About twenty years ago urban agriculture became the rage of cities across the nation. The idea for utilizing empty space and rooftops in American cities began during World War I when President Woodrow Wilson called upon Americans to help with the war effort by growing their own produce. At the time this method worked and Americans were harvesting 500 million pounds of produce. This method was then utilized again during the Great Depression supplying struggling families with food.
Today many people think these methods can be used again to solve the food deficits found in cities. What they don’t realize is urban farming is not a cure-all for these problems. For these farms and gardens to work they need people willing to take care of them, space, people to buy the produce, and people with enough time to do these things.
Take, for example, two very different cities, New York and Detroit. New York has little free space but plenty of people who would be willing to buy the produce. Detroit, on the other hand, has plenty of free space to be utilized but not many people who are willing to pay a little bit more for fresh food than go to a grocery store. Differing demographics of cities have a major impact on the potential success of an urban farm. In general, this is an issue that urban farms would run into, busy cities with little to no empty spaces tend to have wealthier residents and less populated cities tend to have poorer residents.
Even if this was not an issue the amount of food that an urban garden could provide would do little for the densely populated area. This is not to discredit the amount of food urban farms could produce, only that this would not be enough to provide a substantial amount of food to the number of people living in these areas. A report from SPUR showed that trying to use these gardens to produce 40% (similarly to Victory gardens) of the city’s produce would be a bad idea and would be a poor use of land and effort. Victory gardens worked in the early 1900s but we have to wonder if they would be as successful in today’s world. Entrepreneurs and young people of large cities would have to trade in a successful business venture and career for weeding, watering, and harvesting. None of which will provide them with the same lavish lifestyle that a traditional career would supply.
In areas where there is not an abundance of empty lots, rooftops can be utilized. The only problem with using rooftops is that they must be structurally sound enough support the gardens and must be flat and large enough to make the garden worthwhile. Farmers that do start rooftop garden run into the issue of expensive infrastructure. Many young farmers who don’t farm on city rooftops run into the problem of breaking even let alone making a profit. This venture would be more likely to be a hobby than a career.
Urban gardens can provide a source of education and sustainability to urban centers but they in no way are the answer to solving poverty or hunger in these areas.
