More on the Urban Farm Debate...

It’s as if the editors and writers at Buffalo News were planning for the question I posed at the end of yesterday’s blog. It’s as if they decided to answer it and so much more in an article in today’s paper. The Stevens family may just get their wish to farm on a vacant East Side lot, assuming a lease arrangement with the city gets approved. The city desires to hold onto the land, eyeing it as a locale for future subsidized housing or Habitat for Humanity construction.

For the meantime, the Stevens may be able to grow their crops while the city decides what to do with the land. And let’s face it: nothing gets done quickly in Buffalo. There’ll be bickering and the back-and-forth rhetoric about zoning, legislation, funding, etc. that typifies any development project in this city. At least while the powers at city hall duke it out, something productive can be done with the land.

At the end of my blog yesterday I posted my concerns about soil quality and the effect this could have on any produce grown on a brownfield. Turns out the Stevens addressed that issue, saying they plan to farm raised beds built from clean fill. So that at least addresses the quality and safety issues I raised—for now. Along with a sympathetic press, several reader letters supporting the Stevens were also published in the op-eds today. One letter made a (weak in my opinion) case against farming in urban areas, something about smelly fertilizers and other unpleasant byproducts of farming. Mr. Stevens claims to participate in all natural farming methods, eliminating the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and the like.

I think the Stevens should be given the “green” light to give this a try. Consider it an experiment in urban farming. As long as some careful rules and guidelines are followed, I think this could be a good start at finding a useful purpose for vacant lots not just in Buffalo, but in rust-belt towns all around the Northeast. And if it doesn’t work out, what does the city have to lose? They’re not paying for fill, seeds, or equipment. And a vegetable patch is much easier to bury and forget about than an old steel mill.