Urban Farming

How One Houston Influencer is Turning Public Land into Productive Soil

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:24:25 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

In the sprawl of Houston, a city defined by its concrete and vulnerability to the Gulf’s rising waters, Scott Sheridan sees a missed opportunity. Sheridan, the founder of Scotty’s Fermented Foods, is moving beyond the crock and the jar to tackle a much larger fermentation project: the soil itself.

Through his upcoming 1-acre community farm project, Sheridan is attempting to prove that Houston’s underutilized floodplains can be transformed from “dead land” into a vital defense against an impending food crisis.

Before he was a land regeneration advocate, Sheridan established himself as a prominent voice in the fermentation community. He has since translated that expertise into a massive digital presence, producing over 400 videos across social media. His content is designed to be a bridge for the curious — offering short, accessible tutorials that provide both the how and the why of soil health, microbial life and food preservation.

By sharing his own journey from a COVID gardener to a market-scale producer, Sheridan uses his platform to demystify the complexities of regenerative agriculture for a modern, urban audience.

Repairing the Broken Water Cycle

The inspiration for the project stems from Sheridan’s deep dive into regenerative agriculture, sparked by the challenges he faced in his own backyard during the pandemic. He points to the “broken water cycles” popularized by regenerative pioneers like Gabe Brown as the root of modern agricultural instability.

“The soil doesn’t absorb the water,” Sheridan says. “We’ve exhausted the river systems and the aquifers. In Houston, we had three so-called 100-year floods in a period of about five years. A lot of new floodplains were established. ... Irrigation has broken down because the soil simply can’t hold what falls.”

Vision From the Back Porch

The shift from theoretical concern to local action happened right in Sheridan’s own backyard. Living in a floodplain himself, he watched as a neighboring 5-acre block was transformed by the Harris County Flood Control program. Following those devastating floods, the county moved in, cleared out the existing homes and stripped away the driveways and curbs.

What remained was a vast, silent stretch of dead land — cleared for safety but left without a purpose. Rather than seeing a vacant lot, he saw a canvas for the regenerative principles he had been studying.

This observation led him to petition the county with a radical proposal: allow him to manage a 1-acre portion of that land as a community garden and land regeneration pilot. To his surprise, he found a champion within the county government: a representative in the vegetation management department who shared his dream of turning underutilized public infrastructure into a sponge of edible urban greenery.

This partnership has moved the project through the complex bureaucratic hurdles that often stall urban farming initiatives.

The Sponge Strategy: Soil Over Plants

For Sheridan, urban farming isn’t just about feeding plants; it’s about feeding microbes. His strategy for the 1-acre plot focuses on sheet composting at scale to repair soil structure, which in turn fixes the water cycle on a microlevel.

“I’m a no-till, no-fertilizer, no-pesticide guy,” Sheridan says. “I just add humus to the soil. I’m going to spend the first six months sheet composting ... creating a pile every 10 feet and spreading it across. When you compost on-site, you start that biological cycle with thermophilic bacteria inoculating the land. It’s the first step to making the soil absorb and retain water.”

By utilizing chip drop services for carbon and collecting vegetable waste from supermarkets and his own fermentation business, Sheridan is turning urban waste into the very engine of his farm’s productivity.

Model for Economic Resilience

While many community gardens rely on volunteerism, Sheridan is a staunch advocate for monetizing the mission. He thinks that for urban farming to truly take root in the culture, it must be a viable career path for young people.

“If we are just going to be volunteers ... it really won’t get legs,” Sheridan says. “We need to turn to young people and say, ‘Hey, there is an income we can create from this.’”

His vision includes a value-added model:

Market produce — Selling high-demand crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant.
Waste mitigation — Taking unsold produce and turning it into fermented products like sauerkraut, salsa and baba ghanoush.
Scaling up — Using public land to grow space-heavy crops, like cabbage and melons, that aren’t feasible in small backyard plots.

Beyond Policy: Creating a Culture

Sheridan’s project is currently moving through the final stages of approval. Unlike the bureaucratic speed bumps often associated with city-level projects, he found the county surprisingly receptive to the idea of edible parks.

“Houston is not the type of place you want to be in during a food crisis,” Sheridan says. “I have a dream that maybe we can create a culture where people are taking public land and starting to farm it ... doing this outside of policy.”

As Sheridan prepares to take his pitchfork to the floodplain, his goal remains clear: to turn Houston’s flood-prone dead zones into a blueprint for urban food security, an acre at a time.

Follow Sheridan on social media platforms: @scottysfermentedfoods.

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A Haven for Hope: How a Training Farm Empowers North Carolina's Veterans

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:58:31 GMT

Midmorning on a 53-acre farm just outside the gates of Fort Bragg, N.C., a small group of veterans moves between greenhouses, specialty crops and animal pens, pausing to check water lines in the greenhouse before heading toward the livestock.

For many of them, this is unfamiliar work. A year ago, some had never set foot on a farm. What does feel familiar is something less visible to these veterans: the sense of being a unit, the understanding that the person beside you matters and the expectation that everyone has a role.

At Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina , that feeling is not accidental. It is built into the day-to-day work, shaped by Robert Elliott, a former Marine who understands what happens when that sense of belonging disappears.

Elliott grew up with farming in his blood. His family’s land in North Carolina traced back generations to a time when land grants defined ownership and identity. Over the years, that land diminished, reduced piece by piece until little remained. After his mother died, the final ties to that property slipped away. What had once been a defining part of his life was gone.

Elliott left for the Marine Corps, building a life far removed from the fields of his childhood. He spent 15 years in military service, both active duty and as a contractor, immersed in a world where structure, purpose and dependence on others were constant. When that ended, the transition back to civilian life was abrupt and disorienting.

“Nobody prepares us, really, at the level it needs to be done for transition back into the civilian world,” Elliott says.

That transition from military service to civilian life can be one of the most vulnerable periods for veterans, Elliott says, with its marked sudden loss of structure, identity and close-knit support systems. Research shows that this adjustment period often brings heightened risk for mental health challenges, including depression and isolation.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 6,398 veterans died by suicide in 2023 — an average of about 17.5 per day — and suicide rates remain significantly elevated compared to the general population. Studies also indicate that the risk is especially high in the first year after leaving the military, when many veterans are navigating major life changes without the built-in community they once relied on.

Elliott describes this transition in stark terms. He compares it to being shipwrecked on a deserted island, saying that a group of people survives together in an intense environment, relying on each other for everything. Then, without warning, they are placed back into a world that no longer feels familiar. The support system disappears overnight. The expectations shift. The sense of purpose becomes unclear.

“You wind up crashing on an island … and your survival depends on the people that are there with you … then one day you get picked up and dropped back into the civilian world … and you’ve lost that entire network overnight,” he says.

The Veteran’s Farm sits on 53 acres and operates as a working, small-scale agricultural system.

(Photo courtesy of Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina)

Joining the Journey

Back home, he struggled to find his footing until an unexpected moment with a chicken changed everything.

It belonged to his girlfriend at the time, one of several in the yard, he says, but this one refused to leave him alone. One day, it hopped into his lap and stayed there. It was a simple act, but it broke through the fog he had been living in.

“This chicken just hopped in my lap one day … and it was basically like God Almighty telling me: You need to get back to the farm and find a purpose.”

He started small. As he rebuilt his connection to the land, he also began talking about his experience. At a roundtable event in North Carolina focused on agriculture, he shared his story publicly for the first time. He used an analogy that resonated with civilians and veterans alike, describing the disorientation of leaving a tightly bonded group and trying to function alone.

The response was immediate, and people asked for copies of his remarks. Invitations to speak followed, taking him across the country and into conversations with agricultural leaders and policymakers. Media outlets picked up his story, drawn to the idea that farming had helped pull a veteran out of a dangerous place.

More importantly, other veterans began reaching out.

“In the beginning, it was just, ‘Come on over. I’ll show you what I’m doing,’ … and all of a sudden that turned into this little network of veterans,” he says.

They wanted to know how to do what he was doing. They were searching for a way to rebuild their own sense of purpose. At first, Elliott simply invited them over. He shared with them what he was learning and helped them think through their own next steps. A network formed, made up of veterans trying to find stability through agriculture.

The Veteran’s Farm becomes a place where people can decompress while still being part of a team.

(Photo courtesy of Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina)

That momentum eventually led to the creation of Veteran’s Farm of North Carolina.

The farm sits on 53 acres and operates as a working, small-scale agricultural system. It includes beef cattle, sheep and pigs, along with poultry production. Greenhouses support hydroponic lettuce and basil, while other areas are dedicated to mushrooms, ornamental plants, fruit trees and vegetable gardens. The diversity is intentional. It allows participants to experience a wide range of agricultural practices and decide what might fit their own goals.

Each year, about 70 veterans and active-duty service members come through the program. Some arrive with a clear interest in farming. Others are simply looking for direction.

Not all of them stay in agriculture. Elliott estimates that around 30% go on to start or contribute to farming operations. The rest take what they have learned and apply it elsewhere. That outcome is by design, as the program emphasizes the realities of farming, ensuring participants understand both the opportunities and the challenges before making major financial or life commitments.

The structure of the farm reflects a familiar system for many of its participants, Elliott says. New students enter the program while those further along take on leadership roles, helping guide and train the newcomers. It mirrors the hierarchy and mentorship found in military units, creating a sense of continuity that many veterans find reassuring.

A Safety Net After Service

The impact of the farm goes beyond skills training. Elliott says he has lost six fellow Marines to suicide since leaving the military. Those losses have shaped how the program operates. He has developed a model of suicide prevention that is integrated into the training, focusing on rebuilding connection, purpose and routine. A licensed family therapist visits regularly, working with participants on stress management and coping strategies.

The farm becomes a place where people can decompress while still being part of a team.

“It’s a safety net … a new unit for them to check into,” he says.

Elliott often refers to it as a new unit, and the language is deliberate. Veterans understand units. They understand what it means to rely on others and to be relied upon. At the farm, they find a version of that structure without the pressures of military service.

The results are deeply personal, he says. Over the years, 13 veterans have told Elliott that the program played a direct role in saving their lives.

“We have had 13 veterans who have told us … ‘If it weren’t for where I’m at right here, right now, I wouldn’t be here,’” he says.

The work continues to evolve. The organization relies on a mix of farm revenue, grants and community support. Produce and products are sold through local partners and markets, with some items donated to food banks. As funding sources shift, the farm is exploring tuition models and expanding access through programs that support veterans’ education and training.

For many participants, it is the first time since leaving the military that they feel grounded.

Elliott did not set out to build a national model or a widely recognized program. He was trying to find his own way back to stability. What grew from that effort is something larger, shaped by shared experiences and a common need for connection.

The land provides the setting. The work provides the structure. The people provide the meaning.

And in that combination, something takes root that goes far beyond farming.

The Vertical Farms Changing the Face of Rehabilitation in South Carolina and California Prisons

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:26:34 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

In the volatile landscapes of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, David Flynn learned that a road is a lifeline for a struggling economy. Years later, as the CEO of AmplifiedAg, he is applying that same mission-driven mindset to a different kind of isolated environment: the U.S. correctional system.

By deploying high-tech vertical farms inside prison walls, AmplifiedAg is creating a new path for incarcerated individuals, one that leads away from recidivism and toward specialized careers in the growing ag-tech sector. Flynn says agriculture reentry programs have the lowest recidivism rate — at 19% —among any other programming.

AmplifiedAg has spent years honing the modular approach to indoor farming, using upcycled refrigerated containers to grow produce in environments where nature has largely bowed out. While the technology is sophisticated — involving proprietary internet-connected sensors and climate control — the most significant impact of this work is currently being felt behind the barbed wire of the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, S.C., and the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, Calif.

The path to these prison yards began years ago in Afghanistan. During his military service, Flynn observed how the local economy in the Arghandab district relied on a fragile irrigation system to sustain its world-famous pomegranate orchards.

“My view of combat was about 30% violence and 70% everything else that you do,” Flynn says. “Part of that ‘everything else’ was trying to help the local economy.”

He saw firsthand that food security was the cornerstone of a stable society, a lesson that now drives AmplifiedAg’s mission to provide for underserved and isolated populations.

“Our system isn’t just focused on labor,” says AmplifiedAg CEO David Flynn. “It’s designed to create skill sets that make somebody attractive for employment on the other side.”

(Photo courtesy of AmplifiedAg)

In South Carolina, that mission took the form of a partnership with the state’s corrections department. Director of Agriculture Rick Doran was looking for a way to modernize the state’s prison farms, moving beyond traditional row crops into the future of agribusiness. However, placing a high-tech, internet-connected farm inside a maximum-security prison presented a unique set of logistical headaches.

“The one that caught us off guard the most was just the software access,” Flynn says.

