- Author: Melissa Poulsen, MPH (PhD Candidate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
If you were to start an urban farm in a neighborhood, what would be your first step? Obtaining a lease for the land? Testing for soil contamination? Clearing out the accumulated trash? These are important steps. But an additional step should be considered first—that is, gaining the support of the local community.
Considering the multifaceted benefits of urban agriculture, it may seem counterintuitive that city residents would not welcome an urban farm with open arms. However, the idea of farming in a city (which differs from urban gardening in its emphasis on income-generating agricultural activity) can seem strange—and potentially deleterious—to local residents. We interviewed city residents, neighborhood leaders, and urban farmers to discover the strategies urban farmers use to obtain community support for their projects. Here are some highlights:
If you found this useful, check out this report to see additional recommendations for gaining local support for urban farming (a summary is also available).
Community buy-in for urban farms July2014 Full report
Community buy-in for urban farms July2014 Summary
- Author: Susan Algert, , PhD, RD, Nutrition Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension
A high vegetable intake is associated with a better quality diet that is lower in calories and higher in fiber, and yet, access to fresh vegetables is a major public health problem in the United States. As a result, national health surveys indicate that children and adolescents are eating fewer vegetables than is recommended for optimal health. Vegetable consumption falls well below the US Dietary Guidelines in much of the US, particularly among African American, Latino, low educational attainment, and low income populations.
Community gardens are a well-documented solution to increasing intake of fresh vegetables in the US. Unfortunately, community gardens are not common in many low income communities and cash strapped households have neither the time nor access to transportation to travel to a community garden. Home gardens are another solution to improving access to fresh produce and enhancing community food security in poor communities. However, research on the ability of home gardens to increase intake of fresh vegetables by participants is sparse, most likely due to the informal nature of home gardens as well as their enclosed and private nature.
UCCE researchers conducted a project to compare participant background characteristics, vegetable intake and program benefits of two different forms of urban gardens in San Jose, CA: the home garden versus the community garden. The study was a partnership with the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department of the City of San Jose and La Mesa Verde (LMV), a project of Sacred Heart Community Services of San Jose. The UCCE research group worked with the Parks Department to administer a 30 question background survey to 83 community gardeners in 4 different gardens during April through September 2012. The same survey, slightly modified, was administered to a group of 50 home gardeners participating in Sacred Heart's LMV project between September 2013 and April 2014.
A comparison analysis of the two surveys produced some interesting results. The group of home gardeners were significantly younger, lower income, less likely to have completed college and more ethnically diverse than the group of community gardeners. In other words, the background characteristics of the two groups varied significantly. In spite of these significant demographic differences, both groups increased their vegetable consumption from the garden to the same extent (1.9 +/- 0.9 additional servings per person per day for home gardeners versus 2.0 +/- 0.8 additional servings per person per day for the community gardeners). In fact, both groups met the US Dietary Guidelines for recommended daily servings of vegetables to promote optimal health when eating from their gardens.
The two study groups differed also in their years of experience as gardeners. Fifty eight percent of home/LMV gardeners reported having less than two years of experience whereas only 33% of community gardeners were novices. The top three benefits reported by home gardeners were fresh air, stress release, and instruction in gardening basics. Community gardeners reported their top benefits as exercise, meeting with friends and learning from other gardeners.
Results of this survey demonstrate that growing fresh vegetables in either a home or community garden setting contributes significantly to nutritional intake and food security at all income levels by encouraging a healthy more affordable diet. Urban gardeners also experience a number of other benefits including exercise, stress release, and learning about gardening from their peers and mentors.
Students also learn how to be financially adept entrepreneurs through weekly classes from Patricia about how to run a successful business. Students and the two adult garden/farm managers go together to sell the produce at restaurants and learn about what it takes to produce and sell a high quality, consistent product. By the end of their five-month, paid internship on the farm, the students have learned a lot!
This fall, we will start planning with WOW Farms and the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Urban Ag team to do a youth-led Urban Ag tour. The youth will conduct the tours and highlight what they've accomplished at three or four urban ag sites in the Bay Area. In partnership with UA team member, Kathryn De Master and 4-H leader, Karen Bryce, we are organizing several youth training events to prepare students for how to lead the UA tours with confidence. In Northern California, up to three other UA organizations who work with youth will also send a few youth to the trainings and their operations will be stops on the tour. The purpose is to create leadership development opportunities for and with youth to empower them to describe and advocate for their urban ag programs. Another purpose is to more effectively bring together UC Cooperative Extension and community-based organizations to learn from each other.
In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we'd like to highlight several important resources available from UC IPM to help Spanish-speaking audiences manage pests and apply pesticides safely.
For our Spanish-speaking urban audiences, several short videos on common pests such as ants, spiders, snails, bed bugs, and mosquitoes are available as well as Quick Tips (Notas Breves) offering advice on many pest problems and information on using pesticides safely. There are also 16 touch-screen computer kiosks located in various locations around the state where users can find pest and pesticide information in English or Spanish.
For maintenance gardeners preparing to take the California Department of Pesticide Regulation's Pesticide Applicators exam in the category Q, UC IPM offers a study guide and free online training course in Spanish.
For agriculture audiences, there are several pesticide safety-related books and DVDs available as well as guidelines for managing strawberry pests.
National Hispanic Heritage Month actually originated in 1968 as “Hispanic Heritage Week.” In 1988, it was expanded to an entire month-long event in order to include many important historical events such as the anniversary of independence of Mexico, Chile, and several Central American countries (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua). It ends after Columbus Day.
For more on other pest management and pesticide safety information available, please see the UC IPM Web site.
- Author: Andrew M Sutherland, SF Bay Area Urban IPM Advisor
Every year, California receives, on average, six new exotic invasive pests of concern; that's about one new pest every 60 days. These may be plants, insects or other arthropods, mollusks, plant pathogens such as fungi and bacteria, vertebrates, or any other organism not native to our state and with the capacity to negatively impact agriculture, urban environments and/or natural ecosystems. These invasive pests enter California on plant material and other biological substrates, as hitchhikers on trade goods and in ship ballast water, and sometimes even because of smuggling operations. Without the natural enemies that kept them in check in their native lands, they are free to reproduce and wreak havoc. Such pest invasions may then lead to destruction or alteration of habitat, loss of agricultural trade revenues, pronounced losses in agricultural production, and increases in pesticide applications.
The best way to combat such invasions may be through robust exclusion, inspection, early detection, and quarantine programs. Once established, they are best managed using classical and conservation biological control and the decision-making process of integrated pest management (IPM), described in detail in an earlier blog post. Urban agricultural environments are not immune to these invasions and may even be more at risk since urban environments contain many likely routes of introduction and have often been identified as point sources for invasive pests. In this article we will review the biology, ecology, and management of three recent pests that may increasingly be found in urban gardens and other urban ag environments.
PESTNOTES - UC IPM Online: Asian Citrus Psyllid and Huanglongbing Disease
Center for Invasive Species Research: Asian Citrus Psyllid
UC scientists release a natural enemy of Asian citrus psyllid
PEST NOTES - UC IPM Online: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Pest Alert - UC IPM Online: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Center for Invasive Species Research: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
PEST NOTES - UC IPM Online: Bagrada Bug