Urban Farming

Welcome back to Laura & Sarah’s newsletter where we explore Unconventional Entrepreneurship. 

We are continuing our series on circular business ideas, starting with food. If you missed our intro to the Circular Economy check it here.

For this series, we're exploring small circular businesses that anyone could start with less than $25k. Today we will take on the unsustainable industrial farming and food production system - easy peasy.  

Hi, it's Sarah. My dream is to have a farm. My city-loving husband added a dilapidated farm in Southern France to the decision tree when we were leaving Mauritius. Pesky things like schools, accessibility, and our ability to adapt to rural culture made the 3rd largest city in the Netherlands win out. 

So I continue to dream and grow my skills as an urban small-scale food producer in the ways I can now. Since learning how to grow food in preparation for moving to South Sudan*, I’ve started veggie plots in a half dozen rental properties. I even had eight chickens once - sigh.

My dear friend who witnessed my gardens in South Sudan recently wrote a piece on them - see it here.

Modern Food production is killing us

Circular economic principles can be applied to our food production system, and we need to start doing things differently. Our current food system is making our air, soil, water and even us sick. 

Let’s take just one current industrial farming practice - tilling, or plowing. Tilling is great at large-scale scale production and efficiency for high-yield crops that are turned into processed food and animal feed. It is a major contributor to the high amount of corn grown across the world. 

Most people think tilling is an absolute necessity of food production. But in reality it increases the need for chemical inputs to remedy the damage it does to the soil. It deteriorates the ability of the soil to absorb water, increasing run-off and erosion. 

It leads to food and soil quality worsening over time all while increasing pollution and extractive inputs. This in turn leads to poorer health, water, and air quality. This is linear production at its worst. 

Btw: Please don't blame the farmers. This is a systematic issue; farmers have been operating under the profit model they were taught to feed millions of people. They were part of industrialization in the name of progress, but we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns, and it's hurting them too.

Sustainable Food Production without Tilling 

There are historical records and more recent studies show that food production can be sustainable and even more productive without tilling. The indigenous populations from Central to North America thrived on a diet primarily of cultivated corn, beans & squash, known as the three sisters. They did this for thousands of years and supported large populations on commonly owned and managed land in a staggering variety of climates without the use of tillage or plowing. 

The current food production system is broken and we have billions of people to feed in a way that sustains the water, air, and soil we need to live. The regenerative agriculture movement which integrates ancient and modern practices is modelling the potential for nutrient-dense sustainable food production at scale. We must forage our new food system that puts people and the planet over profits. 

Where does this leave us? 

We are told to vote with our money, to not support the corporations by buying their products, and to make better choices. But it’s not that simple in modern-day life to choose healthy, ecologically sound, sustainably sourced, locally grown food. It’s a false narrative that we have time to source and prepare this food while also working long hours to pay for housing and everything else.

So if we are going to work long hours anyway, why not work those hours to build a business that makes regenerative, circular agriculture a reality for more people?

Local Food Production Business Ideas

Business Idea #1: Neighborhood Urban Food Production Coordinator

Imagine paying a monthly fee or joining a neighborhood group that transformed your yard and your neighbor’s yards, into a food producing oasis. You no longer have to mow or weed and you get the benefit of food you can pick yourself around the neighborhood or is delivered to your door. 

There are a few models you could use to bring this service to life. You could create a neighborhood co-op where people contribute their time and/or space to production of food and they pay a monthly fee for the organization and care of their space. Labor is distributed through group work days and everyone shares in the bounty of food grown. You can also provide processing or preservation of food to make it easier for others to use.

This model can double up and make use of food waste by composting on a local level using worms, hot piles, trenches, chickens, and lasagna garden beds to increase yields. 

Comment “Biz Idea #1” if you want to see a financial model and basic business plan for this idea.

Business Idea #2: Urban Food Production Designer and Landscaper

Landscape or gardening services transforming and maintaining permaculture (ask me if you don’t know), food forests, seasonal vegetable gardens, and small animal food production on private yards for a fee. 

You can also offer patio and rooftop food production in densely populated neighborhoods.

Imagine add-on services like compost maintenance, dog poop cleanup, harvesting, and preparation.

In the cold months, you could offer eco-friendly leaf clean up, tree and shrub pruning, indoor herbs and microgreens kits and/or snow removal. This would also be a great time of year to offer design services or courses to DIYers.

