freerksen has a garden in the backyard of her south shore neighborhood home in chicago where she plants herbs, fruits and over 10 different vegetables. she harvests corn, green beans, bell peppers, radishes, zucchini, rhubarb and more.

“i remember being very little and [my father] making holes with his finger in the ground and being like, ‘put a seed in each one of these holes.’ and i just thought it was cool because then it would become a plant that you can eat,” said freerksen. “every time i touch the earth to shape it into something pretty or edible, i definitely am connected to him.”

in the last decade, the demand for locally grown food has increased 260% in chicago, and three-fourths of americans report caring about having locally sourced food, according to the chicago metropolitan agency for planning.

fighting food insecurity with convenience, freshness, and health

according to the chicago community trust, about one in seven people in chicago face food insecurity.

freerksen said she only gardens during the spring, summer and into the fall, but doesn’t have a need to continue growing after harvest season, which ends by late november. 

but saving money with her garden is another bonus freerksen said she has experienced, with the production of her tomatoes and kale alone. she said she rarely visits grocery stores for produce as she was even able to produce 14 squashes this summer from a single plant.

locally growing produce is a strategy used by residents, urban farms and community gardens to combat food desert status in underserved neighborhoods across chicago, especially on the south and west sides. it also reassures people about the quality of their produce. in freerksen’s case, she gardens for the convenience of having readily available produce untouched by harmful chemicals like pesticides. 

“i also compost, and for my garden i knew i wasn’t going to use insecticides,” freerksen said. “i use neem oil, which is not harmful. the only fertilizer i use is dead leaves, so organic compost.” 

in her previous apartments, she always had a small windowsill herb garden, so when she bought her house a little over a year ago, she was excited to plant a large garden, she said. 

like freerksen, keith tody, who lives in the edgewater neighborhood on the north side of chicago, said he does not live in a food insecure area, but he too grows produce outside his apartment, where he has two raised plant beds in his small backyard. he has found ways to extend his growing season into the winter. he said his motivation is ensuring he is consuming fresh and healthy foods, especially as he does not often eat meat.  

he usually grows spinach, different types of lettuce, kale, garlic, tomatoes and more in summer and fall. 

“i decided what to plant (by) basically just googling what’s super easy to grow,” tody said. “when there’s big e. coli recalls on stuff like lettuce … i just try to avoid those big supply chain problems by keeping it local and independent.”

during winter, he plants winter-hardy plants like kale and carrots in raised plant beds. 

in addition to concerns with the quality of produce, another big impetus for locally grown produce is food apartheid, also known as the food desert problem: where residents only have close access to corner liquor stores, gas stations, retail locations or small grocery stores for food, but not to supermarkets with a wide selections of fresh produce. 

cultivating healthy foods across chicago

one solution is urban farming beyond the backyard. star farm is a year-round urban farm operating in the south side’s back of the yards neighborhood and is increasing food access in the community. it creates safe spaces for women and children to learn about sustainable foods, and has a volunteer program where people with disabilities can help package produce for sale. 

through the community supported agriculture (csa) program, a weekly (sometimes biweekly) food subscription service, they serve local residents, including senior citizens who are unable to travel for groceries. they also partner with other local organic farms to boost the local economy. 

with winter underway, star farm is centering on growing vegetables like tomatoes, onions and zucchini to ship to the csa members, according to communications manager and farmer mira cameron. 

the farm has additional strategies like growing microgreens as well as broccoli, cabbage and turnips on the main site, an apartment, and in a greenhouse predominantly used in winter. during winter months, they will continue to do pop-up markets, distribute to local hospitals and sell produce at several indoor markets even outside of back of the yards, like in wicker park and lincoln park.

“because we’re able to sell directly to the consumers so often, we’re able to sell them organic local produce for a relatively low price compared to what you would find at a store,” cameron said. 

another smaller and family-run urban farm is cedillo’s produce in the englewood neighborhood, which focuses on providing organic food to people of color through farmers markets in its south side neighborhoods and those on the west side, like little village. the farm operates a csa program and provides leafy greens in the spring and fall, then fruit crops in the summer, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants and more. 

co-founder dulce morales said that while the farm doesn’t have a greenhouse, it has a large hoop house — an uninsulated sheltered space — and she covers some plants with low tunnels made of plastic tube arches encased by a plastic sheet, to protect crops that thrive in winter, like spinach and lettuce. 

morales said it is beneficial for people’s health to eat organically, avoiding exposure to pesticides and fertilizers.  

