POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE

A range of actions are necessary to ensure growers have the resources they need to enhance agricultural production in Philadelphia, from citywide policy changes to new programs and initiatives to help growers invest in improved infrastructure. At a citywide policy level, growers need supportive land policies. Zoning changes can provide institutional clarity, lend legitimacy, and standardize agricultural practices. Several US cities have passed zoning ordinances and other policies that Philadelphia can look to as models.

The City of Cleveland Urban Garden District ordinance includes regulations on permitting uses and structures, including greenhouses, hoop houses, chicken coops, beehives, rain barrels, and farm stands.48 Seattle’s highly detailed urban agriculture ordinance clarifies regulated uses and structures for urban food production and animal raising.49

Regulations should be based on a broad understanding of food production that includes culturally based, agroecological practices as well as training for code inspectors, who may not be familiar with these practices. Regulations must also be paired with financial assistance and support for navigating the new rules to ensure equitable outcomes for growers, and assistance must be distributed in a racially equitable way, so it reaches the communities most likely to be negatively impacted by new regulation.

It is important to also note the connection between food production and land security. Land insecurity has been the biggest barrier preventing communities from making capital and infrastructural investments in food production operations. In order to repair the systemic erosion of growing spaces across Philadelphia, growers need support installing improvements that have been prevented due to land insecurity, such as access to water, electricity, and building materials.

CASE STUDIES NEW YORK’S GREENTHUMB PROGRAM & BOSTON’S GRASSROOTS PROGRAM

New York City’s GreenThumb program supports community gardens through workshops, supplies, information, and connections to organizations and funding. GreenThumb also facilitates communication with the City if residents are interested in growing on a City-owned lot.50

In Boston, the Grassroots program provides funding up to $100,000 per project, City-owned land, and technical assistance to neighborhood garden groups in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.51 Both Grassroots and GreenThumb are successful examples of a City program that provides gardening resources to their residents.

“Rainbow Garden of Life and Health”, a communitygardenintheBronxmanagedby communitymembersundertheCityofNew York’sGreenThumbProgram.

Photocredit:PhillipKesterforGreenThumb