Urban Farming Incentives

Hi everyone,

Since we are going to continue talking about urban farming this week, I thought I would post some of my findings from last week here to the blog.

I am really interested in the policy that affects urban farming. For example, one of the videos that we watched about bees mentioned that until very recently, bee keeping was illegal in NYC. Imagine such a misguided prohibition in light of all the good that they could have been doing for local ecosystems.

Of course on the human level, having systems in place that facilitate farms in urban areas is great for community and meeting people's nutritional needs.

When diving into my research, I thought I would begin with my own hometown of Los Angeles to see what regulations were in place. I was thrilled to find out that the State of California is currently taking a lot of initiative on this issue. Last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill No. 551 into law, which provides a pathway for farming on empty lots in urban areas of 250,000 people or more. Land owners who do not have immediate plans to develop the property can turn it over to the community for growing crops for a minimum of 5 years. As an incentive, they get to pay a lower tax rate on property taxes.

I think this idea is ingenious and I am so proud-Californian right now. I am anxious to see the impact of this legislation in my neighborhood and many others throughout the city.

Guess what? I talked to my mom today and, without mentioning this topic, she told me they are developing a community garden near my house and she is looking into getting a plot. Exciting stuff!

So, the link to the text of the bill is here if you want to take a gander:

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB551

And an LA Times article explaining it, here:

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/02/local/la-me-urban-agriculture-law-20131003

And also this cool website I found called cultivatelosangeles.org which has a nice interactive map of all of the urban farming projects currently going on in LA County:

http://cultivatelosangeles.org/

I can't believe I was so unaware in the past! But I guess that it was this class is all about.
Enjoy the links, everyone!

I'll leave you with a screenshot of the cool interactive map.

Have a good night and see you in class tomorrow!!

-Matt