In an environment where internet use is strictly controlled to prevent illicit communication, AmplifiedAg had to work closely with prison IT professionals to create a “restricted pipe.” This ensures the farm’s sensors can communicate with the cloud, but the participants cannot wander elsewhere on the web.

“We have to provide them with a URL that is specifically for the farm’s control,” Flynn says, noting that the security of the facility always remains the top priority.

The program, known as Cultivating Futures, is designed to be more than a source of labor. By the time the women at the correctional facilities complete the program, they have been immersed in a curriculum that covers everything from horticulture and food safety to the business of entrepreneurship. Flynn is adamant that the goal is to create a professional bridge to the outside world.

“Our system isn’t just focused on labor,” he says. “It’s designed to create skill sets that make somebody attractive for employment on the other side.”

A classroom inside the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution.

(Photo courtesy of AmplifiedAg)

To ensure that attractiveness translates into a paycheck, the program has secured letters of intent from the Palmetto Agribusiness Council, ensuring that graduates get a fair shot at interviews upon release.

The benefits are as much psychological as they are economic. A study published by the National Institutes of Health found that prison gardening and farming programs function as a “restorative sanctuary,” significantly reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety among participants. And the National Library of Medicine shows exposure to plants , green space and gardening is beneficial to mental and physical health, reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, thus improving daily life behind bars and overall well-being.

The production capacity of the corrections container farm model is as impressive as its mission, yielding approximately 48,000 pounds of fresh, nutrient-dense greens annually. This harvest directly enhances the diet of the incarcerated population by being served in the prison cafeteria, and it extends its reach into the surrounding community.

Solving for the Impossible

While the work in South Carolina and California is a primary focus, AmplifiedAg continues to test the limits of modular farming in other underserved and extreme spaces.

Saltwater solutions — The company helped enable Heron Farms, the first saltwater vertical farm, which successfully grows sea beans using seawater.
Scientific research — Working with USDA, AmplifiedAg’s systems are used to study cultivars like cucumbers, peppers and rice to help traditional field growers combat pathogens.
Hyperlocal resilience — Unlike massive warehouse farms, Flynn argues the container model is more resilient because it provides a hyperlocal solution that complements traditional agriculture rather than trying to compete with it.

“Indoor agriculture is not designed to compete with traditional agriculture, but more so to complement it and provide an off-season and year-round type of solution,” Flynn says.

For the women in South Carolina and California, that solution isn’t just about the lettuce; it’s about the growth that happens when a person is given the tools to harvest a new life.

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The Secret History of the Edible City: How Tiny Gardens Once Fed the World

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 21:27:30 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

We have been taught to view the city as a mouth, a concrete consumer that breathes in resources from the countryside and exhales waste. In this modern narrative, the urban garden is a charming hobby, a lifestyle choice of expensive heirloom tomatoes and aesthetic raised beds. But according to environmental historian Kate Brown , this version of history is a convenient fiction.

In research for her fifth book, “Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present and Future of the Self-Provisioning City,” Brown unearths a forgotten reality that cities were once the most productive agricultural hubs on the planet. To move forward, she argues, we must shift our mindset by distinguishing between self-provisioning and leisure gardening to create a resilient food source.

There are many ways to do so, both historically and now.

“I spoke with a woman recently in a town outside of Atlanta. She’s growing on a 12-acre urban organic farm that’s owned by the town’s parks and recreation department,” Brown says. “They have 1,200 volunteers and five farmers, two full-time. She told me they give away 95% of their food to people who need it, and the farm runs like a dream.”

By looking back at how we used to feed ourselves in urban landscapes, Brown proves that urban farming was a sophisticated, radical infrastructure of autonomy.

Paris: Making ‘Black Gold’ From Sand and Scraps

Brown points to 1900s Paris as the gold standard of urban efficiency. On plots that began as little more than sterile sand, 5,000 gardeners used the city’s abundance of horse manure to manufacture soil so rich it was treated like a movable asset. These farmers fed their neighbors as well as produced enough surplus to export vegetables across the English Channel.

Brown highlights this as the ultimate rebuttal to the idea that cities are naturally barren.

The Parisian model proves that with the right waste inputs, a city can be a net producer of life.

According to Brown, around 1900, Paris was home to approximately 5,000 urban farmers featuring:

Self-sufficiency — These farmers produced enough fruits and vegetables to feed 2 million residents, with enough surplus to export produce to London.
Innovative heating — They utilized the city’s waste, specifically a superabundance of horse manure, to create hotbeds. By covering these manure-heated beds with glass frames, they essentially created early greenhouses that allowed them to grow summer crops in the spring and spring crops in the winter.
High yields — Using these methods, they could harvest three to six crops a year from a single plot, achieving what Brown calls some of the highest agricultural yields in recorded history.
The legacy of soil — This process was so successful that when these farmers moved to different plots, they would often shovel up their topsoil and take it with them, as it was considered their most valuable physical asset.

By the turn of the century, this manufactured soil was so productive that a single acre could produce several times the yield of a traditional rural farm.

Berlin: Gardens as a Radical Safety Net

The Arbor Colonies of Berlin functioned as essential hubs for social resilience. These radically egalitarian garden subsistence settlements provided housing and cultivation space for over 150,000 Berliners between 1870 and 1970. Factory workers used these plots as primary residences to find relief from the city’s dense urban housing. Throughout the 20th century, the colonies also served as active sites of political resistance, offering both literal and figurative sanctuary for those seeking cover from the Gestapo.

Brown says that as people were pushed off land in the countryside and moved to the cities, they brought with them knowledge about how to garden.

“The people who come to cities know how to farm, and they know how to garden. They’ve all had big fields and small garden plots, and they have a notion of what to do with wastes and how to reclaim wasted land and regenerate it,” Brown says. “And so they go to Berlin, and during the 1860s, 1870s, all around Berlin is sand dunes. There are sand dunes there because there used to be wetlands. The wetlands were dried up ... so farmers built anthrosols, human-engineered soils. I have these photos I got out of the archives, and you can almost time-lapse the progress.”

Brown says the archival photos show this transformation: It begins with tiny houses struggling in the sand with withered plants. Over time, the gardens flourish. By 1890, these green shanty towns were buried under lush, towering vegetation. This was possible because cities act like a nutrient delta; by capturing the constant stream of organic waste instead of discarding it, residents built rich soil that allowed them to grow massive amounts of food right in the heart of the city.

In Berlin, the movement was as much about social safety nets as it was about food:

The Arbor Colonies — Starting in the 1870s, factory workers moved into wild gardens on the city’s periphery to escape disease-ridden tenements. By 1900, roughly 50,000 households were part of these Arbor Colonies.
Political sanctuary — During the Nazi era, these working-class garden plots served a radical purpose as they were used to harbor dissidents and Jewish residents.

Washington, D.C.: Community and Homeownership

Closer to home, Brown highlights how Black migrants from the American South transformed the landscape of Washington, D.C. By raising livestock and orchards on small urban plots, these families didn’t just achieve food security; the income generated from selling surplus produce often provided the funds necessary for homeownership. This was a system of financial autonomy that built generational wealth before mid-century urban renewal projects disrupted these thriving community-based systems, Brown says.

In the early 20th century, Black residents in D.C. turned systemic neglect into a source of wealth. Because their neighborhoods lacked city services like garbage collection, residents treated waste as a resource.

“They used all their organic garbage to compost ... they used what was in the privies to compost,” Brown says, adding that garbage was so valuable the city eventually had to pass laws restricting where people could collect it.

By the 1940s, this neighborhood had the highest rates of homeowner occupancy in the city. As Brown puts it: “They do it not with subsidies or federal help ... they do it with vegetable-powered wealth.”

In early 20th-century D.C., gardening was a tool for overcoming systemic inequality:

Black Southern migrants — African American migrants moving to D.C. brought Southern traditions of self-provisioning with them.
Financial autonomy — In neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River, residents built small farms with orchards, berry bushes and livestock like pigs and chickens. The income generated from selling this surplus produce often provided the funds necessary for homeownership.
Disruption — Brown notes that these thriving community-based systems were later largely disrupted by mid-century urban renewal projects.

The ‘Dirty’ Truth About Urban Soil

Addressing the modern fear of lead and pollutants, Brown draws on her extensive work in post-disaster environments, including Chernobyl, to offer a pragmatic path forward. She recognizes that “one of the biggest hurdles for urban farmers is the fear of soil contamination and urban pollutants.”

However, her global research, from the USSR to the U.S., suggests that we can safely navigate the reality of growing food in disturbed environments. By understanding the history of how we have handled contamination, we can move past anxiety and back into the dirt, transforming waste spaces into the permanent infrastructure of the 21st century.

Ultimately, Brown’s work asks us to consider a final philosophical shift. When asked what a tiny, 10-square-foot urban plot can teach us that a 1,000-acre industrial farm cannot, the answer lies in the connection to the system itself.

“One thing it can teach us is about the metabolism of our cities. Our cities are rich in organic materials. All we need to do is just make a compost pile and build soil. So, that’s one thing,” Brown says. “Once you have good soils, you have turned the hard work of farming, which is often about killing things, right? Kill the microbes, you kill the weeds, you kill the insects, kill, kill, kill. And that’s waging war on the environment. The farmers are the soldiers out in the field, and they do it with the tools of war. You repurpose bulldozers and turn tanks into tractors, and you repurpose nitrites into chemical fertilizers, and you repurpose chemical agents of chemical warfare into insecticides and pesticides. War is a lot of work, and it’s not pleasant. People don’t like it.

“Gardening, though, we consider recreation, and the reason we consider [it] recreation is because a good gardener works with the environment, not against it,” Brown adds.

Brown’s insights are validation of the small-scale grower as a vital part of a global solution: a tiny garden that holds the key to the future of the self-provisioning city.

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Growing 200K Salads: How Milwaukee Schools Are Redefining Urban Food Access

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 21:48:39 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing Sowing Change series about urban farming.

Fork Farms is redefining what it means to be a food access technology company. While traditional agriculture relies on long, complex supply chains stretching from places like Yuma, Ariz., to California’s Salinas Valley, Fork Farms focuses on a decentralized model of growing fresh food exactly where people live, work and learn.

By providing highly efficient, plug-and-play hydroponic systems, the company is solving the common challenge of fresh food scarcity across diverse sectors, including hospitals, food pantries and large-scale commercial environments, such as Fortune 500 company Rockwell Automation.

“No matter what the application is, we’re always trying to build systems and programs and products just to allow people to grow fresh food, whether it’s where they live or work or it’s a community center,” says Josh Mahlik, vice president of sales for Fork Farms.

The reach of this Wisconsin-based company now extends to approximately 5,000 partners across U.S. and internationally. In the Caribbean, for example, their technology is used to build food resiliency in the Cayman Islands and Barbados, providing a local alternative to vulnerable international supply chains. Whether in a hospital wing or a community center, the goal remains consistent: to create a positive perception of fresh food and ensure that it is economically viable to produce, with most growers operating at a cost of less than $1 per pound.

Forest Home Avenue School students learn about fresh produce.

(Photo courtesy of Fork Farms)

The Milwaukee Public Schools Partnership

While Fork Farms spans multiple industries, its eight-year partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools serves as an example of how this technology can be integrated into the fabric of a community. What began as a science experiment has evolved into a legitimate, districtwide food supply chain that provides students with significant agency over what they grow.

The engine behind this success is the Flex Farm, a unit roughly the size of a standard refrigerator that uses a patented utility design. By placing a light tower in the center and closing the hydroponic unit around it, the system achieves remarkable density:

High yield — Each system features 288 grow spots, producing approximately 25 pounds of fresh produce every month.
Efficiency — The design makes local food practical at scale within existing buildings and real estate.
Ancillary benefits — Beyond nutrition, these units improve the learning environment by lowering carbon dioxide levels in classrooms by about 200 parts per million, which can lead to better student attention and behavior.

The impact in Milwaukee extends far beyond the cafeteria. At Vincent High School, a grow room with 12 units fosters an entrepreneurial spirit, with students sprouting and selling tomato seedlings at annual plant sales. The program also uses a formative platform offering 44 NGS-aligned curriculum items and a micro-credentialing badging program to prepare students for the future workforce.

Perhaps most importantly, the program creates a bridge to the home. Mahlik notes that when students take home the kale or marigolds they have grown, it has a resonance that traditional grocery store produce lacks. This intergenerational impact often shifts household habits, as parents report being more likely to purchase fresh vegetables after seeing their children’s excitement and pride in their harvest, according to the company.

As the partnership enters its eighth year, what was once a novelty has become the norm, with some graduates even moving on to pursue agricultural degrees through land-grant scholarships.

“My dream for [the schools] is that every student, at least, gets the opportunity to grow their own food at some point while they’re in school,” Mahlik says.

