For all those people who told you urban farming isn’t “real” farming or said your operation was too small to make a difference or earn an income, you now have something to fight back with.
Nearly a fifth of the world’s food come from city farms, and more than 800 million people are growing it, Elizabeth Royte writes in article recently run on Ensia. Take that, Mr. Neighbor who mows over your front-yard bed of lettuce and files noise complaints about your backyard flock!
According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, urban farmers worldwide have a number of things going for them (besides, of course, having tasty, wholesome food right outside the doorstep):
- They help make food available at a low cost to those who can’t afford it.
- They’re cutting down on food miles by cutting out the middleman.
- They’re creating jobs for women and underserved groups.
Yeah, you heard that right. Urban farmers are creating jobs! (We all know that’s the topic of the moment.)
“Urban agriculture will truly emerge as one of this country’s most visible economic and cultural forces in 2015,” said Robert Puro, co-founder of Seedstock, the nation’s leading information, consulting and networking company promoting innovation in urban and sustainable agriculture.”We’ll see strong job growth, continued innovation, more commercial-scale farming in cities and greater production numbers of locally grown food.”
As an urban farmer yourself, you’re probably already well aware of how fantastic urban farming is. Now you can forward this to the naysayers around you, and drive the point home further.
