Urban Farms in Dallas Will Be Vital to a Healthier Population, City Officials Say
“We need local, healthy food to be a healthy population, and that’s in short supply,” he says. “We need to build that supply.”
By Kelly Dearmore
Dallas Observer
January 13, 2023
Excerpt:
“We’re looking at a variety of locations,” says Susan Alvarez, the assistant director of the OEQS. “The urban ag plan is one of the actions in our Dallas Climate Action plan, and as we look at predictors of increased temperatures and all the weirdness that is going on with California weather right now, we think there’s a push for what is called ‘contained environmental agriculture,’ which is just a fancy way of says ‘doing stuff inside.’”
The plan is a multi-pronged outline that includes elements aimed to meet some of the immediate needs of Dallas residents and to create a long-lasting, sustainable model for a future with cleaner air and plentiful fresh food options. Local food deserts, areas with no grocery stores selling fresh fruits, vegetables and other perishable items within a 5-mile radius, will benefit from this plan.
Under the the plan, food can be grown inside as well as outside at one of the city’s urban farms. As is the case with many local government initiatives, building awareness, increasing a network and garnering buy-in from the City Council is very much needed.
“We do have ‘buy local’ measures in the plan,” Alvarez says. “Those are intended to be rolled out once we get consistent growing and volumes that we can bring to market. We’re working with our Office of Economic Development on that store piece of the plan. Right now, I think we have less than 8% of our food that is grown locally.”
