Dig This: Urban Farming in Rochester, New York

I was coming out of the open market in downtown Rochester NY when I saw it; a vegetable garden. Seemingly out of nowhere. Smack dab in the middle of an empty field where only weeks before had stood a condemned house was now a neatly mapped out garden. And right in the middle of downtown Rochester, NY.

Welcome to urban gardening. Lots of folks tout it as the latest ecological "in" thing, but do a little digging and you'll discover that the roots of urban gardening hark back to World War I and II when "victory gardens" were all the rage.

Planting in the Concrete Jungle

Urban gardening seems like such a radical concept but in all actuality, city dwellers have been growing gardens for years. It's just that the urban gardening movement has left the rooftops, balconies and sundecks of the inner-city and planted itself (no pun intended) at the grassroots level.

According to the awesome urban farming blog Sprouts in the Sidewalk, urban farming is "…growing food for urban markets in close proximity to where a community of people lives, specifically in and around the perimeter of cities and towns…"

If You Can Plant It, It Will Grow

In Rochester, NY, as I suspect is the case in many other cities, the potential for urban farming is largely untapped. But that is beginning to change. Certainly, the lions-share of urban farmers is not farming to make a profit. They are farming to feed mouths. But the potential of urban agriculture as a money-making enterprise is impressive.

Consider that intensive urban agriculture can yield several times as much produce per area as rural agriculture (Sprouts 2010) while using a lot less water and land. Urban farming can help to absorb some of the urban solid and liquid waste, helping the city to reduce its waste management problems and costs.

And don't think these efforts are going un-noticed. According to homefarming.com, a recently signed New York State bill exempts rooftop greenhouses from being counted toward buildings' height and floor area measurements. The greenhouses will join structures like roof tanks, air-conditioning equipment and chimneys as apparatus that are not factored into buildings' official totals, easing limitations on the construction inner-city rooftop gardens.

Commented New York City Council spokesperson Christine C. Quinn, "…Even in a city as highly developed as New York, urban farms are growing at an astounding rate. This legislation aligns itself with this trend, making it easier for New Yorkers to grow their own food…"

It's About More than Just Food

Rochester New York is like a lot of modern metropolis: a heady mix of good areas and bad. Where development has stagnated in some areas and excelled in others. Urban farming is becoming more than just a novelty - being used as much as a tool for social change as it is a method to grow food.

Who Benefits

Admit it: you're curious. All of a sudden growing carrots on your balcony doesn't sound like such a bad idea does it. According to the Sprouts in the Sidewalk blog, the benefits of urban agriculture can positively affect a city socially, economically and ecologically:

Socially, urban farming creates better living environment by greening up the city and making it more productive.

Urban farming puts the responsibility of "food security" into the hands of you and me. In other words, it makes citizens more independent and empowered and even teaches people life skills such as how to be more self sufficient.

Environmentally urban agriculture "greens up" a city. It helps to clean air and rain water in additon to helping to stop soil erosion and topsoil removal. And not only that, urban farming increases the amount of food grown and bought locally.

Economically urban farming can create jobs and income from what is often completely unproductive space and makes use of valuable resources, such as compost, that would otherwise go to waste in a city.

Urban farming puts a whole new spin on the term "going green" and Rochester NY is not the only city that's putting down new roots for its future.