We’ve been enjoying some beautiful produce lately. Fruits of our labor! Our bodies might be sore, but our bellies are full of green. Thanks to our loyal friends for all of your harvest help as the farm workload continues to ramp up. (Heather! Minnie! Richard! Ali!)
And thank you for all of your emails expressing interest in our upcoming CSA. We’ll be sending out applications and more detailed descriptions of the program within the next couple of weeks.
I read this article today in the Washington Post called “Why being a foodie isn’t elitist” by Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation. I recommend that you read it. I found it interesting because he names and deconstructs the most common critique made about the healthy food and sustainable agriculture movement. The article provoked me to articulate some of my own ideas on the subject.
I am sure that all small-scale organic farmers have heard the claim before that if they involve themselves in the work of sustainable agriculture that they are by default engaging in elitism. The small-scale farmer is often accused of inaccessibility, irrelevance, and of pandering to the wealthy. Small-scale farmers, offering healthier food and meaningful employment, not to mention better care of water and land, know how difficult it is to earn a living-wage through their work. Most settle for a very low income, relying on the satisfaction of their relationship to land and community as compensation.
Because their produce sits next to the subsidized, ecologically extractive, artificially cheap counterparts in the marketplace, it does seem expensive. But actually its not. For what it is, it’s still very cheap. For that reason it is an unfortunate paradox that organic farmers are often accused of elitism.
Caitlyn and I grapple daily with the question of how to make our food accessible. It is very important to us that a diverse range of people can enjoy our produce. It is also very important to us that we are able to respect our hard work by (hopefully soon) being able to pay ourselves a living-wage. While in some ways we would be emotionally fulfilled to work for little compensation and offer our produce at Safeway prices….we wonder if we would simply be perpetuating the unacceptable cultural norm of farming being a scantily paid profession (not to mention that we would probably get burnt out, exhaust our bodies and therefore not be a very sustainable business). We are still negotiating this balancing act of building a business that enhances the goal of community food security and demanding an elevated role for what we believe to be an important profession.
Although across the board small-scale farmers do take on the mission of making healthy food broadly accessible, I believe that it should not be the farmers job to make food cheap (in fact they can’t without sacrificing their own finances, health and sanity). It should be the job of our elected official, through public policy, to make healthy food cheaper. They should support sustainable farming by offering small-scale organic farmers the same, if not greater, subsidies than their industrial counterparts. In the meantime, if communities want to see farmers develop and employ the sustainable practices, which our governments currently use public resource to undermine, they may have to foot the bill by paying more for food.
No doubt, its a weighted issue. Those with more means will find it easier to pay more and those who are truly scraping by will find it harder to do so. For this reason access to healthy food is unequal. However it seems to me that we are making a crucial misinterpretation when we assume that healthy food is too expensive. The real issue at hand is that our economic system renders so many people too poor to afford healthy food.
I would like to see the issue of unaffordable food reframed. As I see it, food should not be cheap. Food is, and must be revered as, a thing of great value. Care for food, by natural extension, is care for soil, land and water, care for farming and the sensible stewardship of our natural resources, and therefore a care for communities and our stay here on earth. It seems of utmost importance that as a culture we assign a real worth to the embedded benefits of healthy food.
The devaluation of food can be understood as a tool of our current power structure, which encourages us to both disassociate with our natural resources so that they can be degraded and excessively extracted, and de-incentivizes us to involve ourselves in healthy alternative practices. This tool benefits a few and impoverishes many.
To an increasingly poor population cheap food is the only feasible option and therefore has become our addiction. In the context of this unneccessary epidemic of poverty, almost any healthy, sane, grassroots, farming or food distribution system, can be easily be cast in the light of irrelevance and critiqued as elite. In this way the system cleverly reinforces itself.
In his article Eric Schlosser poses the concept of food elitism in a new way. He does acknowledges that the snobbery of restaurant connoisseurs and food gourmands can be irritating and “if left unchecked could sideline the movement or make it irrelevant”. But he explains that if we focus on this trend we are failing to identify the truly dangerous food elite who are the corporate giants that increasingly control, through strong political lobbying, every aspect of our food system from seeds and fertilizers, to processing and distribution.
photo credit: blair randall
On Wednesday we had quite the crowd at the farm. Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisors Eric Mar and David Chiu, representatives of the SF Planning Department, members of the SF Urban Agriculture Alliance, reporters and photographers, neighbors, supporters and friends were all gathered at Little City Gardens to celebrate the new urban agriculture zoning code, to talk about its significance, and to watch the mayor sign it into law.