“knowing that your food is being harvested the day of … that it didn’t have to travel in refrigeration for a whole week before it comes to your plate, all those things are big factors for people to get the most nutrients,” morales said. 

a communal effort

community gardens are another very common way of tackling food insecurity. the urban growers collective (ugc) supports access to fresh foods by growing abundant produce year-round in two south side community gardens — located in schafer park and jackson park — and eight urban farms predominantly on the south side. the organization also provides community members with job training and workshops on growing food.

laurell sims, co-ceo of the organization, said it is very important to hire local residents to work in the urban farm communities and keep a consistent program going without fully relying on volunteers.

“there’s really low food access, in particularly [disinvested] black and brown communities [of] chicago, so predominantly on the south side, but also on the west side,” sims said. “when you’re really having to choose between paying rent or your heat, or our high quality produce, produce is going to be the last thing on your list.”

ugc’s produce is only available through farmers markets, their fresh moves mobile market bus, and their collective supported agriculture program.

the fresh moves mobile market — which has produce and pantry items like beans and pasta — is a chicago transit authority bus converted into a farmers market used to target areas with higher need of fresh groceries, to shorten the food gap in chicago. the market is run by ugc farmers and the bus route is posted on its instagram, which you can follow for updates. the bus has a $10 voucher for first-time shoppers, and distributed $169,000 worth of free food to people in need, sims said.

“[urban gardening] gives folks a place to be able to grow their own and to have food autonomy, and includes beauty in the city,” sims said. “i think it’s really helped to foster a better living environment for the folks living in chicago.”

the farm itself, just off of storefront-lined lawrence avenue, interrupts the cityscape, appearing like a lush jungle apparition. 

although the farm has “training” in its official name, linda seyler, the director of the farm, says that there’s not much that she or farm manager haley lerand have to teach them. 

“they were farmers in their home country. they’re the best farmers i’ve ever met,” seyler says. 

their training does, however, focus on preparing farmers for chicago’s climate, as well as introducing new crops that the farmers might not be familiar with, such as swiss chard. 

than naing oo, one of global garden’s market farmers, says “kale, chard, spring onion, they love the cold.”

lerand says that farmers might not be immediately excited about growing more typical american produce, but that it eventually grows on them. in fact, she says some market farmers might not have even tried eating some of the american vegetables that they grow. 

naing oo, on the other hand, is curious, and although he didn’t initially like arugula, he’ll eat it after pickling it in a brine of water, dried rice, and salt. 

naing oo has been selling his yields as a market farmer for two years now, but has been farming with global garden since its inception in 2012. 

farm essentials for a global community

before coming to the u.s., naing oo spent 20 years in a refugee camp in thailand. he is karen (pronounced kah-ren), an ethnic identity that is a point of contention in myanmar due to karen people’s ongoing persecution in the country. most farmers at global garden – about 75% in fact – are refugees from myanmar (previously burma). many of them dislike being referred to as burmese, a term that challenges their people’s sovereignty.

farmers like naing oo have brought traditional fruits and vegetables to chicago to grow in their garden, while also integrating local cultivars. known as his “signature” are chinese long beans, which he likes to prepare in a salad with fish sauce, lime, and other veggies.

in late september, he had picked his plants bare, taking what he could before the end of market season.

amaranth is another popular crop with the farmers, including naing oo. it is indigenous to the americas, but is mostly seen as a weed.

