College Urban Farming Program

Urban Farming. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Urban farming has been going on for year but a college course that debuted in 2011 has had 43 students completing an urban farming course. Some have gone on to intern or work on farms or start small farms that sell produce to members. In the upcoming season, 13 graduates will help develop a small-scale farm on a vacant lot in northeast Portland that will grow produce for school meals. It's a new partnership with Portland Public Schools and the city of Portland. Just because it is Portland, doesn’t mean the notion can’t be applied to any major city. Weston Miller is the project manager at Oregon State University.

WESTON: In city areas there are lots of folks who are interested in growing food but they live in a city and urban farming is growing food on a smaller scale so not large scale traditional agriculture as in tractor scale but smaller scale, either hands scale or using a walking tractor scale operation. I suppose that formally it could be defined as producing food in and around urban areas. Most folks who are doing this kind of farming, some are interested in making money in a small scale enterprise but there is also a lot of altruism incorporated into these kinds of projects.

Many people who grow produce in an urban farm either share the proceeds with family and friends or even with local food banks.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.