Proposal would protect backyard farming in Salem, Massachusetts
The draft ordinance does restrict the sale of items grown at home. They cannot be processed, manufactured or packaged like a product from a full-scale farm would be.
By Dustin Luca
Salem News
Feb 15, 2021
Excerpt:
A draft of an ordinance seeking to expand urban agriculture in Salem went before the City Council Thursday, in an effort to spark conversation about the plan before it is formally filed later this year.
The 14-page proposal rides on the success of the Mack Park Food Farm, a city-supported garden at Mack Park launched last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kerry Murphy, a Salem Health Department employee and one of several city officials who worked on the draft ordinance, said the idea of protecting and expanding agriculture in the city has been discussed for a while.
“And really, what we saw happen with the COVID pandemic were disruptions to the food supply, and all the interest in local growing that came out of that as a way to supplement families’ food budgets,” she said.
Andy Varela of Maitland Mountain Farm, Matthew Buchanan and Patrick Schultz with “Homegrown: Urban Abundance Gardening,” and members of the Salem Sustainability and Resilience Committee and Salem Public School’s food department also worked on the ordinance.
The ordinance would adjust city zoning “to allow high-yield food gardens and farms as accessory residential uses, and to allow community gardens, community farms and farming on municipal land.” Honey bee colonies, for instance, would fall under those categories.
“What specifically we’re focusing on with this urban agriculture ordinance is adding an accessory use to what residents in Salem can adopt in their own backyards,” said Varela, co-owner of Maitland Mountain Farm on Cedarcrest Avenue. “Us writing this ordinance is trying to figure out a way to give protections to local residents if they’re actually engaged in agriculture.”