“if you had a corn or soybean farmer come and visit they would look at us like we’re crazy for cultivating it,” lerand says. but she explains that amaranth is more nutritious than spinach, and farmers often use it for stir frying.

another common fruit on the farm is bitter melon, which lerand says is most commonly used for medicinal purposes. farmers might eat it with eggs, or if they’re really brave, on its own, because, as seyler says, “it is really bitter.”

naing oo makes a soup with water, garlic, bitter melon leaf, and squash flowers steeped in hot water, which he says is good for digestion. he says he isn’t much of a cook though, and likes to bring the ingredients home for his wife to make.

also on the farm, naing oo likes to grow thai chilis, a popular farm snack that farmers tend to eat on its own raw or wrapped in bitter melon leaf to eat with their stir-fried vegetables and rice – common in lunch boxes. 

lerand says that there’s lots of sharing of cuttings and seeds on the farm, creating a sense of community. naing oo was able to get hingala seeds, a plant that’s native to myanmar, from another farmer at global garden. 

“and pretty soon, you have people from all different cultures growing a particular plant, which is really cool to see,” lerand says.

sustaining in spite of it all

but things don’t always work smoothly on the farm. seyler says that they expect a lot of turnover at the garden, as she says there’s “a natural loss of participants.”

“they end up moving out of chicago, because it’s expensive to be here and hard to figure out how to buy a house here, and they don’t need our little garden plot anymore,” seyler says.

she also cited the previous presidential administration for the reduced participation after former president trump put caps on the amount of refugees who could enter the united states. even this year, the biden administration has missed the mark on refugee admissions, with only 20% of the allocated spots being filled.

while the farm wants to prioritize newly arrived refugees, most farmers have been with them for years, with the newest family joining three years earlier. seyler and lerand are happy with the community space the farm has also been able to provide.

lerand says that she and seyler have hopes of finding another plot of land in chicago to expand farming opportunities. global garden refugee training farm is not the first refugee agricultural project in the u.s., but it is important that spaces like this one continue to be created for farmers like naing oo so they can stay connected to their traditions.

“it’s really healing to be able to tend to a space where food comes from,” said woods, shoveling fistfuls of leafy greens into bins. “you put love in and you get love out.”

woods is 24 years old and is part of a nonprofit urban farming program in omaha, nebraska called big muddy urban farm, which houses burgeoning young farmers rent-free, hands them $10,000 and a few urban plots, and guides them to build a business plan to pay back the loan. then, they get to growing.

“it’s like a simulation of a business,” woods said. the aspiring farmers get to hop in for a year with a financial safety net from years before if profits don’t cover costs.

the program minimizes some of the financial barriers that keep potential farmers from entering the industry, like low profit. many farmers have a working partner to make up a living income every year or a second job, like woods, who raps and produces freelance videos.

for producers, small-scale urban operations also avoid the financial challenges of buying swaths of expensive cropland. these farmers can’t grow enough food to fill huge orders, so they’re dependent on small and individual buyers.

about 50 to 60 customers buy from big muddy’s community supported agriculture. avenues to fresh produce are needed in the omaha-council bluffs metro area, where 9% of people live in a food desert, according to the landscape, a data collection project of the omaha community foundation.

nationally, 4% of people live in a food desert, an area where at least 1 in 3 live at least a mile from a grocery store and 1 in 5 people live below the poverty line.

wide lens a third of the globe lives in urban areas, according to a 2020 report from un habitat, which predicts that share will grow to 39% by 2035. at the same time, global demand for food will increase 70% by 2050, predicts the world bank.

money is a concern for producers, too. the farmers in big muddy’s program, like many young farmers, pick up odd jobs to keep their budget sheets in the black. the usda census reports that 65% of young farmers have a primary occupation other than farming.

with enough land, “i can grow as much food as i want, but if there’s nobody to buy it then i’m not going to make any money,” woods said.

a ‘big safety net’

when sophia cooper was a kid, she would catch fish in her hands in the trash-filled creek by her house in council bluffs, iowa. as a 20-year-old, she talked about that love of kicking around outside all day, and channeled that into her own farming and volunteer work, introducing kids in omaha to gardening and growing food.

