit), understory bushes (nuts, berries, herbs), and fungi.

Bibliography  

• Johnson, Lorraine. City Farmer, Greystone Books D&M Publishers Inc. 2010. 

• Krasny, Marianne E and Keith G. Tidball. "Community Gardens as Contexts for Science, Stewardship, and Civic Action Learning." Cities and the Environment, Volume 2 Issue 1, Article 8, 2009. 

• Nordahl, Darrin, Public Produce. Island Press, 2009.

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