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Urban farming, the new way to handle unemployment? |
7 Comments |
| By Matt Mayer in Eating Local, Green Living, Urban Farming | May 17, 2011 | ||
Depending on which figures you choose to use, unemployment in America is approaching 20%, a figure that is quite remarkable. Â Fully 1/5 of the people in America who could be working are not currently working. Â I think urban farming could be this generation’s way to handle unemployment, sort of like a 2011 version of the CCC.
- Urban Farm in Chicago
When you are willing to trade your labor for less space and less machinery you can create an amazing income from a small land base.  SPIN farming is a method developed by a farming couple in Canada when they realized that they could make more money by growing intensively on less land if they grew the right crops at the right times.
They have a farm income calculator on their site that suggests that a farmer with 1/2 an acre can generate $24,000 in gross sales on the low end up to $72,000 on the high end. I think this is doable as well, but it does require a bit more marketing and growing of high value crops. We use a CSA model for our urban farm and I don’t think that will get us to those dollar figures because a CSA model is similar to a bulk food model vs. a model where you would grow exclusively high value crops like exotic green, radishes or beets for restaurants.
While the situation in Detroit is well known, the situation in other cities regarding vacant land is less well known. The Brookings Institute has placed the vacant land in Detroit at around 1/3 of the city area, of 40 sq miles.  I saw a
- Urban Farm in Cuba
different article that put the vacant space in the average city at around 14%. It’s higher in the south (around 19%) and lower in the Northeast (around 9%), but 14% of the space still works out to a pretty good chunk of area. According to this article about Pittsburgh the size of the 10 largest cities in America is 340 sq miles, with Pittsburgh coming in at 56 sq miles.
Using those figures we can put the vacant land size at 5.6 sq miles in Pittsburgh or 34 sq miles for the average city in the Top 10 of America. Â (Stay with me on the math here people) Â So if you take the top 10 of our largest cities they would represent 21,760 acres of vacant space per city (640 acres per sq miles * 34 sq miles). Â That would work out to 210,760 acres across those 10 cities.
Now, let’s attack Pittsburgh.  This article about Pittsburgh puts this city as the  56th largest city in America.  (this ranking is based on population size not land area)  I’m going to assume that the next 50 largest cities are all Pittsburgh’s size.  (I know this is crazy but I have to make some assumptions to make this work)  56*10% =5.6 sq miles per city * 50 cities = 280 sq miles.
640 acres per miles * 280 sq miles = 179,200 acres.
So, between these two figures we have 389,960 acres of land. Â (Let’s make it 390,000 to make things easy) Â If you use the figures that SPIN farming provides that means we could potentially create 780,000 new jobs by encouraging urban farming on this vacant land.
The most recent figure I have seen on unemployment puts the total number at 13.7 million people.  (I think is what the government calls unemployed which is not the number of people who are looking for job and quit, those who are no longer getting benefits and aren’t counted, and other factors).  By turning the vacant land in these top 60 cities into urban  farms we could lower the amount of unemployed in America by just under 6%, and would put the total number under 13 million.
A quick Google search puts the number of cities in America at around 25,000. Â I have discussed the top 60 size wise here. Â If we can assume for a minute that each one of those cities could support 1.5 sq miles of vacant then each city in America could, in theory, support 3 urban farms. Â 25,000*3 would be another 75,000 potential positions.
Now, I guess this wouldn’t completely take care of our unemployment problem given that it would “only” create around 860,000 new jobs.  It’s interesting though that an initiative like this would make urban farming the 2nd largest employer in America after only the behemoth Wal-Mart.  It’s interesting to think of all the job creation initiatives that are in place to help corporations create jobs and this one initiative could create the same amount of jobs as two new McDonald’s corporations.
- Rooftop farming
That is a lot of jobs.  And this just vacant land.  It doesn’t include potential farmland in sprawling suburban campus’ or on rooftops in the city.  I’m going to toss out that an initiative that included those elements would easily produce just as many jobs.  Now you are looking at 1.8million jobs which would, by itself, lower unemployment by 13%, assuming that each farmer doesn’t ever hire any workers or that ancillary industries aren’t created off of this initiative.
Interesting though isn’t it?
Picture 1 courtesy of Cut and Fill
Picture 2 courtesy of thegoldenspiral.com.