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LocalDutch Merges High-Tech Greenhouses With Urban Retail to Create the Future of Fresh

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:44:32 GMT

In an era where global supply chains are increasingly fragile and food deserts persist across the U.S., a Dutch agri-tech firm is proposing a radical shift in how we grow and buy our groceries. LocalDutch , headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, has unveiled its plan to roll out Urban Farm Shops — a standardized, scalable model that merges high-tech greenhouse production with neighborhood retail under one roof.

The concept is a direct response to a growing paradox in modern agriculture. While the demand for fresh, local produce is at an all-time high, the specialized expertise required to run high-performance greenhouses is becoming increasingly scarce.

LocalDutch’s solution is a proprietary “climate autopilot.” This artificial intelligence-driven system manages the internal environment of its shops by integrating external weather data, internal sensors and validated growth models. By automating the complex biology of farming, the company says it can neutralize regional extremes, from the humid Southeast to the arid Southwest, without needing a master grower on-site at every location.

“What we are bringing to the United States is truly Dutch technology, applied in a way that is both effective and easy to scale,” says Arne Spliet, co-founder of LocalDutch. “In a sector where skilled specialists are rare, our system automates that work to ensure consistent production. That is exactly what many communities urgently need.”

Rather than targeting a specific demographic, the U.S. rollout is prioritizing intersection points where fresh food access is low but demand and municipal support are high. This includes both dense urban centers like Chicago and New York, as well as peri-urban areas where land may be available but supply chains remain inefficient.

By positioning these shops as neighborhood food infrastructure, LocalDutch has been able to navigate notoriously difficult U.S. zoning laws, pitching its sites as a mix of community-serving retail and local job creators.

Rather than targeting a specific demographic, the U.S. rollout is prioritizing intersection points where fresh food access is low but demand and municipal support are high.

(Digital rendering courtesy of LocalDutch)

“Our format is compact and standardized, so we select sites based on demand and real estate fundamentals, not just a label,” says Catherine Wilsbach, local impactor for LocalDutch.

While the growing process is handled by algorithms, the storefront remains intentionally human. LocalDutch isn’t looking to replace the weekly supermarket trip. Instead, it aims to enhance it.

The shops are designed to function as social meeting points, capturing the transparency and trust of a traditional farmers market but with the year-round consistency of a daily market. Because the AI handles the farming, local teams can be recruited for their retail and community engagement skills rather than agricultural degrees.

“We’re building on something that already resonates strongly in the U.S.: the desire to know where your food comes from. Farmers markets have shown that Americans value transparency, local growers and a direct connection to their food,” Wilsbach says. “LocalDutch brings that same trust and visibility into a year-round, neighborhood setting. Customers can see their produce growing just steps from the shelf, combining the authenticity of a farmers market with the convenience of a daily market.”

Economically, the model is built for resilience. Revenue is generated through a hybrid of direct retail sales, community supported agriculture memberships and last-mile delivery partnerships. This flexibility allows each shop to adapt to its specific local market while maintaining a consistent operational backbone.

As LocalDutch establishes its U.S. offices, the goal remains clear: to prove that the future of food isn’t just about growing more; it’s about growing closer to the people who eat it. By shrinking the distance between the vine and the shelf to just a few steps, LocalDutch is betting that the next great American grocery staple will be a Dutch-grown model with a local heart.

With plans to launch in the U.S. this year, the initial locations are planned to be in Pennsylvania, “capitalizing on the strong local food production and historical strength in agriculture,” Wilsbach says.

LocalDutch highlights the following about its approach:

Fresh and affordable vegetables — Quality matters; locally produced deliciousness that’s cheaper than supermarkets.
Farm-to-fork — Locally produced food gives zero food miles and no food waste.
Standardized build — The build of the LocalDutch Shop is prefabricated and just has to be assembled on site.
Expertise — LocalDutch says it arose from long-lasting controlled environment agriculture knowledge.

Read more about the LocalDutch story, background in the greenhouse sector and ideas on how to bring affordable fresh food to many different places on Stories of Purpose , a storytelling initiative by The Hague.

Rewriting the Food Story: KC Black Urban Growers and the Fight for Food Sovereignty

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 21:00:03 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “ Sowing Change ” series about urban farming.

On the corner of 31^st and Prospect in Kansas City, Mo., a Sunfresh grocery store, the last full-service grocer in this food desert, closed and left a void that made national news. For many residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, it had been the primary source of fresh food. Within weeks, a small network of Black farmers stepped in to help feed people living within a 1-mile radius.

“We partnered with The [Kansas City] Defender , which is the Black newspaper, and five of our farmers, and said, ‘How can we do food boxes for people who live one mile within this grocery store?’” says Dina Newman, founder of KC Black Urban Growers . “One thing, we’re going to get locally grown, affordable fresh produce in the hands of folks within 1 mile of that grocery store. And the other thing, it was an opportunity for those folks around there to meet a Black farmer.”

They called it the Hamer Free Food Box, named after civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The pilot ran in late summer and early fall.

“Amazing. People were, first of all, so grateful. Secondly, again, it was an opportunity of, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize that this was even a possibility,’” Newman says.

That moment captures her larger vision, one rooted in what she calls “afri/agri-culture,” a reconnection to land, heritage and power.

Reclaiming an Agrarian Identity

“We are agrarian people,” Newman says. “Coming from Africa, coming to this land and bringing with us certain plants, certain seeds, certain knowledge. In some cases, [they] have been forgotten, but it’s there.”

For Newman, reconnecting Black growers to that legacy requires intention. KC Black Urban Growers creates what she describes as “a brave and safe space” where Black farmers and gardeners can gather every other month to share stories, techniques and hard truths.

“There are certain things that we are dealing with as Black farmers and growers,” she says. “Finances, for one. Historically, you know the stories. Land, acquiring land, even at an urban level, there are still challenges.”

In those gatherings, history becomes practical knowledge.

“Oftentimes, somebody is like, ‘My grandmother or my grandfather, my great grandfather used to do it this way. Have you tried that?’ So we’re able to have that deep connection,” Newman says.

Part of that reconnection includes economic self-determination. The group prioritizes sourcing “food that has been traditionally labeled as African American or Black foods,” Newman says, and ensuring they are “getting them from Black seed companies. We are supporting those farms and those who are doing that work.”

It is a direct response to generations of discrimination that stripped Black farmers of land and capital. Small-scale support can make an immediate difference.

Hands-on experiential learning at Sankara Farm.

(Photo courtesy of KC Black Urban Growers)

Bridging Gaps With Microgrants

Through a Just-in-Time microgrant program, KC Black Urban Growers offers grants ranging from $500 to $2,000.

“For some people, $500 will buy you some seeds,” Newman says. “It’s going to help you get some soil amendments. It may also help pay that water bill.”

Water, especially for growers on city systems, is a significant expense. “Water is so expensive,” she says. “They may be able to offset.”

In some cases, that modest grant becomes leverage.

“It’s not a lot, but they can leverage that to try to get more funds from someone else,” Newman says. “It’s like, ‘KCBUGs believe in this project. Here’s my kind of seed money. Can you leverage that?’”

Recipients have used funds for raised beds, lumber, training opportunities and conference travel.

“I had one grower who needed raised beds,” Newman says. “We’ve also had people who’ve been like, ‘I need to go to this training, and I can’t afford to go.’ So, we’ve been able to support folks to go to different trainings and events as well.”

Reframing Farming for the Next Generation

Convincing young Black people to see farming as opportunity rather than oppression requires careful reframing.

“It’s not easy,” Newman says. “I remember the resistance from folks saying, ‘I’ve been freed from that kind of life. I’m not a sharecropper. I’m not a slave. I don’t want to do that kind of work.’”

The shift has come through storytelling and meeting young people where they are. During the pandemic, the message centered on health. “With COVID, it was like food is medicine; there was a surge of interest. It was, ‘I need to know where my food is coming from.’”

Newman recalls a young person telling her: “‘I want to be able to play pro basketball, but I have to be healthy, right? I’ve got to be healthy.‘ Well, let’s look at your food situation.”

Today, the conversation also includes green careers.

“We’re having conversations about green jobs right now, which is a primarily white field,” she says. “But we know there are really good green jobs out there outside of farming. There’s forestry.”

Urban agriculture becomes an entry point into a broader ecosystem of environmental work and green infrastructure.

Dina Newman has a vision rooted in what she calls “afri/agri-culture,” a reconnection to land, heritage and power.

(Photo courtesy of KC Black Urban Growers)

Building Toward Food Sovereignty

The food box pilot did more than fill empty refrigerators. It sparked a larger idea: a Black-led, community-supported agriculture program.

“We are looking at doing the very first Black CSA [Community Supported Agriculture],” Newman says. The model would include five to 10 Black farmers, with a sliding-scale structure. “Those who can pay would help offset the cost for those who couldn’t. So, we still want to make sure that those who need fresh, affordable food would be able to get it at a really reduced rate or no cost at all.”

That vision aligns with Newman’s long-term goal of food sovereignty, a system where communities control how their food is grown, distributed and consumed.

She also envisions a physical hub dedicated to education and processing.

“People are looking for a place where they could go and do some of that experiential learning, that hands-on [learning],” she says.

Newman says she imagines a space where food and fiber intersect, referencing a farmer who grows cotton alongside vegetables.

“That is so emotionally historic and an opportunity to learn and teach,” she says.

A dedicated site could host trainings, youth programs and workshops on harvesting, seed saving and even textiles connected to Black agricultural history.

“It’s a pipe dream,” she says with a laugh. “But yeah, I would love to see our own space where people could come in, where we could also have trainings, offer trainings into the community, particularly with young people. That would be a dream.”

Expanding the Circle

KC Black Urban Growers’ mission has focused on supporting farmers and growers within 100 miles of Kansas City. Now, rural communities are showing interest.

“Our rural brothers and sisters are reaching out,” Newman says.

The group is building connections as far west as the historic Black township of Nicodemus, where farmers are installing high tunnels on more than 50 acres.

“They’re out there, and they need our support as well,” she says.

For Newman, the work is both practical and profound. It is about fresh produce within a mile of a closed grocery store. It is about microgrants that pay water bills. It is also about restoring memory.

“We are agrarian people,” she says, returning to the core of her message.

The seeds, she believes, were always there.

Your Next Read:

Beyond Organic: Why the Future of Urban Farming is ‘Soil Gut Health’

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:09:42 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “ Sowing Change ” series about urban farming.

For decades, the gold standard of responsible gardening was defined by the organic label with its list of prohibited synthetic chemicals and pesticides. But according to Chris Cerveny, who holds a Ph.D. in horticulture from Cornell University, simply avoiding the “bad stuff” is only half the battle.

Cerveny brings nearly 30 years of experience in the horticulture industry to this new frontier. A self-described “plant geek” and expert in controlled environment agriculture and hydroponics, he has spent much of his career focusing on the plants themselves. However, his transition back into gardening sparked a major “aha moment” and a paradigm shift: the realization that to truly nurture a plant, one must first nurture the soil as its own distinct crop. As co-founder and chief innovation and product officer of Just Good Soil , he is focused on bridging advanced soil science with everyday gardening — empowering people to regenerate their soil, grow healthier plants and become confident gardeners.

The next era of cultivation is regenerative, he says; a paradigm shift that treats the soil and its ecosystem as its own primary crop.

Chris Cerveny, Ph.D., is the co-founder and chief innovation and product officer of Just Good Soil, the first tech-enabled, science-backed regenerative gardening company focused on improving soil health to help Americans grow more nutrient-dense food in their home gardens.

(Photo courtesy of Just Good Soil)

The Sugar High Versus True Nutrition

Traditional gardening often relies on synthetic fertilizers like urea, which Cerveny describes as a sugar high for plants. While these high-nitrogen inputs produce rapid, lush green growth, they often have a nutrient dilution effect, he says. Because the plants grow so quickly, the resulting fruits and vegetables can actually contain lower concentrations of vital vitamins and minerals than those grown in slower, biologically active systems.

In a regenerative system, nutrients aren’t delivered via a chemical “fast food” fix. Instead, soil microbes digest organic matter — like manure, leaves and compost — converting it into a bioavailable form for plants.

“I think of it like complex carbohydrates versus sugary carbs,” Cerveny says. “That slow metabolism is also really good for the soil life and then the crops that are supported by it.”

Resilience in the Concrete Jungle

For urban farmers working in small plots or raised beds, regenerative practices offer a distinct advantage in building climate resilience. While large-scale industrial farms struggle to amend vast acreage, urban growers can rapidly build a microbial engine in their soil.

Cerveny highlights three essential protocols for the regenerative urban grower:

Stop Tilling: Tilling grinds up the delicate fungal networks that hold soil together, leading to compaction and erosion. Instead, use sheet composting — layering cardboard and compost to let earthworms do the aeration for you.
No Bare Soil: Always keep the ground covered with mulch, straw or cover crops. This retains moisture and protects the microbiome from the elements.
Rethink Weeds: Rather than pulling weeds by the root, Cerveny suggests cutting them at the surface. The remaining roots exude “plant juices” that feed specific microbe populations, eventually decaying into future organic matter and pore space.

