“In a time when local food is essential, a discussion about growing food or paving the land for a playground is senseless.”
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“In a time when local food is essential, a discussion about growing food or paving the land for a playground is senseless.”
A March 27 proposal to the board of commissioners of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville called for the demolition of Southside Community Farm to make way for a $200,000 outdoor youth play area. Hundreds of community members showed up to the April board meeting to voice their dissent.
“In designing food systems, the foods that need to be freshest when we eat them, the quick-turnaround crops, should be placed close to where we live,” Patel says. “I didn’t really think the farm would be as broad and idealistic as it turned out to be, but I’m pretty idealistic, so it has naturally turned into that.”
Asheville-based author Nan K. Chase is one of many area gardeners, homesteaders, and sustainability experts who will be presenting at the Mother Earth News Fair coming to Western North Carolina Agricultural Center on April 11 and 12, 2015.
From the Get It! Guide: The process of becoming an urban farmer offers a quick learning curve full of chances for success or for failure. Start your journey by learning how to navigate the restrictions, requirements and resources of an urban farmer.
A mosaic of city roof top gardens? Vacant lots that create jobs? A backyard garden for folks without backyards? It’s all part of the small-scale urban farm model many in Asheville are striving for — where every tiny space is being utilized.
At tonight’s meeting, Asheville City Council approved new rules allowing urban farming and produce sales throughout the city. Council also approved starting the search for a summer event to replace Bele Chere. On a less optimistic note, the public and city officials discussed increasing issues of crime, policing and homelessness in Asheville’s core.