“we always think kids aren’t paying attention, but they’re so good outside,” she said. “they’ll dig in the soil, they don’t care if they’re dirty. they have no cares.”

cooper is another resident at big muddy, and a senior at university of nebraska omaha, where she studies secondary education. she said she has options for what to do in the future, like teaching, wool farming, or cannabis farming, but she has to factor-in how to make a living.

the initial costs of starting a farm are daunting. “farmland typically stays within families for years and years, and then it’s expensive,” she said. “if you don’t have access to income already, then you’re just not going to get it. you’re just never going to be able to buy it.”

only 4% of farmland was expected to be sold from 2014 to19, according to a usda report, with 38% of those sales between relatives. 

wide lens lending to smallholder farmers is difficult, according to the world bank, which estimated in 2014 that their lending avenues were reaching less than 10 percent of smallholders.

cooper says free rent and land from big muddy are a big help, but she still works tutoring and waitressing gigs on the side.

woods said he knows people who are interested in starting their own farms, but it’s just too expensive for them to get started. for him, it’s a “big safety net” to not have to pay for rent and land, he said.

he could make the move to farming because “i didn’t put any risk into it,” he said.

representation matters

woods had been interested in sustainable agriculture before he ever considered farming in nebraska, but didn’t see people of color represented in his community until he took an online class run by ron finley, a black urban farmer and fashion designer.

“i was like, ‘oh, black people can grow food,’” woods said.

black farmers in america have historically faced significant social and economic barriers to owning and operating their own land. after emancipation, the u.s. government failed to implement a land settlement plan, leaving many former slaves with no economically viable option for buying land, according to a usda report.

the decades following saw mixed progress for black farmers. land ownership increased, but most black farmers faced “economic stagnation” fueled by racist jim crow laws, according to the report. and while the new deal of the 1930s shored up subsidies for white farmers, black farm ownership decreased from lack of access to those programs.

today, only 5% of american farmers are people of color, according to the usda census, though their numbers grew  7.5% from 2012 to 2017.

young, diverse farmers need to see their peers in the farming community, woods said. until finley’s class, he couldn’t see farming in his future. woods said, “i always thought agriculture was important, i just never could see myself being the person to do it.”

cooper wound her way under the beaming july sun through omaha’s gifford park neighborhood, where big muddy’s plots are scattered like neat, leafy vistas. she skirted behind a house to arrive at one of the farm’s chicken coops.

“it’s very hard to find a space,” she said, surveying the chickens. “being a woman, being a woman of color, like, where do i get accepted in this field?”

back at the house, woods finished packing up his kale for susan safia. she’s the founder of life elixir juice and a young, black woman. they packed the greens into safia’s car and haggled congenially for a moment over the price.

“the things that i can find locally, i really want to support because it helps my business,” she said. “i can say that this produce came locally.”

woods said he sees more and more people interested in where their food comes from. “i think people are just getting tired of living (a) life where they don’t actually get to connect with the earth,” he said.

across the street, the rows of cucumbers, melons, and squash that woods tends ate up the summer sun.

“you know, there’s something good even in just having your own backyard vegetable garden,” he said. sustainable, regenerative farming — “it’s the only right way to farm.” 

—

about this series: the planet forward-fao summer storytelling fellows work was sponsored by the north america office of the food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao), and the fellows were mentored by lisa palmer, gw’s national geographic professor of science communication and author of “hot, hungry planet.”

countries like kenya will need to reimagine their food systems to feed a growing urban population with fewer farmers. as food security concerns grow for the city of nairobi, farmers like francis wachira are transforming urban lots into highly productive green spaces to raise livestock, grow vegetables, and fight climate change. cities like nairobi will depend on urban farmers like francis to produce sustainable food systems to confront this growing food security crisis.

francis dreams of a world where more urban residents produce their own food to escape poverty and fight climate change. will others adopt his model of urban farming to feed the future of nairobi? learn from francis and see how urban farming can help 2022年卡塔尔世界杯官网 .