The Path Forward

Transitioning to a regenerative model doesn’t happen overnight, Cerveny says. Field studies show it can take one to five years to reach comparable yields to chemical systems. But for the home gardener, the results are often immediate. By starting with a simple soil test to understand background nutrition, urban farmers can stop stripping away from the earth and start building a self-sustaining ecosystem that produces better-tasting, more nutrient-dense food.

From Heirs to Owners: Securing the Future of Marginalized Growers

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 19:20:54 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

In the produce industry, long-term planning is impossible without a secure footing. For urban farmers, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, that footing is often legally precarious.

Francine Miller, senior staff attorney and adjunct professor with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, is working to dismantle these barriers through the expansion of the Farmland Access Legal Toolkit.

By focusing on the legal mechanics of land tenure, Miller aims to ensure that growers have the stability needed to transition from temporary occupants to commercial stewards of the land.

Francine Miller, pictured, is senior staff attorney and adjunct professor with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

(Photo courtesy of Francine Miller)

When Generational Transfers Get Complicated

One of the most pervasive, yet overlooked legal hurdles in agricultural law is heirs’ property, a situation Miller explains as when land is passed down through generations without a formal will or probate process. This lack of administrative oversight leaves families with land but no clear legal claim to it.

Miller says of the staggering impact this has had on land retention: “Farmers have lost a ton of acres — hundreds of thousands of acres of land — due to title to the property not being transferred when the ancestor dies, and so the heirs then own land without clear title.”

Without a clean deed, a farm business effectively hits a ceiling. These growers are often ineligible for federal programs or traditional bank loans, preventing them from investing in the infrastructure required for high-volume commercial production.

“The heirs hold the land without clear title, and it really limits the possibilities of what they can do to generate wealth and use that land in more productive ways for farming,” Miller says.

This legal instability feeds into a broader crisis for the next generation of American growers. According to Miller, legal and physical access to soil remains the primary bottleneck for the industry’s growth.

“The National Young Farmers Coalition has said that land access is the No. 1 barrier to beginning farmers farming,” she says.

Land Aid for Growers

To bridge this gap, Miller highlights the importance of federal and organizational support that provides the liquid capital necessary to pull land out of the speculative market and put it into the hands of growers.

“Those kinds of grant programs that give organizations working with new and beginning farmers access to capital to purchase land are really important,” she says.

Beyond internal title issues, local farmers are increasingly competing with institutional investors who see farmland solely as a high-yield asset. Miller argues that this commercial pressure drives up prices and pushes marginalized growers further away from secure tenure.

“The National Family Farm Coalition has done tremendous amounts of work on the issue of land grabs by corporate actors who are buying land for investment purposes, which is the exact opposite of what land should be used for,” she says.

Ultimately, Miller suggests that for the urban produce sector to truly thrive, the industry must rethink the legal and cultural status of the land itself, moving away from a pure commodity model toward a more relational approach.

“Land is not a commodity,” she says. “The Indigenous communities would say it’s ‘kin.’”

Why Soil Health is the Secret Ingredient for Sustainable Food

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:51:45 GMT

The secret to a truly sustainable food system might not be found in high-tech machinery or new chemical additives, but in a fundamental shift in how we view the dirt beneath our feet. According to Janel Ohletz, director of agriculture for Plantd , who holds a doctorate in soil science, the former chef-turned-soil-expert says the industry is beginning to realize that soil health is the “secret ingredient” that determines the ultimate quality of specialty crops.

The “Microbe Farmer” Mentality

For Ohletz, the transition to sustainable farming starts with a radical change in perspective. She says successful regenerative farmers must stop seeing themselves as merely growers of carrots or onions and instead adopt the mindset of “microbe farmers.” This philosophy treats the soil as a living ecosystem, much like the human gut microbiome, where the primary job of the farmer is to feed the soil, so that the soil, in turn, can feed the plant, Ohletz says.

“If we change our mentality that we’re not farmers of carrots or onions or whatever, but we’re instead ‘microbe farmers,’ the soil will feed the plant, and when it’s all there and available, then the plant will just naturally take it up.”

This microbe-first approach has a direct impact on the nutrient density that ends up on the plate. Ohletz says a plant simply cannot put nutrients into food if the building blocks, such as phenols, antioxidants and minerals, are missing from the soil. While conventional methods might help a plant survive, regenerative systems allow them to thrive, resulting in higher Brix levels and a more complex nutritional profile.

Janel Ohletz, director of agriculture for Plantd says the industry is beginning to realize that soil health is the “secret ingredient” that determines the ultimate quality of specialty crops.

(Photo courtesy of Plantd)

The Carbon-Negative Blueprint: Biochar as a Power Strip

In the quest for carbon-negative materials, Ohletz says carbon should be viewed not as a buzzword but as a tangible asset. A key component of this blueprint is biochar, which provides a physical and chemical foundation that standard compost cannot match. Ohletz describes biochar’s function using the analogy of a power strip.

“It’s kind of like if you think of it as a power plug or a power strip, the more plug places you have to put things plugged into, the better,” she says.

This structure increases the soil’s “anion and cation exchange capacity,” allowing it to hold onto nutrients that would otherwise leach away. Furthermore, biochar acts like a sponge; its high porosity allows water to drain effectively while simultaneously retaining moisture for the plant’s use. Unlike organic matter that breaks down quickly, Ohletz says biochar remains in the soil for hundreds of years, relieving the pressure on organic matter to do all the heavy lifting.

Regenerative Farming in Specialty Crops

Ohletz says the specialty crop sector, specifically smaller 30-to-60-acre vegetable farms, is actually adopting these practices faster than row crop operations. Though the implementation differs, such as managing “coal crops” in colder months or limiting disturbance in leafy greens, the core premises remain the same: add organic matter and limit soil disturbance.

The Retail Secret: Selling the Story of Taste

However, producing high-quality crops is only half the battle, she says. The other half is convincing the consumer. Currently, most shoppers buy based on the physical appearance of a fruit rather than the health of the farm. Ohletz believes the secret to shifting this behavior lies in the culinary experience.

“As a chef, when you buy something that’s a locally grown thing, the flavor is just better,” she says.

Retailers can bridge this gap by connecting soil health to ecosystem services that consumers care about, such as:

Pollinator protection: Highlighting that regenerative farms use meadow strips to help the bees
Environmental impact: Linking produce choices to improved air and water quality
Nutrient retention: Explaining that nutrient density is also affected by the length of time an ingredient takes to get from the field to the plate, with local soil-healthy options often outperforming store-shelf staples

By focusing on taste and the environmental benefits that healthy soil provides, such as supporting pollinators through meadow strips and improving air and water quality, retailers can tell a more compelling story. Ultimately, Ohletz says the goal is to help consumers realize the simple choices they make in the produce aisle can have a profound impact on the environment as well as their own health.

Your Next Read: How an Agri-Food Pioneer Transforms Soil Science into Real-World Solutions

Beyond the Backyard: Agriburbia’s Patented Path to Urban Food Security

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:37:35 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

Colorado-based Agriburbia is pioneering a model that treats food production as essential infrastructure, believing that agriculture and sustainable real estate development can be synergistic. Its goal is to create and integrate 30 million high-quality, highly successful farmers in urban, suburban and rural environments, improving both human and planetary health.

Co-founder of Agriburbia, Matthew (Quint) Redmond has more than 35 years of professional experience in design, planning, natural resources, agriculture and spatial technologies.

The concept of Agriburbia is the result of decades of professional evolution. The founders transitioned from the geospatial GIS and sustainable development world to focus exclusively on food systems around 2008. An early 600-acre project in Colorado served as proof of concept, Redmond says, proving that large-scale agricultural integration could be entitled and approved by local governments, even if the 2008 financial crisis delayed its construction.

Since then, the company has consulted on over 80 projects ranging from half-acre plots to 5-acre intensive farms. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a major catalyst for this growth, he says, as consumers became increasingly concerned with food transparency and freshness. Today, the company’s expertise has expanded to include health-centric farming, such as testing soil and septic conditions to determine if specific crops, such as potassium-rich goji berries, should be grown to meet the nutritional needs of the local community.

Agriculture as Infrastructure

At the heart of this movement is the concept of “agriculture as infrastructure,” integrating farming directly into the community fabric.

“Agriculture as infrastructure changes it a lot for the farmer, because it’s more about their experience, their expertise ... and then they get paid, because you’re not competing against Mexico or trying to [deal with] other things that are problematic in the sort of traditional supply chain,” Redmond says.

This approach aims to professionalize urban and peri-urban farming, creating high-quality ag jobs that focus on soil health and plant quality rather than just volume and logistics. By removing the uncertainty of the open market, these roles can offer professional salaries for farmers who manage these systems, Redmond says.

Tech-Driven, Networked Production

To solve the profitability issues that often plague small-scale farming, Agriburbia has developed a patented, networked food production system called E.A.T. Systems, which stands for Environmentally Augmented Trellis. The system uses vertically dense trellises equipped with a full sensor suite, including soil moisture and temperature monitors.

Remote Monitoring: Farmers can manage sections of the trellis via their phones, receiving alerts if a section is too hot or requires attention.
The “Etsy” for Farming: The platform acts as a marketplace where consumers or restaurants can search for specific crops and find local growers.
De-Risking the Farm: To ensure financial stability, Agriburbia envisions a contract model where institutions like schools or restaurants reserve specific trellis sections before the crop is even planted.
Weather Protection: The trellis systems are designed with plastic coverings to protect specialty crops from hail damage, significantly reducing the risk of total crop loss.

“[The produce] is sold while it’s grown, and becomes like a marketplace,” Redmond says.

Eden Ranch site rendering, 330 acres in Flower Mound, Texas.

(Image courtesy of Agriburbia)

Institutional and Residential Integration

The Agriburbia model targets four primary sectors for these food systems:

School Districts: Several districts are already exploring how much acreage is required to feed their entire student populations.
Hospitals: Facilities are using land for patient therapy and to bring fresh produce directly into the cafeteria.
Churches: Many religious institutions own extra acreage that can be transformed into intensive, commercial-grade gardens to serve their congregations.
Residential Developments: Integrating orchards, vineyards and trellised food production into open spaces.

In projects like the Lakehouse in Denver, Agriburbia has successfully grown a diverse palette of crops including basil, arugula, kale, okra and several varieties of squash and peppers.

A flagship 350-acre project in Fire Mountain, Texas, recently received approval to include 160 lots where the open space is dedicated to food production. Residents will receive text messages when produce is ready for harvest in their specific section of the neighborhood. This model encourages an intergenerational lifestyle, where retirees and young families alike participate in the harvest, supported by professional management.

Scaling to Rural Landscapes and Water Efficiency

While the “urban” in urban farming is a primary focus, the technology is also finding a home in traditional rural settings. Redmond says farmers in “sugar beet and hay country” are looking at the trellis system to make their pivot corners more profitable.

By using drip irrigation on these corners, farmers can produce high-value specialty crops, potentially generating more value per acre-foot of water than the primary crop under the pivot. This is particularly relevant in regions like Colorado and Kansas, where water rights and conservation are central to the agricultural conversation, he says. As Agriburbia continues to expand, its mission remains clear: to create a resilient, networked food system that benefits the land, the farmer and the community simultaneously.

The Suburban Oasis Where Life Revolves Around the Harvest

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 22:04:12 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

In the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert, a rebellion against traditional urban sprawl is taking root. While most suburban developments are defined by towering cinderblock walls and manicured lawns, Agritopia offers a different vision of a village where front porches and storefronts overlook 11 acres of certified organic farmland and the morning air smells of citrus blossoms.

A Legacy Preserved: From Cotton to Community

Agritopia’s story began long before the modern “agri-hood” trend. In 1960, Jim and Virginia Johnston purchased the 166-acre plot, originally a 1927 homestead, to raise their three sons, Joe, Steve and Paul. For decades, the land was a working farm producing cotton, wheat and hay.

By the late 1990s, the rapid expansion of the Phoenix metro area and the construction of the Loop 202 freeway threatened to swallow the family farm. While many neighbors sold to developers of traditional subdivisions, the Johnstons chose a different path. Led by the eldest son, Joe Johnston, a Stanford-educated engineer and entrepreneur, the family decided to “un-sprawl.”

They envisioned a neighborhood that honored its heritage by keeping the farm at its center. This transformation was literal: the family’s 1960s ranch-style home was converted into Joe’s Farm Grill, the tractor shed became The Coffee Shop and the family barn was reimagined as Barnone, a hub for local craftsmen.

The logistical tension of running a high-yield, USDA-certified organic farm in the middle of a residential neighborhood is managed through a clear set of priorities.

