By John-Michael Lawrence

Mr. Buckner, a neighbor in our Ninth Ward New Orleans neighborhood, planted vegetables in his backyard.  The Buckners, who had no children, taught me, my sister and Freddie who lived next door how to plant vegetables in our backyards.

Students harvest vegetables at a community garden, learning about nutrition and sustainable urban farming. (Credit: Nappy.co/Children Nature Network)

In the mid-1990s my cousin, Romona, left the legal profession and started vegetable gardens in downtown neighborhoods. Urban farming. 

These community gardens :

  1. Brought generations together through inter-generational learning and cultural exchange
  2. Strengthened community ties and promoted social cohesion, which reduced crime  
  3. Gave kids information and education on nutrition 
  4. Brought vegetables and fruit to their tables  
  5. Lowered grocery bills
  6. Brought job and income creation by encouraging entrepreneurship and small business development
  7. Reduced the carbon footprint in the neighborhoods associated with long-distance transportation
  8. Improved air and soil quality and bio-diversity

If the garden is not in your backyard, you need to organize your community to meet challenges to urban farming:

1. Limited Space – Urban areas are densely populated. Organize your community to get local public officials and representatives to do their jobs to get access to public spaces for urban farming.

2. Contaminated Soil – Urban soils can be contaminated with pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides and industrial chemicals. Soil contamination can pose health risks. Use community organizing to get local officials to do their jobs, get public money to get the soil tested.

3. Limited Access to Resources – Urban farming can face limited access to resources like water (some urban areas have restrictions on use of water) and seeds. Communities organize to get public officials to assist in overcoming these obstacles.

4. Permitting and Regulations – Zoning laws, health codes and food safety regulations that can limit the types of crops and animals that can be grown. A community organization can get information from city officials on these issues.

Urban and backyard farming promotes food security, economic benefits, community building and environmental benefits. Community organizations need to demand that policymakers, urban planners, city government, etc., do their jobs to overcome the challenges to urban farming like limited space, contaminated soil, limited access to resources and regulatory barriers. Local politicians need to support research on soil contamination and remediation, develop regulations that support urban farming and invest in training and education for urban farmers. 

However, those of us with backyards can get started now.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.

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