OFFICE OF THE DEAN
Urban Farmers Say It's Time They Got Their Own Research Farms
WHITNEY PIPKIN | MAY 18, 2015 6:07 PM ET
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/18/407732692/urban-farmers-say-its-time-they-got-their-own-research-farms
About 80 percent of Americans now live in urban areas, and more and more of us are growing food in
cities as well.
But where's an urban farmer to turn for a soil test or when pests infiltrate the fruit orchard?
Increasingly, they can turn to institutions that have been serving farmers in rural areas for more than
150 years: land-grant colleges and universities. From Cornell University to the University of Florida to
Texas A&M, land grants dispense practical advice to farmers and hobby gardeners across the country.
The agricultural arms of these universities have historically focused on regions far from cities where the
majority of our food is still grown. But their research on crop varieties, soil quality and pest resistance is
just as relevant — and now in high demand — inside the city.
Just ask Mchezaji "Che" Axum, who runs a research farm for the University of the District of Columbia,
the only land-grant university in the country with
an exclusively urban focus.
One of the central questions of urban agriculture
is how to grow more food in less space. And so,
instead of vast fields testing dozens of varieties of
wheat, Axum's research farm has raised beds,
narrow hoop houses and even a shipping
container. He gives growers advice on where to
buy decent soil or how to compost their own, in
case the land they plan to grow on has a seedy
industrial past.
1Copyright NPR
He says urban farmers aren't looking to grow one
crop for a commodity market, but enough crops to replace a trip to the grocery store or to fill a small
farm box for customers. They need to know a little about a lot of varieties in order to make the most of
small growing spaces. And, often, it's been a generation or two since anyone in their family has lived on
a farm.
The remnants of several projects wait for spring in a hoop house at the farm this past winter. The blue
pools at the end have grown fish in the past and beds are being transitioned from fall plants to spring.
As interest in farming in the nation's capital has evolved, so has the 143-acre farm in Beltsville, Md. And
it's serving as an example to other land-grants looking to cater to city farms.
"It's clear that urban settings, given how many people live there, still have an important role to play in
food security and production," says Sabine O'Hara, director of UDC's land-grant programs. "So that's
how we've positioned the farm."
4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20008 | (202) 274-7124 | udc.edu/causes
The UDC farm serves as kind of a demonstration of the different ways agriculture can serve urban
communities. There are apple orchards that supply area food pantries and a shipping container filled
with fish that makes food and fertilizer. The farm also has greenhouses filled with seedlings of specialty
crops such as African eggplant and an omega-3-rich South American plant called waterleaf cultivated
with immigrant communities in mind.
Axum, a trained agronomist, also has all kinds of research projects underway — looking at the nutrient
density of crops and increasing their yield.
"They focus on some of the vital challenges of the urban setting: climate change, food security, hunger,
obesity prevention," says Ahlishia Shipley, social science specialist with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which helps fund land-grant programs.
But, she says, the urban extension's biggest challenge is getting the word out "that you're there to help."
In New York City, for example, Cornell University's Cooperative Extension has one staff member for
every 160,000 residents and tries to "make sure that all New York residents benefit from Cornell's
research," says Jennifer Tiffany, executive director of the college's city-based outreach.
In New York, the Cornell extension office works alongside dozens of other organizations that add to its
work by writing prescriptions for fruits and vegetables that can then be used at nearby farmers markets.
Instead of visiting individual farms to offer growers advice, as staff might in a rural setting, Tiffany says
her program leads instructional tours that take almost 100 people through an indoor hydroponics
facility, showing them just how many calories of food can be grown inside the city buildings.
Though her university has been catering extension programs to the city's nearly 8.5 million residents for
some time, other states are just beginning to see urban agriculture reach a critical mass. Texas A&M
University is gearing more of its land-grant programs toward the booming Dallas-Fort Worth region,
where a farming workshop can draw as many as 4,000 people, Shipley says.
As other universities consider their urban audiences, they could take cues from the only land grant with
an entirely urban charter.
Axum currently is experimenting with crops that specifically meet nutritional needs of D.C. residents
with HIV and AIDS. He works alongside local farmers to help them troubleshoot issues throughout the
growing season, demonstrating nearly every growing practice they can imagine on the farm.
The farm also serves as home base to the land grant's chapter of the iconic Master Gardener Program, a
national program that trains gardeners in all 50 states.
D.C. participants, Axum says, "have homes and yards and balconies and they want to learn to grow food.
Then they become available as resources for other growers."
The Master Gardener Program has trained more than 400 D.C. residents since it was revitalized in 2002.
Along with Axum, those urban gardening pros are ready and willing to share their expertise with
beginners.