(Photo courtesy of Agritopia)

The “Farm-First” Philosophy

The logistical tension of running a high-yield, USDA-certified organic farm in the middle of a residential neighborhood is managed through a clear set of priorities. According to Christy Davis, executive director of the Arizona Urban Agriculture Foundation at Agritopia Farms, the community’s governing documents explicitly state the farm comes first.

“Regardless of the noise, the dust ... that comes first,” Davis says. This clarity has created a culture where residents view the farm not as a nuisance but as a vital community anchor.

Under the leadership of head farmer Kelly Saxer, Agritopia grows over 45 varieties of fruits and vegetables. The farm specializes in specialty crops that are difficult to find in standard grocery stores:

Leafy greens: Three types of kale, arugula and napa cabbage.
Root vegetables: Specialty radishes such as daikon and watermelon radishes.
Citrus and dates: One of the last remaining commercial orchards in the East Valley, producing up to 20,000 pounds of fruit annually, alongside 26 medjool date trees, often called “nature’s candy.”

A Closed-Loop Community

The farm’s produce feeds the neighborhood through a modernized CSA program serving 75 to 100 residents, while restaurants like Joe’s Farm Grill integrate the harvest directly into their menus.

Beyond the plate, Agritopia serves as an educational hub. Their Farm Hands program brings children onto the land three days a week to teach them about seasonal eating and the patience required for agriculture.

Davis says she has seen firsthand, “If kids are involved in that process, they’re more likely to eat their vegetables.”

In an era of extreme heat and water scarcity, Agritopia remains ahead of the curve. The farm uses drip irrigation and its original on-site well to mitigate costs. Even with the completion of the high-density Epicenter development, which added luxury apartments and retail, the farm has maintained its core footprint of 11 acres.

As Gilbert continues to densify, Agritopia stands as a living testament that agriculture and urban life don’t just coexist; they can thrive together.

Inside the High-Tech Lab of Georgia’s Youngest Vertical Farmer

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:36:36 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

Malon E.D. James is not your typical farmer. Instead, he’s a 15-year-old high school graduate (who actually graduated at 13) and a pioneer in controlled environment agriculture. While his Atlanta peers are navigating the 10^th grade, James is managing a sophisticated hydroponic operation that bridges the gap between old-world tradition and the digital frontier.

It started in the kitchen of his grandmother, Mattie James. Affectionately known as “Mimi,” James says watching her grow plants in simple glasses of water left a lasting impression on him.

“Standing in her kitchen, just seeing her plants really grow, the roots take ... it’s just so much life,” he says.

This early exposure to the magic of growth gave him a clear vision of his path: “That’s how I know where my food is, that’s how I know where it’s coming from. That really gave me a picture that this is what I’m going to pursue.”

At just 15 years old, Georgia’s youngest certified vertical farmer is blending his grandmother’s wisdom with high-tech innovation to fight food deserts from a lab in Atlanta.

(Photo courtesy of Malon E.D. James)

A Pandemic-Driven Mission

While his interest began at age 10, it was the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 that transformed a hobby into a global mission. Deeply moved by the vulnerabilities in the food supply chain, James began researching food deserts and climate-related agricultural failures.

His focus expanded to Liberia, where monsoons frequently wash away traditional soil crops and infrastructure. This inspired his drive to create indoor systems that offer safety and security by allowing people to grow food directly in their living rooms, shielded from the elements.

Turning this vision into a commercial reality required more than just a green thumb; it required capital and persistence. James successfully navigated the bureaucracy of the USDA Farm Service Agency to secure a youth loan, allowing him to move his operations out of his home and into a professional facility.

“The FSA loan I received was specifically for equipment and supplies. [A mentor], Judge Gundy helped me secure the space I’m in several months before I received the loan or modest marketing grant,” James says.

The transition wasn’t without its hurdles. James says that older generations in traditional farming can sometimes be skeptical of oversophisticated technology. However, he has proven that his high-tech approach is viable, scaling up to 24 farm stands capable of producing dozens of plants simultaneously.

James’ facility is a “lab-to-table” environment where he is assisted by Jarvis, an artificial intelligence system that monitors his actions, flags inconsistencies and manages rigorous schedules. This tech-forward approach has allowed him to move beyond standard leafy greens to experiment with over 42 varieties, including challenging crops like cotton.

“Cotton was something I really had to maneuver and understand,” James says, noting that it demands far more precise climate and nutrient scheduling than a simple head of cabbage. His research even extends to the molecular level, where he is currently working on a patent for a custom biodegradable substrate designed to help plants hold nutrients more effectively.

Of working with Jarvis as his assistant, James says: “Jarvis doesn’t know much about the science of hydroponics yet, but he is a great student. Mostly, he proofreads my work and monitors. I don’t want people to get the impression that AI can help you become a great hydroponic grower. It depends on how you program your AI.”

Beyond the Harvest

Despite the high-level research and AI-driven data, James remains motivated by the simple, human act of sharing food. He remembers his first successful harvest of tomatoes. Though he isn’t a “tomato person” himself, he says the experience was transformative.

“It just gave me a sense of security,” he says. “I know I can do it again and again and again. I can feed my whole family with [this].”

As he looks toward his next steps of expanding into a larger lab and developing new models, his message to other young entrepreneurs remains one of pure resilience: “Don’t let anybody discourage you from doing it ... Looking at something from a negative standpoint will never let you see the positive.”

James’ future looks filled with light and growth as well.

“It’s my wish to attend MIT after I complete my research project in Liberia,” he says.

Kakadoodle and Spira Farms Prototype a Tech-Enabled Local Supply Chain

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 12:14:17 GMT

In the traditional local food model, the seasonal gap and fragmented logistics have long been the Achilles’ heel of regional produce. However, a high-tech collaboration in the Midwest between Kakadoodle, a decentralized distribution hub, and Spira Farms, an indoor vertical microgreens operation, is providing a blueprint for a resilient, year-round supply chain that mirrors industrial efficiency through artificial intelligence and deep technical integration.

For Marty and MariKate Thomas, founders of Kakadoodle , scaling a local food business to $60,000 in monthly revenue required a fundamental shift in how “local” is branded. Marty Thomas argues that the modern consumer, who typically shops at conventional grocers, craves the polish and reliability of established institutions.

A former software engineer who pivoted to agriculture following a personal battle with cancer, Thomas’ Kakadoodle has evolved from a small pastured-egg operation into a sophisticated decentralized distribution hub. Headquartered in a state-of-the-art facility in Frankfort, Ill., the company serves as an “online farmers market” for over 600 households, aggregating chemical-free products from more than 30 regional producers.

Marty and MariKate Thomas’ company, Kakadoodle, serves as an “online farmers market” for over 600 households, aggregating chemical-free products from more than 30 regional producers.

(Photo courtesy of Kakadoodle)

By replacing traditional marketing with “vibe coding,” using AI to build custom logistics and communication software, Thomas has created a tech-forward marketplace that prioritizes convenience and institutional trust, proving that local food can compete with the reliability of big-box grocers.

“I think our modern consumer would trust the chicken at Chick-fil-A more than they would trust going to the farm and buying chicken from the farmer,” Thomas says. To meet this expectation of professionalism, Kakadoodle leverages AI and high-quality branding:

AI-Enhanced Visuals: The company uses AI to transform low-quality product photos into high-end, “beautiful” imagery suitable for a digital marketplace.
Institutional Reliability: Rather than relying on traditional marketing, which Thomas says never worked, they focus on “boring” fundamentals such as maintaining a high percentage of “perfect deliveries” to build institutional trust.
Tactile Professionalism: The brand invests in high-quality, bright yellow branded grocery bags that act as a mobile marketing tool at markets and on doorsteps.

Kakadoodle isn’t just a delivery service; it’s a software-first enterprise. Thomas uses a method called “vibe coding,” using AI to write and debug code via natural language. This allows the hub to operate with the agility of a large tech firm without the overhead of a massive IT staff.

“I don’t even write code anymore,” Thomas says. Instead, he uses AI as a “group of 10 software engineers” to diagnose logistics errors. For instance, when a customer recently had two deliveries scheduled for the same day, Thomas told the AI to find the error in the logs, write a fix and create a debugging script to prevent a recurrence. This automated backend allows the business to scale customer communication via AI-managed SMS, allowing them to manage accounts and upsell products with extreme efficiency.

Spira Farms: Solving the “Basket Size” Problem

While Kakadoodle manages the interface, Spira Farms provides the consistent, climate-controlled production required to sustain a year-round model. Operating out of a 6,000-square-foot vertical warehouse, Spira grows approximately 40 varieties of greens on an outracking system.

Founded by Chris Borek, the family-run Spira Farms specializes in nutrient-dense microgreens grown in a climate-controlled outracking system that uses 95% less water than traditional field farming.

(Photo courtesy of Spira Farms)

Founded by Chris Borek, the farm specializes in nutrient-dense microgreens grown in a climate-controlled outracking system that uses 95% less water than traditional field farming. By using solar power and compostable packaging, Spira eliminates the volatility of the Midwestern climate to provide a consistent, year-round harvest. More than just a greenhouse, the farm functions as a data-driven production engine, using custom software to track 40 varieties of greens at the tray level and syncing its planting cycles directly with consumer demand.

For Borek, the partnership with Kakadoodle solved the primary headache of small-scale farming: logistics. Historically, home delivery for niche products like microgreens failed because “basket sizes” weren’t large enough to be cost-effective.

“What Kakadoodle is doing ... they are able to create that basket where it makes sense to deliver directly to consumers,” Borek says.

The integration is more than just a vendor relationship; it is a digital handshake, he says.

Data-Linked Planting: Thomas and Borek built a custom API bridge that allows Spira’s internal application to extract order data from Kakadoodle weeks in advance.
Precision Harvest: This allows Spira to plant exact amounts based on projected demand rather than speculative yields.

The Season of Survival and AI-Optimized Margins

As they look toward 2026, both companies are using AI to navigate after a “season of survival” in 2025. For Kakadoodle, this means using AI to maintain a strict 50% margin. This focus was sharpened after Thomas discovered that rising cattle commodity prices had quietly pushed their cost of goods for ground beef to $10.50, putting the business in “dangerous territory.”

Now, AI automatically calculates costs across complex value-added products, tracking everything from the initial carcass purchase to secondary processing for items such as hot dogs and bacon. By using AI to provide alerts when margins “creep up,” Kakadoodle aims to reach a $100,000 monthly break-even point. This synthesis of AI-driven logistics and precision vertical farming isn’t just about local food, Thomas says, it’s about building a smarter, more profitable local food industry.

Your Next Read: In the Year of the Cooperative, Rural Grocers Find Power in Partnership

Black Soldier Fly Bioreactors Turn Food Waste into Plant Protection and Farm Resources

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 19:34:08 GMT

What if food waste wasn’t something to get rid of but a resource waiting to be tapped? Researchers at University of California, Riverside are exploring whether a small, insect-powered system could help growers close the loop, turning everyday scraps into new biological tools that support healthier plants, stronger soils and more self-reliant farms.

Black soldier fly bioreactors are gaining attention as a promising way to turn waste into resources, creating feed for poultry and fish, while also producing frass that could help strengthen plant defenses. For specialty crop growers and urban farmers, the research carries particular relevance.

Professor Kerry Mauck has been studying how black soldier fly systems influence plants, and one of the most intriguing concepts is what she describes as a “vaccine-like” effect. Insects, fungi and other organisms that commonly interact with plants contain chitin, a structural polymer. When tiny fragments of chitin from the insects’ exoskeletons show up in soil, plants recognize the signal.

Mauck explains that the bits of chitin become “a molecular signature of something that the plant might want to ramp up its defenses to fight off.” Because frass contains both chitin and microbes that help break it down into smaller pieces, plants can respond as if they are preparing for attack, thus switching on natural defense systems before any threat arrives.

“It’s like activating those defenses without the attack that comes right after,” Mauck says. “If something else does come in, the plant is ready for it.”

Black soldier fly adults sunning themselves on the walls of the greenhouse housing the bioreactor.

(Photo courtesy of Mauck Lab BSF Team)

Built With Small and Specialty Growers in Mind

While large commercial systems exist, Mauck’s team intentionally designed a small, adaptable setup.

“Ours is one of the first that’s been tested and published that would operate on a small scale,” she says. The goal was to make it feasible for small and medium-sized farms and growers with limited space. The main requirement is an enclosed area with some temperature control — such as a greenhouse or a simple building with windows.

The footprint can be as modest as a single bin, roughly a meter and a half square, but growers can add additional bins in a row as their operation grows. Importantly, most of the materials are common agricultural supplies.

“The bins are like bins you might use to harvest fruit,” she says, noting buckets, shovels and hardware-store materials made up most of the system’s needs.

Urban farmers might find the flexibility attractive, although Mauck cautions that community gardens could face coordination challenges around who maintains the system week-to-week. In the university trial, undergraduate workers were able to keep the system running with about five to 10 hours per week of labor.

