Urban Agriculture Takes Center Stage in West Contra Costa County

Seedlings at Sunnyside Organic Seedlings, an example of the kind of small, organic business that organizers of the summit are hoping to promote. Photo by Erica Reder.

Key Map

by Erica Reder — published June 06, 2011
Organic and sustainable aren't terms often associated with Richmond, home to a Chevron refinery and a General Chemical plant. But those were two of the most frequently heard words on Saturday, at the first-ever West Contra Costa County Urban Agriculture Summit in North Richmond. Despite pouring rain, nearly 100 people gathered at Sunnyside Organic Seedlings to exchange ideas about bringing new models of food-growing to the area.
"Our goal here is to expand opportunities for urban agriculture in West Contra Costa County," said County Supervisor John Gioia, who helped organize the event. He cited access to healthy food, environmental stewardship, and job opportunities as motivation.
Tom Butt, Richmond's vice-mayor and the event's co-organizer, agreed. "Ultimately, you want a healthier environment and you want healthier people," he said. "If people are growing and eating food that's fresh and local, there's nothing better than that."
To that end, the summit featured panelists who could share their experiences with urban agriculture models and challenges to local urban farming.

Vice-Mayor Tom Butt assures Richmond citizens that there are no legal obstacles to urban farming in the city. Photo by Erica Reder.
Doria Robinson, executive director of the nonprofit Urban Tilth, addressed both topics. Her organization, active since 2004, operates 13 community farms in and around Richmond.
Robinson said the area's assets and needs invite small-scale farming. "One thing that Richmond is really rich in is land," she said. "We have really great weather. But there's not a lot of places for people to meet and hang out. There's all these vacant lots, and people who need work. So we're solving three major issues as well as health issues."
Urban Tilth serves more than a thousand people each year in this city of about 100,000 residents, but Robinson hopes to see that number grow. "I think that if we were able to serve five to six percent of the population of Richmond, that would be amazing," she said. "Especially because the kind of interactions we have are so deep."
Richmond officials are looking at ways to make that possible, thanks to a new Community Health and Wellness element added to the city's general plan. "One action of that is to promote urban agriculture, to promote better access to food," explained Jennifer Ly, a sustainability associate for the city.
"We want to make sure the city and county's planning policies and ordinances do not hinder the opportunity for people to practice urban agriculture."
Over the past few months, Ly and other staff members have been working on an urban agriculture assessment that will provide policymakers with data about existing programs and future possibilities.
Lina Velasco, from the city planning department, said the document could positively impact organizations like Urban Tilth. "It really looks at how can the city improve our policies to provide more security for the groups doing this work," she said.
The staff plans to present its findings to city legislators in the fall.
But in the meantime, Supervisor Butt assured Richmond residents that they could keep up – or take up – urban farming practices. "You can keep bees in Richmond," he said. "You can keep goats in Richmond. You can pretty much do whatever you want to, unless it bothers someone else."
Butt said he wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to farm could. "One of the things we want to do is make sure that the city and county's planning policies and ordinances do not hinder the opportunity for people to practice urban agriculture," he said.
Supervisor Gioia echoed that concern. "We are actually looking at how to develop a [commercial] category for urban agriculture that would be more flexible to allow these types of operations to be successful," he said.
Robinson is optimistic about the government plans. "There's some really great staff members, honestly looking for ways to improve health and wellness," she said.
But a long road still lies ahead. "It takes a long time to make cultural change, which is what we're trying to do," said Robinson. "We're trying to change the food culture."
Erica Reder is a freelance journalist and native San Franciscan, though not always in that order.
This Saturday, we had a full greenhouse at the West County Urban Agriculture Summit despite the rain and cold. Thank you for all who came out and helped make the event a success!  

Please view event photos at www.richmondhealth.org.