“the volume of trash we’re creating is a problem,” said sam wetzel, the executive director of common good city farm. “the most important thing for people to know is there is no such thing as ‘away;’ when things are thrown away they must go somewhere.”

without oxygen to help discarded food break down, organic materials buried in landfills release methane, a greenhouse gas that can trap 30 times the amount of heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

the epa reports that landfills accounted for 16% of u.s. methane emissions in 2016, totaling approximately 108 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent. as landfills run out of space and the atmosphere continues to heat as the result of human activity, it is clear the one-size-fits-all approach to waste disposal is no longer feasible. wetzel sees urban composting programs, such as the one provided by common good, as a crucial component to changing the fate of food scraps.

common good is located in washington d.c.’s ledroit park—a usda-certified food desert. the farm is bordered on one side by expensive townhouses and a public housing project on the other. under wetzel’s leadership, the farm serves as a place for people from all sectors of the community to come together to grow vegetables, buy produce, and compost.

wetzel oversees common good’s two composting programs. the farm has what wetzel calls its three-bin “lasagna composting” system, where plant clippings from maintaining the farm are stacked in layers and turned every several months as they break down. for processing food waste brought in by members of the neighborhood, common good also houses a compost-cooperative, one of several the district’s department of parks and recreation has established over the past few years.

“the best thing about the co-op is that members of the community keep the whole thing running,” wetzel said. her job is to ensure the co-op is equipped for success by providing the space, materials, and training manuals for the program. in return, the fertile soil produced by the composting system helps nourish common good’s crops.

composting creates the ideal environment for naturally occurring microbes to break down organic materials, expediting decomposition while maximizing the nutrients in the resulting soil. turning compost piles from time to time allows oxygen to become part of the decomposition process, which is crucial to the reduction of methane output.

“the aerobic process of composting does not produce methane because methane-producing microbes are not active in the presence of oxygen,” according to western australia’s department of primary industries and regional development.

wetzel sees composting not only as a way to reduce humanity’s output of greenhouse gases, but also as a way to restore the planet’s natural processes in order to feed future generations of plants, and ultimately, humans.

“the earth needs to eat like everything else,” wetzel said. she explains that by composting fruit and vegetable scraps instead of sending them to landfill, individuals give these natural materials the opportunity to break down into nutrients, allowing them to come full circle and “feed the plants as well as feed the soil itself.”

rebecca goodstein, a member of common good’s board of directors, said that small urban farms serve not only as a way to build community, but also provide opportunities for education on the importance of farming and composting. an avid composter, she used to have a worm compost bin under the kitchen sink in her studio apartment.

in order to address the country’s food waste and climate crisis, it is important to make people “aware of how to use the food they have,” goodstein said. she believes that learning to use food properly means not only wasting less, but also properly disposing of any unused pieces, like banana peels and carrot tops.

she hopes that composting will one day become a standard part of municipal waste management, as she has seen successfully employed in places like berkeley, california, where curbside compost pickup is the norm.

“[in berkeley] even people who aren’t super environmentally-friendly compost because that is just the standard practice,” said goodstein.

while it may be a while before municipalities fully embrace composting on the necessary scale, local programs continue to fill the gap between what is needed in waste management and what the government has yet to provide. compost cooperatives, and community gardens that often run such programs, can be found in cities and towns nationwide. the first page of google results for “compost co-op” includes programs in philadelphia, baltimore, oklahoma city, and greenfield, ma. typing “new york city” into the american community gardening association’s “find a garden” search engine yields over 250 results.

currently, about thirty people bring their food waste to common good to be composted at the co-op, producing about six cubic yards of fertile soil annually.

while the environmental impact may seem incremental on such a small-scale farm, each person participating in a small composting program ultimately is still part of the aggregate solution, said wetzel. “those things add up. it all makes an impact.”

meet free salad

free salad is one small part of this growth. they are a recently formed student organization at the university of wisconsin-madison dedicated to embracing and spreading the hydroponics movement. lucas peterson, the organization’s co-founder, shared his dream of a hydroponics-driven future: “every home could have the technology and knowhow to sustainably grow some of its own food supply.”

hydroponics 101

for those uninitiated, hydroponics is an alternative method of agricultural production that doesn’t rely on soil, and can be done in confined spaces indoors. hydroponics systems facilitate plant growth through a constant flow of nutrient-infused water. plants are commonly suspended in a trough with their roots reaching down into the water flow, gathering as many nutrients as needed. meanwhile, natural sunlight is replaced by led lighting.