BSF larvae eating food waste from the UCR dining hall.

(Photo courtesy of Mauck Lab BSF Team)

Beyond Feed: Soil Biology and Plant Resilience

Beyond producing feed for poultry and fish, Mauck sees some of the greatest potential benefits happening underground.

The chitin and organic matter appear to encourage beneficial bacteria that help keep soil-borne pathogens in check.

“The other great thing about the materials that are in the frass … is that a lot of microbes that are beneficial, that can actually suppress diseases in the soil, thrive on these materials,” she says.

Her team is now exploring whether even small doses of frass could build healthier soil ecosystems while keeping application costs low.

“We’re trying to see what’s the smallest dose … that can still be effective,” Mauck says.

For specialty crop farms, the research suggests several takeaways:

Closed-loop opportunity: Waste streams can become feed and soil amendments instead of disposal costs
Plant-defense potential: Frass might “prime” crops to better respond to pests and disease
Scalable design: Systems can start small and expand
Labor remains a factor: Clear responsibilities and training are essential, especially in shared garden settings

As scientists learn more about how frass shapes soil biology and plant defenses, this insect-powered approach could become one of the simplest ways to close the loop on nutrients.

Why it's Never Too Late to Grow

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:32:46 GMT

When Steve Hackett retired in 2020, he had no idea he was about to discover a new calling as a farmer. As he began tending to his gardens and orchards, his journey resonated with a global audience and transformed him into FarmerSteve727, an accidental TikTok sensation to tens of thousands.

At 60, Hackett and his wife bought five acres in northern Connecticut and gave new life to a neglected former horse farm that had gone wild after two decades of little care. Instead of seeing an overwhelming mess, Hackett says he saw possibility. Followers on TikTok saw the same, and his account eventually grew to 67,000 followers.

“I never did gardening before or anything,” he says. “But I always wanted to have fruit trees … so I said, I’m going to put a little orchard in, and I’m going to start gardening.”

Hackett dived into research on food forests and permaculture, determined to grow as much food as possible, while making it as visually appealing as possible. Over time, he planted about 30 fruit trees, mostly peaches, apples and pears, along with a few cherries. Planted in 2022, the trees are finally starting to reward his patience, especially the peaches, which have become a household staple.

The work started simply with clearing brush, pulling poison ivy and imagining what the land could become. Curious neighbors watched from lawn chairs as he slowly carved out garden beds and experimented with raised beds, vegetables, pumpkins and, eventually, towering sunflowers. These same 12-to-14-foot sunflowers led to Hackett’s first viral video.

Today, the harvests are far beyond the “two or three tomatoes” he once celebrated. He cans, freezes and shares generously. “I give a lot away … the senior center gets bags every week,” he says.

Screenshot from FarmerSteve727’s TikTok account.

(Courtesy of FarmerSteve727 via TikTok)

TikTok wasn’t part of the original plan. It started as a family suggestion, sort of a joke, he says, until his first videos suddenly drew an audience. Overnight, FarmerSteve727 found 1,000 followers; within a year, he had 8,000. Then came the idea that changed everything: a sunflower “room” beside his koi pond.

He planted the structure of sunflowers in a semi-circle, illuminated it with lights, added chairs and waited. Hackett says he filmed the progress as the sunflower room came to life.

That first video of the sunflowers is when his followers started to increase exponentially.

“I put a video on in June, and overnight, I got 17,000 more followers. I think the original video got 2.5 million views, and then I put a second one on, and that one got like 1.8 million views, and then it took off from there.”

By that time, Hackett says he was up to about 34,000 followers within a couple of weeks, and the growth just continued, he says.

People connected with the creativity, but also the message, realizing that if he could do it, maybe they could, too.

Despite his online popularity, Hackett doesn’t see himself as an expert. He sees himself as a student who happens to share the journey.

He’s learned what many lifelong growers eventually do: The garden runs on patience.

“It isn’t instant,” he says. “Once you plant something, everything in the world is going to try to eat it. It’s a challenge, but I really enjoy it.”

He’s also found unexpected joy in foods he never thought he’d love, particularly squash and zucchini, and in the simple rhythm of tending, harvesting, cooking and preserving.

This year, after undergoing surgery and scaling back pumpkins, he focused instead on expanding a sunflower maze and thinking about what’s next. Part of that future involves rebuilding much of the garden so he can film clearer how-to videos and talk more directly to the camera.

TikTok viewers might soon see “Cooking with Farmer Steve,” along with new raised beds, longer-form storytelling and more behind-the-scenes glimpses into the work.

“I want to rebuild it and make better videos of how I did it,” Hackett says. “And I’m going to add something special to the sunflower maze.”

What started as a retirement project has become an orchard, a garden, a creative playground and a source of encouragement to thousands of people who dream of growing something themselves.

Maybe that’s why Hackett resonates with his followers. He didn’t start farming at 20 or 40. He began at 60 with curiosity, time and the willingness to learn out loud.

And standing inside a glowing room of sunflowers taller than he ever imagined, Farmer Steve says he’s still just getting started.

From Urban Ag to Indoor Farming: Fresh Produce Grows Up

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 18:41:56 GMT

Not all produce growing operations look the same. Some are indoors with the plants growing out of the walls, while others are nestled in cities rather than rural landscapes. The Packer covered interesting developments there as well in 2025 and will continue doing so in 2026.

Readers can look forward to more of The Packer’s Jill Dutton’s ongoing “Sowing Change” series focused on urban farming in 2026, for instance. When she kicked off the series in February , she profiled an urban farm in Kansas City, Mo., that was dealing with some of the most quintessentially urban problems: City codes, zoning regs, and NIMBY neighbors.

That story, though still in progress, didn’t go the way the urban farmers had hoped; their rezoning bid was denied, and the city required yet more costly changes to survive. But not all urban farming stories in 2025 went that way.

In a May installment of the series , Dutton highlighted how a new generation of Black farmers is changing the future of urban agriculture. She profiled Black, urban farmers in Chicago, Atlanta, Mississippi Delta, and Los Angeles, and looked at how their efforts and innovations are working to reclaim land, build food sovereignty and strengthen communities.

“Our ancestors’ legacy lives through us as we try to balance the scales for food equity and urban societies,” said one source. Another said they want the next generation of Black children and those beyond to reengage with agriculture, regardless of where they are.

In another May installment, Dutton interviewed an undercover-billionaire-turned-urban-farmer who seeks to unite trains and farms . By turning abandoned rail depots into local food hubs that connect farmers directly to consumers, Elaine Culotti hopes to turn forgotten train systems into a lifeline for the country’s farmers and food-insecure communities.

Dutton also interviewed the country’s youngest certified farmer in late September as part of the “Sowing Change” series. Ten-year-old Kendall Rae Johnson’s passion for ag started at age 3 and grew from there. At age 6, she became a certified farmer. At 9 she was offered a full-ride scholarship in agriculture from South Carolina State University.

Today, Kendall is a USDA National Urban Agriculture Youth Ambassador with a 1-acre garden and volunteered patches of land by supportive area farmers where she grows collard greens for her community. She wants to share her experience to help other kids interested in agriculture.

“I want them to know they can dream big, and with the right tools and support, we can make those dreams come true,” she told Dutton.

Vertical and indoor farms took the stage too

Some urban farms embrace the city so much, they’ve gone indoors. A couple of The Packer’s top stories in 2025 focused on controlled environment agriculture, a seemingly growing segment of the industry.

In February, The Packer’s Jenn Strailey looked to the north — Onterio, Canada, specifically — to report on gains made in the greenhouse industry there. The Canadian province is home to the largest concentration of greenhouse vegetable production in North America, and also conveniently only a day’s drive from over 58% of the U.S. population, according to one of her sources.

“As we deal with climate change globally, greenhouse farming is able to yield up to 20 times more per square meter than conventional farming,” he said. “We are able to control the growing conditions in harsh climates while producing food.”

The CEA coverage continued in March, when Strailey wrote about the two perennial stories playing out in the vertical farming industry yet again , one of bankruptcy and another of extreme growth. But the two stories actually tell an overall tale of progress in vertical farming, according to sources.

The progress is a result of the industry’s growing pains. A decade ago, vertical farmers struggled with taking too much of the wrong kind of money and trying to be tech experts before farmers. The successes of today however are learning how to scale their technology and their funds in a sustainable way, according to Strailey’s sources.

These were the top six stories on urban and indoor farming that The Packer covered in 2025. But there were, and will be, many other articles dealing with urban agriculture and indoor or vertical farming , too.

Green Our Planet Partners with Fork Farms to Transform Hydroponics in Schools Nationwide

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 13:37:46 GMT

Green Our Planet, a nonprofit provider of school garden and hydroponics STEM programs, has formed a national partnership with Fork Farms, a Wisconsin-based impact-tech company focused on indoor agriculture.

Together, the two organizations say they will expand access to hydroponic laboratories and hands-on STEM learning for students across the U.S., further igniting curiosity, creativity and a lifelong connection to science and sustainability.

“Students aren’t just learning how to grow plants; they’re learning engineering, biology, nutrition, climate science and entrepreneurship all at once,” says Ciara Byrne, co-founder and CEO of Green Our Planet. “By partnering with Fork Farms, Green Our Planet is helping schools build living laboratories that prepare students for the careers and challenges of tomorrow.”

The collaboration with Fork Farms combines Green Our Planet’s award-winning STEM training with Fork Farms’ hydroponic technology, enabling schools everywhere to turn classrooms into living science labs where students can grow plants, design experiments and explore the future of sustainable agriculture.

The partnership is grounded in Green Our Planet’s mission to teach people to plant and nurture gardens to ignite the human spirit and transform the world, the company says.

“This partnership allows us to scale our impact and empower the next generation of scientists, conservationists, chefs, farmers and entrepreneurs,” Byrne says. “Fork Farms’ hydroponic systems transform any classroom into a dynamic lab where students can explore biology, sustainability, engineering, nutrition and innovation, all while discovering their own potential.”

With more than 4,000 hydroponic units already deployed by Fork Farms and with Green Our Planet programs active in 2,350 schools across 44 states and five countries, the partnership unlocks new opportunities to scale hands-on STEM education for millions of young people, the companies say.

“Hydroponics is transforming how the next generation understands food, science and sustainability. Together with Fork Farms, we’re empowering students to grow their own food and imagine new solutions for the future of agriculture,” Byrne says.

Turnkey Model for Hands-On Learning

The joint initiative aims to offer schools a complete, ready-to-launch STEM ecosystem, including:

Fork Farms Hydroponic systems for classrooms, cafeterias and community spaces.
More than 500 Next Generation Science Standards-aligned STEM, sustainability, entrepreneurship and nutrition lessons.
Teacher training, coaching and on-demand support.
Opportunities for students to participate in on-campus farmers markets and real-world entrepreneurial learning.
Access to Green Our Planet’s Magic Garden Portal and digital learning videos.

“Green Our Planet’s curricula and teacher training beautifully complements our technology,” says Alex Tyink, founder anf CEO of Fork Farms. “Together, we are giving schools a pathway to build future-ready learning environments, where scientific exploration, sustainable thinking and creativity thrive side by side.”

Proven Impact

Independent research shows that hydroponics programs deliver measurable gains in learning, engagement and student well-being, according to a news release, which added that after just one year, an independent impact study found that students experienced significant improvements in these areas, including:

93% of students show increased academic achievement in STEM.
81% report higher engagement in STEM learning.
79% increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables.

For more information on the partnership, visit the Fork Farms website.

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Planting Big Dreams: America’s Youngest Farmer Growing More Than Produce

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 16:29:59 GMT

At just 10 years old, Kendall Rae Johnson is the youngest certified farmer in the U.S., and her hard work has already earned her a full scholarship to South Carolina State University.

Johnson’s journey started in her family’s backyard in Georgia when her great-grandmother taught her to grow collard greens from clippings. That simple tradition sparked a love of farming that quickly grew into something bigger.

Johnson’s accomplishments grew quickly, and by the time she was 6, she was recognized as the youngest certified farmer in the U.S. At 9, she received a full-ride scholarship in agriculture from South Carolina State University — the youngest to receive this honor as well. She’s gone on speaking tours, written a book and is about to publish an accompanying workbook, launched a marinara sauce and plans to create a natural skincare line. Then in 2023, a Georgia resolution declared that March 23 would be recognized as Kendall Rae Johnson Day. All by the ripe old age of 10.

When asked how it felt to receive the news of the scholarship, Johnson says, “Well, I just felt happy and excited that someone believed in me enough to give me a full-ride scholarship to college at only 10 years old.”

As a USDA National Urban Agriculture Youth Ambassador, Johnson says she wants to share her experience to help other youth achieve their dreams.

“I want them to know they can dream big and with the right tools and support, we can make those dreams come true,” Johnson says.

