By Jennifer Curtis

Recently Milwaukee was honored to be the location for the first national conference on Urban Agriculture. Hosted by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and Slow Food Wisconsin Southeast, and sponsored by various local groups including Outpost Natural Foods, Beans and Barley, the Milwaukee Urban Agricultural Network, and the Kitchen Table Project, the Pollinating Our Future Urban Agriculture Conference symbolizes that a fundamental change is underway regarding the ways in which we conceptualize food, agriculture, and the city. The term “urban agriculture” is no longer an oxymoron but a viable pathway to sustainability for our natural environment and for our cities.

Highlights of the conference included the keynote address by Michael Ableman, founder and executive director emeritus of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, in southern California. Also an award-winning urban farmer, author, and educator, he conducts numerous workshops and sessions, from focus on the relationship between growing food and working towards social justice and equality, to the role of Urban Agriculture in urban sustainability, to how-to sessions on SPIN (Small Plot Intensive) farming and grant writing for urban farmers.

If you missed this conference, the good news is that we have excellent organizational resources and pioneers in the art of Urban Agriculture all around us right here in Milwaukee. The UW-Extension has a garden plot rental program that allows those in urban areas without access to gardening space to rent land and grow food – just call 414.290.2405 for more information. Also, local resources like Growing Power (414.527.1546) and the Walnut Way Conservation Corp (414.264.2326) provide inspiring examples of how to do Urban Agriculture well and strengthen community at the same time.

In fact, studies have shown that having a community garden in the neighborhood works to reduce crime, increase a sense of pride and responsibility, reduce littering and vandalism, and increase feelings of safety and belonging in the residents of the neighborhood (www.region.waterloo.on.ca.). In addition, urban agriculture provides people with fresh, healthy, local and at its best, organic food – a benefit to individual and planetary health by drastically reducing the amount of fossil fuels, harsh chemicals from pesticides to preservatives, and processed junk “foods” that have unfortunately become synonymous with the American diet.

If you want to support Urban Agriculture and the Buy Local and Slow Food movements, but aren’t quite ready to grow your own food just yet, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get involved – farmers markets, locally owned co-op natural food stores like the Outpost, the Riverwest Co-op, and Beans and Barley, and regional farms that participate in Community Supported Agriculture and allow people to buy a share in the farm for a box of fresh vegetables every week June-October, are excellent ways to support our local economy and get involved in the Urban Agriculture revolution. For more information, check out the Farm Fresh Atlas of Southeastern Wisconsin at www.farmfreshatlast.org, or contact the Urban Ecology Center at 414.964.8505.