A Farm for Brewerytown

I am sure most people have heard bits and pieces about the Marathon Farm coming to Brewerytown. Well, last night we attended a very well attended public meeting regarding this project at the Greater Brewerytown CDC, and learned so many details that our mind is spinning! Marathon Grill owner Cary Borish spoke first, and he focused on his restaurant's motivations in backing this project.

I think there's an extremely positive movement going on in the Philadelphia region of people being more thoughtful about what they are putting in their bodies and the impact that it's having on the environment," says Borish. "I think it's extremely important, and it feels great to be a part of it.

He also spoke about how he does not wants this to be a farm that happens to be located in Brewerytown, but rather that it be Brewerytown's farm. Lastly, he emphasized that the farm will be a physically beautiful space.

Following up on that point, Patrick Dunn spoke about the many many programs and classes he is planning, including food preservation, cooking healthy on a budget, composting, rain water collection, youth programs, general gardening, bee keeping and so many more. In this task he was helped by the multiple suggestions from the neighborhood residents who attended.

The audience was also very excited by the plans for community spaces. There will both a pocket park for the community to use, as well as dedicated community garden plots. We have a copy of the application for the community plots, so anyone who is interested can email us for a copy.

Given that they are doing so much for our community, we should all return the favor by coming out to volunteer for their construction.

Long story short, this farm is going to be amazing for Brewerytown, and anyone living here will be gaining an incredible neighbor!

Great Piece on Urban Farming For Ecnonomic Development of Cities

Here is a great article from The Infrastructurist on urban farming as a tool for urban redevelopment. As we have posted before we strongly believe small and medium scale urban farming would work great in Philadelphia as the city has lots of vacant lots which are ideal for urban farming as a way to land bank for future development, improve fresh food options in inner city neighborhoods, create jobs and community and support of the buy local movement.

The article mentions Greensgrow Farms here in Philadelphia which is an amazing operation.

More on Detroit's Urban Farming Plan - Model for Other Cities?

Detroit seems to be moving forward with plans to demolish huge portions of the city to get rid of areas that are nothing but wastelands. The idea is to move the remaining residents out of the desolate areas of the city into areas that are still viable. The vacant land will then be turned over to Hantz Farms to create a huge urban farm - creating jobs, generating taxes, bringing fresh food to the inner city and creating tourism. This has been getting a lot coverage lately in business magazines as Hantz will be a for profit farm.

Check out a few stories:

Grist Magazine
Fortune Magazine
Fast Company
Hantz Farms Home Page

MM Partners Loves Urban Farming - Brewerytown needs some farms

MM Partners really likes the concept of urban farming and believes its a great use for vacant land for many reasons:

• better use of vacant land
• better for storm water run off
• return tax delinquent properties to tax rolls
• great way to redevelop fringe neighborhoods where there are an abundance of scary, overgrown lots currently used for short dumping and who knows what else
• who wouldnt want a farm as a neighbor to look out at?
• creates local jobs
• introduce better fresh foods into many neighborhoods

The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is Philadelphia is a great place for urban farming. There are a number people throughout the area already doing it, here a few great links:

http://urbandirection.blogspot.com/2010/02/urban-farming-links.html
http://era-errant.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-agventure.html

Brewerytown is an ideal neighborhood to try this out, we would welcome anyone interested to contact us.

Investor Pitches Turning Detroit Into a Massive Urban Farm

what a great use for vacant urban land - creates jobs, rids blight, gets fresh food into cities, cuts down on the long distance transport of fresh food....... read the whole story here.

Detroit was once the 4th largest city in America and it held the title of Motor City because most of America’s cars came from there. Flash forward 40 years, and Detroit’s population has dwindled from a high of 2 million people to just over 800,000. The average price for a home in Detroit is $15,000, the lowest in the country. With so many empty spaces, criminals have no shortage of hideouts and drug factories. And with America’s auto industry still reeling from the recession, as well as having outsourced many jobs to other states (or countries), the future looks bleak for Detroit’s long-deferred recovery.

Unless one millionaire gets his way, and turns the city into farms. Yes, farms.

John Hantz is one of the few remaining millionaires in Detroit, where the median family income is under $30,000. And the urban sprawl that Detroit encompasses is larger than Boston, Manhattan, and San Francisco combined. There is a lot of unused land in Detroit. This John Hantz thinking about how to use all of that vacant land. He is pitching a proposal to turn Detroit into a modern farming community. I think he might be on to something.