A trolley full of visiting New Urbanists - most familiar with the workings of the Transect in promoting compact development across a rural-to-urban spectrum - got an up-close look at the corresponding "food transect" in Providence on Wednesday. Where sprawl gobbles up farmland and relies on long-haul trucking to deliver food such as mealy tomatoes to grocery shelves, urbanism seeks to keep the fruits of the earth within reach. Rural villages and hamlets co-exist with produce farms (which feed in-city farmers markets). Dense urban neighborhoods allow for community and container gardens, or even balcony boxes.
"A lot of people think it's crazy to have a farm in the city," said Richard Pederson, city farm manager for City Farm in south Providence, told the group on their first stop of the day. "But, hey, there are a lot of crazy things going on in the city, so why not have a farm?"
Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT), which runs City Farm and several other urban farming projects, is dedicated to helping people grow food in the city, an endeavor that "has its challenges," according to Katherine Brown, executive director of SCLT and leader of the CNU tour, which toured three of SCLT's projects. She was joined partway through the tour by Max Gitlen, who heads Urban Greens, a food coop on the west side of Providence.
Both SCLT and Urban Greens are dedicated to helping people have access to local, affordable produce, and both Brown and Gitlen stressed that eating foods grown locally has a host of benefits to the community that go far beyond health benefits to individuals.
The tour started at City Farm, an organic farm that hand-tills its crops. Last year the farm grew about 60 different crops and produced 3,000 pounds of produce on 1/8 of an acre of land (it's located on ¾ of an acre, but only grows on a portion of that). The farm, which has been in operation for about 25 years, is a model to teach people how to grow food organically - it runs a children's program during the summer, has several volunteers, and works with the Burnett Community Garden, another SCLT project, which is located across the street and provides 70 lots to community members who pay $20 per year.
Brown noted that most of SCLT's community gardens were developed from derelict properties but that development pressures are now high. "Ten years ago we could acquire these lots for $1 per lot," she said. Now they are desirable real estate, valued at between $40,000 and $60,000. Despite these pressures, she said that Providence recognizes the value of SCLT's contribution. "We have erased derelict properties and improved property values around us. The city is very font of us."
After visiting the community garden Gitlen spoke about Urban Greens, a coop that provides two deliveries of food per month to about 100 members. It was started five years ago in Providence's Westside by a small group of people who were frustrated with their lack of access to high-quality, locally grown, affordable produce and natural foods. How does that relate to urban planning? "In many ways, Urban Greens was founded in response to development," said Gitlen. "Big box retailers were springing up but offering limited choices." The founders of Urban Greens wanted alternatives. They wanted to use local resources that reflected where they lived. The coop, though small, has been working on exciting projects. Last winter it teamed up with Red Planet, a small urban farm in Providence, to investigate extending the growing season by growing greens throughout the winter. Urban Greens' subscribers providing funding for Red Planet to purchase a greenhouse, and salad and cooking greens were produced throughout the winter. "It was an experiment, and it was a pretty great success," Gitlin said.
The tour then went west, to SCLT's Urban Edge Farm in Cranston. A former dairy farm that now has a golf course next to it, the 50-acre property now fosters the development of seven farmers who are starting their own businesses, along with about two acres that SCLT farms. Standing outside the barn and listening to the sound of the passing cars, Brown said, "I'm always reminded that I'm in a suburb when I'm out here, and that's good. The state has been supportive of preserving land as farms."