Picture 3 courtesy of Treehugger
This post cross posted at FatGuyonaLittleBike.
joseph said,
It’s a nice idea. I would love to see some real, actual effort put into how this could work, because there are a lot of unanswered questions, like: How are unemployed people who can’t even pay their bills, like me, supposed to purchase land? Unless you’re assuming a city government that can’t even pay its backlogged bills is supposed to purchase the land, and in that case, where would that money come from — taxpayers, most likely? Or is this only city-owned, vacant land? Who will clear all of the zoning laws, and pay for all of the permits and property taxes? How will we know what to grow? And if we somehow knew what to grow, how are unemployed people who have no farming background supposed to know what to do? And who is going to find, market to and sell to these mysterious customers, such as restaurants or produce wholesalers? Are municipalities supposed to purchase and convert the acreage, and then hire the unemployed to farm it? And if so, what’s that going to pay beyond minimum wage? And most of all, why would you suggest farming as a possible solution, given that farming is one of the riskiest endeavors in the world — highly dependent on weather/nature and environmental events? It’s good to have your head in the clouds, as long as you have two feet on the ground. Right now, you’re floating.
Matt Mayer said,
Hi Joseph-
Thanks for the comment! There are certainly unanswered questions, but not any that I think are insurmountable. The reason I think this is possible is because I’m doing it. Right now. This summer, in a city, on a small plot of about 1/2 an acre. Is it hard? Hell yes it is! But it’s challenging and fun like any other endeavor. I didn’t know anything about farming but I asked around, found some mentors, read some books and started doing it.
Re: farming being a tough business. You are right. I think a lot of the problems are mitigated though by practicing it on a small scale. Weather and nature become easier to overcome when you have an acre to manage instead of 100. Its easier to water something that size, keep weeds at bay, etc when it’s smaller.
How do you get the land? Be creative. I’m borrowing land from a church and a local organization that has abandoned the building after a devastating flood ruined it. What do I offer them? I take care of the property so it’s kept up and I teach the kids who go to the church’s daycare about farming/gardening and share some food with them so they can taste fresh food. The key is to not find ways you CAN’T do it but find ways that you CAN.
For example, in my city we are working on acquiring more land to expand our farm. How did we do that? We analyzed the situation to figure out how to solve multiple problems for people around us. Our city has plenty of devastated properties so we have offered to take over the care of them so they won’t be eye sores (lots where houses have been torn down), put them back on the tax rolls for the city (because we will own them we will pay taxes on them again vs. the city owning them), create a job creation engine in the local economy (small farms require labor) and do it with no more support from the local government than them giving us the land to use, which it can’t be built on because it’s in a flood plain anyway. It’s a win for us, a win for the city and a win for the neighbors on these properties. Heck, it’s even a win for our customers because we are in the city, thus easier for them to get to and also a win because we are offering half priced shares for low income people who need the help.
What other options might someone have?
If there is a vacant lot around you find the owner. Offer to take care of it for them in exchange for free use. If they don’t like that offer to rent it for a small fee. If they want to0 much move on. Maybe you can find a local corporate office that has a huge swath of land. You could offer to farm part of it in exchange for taking care of it for them for free (ie, mowing it for them) Thus you would trade your time for their land. They save the cost of upkeep on the whole thing and you get part of it to grow food on. Not to mention the ready group of customers you have at your doorstep as they leave the office on Fridays and you have a tent set up to sell them produce. I treat a lot of this like a normal business transaction. If you can make it a win-win for all parties you’ll usually get the job done.
Some of this is covered in a book I wrote about how to start an Urban Farm.
http://fatguyonalittlebike.wordpress.com/how-to-start-an-urban-farm-book/
You should check it out. The big key is your attitude and your desire to do something. All the things you mention can be overcome and, in fact have been by many people already operating urban farms. You just have to want to do it and then move forward not letting people throw up roadblocks.
UNDERNEWS: June 9, 2011 — Clearing and Settlement said,
[...] The potential for urban farming [...]
Donna Furnival said,
This is an excellent idea. I need to find out more. I live in Victoria, BC, Canada. I am container farming and I live in an apartment. I could not stand not growing anything. I went 2 years without. If there is a will, there is a way. There isn’t too much land around here that I’ve noticed. But, I will be looking with new eyes now. Thank you!
Hippie said,
One thing you didn’t mention. How do you know what was on that vacant lot you are farming. What if it was an old chemical company who dumped toxins in the soil. You might be harvesting contaminated produce. If you are going to do this please check and find out what dirt you are using, There are many places that will test the soil and tell you exactly whats in it.
John said,
Urban gardens would be perfect solution to urban pollution. The fact that you can probably monetize this is highly beneficial. Living in Bangalore, India it seems I have no other option but to grow my own green to breathe fresh air!
Dave from Solar Power said,
Good Read. Thanks. I live in an area where there are a lot of people that grow crops to sell.
They are mostly Amish and what they sell is locally grown.
I agree with what you are saying and think it would be a viable industry. I have friends that live in the city that grow herbs, and vegetables in the spring-summer on their rooftop.
I also agree that it would take at least an acre and as Matt said a LOT of hard work but I can’t see where someone couldn’t make a decent living if they put in the effort.
My self I look forward to summer for the fresh, locally grown fruits and veggies.