Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution by Jennifer Cockrall-King
Authors: Jennifer Cockrall-King
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tractor. And they have to take out a $100,000 bank loan just for their input costs,” he continued, referring to the cost of seed, fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, crop insurance, and fuel for the tractor. That is all up-front cost. “Given the volatility of our growing season, a lot of farmers I know just aren't willing to put those costs up. It's just not worth it.” So Satzewich continued to build his urban farming model, figuring out how to make the most money on a small enough land base so that he and Vandersteen could do the bulk of the work themselves with the lowest overhead.
El Niño weather patterns dominated in 2010. It was a difficult year because heavy rains came at the wrong times for most commodity farmers. But Satzewich said that he did okay, thanks to the diversity of his crops and their locations. “I've got carrots in storage that I'm selling at farmers’ markets right now.” A varied crop list and a number of locations are his version of crop insurance. Some things get hit in some places, but other things make it and generate revenue. This is also his competitive advantage over other organic market gardeners who farm outside of the city and are more prone to frost and more reliant on rainfall for water.
Then our conversation took another interesting turn when I asked what crops he could grow that might surprise people, given Saskatoon's northern latitude. “Basically, we can grow everything here in the city that people can grow even far south.” You just have to be smart about selecting early-ripening or fast-growing varieties. It's only when you get into really hot-climate crops, like sweet potatoes and watermelon, for example, that require a very long growing season that things get “tricky,” said Satzewich.
“But not impossible?” I fired back.
“No.”
But surely the drastically short growing season in Canada is a problem, I asked. Satzewich conceded that it was “an economic hindrance,” but not as much as a home garden would assume.
There's an unwritten rule in Canadian gardening that you don't dare put any plants or even seeds in the ground until the third weekend in May because of the high chance of a late-spring frost. “Part of the whole SPIN farming mindset is breaking away from the home gardening practices! I'm planting as soon as the snow melts, early in April. I fall-plant crops like spinach,” explained Satzewich. Spinach, lettuce, green onions, and peas for pea shoots are very frost-tolerant plants. Farming, as opposed to home food gardening, is all about knowing what you can get away with. “Farmers have to push the envelope to make a living.” And when you're farming in the city, you can push the envelope a little beyond what you can in the countryside. “You have your microclimate as one of your advantages.”
There are even advantages to being in a colder climate. The cold and dry winters on the Canadian prairies keep the pests away for the most part. One would-be farmer who attended a SPIN farming workshop was surprised that Satzewich could grow summer squash organically. In Oklahoma, the attendee explained, it's impossible to grow squash organically, given the overwhelming pests.
Easy access to water is another urban advantage. Satzewich doesn't have to wait for irrigation canals or for streams to thaw. That's another advantage that he has over fellow market gardeners who still grow outside of the city.
In 2001, Roxanne Christensen, a writer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was interested in the economics of urban agriculture in her city, but she had no farming experience. As it turned out, the economic development director of the Philadelphia Water Department was also interested in urban agriculture to prove that economic activity could begenerated while at the same time having a positive effect on the city's environment. (The successes of many environmental initiatives are difficult to document because, really, they are about the damage that doesn't take
El Niño weather patterns dominated in 2010. It was a difficult year because heavy rains came at the wrong times for most commodity farmers. But Satzewich said that he did okay, thanks to the diversity of his crops and their locations. “I've got carrots in storage that I'm selling at farmers’ markets right now.” A varied crop list and a number of locations are his version of crop insurance. Some things get hit in some places, but other things make it and generate revenue. This is also his competitive advantage over other organic market gardeners who farm outside of the city and are more prone to frost and more reliant on rainfall for water.
Then our conversation took another interesting turn when I asked what crops he could grow that might surprise people, given Saskatoon's northern latitude. “Basically, we can grow everything here in the city that people can grow even far south.” You just have to be smart about selecting early-ripening or fast-growing varieties. It's only when you get into really hot-climate crops, like sweet potatoes and watermelon, for example, that require a very long growing season that things get “tricky,” said Satzewich.
“But not impossible?” I fired back.
“No.”
But surely the drastically short growing season in Canada is a problem, I asked. Satzewich conceded that it was “an economic hindrance,” but not as much as a home garden would assume.
There's an unwritten rule in Canadian gardening that you don't dare put any plants or even seeds in the ground until the third weekend in May because of the high chance of a late-spring frost. “Part of the whole SPIN farming mindset is breaking away from the home gardening practices! I'm planting as soon as the snow melts, early in April. I fall-plant crops like spinach,” explained Satzewich. Spinach, lettuce, green onions, and peas for pea shoots are very frost-tolerant plants. Farming, as opposed to home food gardening, is all about knowing what you can get away with. “Farmers have to push the envelope to make a living.” And when you're farming in the city, you can push the envelope a little beyond what you can in the countryside. “You have your microclimate as one of your advantages.”
There are even advantages to being in a colder climate. The cold and dry winters on the Canadian prairies keep the pests away for the most part. One would-be farmer who attended a SPIN farming workshop was surprised that Satzewich could grow summer squash organically. In Oklahoma, the attendee explained, it's impossible to grow squash organically, given the overwhelming pests.
Easy access to water is another urban advantage. Satzewich doesn't have to wait for irrigation canals or for streams to thaw. That's another advantage that he has over fellow market gardeners who still grow outside of the city.
In 2001, Roxanne Christensen, a writer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was interested in the economics of urban agriculture in her city, but she had no farming experience. As it turned out, the economic development director of the Philadelphia Water Department was also interested in urban agriculture to prove that economic activity could begenerated while at the same time having a positive effect on the city's environment. (The successes of many environmental initiatives are difficult to document because, really, they are about the damage that doesn't take
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