Although it was slightly overwhelming to see so many cameras and suits at the farm, it was a momentous occasion to celebrate this small but significant step forward for urban agriculture. Among the people who spoke (Mayor Ed Lee, Eric Mar, David Chiu, Eli Zigas of the SFUAA, Karen Heisler of Mission Pie, as well as Caitlyn and I), the overwhelming sentiment was that urban agriculture is a healthy activity to encourage and an important business sector to foster in our city. Now that a few politicians have been out to the farm, enjoyed the fresh air and sweet smell of food growing, we hope they will continue to act upon those encouraging words, as we are sure to need help crafting more urban ag policy in the future. A number of articles were written about the passage of the legislation.
SF Gate
SF Gate blog
SF Examiner
SF Appeal
The Bay Citizen
SF Weekly
NBC Bay Area
A few months ago a woman from KQED came out to visit and record an interview. We told her the story of why and how we started our business, how we found the land, and why we began working with the city. You can listen here.
Now that the zoning legislation has officially passed and we will soon be allowed to sell our produce, we are excited to be putting together the beginnings of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program! (More history about the CSA model here). To start, the program will function on a week-by-week basis where customers can place orders one week at a time (as opposed to a more traditional CSA model where subscribers invest for an entire season up front). This will allow us time to broaden and diversify our membership as much as we can before we start taking subscriptions, and it will allow customers to sample our boxes before committing. We’ll be implementing a sliding scale model.
Each week the box will include a bag of salad greens, cooking greens, roots and herbs, as well as some form of communication (newsletter, artwork, recipe, etc) related to either the produce or the farm in general. As the season wears on, it will be very important to us to be able to share both our farm experiences and financial figures to supporters of the farm.
If you live in San Francisco and you are interested in future CSA boxes, please send us an email (littlecitygardens@gmail.com) with the subject SALAD BOX and we’ll send you more information as we put together this program.
It’s official. The zoning legislation passed its final reading by the Board of Supervisors today! As soon as the mayor signs, gardeners across San Francisco will be able to grow and sell their produce in all neighborhoods of the city. This is wonderful news for San Francisco and for the urban agriculture movement in general, and it is incredible (and long awaited) news for us! We are ready to finally let this farm grow.
Of course there are many people in the city to thank – folks in the planning department and mayor’s office, the SFUAA and supporters across the city who wrote letters, signed petitions, and showed up to City Hall hearings. But someone who also deserves credit for the success of this legislation is, without a doubt, Eli Zigas. Eli, you organized, coordinated, researched, wrote, edited, facilitated, and rallied steadily for almost a year, leaving no detail forgotten, all on your own volunteer after-hours time, all because you care about helping agriculture to thrive in our city. You are something else and we as a community are lucky to have you. While the Mayor and City get press and accolades in the upcoming months for doing their jobs the way we all hoped they would, we will remember that you, along with the rest of the volunteer committee of urban ag advocates, deserve just as much thanks.
Nice work San Francisco!
It was almost exactly one year ago that we signed the lease on this lovely piece of land and started work building a farm. This weekend we marked the occasion with a workday and potluck. We toasted to all of our neighbors, friends, colleagues and family who have made this farm possible and have made the hard work joyful. Thanks to all you folks who weren’t there but have been a support to us. We really do need your encouragement, ideas, hands, business, and community to thrive.
the farm is growing into the spring and the artichokes are quite productive!
The hearing this Monday went very smoothly. There was a solid group of SF Urban Ag Alliance members and a few of us got up to the podium once again to share our opinion. The Land-Use and Economic Development Committee, which is comprised of three Supervisors, Eric Mar, Mahlia Cohen, and Scott Weiner, passed the updated zoning legislation unanimously after very little discussion. The few comments that were made suggested that they felt it was a win-win change to the city’s land-use policy. The full board will vote on April 5th.