Kendall Rae Johnson’s journey is proof that age isn’t a barrier in agriculture. With vision, passion and help from parents and community, you can plant seeds of change — and watch them bloom.

Your Next Read: How the Youngest Certified Farmer in the U.S. Earned Her Full Scholarship

How the Youngest Certified Farmer in the U.S. Earned Her Full Scholarship

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:44:11 GMT

It’s hard to imagine finding your life’s purpose before you’re even 10 years old, but in the case of Kendall Rae Johnson , that’s exactly what happened.

Starting when she was 3 years old, after her great-grandmother taught Kendall how to keep from wasting food by propagating collard greens from the grocery store, she knew plants, land and soil would herald her journey.

What started as growing collard greens, led to Kendall asking to grow more, says her mother, Ursula.

“We realized this was an interest of hers, and it didn’t look like it was going away. She started asking for bigger stuff, saying, ‘I want to grow muscadines; I want to grow blueberries; I want to grow fruit trees, nut trees …’ and we knew this was not going away,” Ursula says.

Kendall’s accomplishments grew quickly, and by the time she was 6, she was recognized as the youngest certified farmer in the U.S. At 9, she received a full-ride scholarship in agriculture from South Carolina State University — the youngest to receive this honor as well. She’s gone on speaking tours, written a book and is about to publish an accompanying workbook, launched a marinara sauce and plans to create a natural skincare line. Then in 2023, a Georgia resolution declared that March 23 would be recognized as Kendall Rae Johnson Day. All by the ripe old age of 10.

When asked how it felt to receive the news of the scholarship, Kendall says, “Well, I just felt happy and excited that someone believed in me enough to give me a full-ride scholarship to college at only 10 years old.”

To educate other youth about agriculture, Kendall Rae Johnson created a book, “My Farm Biz,” that includes the steps to getting a USDA Youth Loan.

(Photo courtesy of Kendall Rae Johnson)

Once she’d found her passion for agriculture, with the help of her father, Quentin, the home-schooled Kendall started a 1-acre garden. Ursula says a typical day for the 10-year-old involves schoolwork with her dad while mom tends to emails and proposals. After schoolwork, Kendall and Quentin tackle farm work before it gets too hot, Ursula says. Once it’s too hot to work outdoors, Quentin and Kendall start working on ideas for future projects. In the evening, Ursula says the duo are back on the farm to work with the animals and other chores. In addition to the garden, Kendall has nine chickens, two ducks, a farm rabbit and two farm dogs.

When asked her father’s role in the farm, Kendall says, “He helps me by taking care of our farm animals and making sure that we don’t have any bad bugs on the farm,” adding that they maintain organic practices on the farm.

Kendall is surrounded by support from her parents and the community. For a fundraising event she holds in the fall, Kendall sells collard greens she grows. Since she’s limited to a 1-acre garden for now, local farmers offered her land to grow collard greens.

“These farmers, with hundreds of acres, told Kendall, ‘We understand you can’t grow all the collard greens for the city, so we’re going to help you out,’” Ursula says. “So, all she had to do was go pick out a spot, and the farmers helped her plant them and showed her how it’s done on a major scale — and then they took care of them from there. She just had to go pick them once they were ready.”

As a USDA National Urban Agriculture Youth Ambassador, Kendall says she wants to share her experience to help other youth achieve their dreams.

Starting when she was 3 years old, after her great-grandmother taught Kendall how to keep from wasting food by propagating collard greens from the grocery store, she knew plants, land and soil would herald her journey.

(Photo courtesy of Kendall Rae Johnson)

“I want them to know they can dream big and with the right tools and support, we can make those dreams come true,” Kendall says.

To educate other youth about agriculture, Kendall created a book, “My Farm Biz,” that includes the steps to getting a USDA Youth Loan .

It’s so important to learn about agriculture, Kendall says, because: “Everything is made as an added-value product from farm products, whether it’s a lemonade stand, cosmetics or even the cotton for the clothes we wear.”

The goal, she says, is to understand how to take raw products and make value-added products.

“I do believe that some adults are going to use this book, but teaching kids that there are so many ways that agriculture plays a part in business is her goal,” Ursula says.

Even with so much accomplished already, the future looks just as bright for the young farmer.

“I want 100 acres. I want to silvopasture cows. I want long corn, and I want to have my own skincare products,” Kendall says.

She adds that she plans to study agriculture in college and become a soil scientist. One can only imagine what she’ll have accomplished by then.

When asked what it has been like watching Kendall grow into this role and receiving national recognition at such a young age, Ursula says it has been a roller coaster of emotions.

“Emotionally, we have joyful tears, right? But at the same time, we have to have our joyful tear moment, and then we have to get back on the grind,” Ursula says.

“The goal is not for Kendall to be the only child in the world that has this accolade,” she adds. “It’s for us to get more kids excited about agriculture in some form or fashion, because the career paths and the pathways that it can ignite are everything.”

Growing Leaders: BoysGrow Fosters Agriculture and Opportunity for Kansas City’s Youth

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:37:27 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

On a 10-acre plot in Kansas City, Mo., BoysGrow is growing young men into future leaders.

Founded by John Gordon Jr., the idea for BoysGrow was inspired by Gordon’s early work in the juvenile court system in Northern California. When he saw the transformation of a teenage boy tasked with tending his own goat and garden, he recognized the power of agriculture to build responsibility, work ethic and identity. That spark eventually led him to create BoysGrow, where Kansas City youth get that same chance to shape their futures.

Each year, the program serves about 75 boys aged 14 to 17, with another 75 students participating through school partnerships.

“Most kids come in with zero experience in agriculture or working on a farm,” Gordon says. “So, we have a blank template. That’s good, because we can shape and mold their approach to agriculture.”

Founded by John Gordon Jr. (pictured), the idea for BoysGrow was inspired by Gordon’s early work in the juvenile court system in Northern California.

(Photo courtesy of BoysGrow)

The boys commit to a two-year program, spending four days a week on the farm during the summer. They’re paid for their work, but the value goes far beyond a paycheck.

Each teen selects a “core team” — agriculture, mechanics, construction or culinary arts — and trains under a professional in that field. Together, they run the farm and learn the business side of agriculture. During the school year, BoysGrow extends its mission through vocational training partnerships with local high schools, offering juniors and seniors credit hours in mechanics, agriculture and construction.

For some participants, BoysGrow becomes a bridge to careers. Gordon shares about a foster child who joined the program with no clear path forward. The student developed a passion for blue-collar work and mechanics, Gordon says, and with BoysGrow’s connections, secured a full-time job as a diesel mechanic after high school graduation.

“We were able to pique his interest and then be the bridge between something he might want to do and something he’s actually doing,” Gordon says.

Entrepreneurship is another cornerstone of BoysGrow. Each class develops a keystone project, creating products or merchandise from scratch — everything from hot sauces and salsas to apparel. Students design recipes, packaging and marketing, then bring the products to market.

While BoysGrow’s value-added goods once appeared in more than a dozen retailers, production has been scaled back due to the labor-intensive nature of food processing. Still, the lessons stick.

“Every year, the kids develop something from start to finish, and they get to see it go to market,” Gordon says.

Each year, BoysGrow serves about 75 boys aged 14 to 17, with another 75 students participating through school partnerships.

(Photo courtesy of BoysGrow)

The agricultural work itself is equally vital. BoysGrow operates with 100% organic and regenerative practices, teaching participants about soil health, pest management and sustainable farming. The farm spans about 3 acres of produce, with new expansions into greenhouse and container farming.

“We have a shipping container converted into a salad production farm and a 3,600-square-foot greenhouse that allows year-round vegetable production,” Gordon says.

Though technically within city limits, the property is surrounded by 400 acres — what Gordon calls “peri-urban,” close enough for an easy commute but rural enough to offer a true slice of farm life.

Running a farm with teenagers brings its challenges.

“The biggest challenges we face are weather and teenagers,” Gordon joked, adding that funding remains a hurdle. As grant opportunities shift, BoysGrow is working to diversify support and demonstrate the program’s broader value.

“Teaching kids about agriculture has value beyond just the plants,” Gordon says. “It serves a bigger purpose in developing young people, teaching work ethic and engaging them with the outdoors and the land.”

For Kansas City’s next generation, BoysGrow is proving that a farm can be fertile ground for leaders.

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KC Farm School at Gibbs Road Cultivates Crops and Community

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:52:39 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

On a Saturday morning in late summer, I visited the KC Farm School at Gibbs Road in Kansas City, Kan. Wanting to purchase several pounds of tomatoes for canning, I’d learned that the farm was hosting an end-of-season “u-pick” event where tomatoes that were normally sold for $4 per pound at their market were available for $1 per pound if picked by the consumer.

An educational farm, its intent was obvious as soon as I’d parked in a small lot next to the farm’s service van. Set next to a mound of compost, a vendor from Missouri Organic Recycling educated visitors about organic matter and how it nourishes the soil. Staff and volunteers were on hand to explain the u-pick process, to discuss the plants for sale, give plant care advice and sustainability tips and discuss what urban farming can look like in the process.

The KC Farm School at Gibbs Road sits atop 14.5 acres of high ground in southeastern Wyandotte County, Kan., land that has sustained human life for thousands of years.

More than 2,000 years ago, this area marked the western edge of the vast Hopewell Exchange, where Indigenous peoples established permanent villages, traded across regions and tended to the land’s bounty. Later, tribes such as the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kansas, Kiowa, Osage, Pawnee and Wichita lived on this land until colonization forced them west. In acknowledging this history , the farm honors the deep legacy and ancestors who stewarded the land long before it became a contemporary farm.

In December 2018, educators and community leaders, Alicia Ellingsworth and Jennifer Thomase signed a lease on the historic Gibbs Road Ram, formed a nonprofit and began a fresh mission: to empower individuals of all ages, ancestries and abilities through hands-on, on-farm educational experiences. After starting with volunteers and school field trips in early 2019, KC Farm School has grown into a hub of farming, learning, community and hope.

Volunteers educate visitors about urban farming and plant care at KC Farm School at Gibbs Road.

(Photo: Jill Dutton)

Sharing hope and harnessing opportunity are at the core of KC Farm School’s mission, says Ellingsworth, executive director and co-founder of KC Farm School at Gibbs Road.

“The most important thing … is that we are sharing hope and harnessing opportunity — the possibility of everything,” she says.

Unlike a traditional urban farm, KC Farm School integrates education into every task.

“Anytime any crew member is working with a farmer, they’re learning,” Ellingsworth says. “Even farmers who have been farming for 20 years are always learning … [which is] so important on a farm.”

That emphasis on teaching extends beyond techniques in the field, Ellingsworth says, adding that lessons also include strength-building, collaboration and sustainability. Sustainability is modeled in creative ways, even at community events. Instead of disposables, the farm provides dishwashing stations.

“We have never, not even one time, had disposable or even compostable [plates and utensils], because we don’t believe it’s needed.”

As a nonprofit, KC Farm School also sees itself as a place for experimentation and leadership in pushing boundaries.

“We’re spreading hope in the community, but also testing these things that haven’t been tried before — can we wash our plates, can we interrupt the whole deal with perennial beds, can we bring more diversity into the field?”

Education happens across all ages and abilities. Ellingsworth says one memorable example involved first graders learning to weed a lettuce bed. The small seedlings required care, but with guidance, the children succeeded.

KC Farm School at Gibbs Road

(Photo: Jill Dutton)

“By the time the kids were gone in half an hour, they had the whole bed weeded … it’s the idea of many hands but also believing that first graders can weed lettuce,” Ellingsworth says.

This philosophy extends to accessibility as well, with raised beds at varying heights, flat walking surfaces and an ADA-adapted greenhouse and tools so that people of all abilities can participate.

Being an urban farm, relationships beyond the farm’s borders are equally vital, and Ellingsworth emphasizes the importance of caring for neighbors, from parking considerations to respectful event behavior.

“We must take care of relationships with neighbors … making those connections, not waiting until things are so much out of control that then we have to solve problems,” Ellingsworth says.

In all these ways, KC Farm School at Gibbs Road embodies its mission of cultivating not just crops, but community resilience, sustainability and shared opportunity. By blending education, farming and inclusivity, the farm offers a vision of what it means to live more fully connected — to food, to neighbors and to each other.

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Beneath the Surface: Why Urban Soils Matter

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:34:00 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

When people think about cities, they often imagine concrete, steel and glass — not the ground beneath their feet. But according to Anna Paltseva, an international urban soil scientist and professor at Purdue University, what lies below our sidewalks and gardens is just as critical to the health of our communities as the infrastructure above.

In a Science Societies webinar, “Beneath the City: Exploring Urban Soils, Microbiomes and Rehabilitation Strategies,” Paltseva says: “Urban soils are super heterogeneous and full of secrets. You never know what’s underneath those urban streets.”