Comment “Biz Idea #2” if you want to see a financial model and basic business plan for this idea.

Business Idea #3: Urban Market Gardener

There are proven models for urban and market gardening that have been popularized by the likes of JM Fortier, Karen Washington, Ron Finley, and Curtis Stone. 

The essentials are to start producing produce on a small scale in or near urban areas where you grow using bio-intensive methods and deliver directly to consumers through a CSA, direct from the farm, farmer’s market or wholesale to restaurants.

This is an area of interest I’ve had for more than a decade. I asked ChatGPT to assist with gathering some info from the web and was pleasantly surprised by how it gathered many of the organizations and people I have followed and been inspired by through the years. 

Comment “Biz Idea #3” if you want to see a financial model and basic business plan for this idea.

Final Note: 

Right now your brain might be coming up with all the reasons you don’t have the resources (time, money, skills) to get one of these going. Here’s the secret to successful entrepreneurship that is not well documented in the media stories: you don’t do it alone. Even in my list above I named individuals, but dig a little deeper; those individuals found success with a team and community around them. 

Another secret: You can bring your skills to this business even if you aren’t a master gardener and team up with the right people to start the business you want. So if you are great at events, organizing, and office administration, there is a gardener/farmer out there who might be thrilled to build an organization with you.  

Let me know in the comments if you want to see the financial models and basic business plan for any of the food production businesses above.

If urban market gardening is of interest to you, here’s an edited and vetted list to get you started. 

Workshops and Certifications:

1. Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) - Many organizations, including Permaculture Research Institute, offer PDCs with a focus on urban applications and sustainable design.
2. Extension Services (USA): State agricultural extension offices often run workshops and provide resources on urban farming and small-scale agricultural businesses.

Business Training for Farming Entrepreneurs:

1. Ecovian and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE): Both organizations provide resources for starting and managing a farm business, including financing and marketing strategies.
2. Urban Growers Collective (Chicago): Offers a variety of training programs tailored for urban agriculture entrepreneurs, including soil management, hydroponics, and sales channels.

Online Platforms and MOOCs:

1. Urban Agriculture MOOC (Coursera)
2. Wageningen University: Free online courses focused on urban farming techniques and business development.
3. Kiss the Ground’s Soil Advocate Training: Focused on regenerative agriculture practices, this program combines environmental sustainability with practical farming.

Well-known Urban Market Gardeners for inspiration, training programs, books, and free resources: 

1. Jean-Martin Fortier (“The Market Gardener”): Though not exclusively urban, Jean-Martin’s approach to small-scale farming in Quebec has influenced urban growers globally. His book The Market Gardener is a staple for those interested in high-efficiency farming methods without heavy machinery.

Notable for: Promoting methods that urban market gardeners can adapt for profitability on small plots.

2. Ron Finley (“The Gangsta Gardener”): Based in South Central Los Angeles, Finley transformed unused urban spaces into productive gardens. His work focuses on food justice, teaching communities how to grow their own food.

Notable for: Advocacy for growing food as a solution to urban food deserts.

3. Karen Washington (Rise & Root Farm, NYC): A leader in food justice, Karen Washington co-founded Rise & Root Farm and has worked for decades to improve access to healthy food in underserved communities. She’s a co-founder of Black Urban Growers (BUGS) and has been recognized for her advocacy in empowering urban farmers of color.

Notable for: Promoting community farming and equity in food systems.

4. Erika Allen (Urban Growers Collective, Chicago): Daughter of Will Allen, Erika Allen leads Urban Growers Collective, which operates multiple urban farms across Chicago to address food insecurity. Focuses on job training, youth programs, and urban agriculture as a tool for social equity.

Notable for: Combining urban farming with workforce development and community engagement.

5. Viviana Moreno (Pollinate Farm & Garden, Oakland, CA): A co-founder of Pollinate Farm & Garden, Viviana emphasizes traditional farming knowledge and sustainable techniques.

Notable for: Empowering urban growers to develop self-reliance in food production.

6. Leah Penniman (Soul Fire Farm, New York): Co-director of Soul Fire Farm, Leah Penniman focuses on Afro-Indigenous farming practices and food sovereignty. Author of Farming While Black, which provides guidance for aspiring Black farmers and highlights the historical contributions of Black people to agriculture.

Notable for: Leading a movement to reconnect marginalized communities with the land.