The 2008 Northeast Ohio Food Congress at Hiram was an opportunity for advocates of a local, low or no-carbon food system to check in with each other and figure out how to develop a regional food economy. Some important questions were asked, including:

How do we develop a food system that supports small farmers and removes fossil fuels from the farm?

How do we support populations in need as they grow their own nutritious food?

The answers are as varied as the individuals growing, teaching, and advocating for more local, sustainable food. I met Noah, an Amish farmer who feels state regulations for meat and diary handling are too expensive, driving up costs for the small farmer. I met Rachel, a teacher at Hershey Montessori whose sixth graders are farming and cooking their own meals for a year on a farm in Huntsburg, Ohio. I met Elisa who's working with Grow Youngstown which is getting ready to launch an urban agriculture program.

The city of Youngstown has agreed to sell properties with liens on them to the nonprofit group, which will take them through the foreclosure process and eventually sell the land to those willing to farm it. Similar to rent to own, the Grow Youngstown model is a ‘grow to own’ program.

Questions about Youngstown’s model (should it be private or remain public?) piqued the curiosity of a group from Cuyahoga County. In a discussion led by Matt Russell at Case’s Center for Health Promotion Research and Jennifer Scofield, former Deputy Health Commissioner and Director of Steps to a Healthier Cleveland, questions about a Cleveland urban agriculture program came up, including:

• What mechanism should be used to secure land for urban farms?
• Can Cleveland capitalize on its land bank system to offer land for urban agriculture similar to Youngstown?
• Does zoning allow for agriculture and enterprise zones for agriculture?
• Recent planning work from Neighborhood Progress, Inc., the Kent State Urban Design Center and Cleveland City Planning has mapped available vacant properties and targeted the highest opportunity land for urban agriculture – where do those locations match with interest in the community?
• How will Youngstown and Cleveland fund and oversee environmental assessment of land to farm?

“We’ve been talking about (urban agriculture) for last year and a half,” Russell says. “Now we need to organize our energy around it, pick our strategy, and go for it.”

The good news is Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has indicated he supports urban agriculture.

“Mayor Jackson’s response is ‘show me the people and I’ll show you the land,’” Scofield says. “He wants to have some reasonable expectation that there’s some demand for urban agriculture, that people want to farm on this vacant land.”

Follow up suggestions include:

• Build up a database of those interested in urban agriculture (as part of a larger advocacy effort for a city of Cleveland urban agriculture corps). Outreach through existing urban gardening groups such as the OSU Extension. Also Lakewood LEAF had to present a proposal to city of Lakewood and had a poll.
• Real-world and online discussion group focusing on a regional food agenda with site like localfoodcleveland.org and gcbl.org.
• A discussion group for those interested in urban agriculture (to sign up, email Josh Klein)

Funding sources identified for urban agriculture and community gardens:

• OSU Farmland Center grants on policy
• Summer Youth Employment programs
• Local foundations’ youth programming
• U.S. Justice Department grants for working with at-risk youth (in urban environments)