Unlike rural soils, which tend to develop more naturally over time, urban soils are shaped by centuries of human activity, she says. They can contain layers of construction debris, industrial waste and even ancient artifacts — sometimes within just a few feet of depth. In New York City, for example, surveys have revealed soil profiles ranging from glacial deposits to dredged river material to coal ash.

That history matters.

“Land use history is really important,” Paltseva says. “We need to know what was there before to properly manage what we have today.”

Urban soils provide critical ecosystem services: supporting green spaces, managing stormwater, sequestering carbon and offering habitats for plants and microbes. They also enable urban agriculture, which has surged in popularity, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet those benefits come with risks, Paltseva says. Heavy metals such as lead and arsenic — remnants of old factories, pesticides and leaded gasoline — persist in urban soils.

“Lead is a neurotoxin. It affects cognitive development, especially of children,” Paltseva says. While lead doesn’t move far in the soil, it can cling to dust or accumulate in root crops, posing dangers for families gardening in contaminated lots, she says.

Despite these challenges, Paltseva’s research highlights practical ways to garden safely. Adding compost or other organic matter not only improves soil health but can also dilute contaminants and reduce their bioavailability. Choosing the right crops matters too. Fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants tend to be safer in moderately contaminated soils, while root crops and leafy greens are more likely to accumulate toxins.

Mitigation strategies such as mulching, drip irrigation and maintaining vegetation cover can further minimize risks, Paltseva says. And thanks to new portable tools, soil contamination can increasingly be tested quickly and on-site.

For Paltseva, the study of urban soils goes beyond science. Through her outreach platform House of Soil and her recent TEDx talk “ What If Your Wardrobe Could Save the Planet ,” she connects soil health to everyday life, sustainability and even fashion.

Ultimately, she hopes more people will look down and appreciate what’s beneath them.

“Urban soils are extremely heterogeneous. They’re very important to study. They provide multiple services,” she says. “We want more urban gardens and agriculture — but it comes with some risks. The good news is, there are also solutions.”

Bringing Produce to the People

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 17:14:29 GMT

Every week in Charlotte, N.C., The Bulb is making fresh food accessible to everyone. Through mobile markets, urban farm plots and grocery partnerships, they bring healthy produce directly into neighborhoods where it’s needed most.

“When we say community-led, community-fed, we have a bit of a unique business model,” says Lisa Mathews, executive director for The Bulb. “We’re not going out deciding where markets should be and trying to pitch for business in certain areas. Instead, people are coming to us and letting us know areas that not only have a need, but a want for what we’re providing.”

Consistency is key, so markets run at the same times and places each week so families can plan ahead, Mathews says.

“Consistency is really important for us,” she adds. “And I think one of the things that sets us apart a little bit from other organizations … is being a consistent resource for communities allows them to plan their schedules.”

Just three miles from Charlotte’s city center, The Bulb Urban Farm, a 2.5-acre farm, provides seasonal, locally grown food based on what the residents request.

Eddie Watt, farm manager at Garinger High School for The Bulb Urban Farm, explains: “We have 16 plots that we can grow off of. We have a full commercial-size greenhouse where we do all of our seed production. Everything we do grows from a seed.”

Partnerships with Trader Joe’s, Costco and Whole Foods help rescue thousands of pounds of food every week.

Six days a week, volunteers sort through thousands of pounds of donations — around 4,500 pounds weekly. About 70% of it is still perfectly good, Mathews says. The rest goes to compost, creating a closed-loop system that keeps food out of landfills and nutrients in the soil.

The result of The Bulb’s efforts? Families save money, health improves, and food that might have gone to waste is feeding the community instead. The Bulb is proof that when fresh food is shared with dignity, everyone wins.

Your Next Read: The Bulb Cultivates Community-Led Solutions to Food Insecurity in N.C.

Buzzing with Purpose: New Jersey Beekeeper Champions Diversity

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:34:17 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

When Nicole Rivera Hartery first stepped into an insect museum in Philadelphia, she didn’t expect her life to change. She had just given birth to her second daughter and found herself mesmerized by an observatory hive on display.

“This was my first interaction with honeybees in that capacity,” Rivera Hartery says. “In talking with one of the workers, I was blown away by everything that they witnessed. That fascination is what eventually drew me to beekeeping.”

That moment planted a seed, she says. Years later, while working a nine-to-five job she no longer felt passionate about, Rivera Hartery decided to take a leap.

Through Rutgers’ agriculture program, she gained hands-on experience and mentorship that deepened her fascination with bees and ultimately pointed her toward the educational side of beekeeping.

For the past eight years, Rivera Hartery has worked as a beekeeper and educator in Riverton, N.J.

Rivera Hartery says she looked around the field and quickly noticed the absence of women of color in beekeeping. Only 3% of beekeepers in the U.S. are Black, she says.

She realized: “There are no beekeepers that look like me… At the time, when I Googled it, there was only one — Detroit Hives. Other than that, I didn’t know any or see any. So my initial thought was that I need to get into classrooms… It’s just about normalizing it.”

She views education as a way to bridge that gap, both to normalize beekeeping in underrepresented communities and to inspire the next generation.

“When you think of what a beekeeper looks like, it’s not me,” Rivera Hartery says. “So it’s just a matter of exposing that. And I think the more we expose, the more we’ll see women of color and men of color doing beekeeping.”

Rivera Hartery’s passion and mission recently caught the attention of PBS Terra, which featured her in the Women of the Earth documentary series.

(Photo courtesy of PBS Terra)

Why Bees Matter

For Rivera Hartery, the work is also about showing how vital pollinators are to life itself.

“With pollinators, they help activate the male and female parts in our floral sources and in our trees,” she says. “We need trees for oxygen, and we need plants for food. Without butterflies, bumblebees, honeybees — our plant life can decline.”

When it comes to agriculture, pollinators are extremely important, Rivera Hartery reiterates.

“Which is why I live in New Jersey, which is a big agricultural state,” she says. “A lot of people don’t think of New Jersey as being an agricultural state, but we are, and beekeeping is a huge part of it. That is why you have a lot of farmers partnering up with beekeepers to help pollinate their farms.”

In addition to beekeeping, Rivera Hartery leads hive tours and educates about catastrophic colony losses and the impact it has on our food system and our natural ecosystems in the U.S.

Recognition on PBS Terra

Her passion and mission recently caught the attention of PBS Terra, which featured her in the “Women of the Earth” documentary series.

“It’s such an honor just to have been asked to be a part of it… To be in the likes of these women that are doing this incredible work, I feel so honored,” Rivera Hartery says.

She hopes viewers will not only see her passion but also walk away feeling empowered to pursue their own callings — no matter their stage of life.

“No matter what age you are… at 30, 40, 50, 60 — whatever you feel like your heart is leaning to or passion is leaning to, go for it… If it’s meant for you, it’ll come.” Rivera Hartery says.

Her story is rooted in representation, sustainability and resilience, but at its heart, it’s about the lessons bees teach us about community and purpose. And as she shares through her tours, classes and now national recognition, those lessons are meant for everyone.

Stay tuned for Rivera Hartery’s story on PBS Terra’s “Women of the Earth,” episode 5, airing on Dec. 18.

Your Next Read: The Bulb Urban Farm Cultivates Community-Led Solutions to Food Insecurity in N.C.

Over $1.6M Set to Boost Urban Agriculture Across Minnesota

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:01:01 GMT

Recipients of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s 2025 Urban Agriculture Grant will be awarded a total of $1,692,957 across 33 projects aimed at enhancing urban agriculture and improving access to locally grown foods across the state.

The grant program, an initiative under the Agricultural Growth, Research and Innovation framework, is designed to promote youth agricultural education and agriculture-linked community development in urban areas — with eligibility extending to cities over 5,000 in population and communities on federally recognized tribal lands, regardless of population size.

Awardees include a range of nonprofits, schools, school districts and local government entities. Projects funded under this initiative are diverse, covering a spectrum of needs from infrastructure enhancements to staffing support and curriculum development.

One example is Appetite For Change, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. Through its project, youth in North Minneapolis will participate in paid, hands-on agricultural training at urban farms. The program is set to engage 30 young participants who will cultivate and donate an estimated 7,500 pounds of produce. In addition, the project includes the creation of a customized curriculum to ensure lasting community impact.

Another awardee is Urban Roots MN, a Saint Paul–based nonprofit focused on youth empowerment through hands-on agriculture. Its grant funds will go toward supporting the Market Garden Program and Community Garden Program by improving water infrastructure, covering staff wages, providing mentor stipends and purchasing necessary farm equipment.

By investing nearly $1.7 million in these projects, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says it is reinforcing its commitment to sustainable and inclusive agricultural growth, bridging urban communities with hands-on food production and education.

The Bulb Cultivates Community-Led Solutions to Food Insecurity in N.C.

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 21:08:01 GMT

Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.

On a warm summer day in Charlotte, N.C., people gather to choose from a collection of free fresh produce at a mobile farmers market. In what are considered underserved communities, the visitors are eager for fresh produce and sometimes share stories of how this access has changed their lives for the better.

An older woman tells a volunteer that she has lost 10 pounds since she began shopping at the market — a change her doctor celebrated. For her, the produce wasn’t just nourishment; it was proof that consistent access to fresh food could transform her health.

A young woman quietly shares something personal with the market’s director. She struggled with an eating disorder, she says, and fresh food had always been difficult to afford. The produce she carried home that day — bright bell peppers, leafy greens, a bundle of sweet potatoes — wasn’t just dinner. It was a lifeline.

Stories like these unfold daily thanks to the work of The Bulb, a program that blends urban farming, grocery partnerships and community-driven mobile markets to deliver fresh produce where it’s needed most.

With its “community-led, community-fed” model, The Bulb is rethinking how fresh, healthy food reaches neighborhoods in need. Instead of mapping out neighborhoods themselves, organizers wait for residents and local partners to tell them where markets are needed most.

Then, by blending rescued grocery produce, partnerships with small Carolina farms and crops grown on donated plots, The Bulb operates hundreds of mobile markets each year. The results: thousands of families are gaining access to fresh fruits and vegetables, measurable improvements in health and a deeper sense of community ownership over local food systems.

For many families, predictability is as important as produce, says Lisa Mathews, executive director for The Bulb. The mobile market runs 50 weeks a year, at the same times and places, so residents can plan ahead. Families report saving $30 to $50 per visit — money that can go toward rent, child care or medical bills, Mathews says.

Since launching in 2016, the organization has gone from two weekly markets to more than a dozen free markets each week, each market serving 40 to 80 households.

“We are a place-based service,” Mathews says. “We work with community members, with our funding partners and all boots-on-the-ground organizers to select the location for the market, to make sure that we are in a good area where there’s walkability.”

Other considerations include arranging times to fit the residents’ needs, whether that’s at a time when school is letting out, or an earlier time for senior citizens.

“Looking at those different variances between communities to really understand the time, the location, the space and then also the types of food that we’re bringing to the market,” Mathews says.

By blending rescued grocery produce, partnerships with small Carolina farms and crops grown on donated plots, The Bulb operates hundreds of mobile markets each year.

(Photo courtesy of The Bulb)

From Farm to Family

Just 3 miles from Charlotte’s city center, The Bulb Urban Farm, a 2.5-acre farm provides seasonal, locally grown food. Bell peppers, jalapeños, collards, sweet potatoes and even sorrel — requested by residents from Eastern Europe — are planted based on community preferences, says Eddie Watt, farm manager at Garinger High School for The Bulb Urban Farm.

“Eddie and our farm team are able to plant seasonal items that are based here in the Carolinas,” Mathews says. “This enables us to teach people about what eating local, eating seasonal, means — especially because a lot of the families we’re working with aren’t native to here. So being able to introduce them to new items, new foods that are super fresh, foods traveled just five miles down the road, versus 500 miles across the country.”

“We have 16 plots that we can grow off of, and a full commercial-size greenhouse, where we do all of our seed production,” Watt says. “Everything we do is grown from seed. And what we’re growing is based on the wants of the community.”

Watt says the farm doesn’t just grow food; it grows connections.

Rescuing and Redirecting Food

The organization also works with Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Costco to rescue unsold produce. Six days a week, volunteers sort through thousands of pounds of donations — around 4,500 pounds weekly. About 70% of it is still perfectly good, Mathews says. The rest goes to compost, creating a closed-loop system that keeps food out of landfills and nutrients in the soil.

“Trader Joe’s is our longest-term grocery partner … then Costco and Whole Foods joined the mix. So much of these grocery partnerships is relationship building, and the trust that comes from consistency,” Mathews says.

More Than a Market

The impact is both measurable and deeply human. One volunteer noticed how much joy it brought local families to find sorrel, an herb that reminded them of home.

By keeping its mission rooted in listening, trust and consistency, The Bulb shows how urban farming and food recovery can address more than hunger. They create places where neighbors know each other, where volunteers become friends, and where fresh food becomes the seed for stronger, healthier communities.

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