Under “Food Apartheid,” Urban Farms Are More Important Than Ever
Drawing upon interviews with 37 farmers from all across the country—34 of whom were Black—her team outlined the myriad benefits that urban farms offer their communities.
By Jeff Turrentine
NRDC
Apr 28, 2023
Excerpt:
Nearly a quarter of Indianapolis residents live in what has been termed a “food desert,” typically defined as an urban area where at least a third of the local population lives more than a mile from a grocery store. Of the 208,000 residents without easy access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and protein, the vast majority are people of color. Such circumstances are mirrored in cities across the country, in a phenomenon that might more accurately be described as “food apartheid.”
Urban farms represent one solution to the problem. But farmers and would-be farmers face seemingly insurmountable barriers to getting such projects off the ground. Topping that list of barriers are land access and financing, as well as onerous zoning codes that don’t fully take the needs and desires of local communities into account.
“These are the kinds of things that come up for urban farmers all the time,” says Francine Miller, a senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty member at the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law & Graduate School. In 2022, she worked with a trio of law students to craft a set of policy recommendations that municipal governments could adopt to help urban farmers, and especially urban farmers of color, grow and distribute fresh food. Drawing upon interviews with 37 farmers from all across the country—34 of whom were Black—her team outlined the myriad benefits that urban farms offer their communities.
