Planting the Seeds for Philadelphia’s First Urban Agriculture Plan

For well over a decade, community advocates and Philadelphia City officials have called for more support for urban agriculture and more investment to build an equitable and sustainable food system. Currently, the food system continues to underserve residents who live in neighborhoods with high concentrations of deep poverty and low-to-no walkable access to food markets. According to the US Department of Agriculture, over 18 percent of Philadelphians lack access to enough food for a healthy, active life.12

Land insecurity, hunger, and food-related illnesses, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, disproportionately affect the city’s BIPOC communities, which make up more than half the population. Systemic structural, racial, and socioeconomic barriers prevent communities from being able to create and self-determine their own food systems. Meaningful change requires systemic solutions that address the root causes of harmful cycles and patterns.

Today, the effort to ensure that all Philadelphians have access to fresh, nourishing, and affordable food is simultaneously losing and gaining ground. In 2008, University of Pennsylvania researchers reported that the number of community gardens in Philadelphia declined by 54 percent between 1994 and 2008.13 This study, along with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s (DVRPC) 2010 Greater Philadelphia Food System report, solidified the need for more advocacy around growing food and land access in Philadelphia. DVRPC’s study concluded that the food supply in the region’s 100-mile foodshed is “not sufficient to meet Greater Philadelphia’s consumer demand.”14 The DVRPC study highlighted a “deficit of nearly 2.8 million acres of farmland that would be needed to supply the current population,”15 and the need for “a plan for a more sustainable and resilient food system... [with] recommendations for different audiences, ranging from federal and state policymakers to county planners, and from nonprofit service providers to individuals.”16

Part of the problem is a lack of direction, investment, and coordination at the city, state, and federal level necessary to support a thriving urban agriculture community. Presently, philanthropic resources also do not meet the growing needs of the urban agriculture community. Growing from the Root, Philadelphia’s urban agriculture plan, is an opportunity to address some of the challenges of the current food system with strategies to encourage a more localized food economy.

It has taken time and dedication both within City government and through community organizing to lay the groundwork and build the political will for the City’s first urban agriculture plan. In 2008, thenMayor Michael Nutter pledged to make Philadelphia the greenest city in America, creating the Office of Sustainability and establishing the Philadelphia Food Charter by executive order. The charter affirmed the City’s commitment to developing coordinated municipal food and urban agriculture policy, and providing safe, affordable, locally grown, and healthy food for all Philadelphians.