Conscious Choice: Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City

October 2003

Urban Farms: Oasis in the Inner City

by Holden Frith

Heading west from the Loop on the El’s Green Line, the hustle and bustle of the high-rises gives way with disconcerting suddenness to boarded-up windows and barren lots. Just a few stops from the soaring, world-class architecture of the Loop, vacant parcels dot the landscape.

Yet the vacant lots themselves are inspiring optimism. Increasingly, people are looking at the junk-strewn weed-laden land and seeing an untapped resource. The empty lots, they say, need not be worthless. Instead, they should be cleared, cultivated and turned into economically productive "urban farms."

"If the investment were made in urban agriculture," says Ken Dunn, founder of an urban garden group called the Resource Center, "it could bring full employment to a community, great improvements in nutrition and a sense that we’ve got a mission together where communities are contributing to the wealth of the city."

The idea is not new — the Resource Center opened its first garden in 1975 — but now it seems to be catching on. Dunn’s group owns four sites around Chicago and city authorities recently invited it to expand its farm at West Division Street and North Clybourn Avenue from one acre to two. It’s a small step toward Dunn’s vision of a productive city, with every vacant lot replaced by community-owned organic farms, but small steps reap big benefits, Dunn says. "We actually started experimenting with agriculture 25 years ago or more as a means of improving the quality of life here in the city," he says. "Mostly we’ve been working on community gardens and noticing there’s an extreme community effect of people getting together and gardening together and supporting each other that way, but early on we noticed that some people needed more than just food for their tables. They should have the capability of growing vegetables for sale to others and of creating their own jobs."

Now the four farms grow tomatoes, potatoes, greens, turnips and radishes, which they sell at local farmers markets and to restaurants and passers-by. As well as generating income and a sense of purpose, the sale of produce brings another benefit to the community: fresh, readily available organic food. In many of Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods, such food can be almost impossible to find.

"It’s a real chore to get a salad," says LaDonna Redmond, president and CEO of the Institute for Community Resource Development in West Garfield. "We can purchase illegal drugs, weapons, Nike trainers and junk food, but we can’t get a salad."

Redmond became interested in nutrition after her son was born with food allergies. She began to research what goes into the food we eat and was alarmed by what she describes as the increasing industrialization of agriculture. "My son’s health depends on not ingesting chemicals," she says, "but when I set out to buy organic food I found, one, that it wasn’t available and, when I did find it, two, that it was very expensive." She says distributors of organic food overlook neighborhoods like hers because "there’s an overall perception that African-Americans wouldn’t buy it. It’s only marketed to wealthy people [people who are] middle-class...mainly white."

However, Redmond says African-Americans will buy organic food if they are given the chance. The two farms run by her organization, located at 200 N. Kenneth Avenue and 4429 W Fulton Street, grow collard greens, okra and other foods that she says are "consistent with the diets of African-Americans."

Redmond has met with enthusiasm from most everyone, including city authorities. "Food is one of those issues that unite people," she says. "I’ve worked in substance abuse and prisoner rehabilitation and there is always someone who says,‘That person doesn’t deserve a second chance.’ But I have never been in a situation where somebody has sat across the table from me and said that people don’t deserve access to quality food."

City support will be crucial if the urban farming program is to expand beyond its fledgling status and become a serious food provider. While income from sales can pay for maintenance and staff salaries, start-up costs can be prohibitive. The average cost of turning an acre of wasteland into productive farmland is about $20,000, according to Ken Dunn. "...we have suggested to the city that, given the advantages to the municipality of free lots being productive and being used for job creation, the city should invest in the initial emptying and enriching the soil. From there on it can be a self-sustaining farm."

The city has responded positively, Dunn says, and is looking for a 5-acre site suitable for "the next step of demonstrating urban agriculture," but has not yet settled on a specific location.

While the city is deciding, urban agriculture rookie Carol Hughes is finding out firsthand that setting up a site is no easy task. She is the project leader for Urban Farmers in Training, which started work on a farm in Woodlawn in mid-May. The four-block site, owned by the First Presbyterian Church, was standing unused until Hughes stepped in after hearing Redmond speak about her experience of farming in West Garfield. "I met LaDonna at the Food Security Summit two years ago, and I was hearing what she was trying to do in her community," Hughes says. "I thought about all the land the First Church has available. We had a food distribution program, a soup kitchen, and [I thought] it would be nice if we could incorporate fresh food, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables into those programs first of all."

Hughes laughs as she describes how she had to start from scratch, teaching herself about nutrition before she could pass on her knowledge to neighbors. "It’s a slow learning process," she says. "We’re all into fast food and microwaves, so we’re making it as simple as possible and convenient as possible."

Getting the farm up and running has proved to be anything but simple and convenient, though. Hughes says the project is getting by "on a wing and a prayer," with several small grants and a lot of volunteer support.

On more mature farms, such as those overseen by Dunn and Redmond, day-to-day survival is no longer an issue. Their viability has been established, Dunn says, and the time has come for Chicago to commit to the idea of urban agriculture on a citywide scale. Chicago has 6,000 acres of unused land, which he says would support 42,000 full-time jobs if all of it were cultivated. With local ownership, the whole neighborhood has a stake in the farm’s success, Dunn says, and the whole neighborhood is lifted. Aside from the tangible benefits of food and jobs, Dunn says community farms bring an intangible psychological bonus. "We’re moving back into the production economy, where people actually produce things for themselves. It’s a very engaging job, and a very human one."

Holden Frith is a graduate student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and writes for the Medill News Service.

Farm Locations and Contacts

Resource Center farms, Ken Dunn, W. Division Street and N. Clybourn Avenue, Chicago; 773-758-1351

E. 70th St. and S. Kenwood Ave.

E. 73rd St and S. Dante Ave.

E. 75th St. and S. Dorchester Ave.

Institute for Community Resource Development farms, Ladonna Redmond, 4429 W. Fulton Street, 200 N. Kenneth Avenue, Chicago; 773-261-7339

Urban Farmers in Training farm, Carol Hughes, E. 65th St. and Woodlawn Avenue; 773-667-1507

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: