Surging interest in organic, sustainable, and locally grown food over the past decade is a sure sign the public is looking for something more than what they can get at the grocery store. People want food that has a face, a place and a taste.

At no place is this “delicious revolution” more apparent than in our urban environment. Here in Atlanta, restaurants, businesses and colleges are already buying from local growers and lifting farm income and local economies. Emory University has made a commitment to procure 75 percent of its campus food from sustainable and local sources by 2015. Developers are reconfiguring their design plans to include farms and gardens as the new eco-sensitive amenity. Last summer, the City of Atlanta approved policies to allow organic community gardens to be established on city parks. And parents and teachers are beginning to launch farm to school programs to reconnect kids with the roots of healthy food.

Urban agriculture projects are a real solution to eliminate “food deserts” in our city and increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Other areas serve as a testament to urban agriculture as a solution. For example:

• Cuba produces half of the vegetables its residents consume and is a model for sustainable agriculture.

• In Vancouver, an astounding 44 percent of its residents produce some of their own food.

• And in Portland, Oregon, the city recently inventoried their public lands and identified 289 potential sites that could be used for community gardens and small- and large-scale agriculture production.

Today, there are pockets of people in Atlanta who are making a difference, pursuing sustainable agriculture projects that grow, deliver or feed residents with healthy, sustainably grown food. Three of these pioneers participated in a recent panel discussion on urban agriculture hosted by Southface Institute.

As program director for the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and Atlanta Urban Gardening Program, Bobby Wilson’s roots reach deep into Atlanta’s community gardening history. While the DIY approach may seem like only a partial solution to feeding the city, the amount of food that a single plot can provide a family is significant. “Community gardening reduces the family budget,” says Wilson. “A four-by-sixteen plot yields $400 to $600 of fresh vegetables per year.”
Wilson supports 150 community gardens in Atlanta, teaching basic lessons on how, what and when to plant. That’s only part of the story. “I like to call it community gardening beyond the seed. Without a doubt, community gardening improves the quality of life, builds self-esteem, preserves greenspace, reduces crime, and provides a catalyst for community development and neighborhood revitalization,” Wilson says.

Urban farmer Daniel Parson knows how food production can contribute to livable communities. He grows at Gaia Gardens at East Lake Commons, which started as a developer’s dream: residential housing was concentrated around the perimeter of the property leaving space for a five-acre organic farm. Cultivating only one and a half acres, “I can feed 60 four-person households vegetables for a year,” he says.

Gaia Gardens is more than about feeding people. “The garden touches on all three pillars of sustainability,” says Parson. Environmentally, it’s recycling “waste” materials into compost, building soil fertility, and improving water quality by filtering runoff through its riparian buffers. It’s economically viable: as demand for locally grown, organic food increases, profit is increasing over time. The third pillar, social justice, is more difficult to quantify. “We strive for consensus in our decisions,” says Parson. Beyond that, “the garden is a place of peace that’s enjoyed by residents, groups who tour it, and the many volunteers and interns that work there.”
For Chef Linton Hopkins, the search for the essence of good food led straight to small farms. “Now, they [small farms] dictate how I write a menu,” says Hopkins. “I want to take a beet, lay it on a piece of white porcelain, and say ‘That’s it.’ How can you do any better?”

The food at his children’s school was a different matter. Confronted by olive drab green beans and dismal items that didn’t resemble their descriptions, he and other parents took action and started an organic garden at the school. Kids grow vegetables and in turn grow enthusiastic about eating them. Describing a recent visit to the schoolyard, Hopkins pulled up a radish, brushed the dirt off, and bit in. “Right there was the best food I could ever put on a plate. That radish, with butter and salt, was quite frankly a miracle.” Ironically, that food is prohibited from entering the cafeteria, which can only accept food from their distributor. Now, Hopkins has made it his civic duty to see that we have a sustainable food system here in Atlanta for our children.
Each new project makes a difference, whether it’s a community garden, urban farm, farm-to-school program or farmers’ market. In addition to individual citizens taking initiative, Daniel Parson says, “It’s time for support from developers and public policy makers.”

Food needs to be a key part of our sustainable policies and initiatives. In addition to supporting our rural farming neighbors, Atlanta has the opportunity to grow healthy food within the city limits, and grow it all year round. Our city parks, the Beltline, right-of-ways, development projects, church lands, and private properties are all ripe opportunities for planning and planting.

The city can bloom and, in the process, feed its people better food, reduce water pollution, and reduce petroleum consumption and carbon emissions. Sustainably grown, organic, local produce proves that you can have your lunch— a darned good lunch at that— and eat it too!

Interested in starting your own community food project? Join 600 others involved in sustainable agriculture at the Georgia Organics annual conference in Dalton February 28 to March 1. Full conference details are available at
http://www.georgiaorganics.org/conference.

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