Urban Farm Revolution: Greening San Francisco for the People
This trip is now closed.
Hosted by Antonio Roman-Alcalá, co-facilitator of the recently formed San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA), this tour will explore San Francisco’s successes, possibilities, and challenges in creating community-based farms on both public and private lands. With the recent passage of legislation which officially legalizes urban agriculture and sets a regulatory framework for the sales of produce grown within city limits, it is an exciting time to check out San Francisco’s rapidly expanding farming scene!
On this tour you will visit three food justice-oriented farm project sites in San Francisco: Alemany Farm, the Free Farm, and El Pueblote. Alemany Farm is the city’s largest food production site, serving volunteers and low income housing residents with access to organic produce. Located on public parkland, the Farm also offers environmental education for youth and adults. The Free Farm began in 2010, and is dedicated to engaging all city residents and donating its produce to those in need (mainly through its associated Free Farm Stand). Grassroots non-profit PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights) united with the San Francisco Planning Department to purchase and transform a parking lot at 17th and Folsom into a “Pueblote” (Pueblo = town/community, Lote = Lot). When completed, the Pueblote will provide much-needed open space for children’s play, with an equal emphasis on food production.
Participating Organizations
- Alemany Farm, managed in part by Friends of Alemany Farm, promotes food security and educate local residents about how they can become their own food producers. We strive to increase ecological knowledge and habitat value, and to sow the seeds for economic and environmental justice.
- The Free Farm is located at Gough and Eddy, near the Tenderloin, one of the city’s most low income neighborhoods. The Free Farm seeks to cultivate the earth, ourselves, and society, through mutuality, simplicity, generosity, and love.
- PODER organizes with Mission residents to work on local solutions to issues facing low income communities and communities of color, and believes that improvements to our neighborhood must be made through collective social action to bring about social, economic and environmental justice.
- The San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance (SFUAA) promotes the growing of food within San Francisco, from backyard farmers to social justice organizations, both within the alliance and in collaboration with outside organizations and governmental agencies.
This trip is now closed. Please check back later for future Food Justice Tours of San Francisco urban agriculture.
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Bay Area Food Justice Tours (Nov. 4 – 5, 2011) are brought to you by CFSC in partnership with Food Sovereignty Tours, a project of Food First/the Institute for Food and Development Policy.
For more information, contact Tanya at tkerssen@foodfirst.org or by phone at (510) 654-4400, ext. 223