In a recent Examiner article about the hearing, David Chiu (District 3 Supervisor, co-sponser of the legislation and Candidate for Mayor), is quoted as saying: “Our legislation would place San Francisco at the forefront of urban agriculture policies nationwide… My hope is that this is the first of many changes the City makes to increase the viability and scale of urban agriculture in San Francisco.â€
I also hope that this is just the beginning of the policy that we are able to shift in our city regarding urban agriculture. I think we have a long way to go to make small-scale agriculture truly viable and economically/culturally encouraged in our city. One issue we would like to push forward next is the importance of securing a number of agricultural plots of land, in and on the perimeter of the city, through agricultural easements. Unless we are able to collectively decide to hold agriculture as “highest use” (as opposed to the traditional “highest use” of real estate development) for the few remaining plots of vacant and fertile land, then we will have a city full of temporary and displaced urban farms and an urban agriculture movement that won’t be able to fully take root or flourish.
It has taken us the better part of a year to transform our overgrown vacant lot into an organized, prepared growing space and to install the basic infrastructure we need to do our work, not to mention the time it has taken to develop an integrated relationship with our neighborhood. In fact we are still at work every day on the hardscaping, the invasive weed excavations and the infrastucture building. But our tenure here is shaky. The property is privately owned and if the owner wants to develop we would have to leave our hard work and start again somewhere else. I have a feeling that we will need two to three more years here, at least, before our business could be in its prime, before we we would be able to showcase an efficient, developed and successful commercial urban agriculture model. So in short..we feel our success is based on our ability to secure our land tenure.
This is going to take some creativity. Let’s work on this next San Francisco!
We’ve just gotten word that the second public hearing for the zoning legislation is scheduled for this coming Monday, March 28th at 1pm, City Hall Room 263! This time, the legislation will be reviewed by the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Economic Development Committee and there will be time for public comment. Despite last minute notice, we are once again hoping for a strong turnout. San Franciscans, will you consider coming on your lunch break?
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12:30 PM – supporters meet on steps of City Hall (in case of rain, we’ll meet inside by the information desk)
1:00 PM – hearing begins in Room 263 (our issue is early in the agenda so please come by 1 PM)
The official agenda for the hearing is posted here
More info about the proposal and the SFUAA’s position is here
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A note about public comment: Since we had such a great number of comments at the Planning Commission hearing, we’re hoping our numbers in the room at this hearing will convey the same message in less time. Anyone is welcome to speak at the hearing, but it’s not necessary.
Also, it’s extremely helpful for supporters to send emails to the three Supervisors on the committee. The SFUAA has posted a template letter and contact info on the SFUAA website. Please be sure to have your comments in by the end of Sunday, March 27 so that they’re received prior to the hearing.
We’ll see you there!
I will be teaching Growing Salads from Seed to Harvest, a hands on workshop at the Garden for the Environment this Saturday from 10-12. It may be rainy but I’ll be there sharing my love of great salad regardless. For more information or to register follow the link.
photo by Leif Hedendal
My dear friend and very talented food artisan Louella Hill has recently moved to San Francisco. She comes to us from Providence, RI where she worked as a cheesemaker. She developed and produced a line of organic local-milk cheese for Narraganset Creamery. Her Ricotta cheese is so fantastic that it has won national awards! Now in California she has begun to teach cheese-making classes. Visit her website, The Milk Maid, to learn more about what classes she is offering. We are so lucky to have her here sharing her skills! Maybe we can even convince her to produce small batches of cheese to include in our CSA boxes.
This class is coming up:
Mozzarella Making Class at City College SF
Tuesday, Apr 5 + Wed April 6 from 6:30p to 8:30p
held at Marina Middle School, San Francisco, CA
Join the San Francisco Milk Maid for a splash course on making fresh homemade mozzarella. Course takes place over two evenings (April 5 and 6) and is offered through City College of San Francisco. You’ll gain recipes, culture sources, snacks for the road, and a bundle of cheesemaking enthusiasm. Ideal for the home hobbiest or culinary professional wishing to know more about cheesemaking.
Price: $80 ($70 if registered up to a week before) plus $22 materials fee
To register, visit the City College
