urban agriculture and food deserts in chicago and beyond

Urban Agriculture and Food Deserts September 21, 2011

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Urban Agriculture and Food Deserts in Chicago and Beyond

Daniel Block

Chicago State University Department of Geography Neighborhood Assistance Center Phone: (773)995-2310 E-mail: [email protected]

City in a Garden?


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AFHVS/ASFS June 11, 2011

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Feeding the City ►The growing city also had to be

fed…surrounded by a ring of produce farms ►Edna Ferber, So Big (1924..describing 1885

Chicago) “So they jolted up the long Halsted road

through the late October sunset. The prairie land just outside Chicago had not then been made a terrifying and epic thing of slag-heaps….Mile after mile of cabbage fields, jade-green against the Earth.”


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But…agriculture was “Zoned Out” and outcompeted by other land uses

► Agriculture was generally not thought of as a “best use” for urban land—and zoning for agriculture, particularly in densely populated areas.

► Between the founding of Chicago to the present, the city and then Cook County “filled up.”

► While some greenhouses and agriculture remained (and still do), in many areas agricultural land uses were generally not part of urban and suburban plans.

► Also occurred in the city. In 1890, still many backyard cows, as well as small herds of dairy cattle in Chicago itself. By 1920 the were almost none.


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Farmland continues to decline, as calculated by the USDA

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Here is a quick look at the regions food production(includes vegetables, orchards). The number of farms was on a steady decline since 1997 until 2002, not the number is going back up. While the number of acres of farmland continues to decrease. This leads us to believe that there is a growth of smaller(acreage) farms in our region, with more growing food. A local food system can include backyard and community gardens to commercial farms and many combinations in between. By supporting urban ag and farmland preservation, we can make sure the region has the available space to grow food. While only eight percent of the region’s 3,748 farms produced food directly for human consumption in 2007, the number has been rising due to an increase in organic farms, urban agriculture, food cooperatives, community supported agriculture (CSA), and farmers’ markets.27 The fastest growing sector of the food industry has been organic food, reaching almost 20-percent annual growth in recent years. However, this has increased imports of organic products because U.S. producers could not meet demand.29

Now “Promote Sustainable Local Food”—one of 12 focus areas of “Go To 2040” NE Illinois

new (2010) regional plan.


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Recommendations ► GO TO 2040 recommends the region

support sustainable local food by: Local production. Facilitating

sustainable local food production by supporting urban agriculture and farmland protection. Access. Increasing equitable access to

fresh, nutritious, and affordable foods. Create awareness. Raising

awareness by providing data, research, training, and information.

Presenter

Presentation Notes

“Local foods” are products available for direct human consumption that are grown, processed, packaged, and distributed within our seven counties or adjacent regions. GO TO 2040 includes recommendations that emphasize the important opportunities presented by a local food system with a goal of talking local food out of the niche mentality toward a more widely incorporated policy. How will we do that? For the plan we looked at three main areas: Local Production, talking about both urban ag and farmland protection. Food Access, includes both food deserts and anti-hunger strategies. Creating awareness. Most of us don’t know much about how and where are food is produced. Need to education ourselves, policy makers and current and future local food industry workers.

Planners, Zoning, and Urban Agriculture

►“As sustainability has moved up the municipal agenda, cities have begun to take an interest in urban agriculture as a way to promote health, to support economic and community development, and to improve the urban environment.”

Nina Mukherji and Alfonso Morales, Zoning for Urban Agriculture, in Zoning Practice, published by the American Planning Association


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Urban Agriculture

► Urban Agriculture—organized agricultural production in an urban environment: produces items for sale Usually involves production of food crops Generally very intensive production per square foot May involve greenhouses and high wind tunnels. Can involve livestock production (poultry, bees, ducks,

pigs, etc. ► �


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Community Food Projects in Chicago


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Community Gardens

►Common planting space for community members

►Can have small “incidental” sales in Chicago, but not focused primarily on selling.

►In Chicago, no more than 25,000 square feet in size (new ordinance)


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South Chicago Community Garden of Hope


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Chicago Urban Agriculture Ordinance

►�Separates uses by community garden (little sales) and urban agriculture.

►Urban Ag. Cannot be in residential zones without change in zoning.

►Community gardens must be below 25,000 square feet, only incidental sales

►5 Hives of bees allowed. ►Cook County working on an ordinance


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Networks

►Advocates for Urban Agriculture ►Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council ►Neighborhood Food Policy Councils


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Improve Access

► 9% of region’s residents live in food deserts now

► Goal is elimination of food deserts by 2040

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Localizing food production is only one side of the story. Fresh, nutritious, and affordable food must also be accessible to all residents. Just over nine percent (730,866) of our region’s population is located in “food deserts” that lack access to nearby stores with fresh, nutritious food. Most often, food deserts exist in low-income, minority urban and suburban neighborhoods. Figure 2 displays the location of low-access areas, which are equivalent to food deserts. This analysis is normalized for urban, suburban, and rural areas because the definition of acceptable distance to a large supermarket varies based on population density, and it also excludes areas with incomes above the regional average. While hunger is a symptom of poverty that is not necessarily related to local food, it is still useful to consider in the context of food systems. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that 9.5 percent of Illinois households between 2005 and 2007 lacked access to enough food to fully meet basic needs due to inadequate financial resources, which is termed “food insecurity.” The system of food banks and programs that provide hunger assistance is hard to navigate, and participation in food assistance programs is relatively low compared to need. Food banks depend on donated food and may lack an adequate supply of nutritious or fresh food.


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►Female African-American Consumer, Austin Community, 2004: “In the predominately white neighborhood, I have went to the produce, seen unusual vegetables and fruits…near (them)… they would have little pamphlets, explaining, talking about the nutrition of fruit, where it comes from, what it’s supposed to taste like, and how it should be used. But I’ve never seen that in my neighborhood.”

Foodscapes, Trust, Difference, and Health..thoughts from Englewood

►Female Voice: We just don't get proper food. They give us the bottom of everything.

►Male Voice: It's like that because, as I said before, the stores in the Black community get worse food than the White community….


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►Male Voice: They care about what they give them at those stores in the suburbs, but here they don't care. They think, "Oh, well. Give them whatever and they'll take it."

►Female Voice: Yeah, that's it. "Give them whatever." They get greedy (Community Members [1], 2/27/06) Englewood.


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Final Thoughts ► Food is a lens. We can learn an exceptional amount about how a

city works from looking at how, and how well, staple foods are provided to its citizens, as well as protected on their way there.

► People may see their world, the dangers within it, and the inequalities between their situations and others, through the landscapes (including foodscapes) that surround them.

► Urban agriculture and community gardens can be a tool for residents to use towards controlling their surroundings, in addition to what they eat.

urban agriculture and food deserts in chicago and beyond

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