the water flow system is what makes a hydroponics project so efficient and effective when compared to traditional soil farming. chief among its benefits is the constant recycling of the nutrient water throughout the system. because of this, farming with hydroponics results in 99% less water use than its soil counterpart. additionally, there’s no fertilizer runoff, representing a tangible improvement over soil farming in regards to the health of waterways.

the increased efficiency of hydroponics farms also leads to considerably higher crop yields and faster growing rates. these benefits, coupled with a decreased spatial requirement compared to soil farming make smaller-scale hydroponics systems ideal for urban agriculture, peterson explained. he continued, “this is sustainable everywhere, and the range of crops you can grow is almost limitless.”

growing a movement

“hydroponics is much more accessible today than the average person realizes.”

peterson and his two co-founders, in collaboration with roughly a dozen other students, are working to spread awareness of hydroponics’ potential through a variety of community education and outreach projects, as well as the development of their own on-campus hydroponics farm. tucked away in a storage area of a campus-associated building, free salad builds, tests and modifies a range of hydroponics systems.

after only two months of development, the current efficiency and size of free salad’s farm is only a fraction of the group’s long term goals, but the results are already tangible. using only donated supplies and a little diy construction, the team has created a functioning farm, and is growing real produce.

free salad will soon begin construction on a second story in their tower garden setup. this style, referred to as vertical farming, capitalizes on the small footprint of hydroponics systems, maximizing the growing potential of limited spaces. once completed, the addition will double the system’s total yield.

“hydroponics is much more accessible today than the average person realizes,” peterson said. he estimated the total cost of the tower garden pictured at roughly $100, including the water pump at the heart of the fixture.

as a part of their community outreach plan, free salad will be distributing tomato plant seedlings in miniaturized hydroponics systems at a community event. peterson and the rest of the group believe that direct public exposure like this will achieve two of their primary goals: broadly increasing awareness of hydroponics itself, and increasing food access. free salad also has plans to work with local schools, introducing hydroponics systems into classrooms and educating younger students about its applications in agriculture.

addressing hunger & nutrition

free salad’s education and outreach efforts come at a critical time, with dane county’s department of public health reporting that 11.8% of people, and 17.5% of children in the county face food insecurity. peterson and others share the belief that hydroponics seems poised to be an answer, or at the very least a part of the solution to pervasive issues like food deserts and insecurity.

the u.s. department of agriculture defines food deserts as areas that lack access to affordable foods that make up a full and healthy diet. this issue disproportionately affects low-income and minority areas where grocery stores are replaced with fast food and convenience stores offering only primarily sugar-filled, processed foods.

hydroponics seems poised to be an answer, or at the very least a part of the solution to pervasive issues like food deserts and insecurity.

while also affecting rural areas, food deserts are especially troublesome in urban areas, where population density is greater. free salad is looking to raise awareness and contribute to the eradication of the more than five local food deserts in the greater madison area.

this issue is not unique to madison either, affecting 23.5 million americans in total as of 2010, many of them residing in urban areas like chicago, new orleans, san francisco, atlanta, and other populous urban areas, according to the usda.

what’s standing in the way?

hydroponics is not without its obstacles and drawbacks. peterson was frank that the future of the technology is highly dependent on a widespread shift to renewable energy sources. the energy costs for large scale growth can be enormous, especially for certain crops like corn and tomatoes. this makes hydroponics operations difficult to scale, and renders their environmental benefit questionable in areas without access to renewable energy.

“the biggest barrier to hydroponics being mainstream is a lack of public awareness,” peterson said. this is why he believes so strongly in the work that free salad, and other groups like it, are doing. growing the hydroponics movement, inspiring others to embrace the technology and help its spread, this is the ultimate goal of free salad, peterson explained.

despite these challenges, peterson is unwavering in his dream of hydroponics’ future: everyday people approaching their local administration for change, creating their own organizations to continue learning, or simply experimenting with growing. he believes that with efforts like free salad’s around the country and globe an inflection point could occur, and a widespread embrace of local foods and sustainable, accessible eating could be on the horizon.