Event Highlights

• This was the first event of its kind in Richmond and in West Contra Costa County, the result of collaboration between the City, County, Sunnyside Organic Seedlings, and various community organizations.
• The event’s keynote speaker, LaDonna Redmond, longtime community activist and policy associate at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis, Minnesota, spoke about her decision to grow food to feed her son and about why farmers must be engaged in the development of policy.  
• Panelists from Sunnyside Organic Seedlings, Urban Tilth, ECOVillage Farm, Communities United Restoring Mother Earth (CURME), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), and City Slicker Farms talked about the social, environmental, and economic benefits of urban agriculture and urban agriculture models.
• Panelists from the City of Richmond, Contra Costa County, Richmond Community Foundation, and Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust (BALT) spoke about what local governments can do to support urban agriculture.
• Breakout sessions addressed promoting urban agriculture in schools, parks, and public places, business and job opportunities in urban agriculture, and promoting prospects for urban agriculture at the City of Richmond’s Miraflores development site.

 

Moving Forward
We hope that you left the Summit feeling inspired by the speakers and fellow attendees, and that you took back with you ideas about how to grow urban agriculture in your community.

Look out for these County and City projects:
Draft North Richmond Specific Plan, Contra Costa County – plan to consider designating urban agriculture uses in North Richmond: Luz Gomez, Contra Costa County Supervisor Gioia’s Office, luz.gomez@bos.cccounty.us.
Richmond Urban Agriculture Overview, City of Richmond – policy tool for guiding decisions on urban agriculture in Richmond: Jennifer Ly, City of Richmond Environmental Initiatives, jennifer_ly@ci.richmond.ca.us. To view the most recent draft version of the document visit www.richmondhealth.org. 

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We would like to thank all of the individuals, organizations, and sponsors that made this event possible:

Thank you to Summit Speakers and Facilitators:  
LaDonna Redmond, Instititute for Food and Development Policy
Pilar Reber, Sunnyside Organic Seedlings
Doria Robinson, Urban Tilth
Shyaam Shabaka, ECOVillage Farm
Iyalode Kinney, CURME
Don Hodge, EPA
Sibella Kraus, SAGE
Barbara Finnin, City Slicker Farms
Joan Davis, Richmond Community Foundation/Farm 2 Table
Tom Powers, BALT
Natalia Lawrence, Richmond Community Redevelopment Agency
Shasa Curl, City of Richmond
Richard Mitchell, City of Richmond
Lina Velasco, City of Richmond
Ryan Hernandez, Contra Costa County
Vince Guise, Contra Costa County
Luz Gomez, Contra Costa County Supervisor Gioia’s Office

Thank you to organizations that hosted tables:
Annie's Annuals and Perennials ∙ Buy Fresh Buy Local ∙ Contra Costa County Department of Conservation and Development ∙ Contra Costa Resource Conservation District ∙ East Bay Regional Park District ∙ Ecology Center ∙ Environmental Protection Agency ∙ Groundwork Richmond ∙ Kaiser ∙ National Park Service ∙ Public Health Law and Policy Liability Toolkit ∙ SCUFI ∙ Seed Lending Library ∙ UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners ∙ Verde Partnership Garden ∙ Wildcat Farms

Thank you to staff and Volunteers:
Pilar Reber, Rick Wesson, Chef Tim Hammack, Chef Odelle, Luz Gomez, Erica McFadden, Trina Jackson, Shasa Curl, Jennifer Ly, Natalia Lawrence, Kenji Warren, Monty Ousley, Neil, Leonard, Brooke, David Gray, Christine Sanok, Monica Lemos, John Larsen, Cynthia Harvey, Carl Johnson, and any other contributors we missed. Thank you!

Thank you to the Event Sponsors:
City of Richmond, Contra Costa County, CURME, Bay Area Rescue Mission, Comcast, East Bay Regional Park District, Holland and Knight, Kandi’s Cakes, Republic Services, Richmond Sanitary Service, RES Success, Richmond Community Foundation, Sunnyside Organic Seedlings, Sunrise Bistro, Urban Farm Store, Verde Garden, and West County Landfill.