Virginia Tech, Virginia State University to lead USDA urban agriculture projects

In 2012, Duron Chavis spent his Saturdays leading a team of community activists at the nonprofit organization Happily Natural Day in holding pop-up farmers markets for historically redlined Richmond neighborhoods.

Each weekend, a group of Black farmers from Richmond’s rural areas brought in hundreds of pounds of produce.

Chavis’s conversations with these producers about the growing disconnect they saw between rural farming and urban consumers in Richmond inspired him and his team to begin developing urban gardens and green spaces.

Their first space was the McDonough Community Garden, which spanned 3,000 square feet of a formerly vacant lot in Southside Richmond.

“It was not farming,” Chavis said. “Just us piddling around, learning how to do a thing. But in the back of my mind, it was like, if we can get access to land, then we can really use agriculture as a tool for economic development in Black and brown communities.”

As Chavis learned firsthand, urban agriculture is multifaceted with social, economic, environmental, and cultural practices and impact, said Kim Niewolny, professor of community education and development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation. Movements in urban agriculture have taken hold in cities across the United States over decades. And now, urban agriculture’s potential is coming into focus at the federal level.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is newly investing $40 million in support of urban producers through education, technical assistance, outreach, and research. As part of that push, the USDA has tapped Virginia Tech's Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation and the Virginia State University Small Farm Outreach Program to take part in two urban agriculture projects from the department’s Farm Service Agency: the National Urban Agriculture Initiative and Advancing Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems in Virginia.

The National Urban Agriculture Initiative supports urban agriculture projects in 27 U.S. cities, including Richmond. The Small Farm Outreach Program will oversee the national initiative with support in project evaluation from the  Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation as well as support in the development of training modules for USDA and Farm Service Agency staff from Cornell Cooperative Extension. The Virginia Tech and Virginia State University partnership also will support Advancing Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems in Virginia.

“Our goal is to build a bridge between the USDA and urban farmers,” William Crutchfield, director of the Small Farm Outreach Program, said of the two projects.

For some, urban agriculture is connected to the food justice movement and the goal of building more sustainable and equitable food systems within urban ecosystems, Niewolny said. Urban agriculture can emphasize the role urban spaces play in increasing access to local and culturally appropriate food grown by and for historically underserved communities. And as these communities grow, share, and eat local food, Niewolny said, they can enact a community-level response to systemic racism in the history of agriculture, which has been reflected in discriminatory policies and housing practices like redlining.

Urban agriculture can also improve urban soils, enhance biodiversity, provide economic opportunities, and connect community members while cultivating trust, Niewolny said. “Urban agriculture is not necessarily new, but the way communities are currently reimagining urban spaces with food production and more, we are seeing exciting new changes in the social, ecological, and cultural landscapes of urban centers across the country,” she said.

Advancing Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems in Virginia aims to equip new and established urban farmers and growers across the state with the technical assistance, capacity building and networking, and culturally appropriate outreach and education needed to successfully access and make use of USDA Farm Service Agency programs.

Project activities will include mini grants for urban growers and farmers, an online resource center, an urban agriculture tool lending library, a summit and smaller regional meetings, an urban agriculture certification program hosted by Virginia State University, and equity trainings for practitioners. The project will also include an assessment of urban agriculture in Virginia.

Helping both urban producers and USDA personnel better understand the work each party does will underpin this programming. A community-based advisory group will give guidance to support this exchange of perspectives, while folding in those of other stakeholders, including Virginia Cooperative Extension, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal agency leaders.

“Both of these projects speak to the importance of raising awareness and increasing access and participation of urban underserved farmers in Farm Service Agency programming,” Niewolny said. “That means we need to help build trust and foster relationships between urban farmers and USDA Farm Service Agency personnel.”

Chavis has trained community members in urban agriculture over the years through Happily Natural Day’s Virginia Urban Farm Fellowship. As part of the Virginia urban agriculture project, he will co-host a series of workshops for farmers with Tyrone Cherry of Petersburg Oasis CommUNITY Farm. Chavis and Cherry’s workshops will cover topics such as urban food systems, soil health basics for urban producers, and ways to work with the Farm Service Agency as an urban farmer.

Today, Happily Natural Day manages eight urban gardens across Richmond. The organization’s community land trust holds 85 acres in Amelia County and Petersburg, where it leases land to farmers to help them start and build out their farm enterprise. As Chavis acquires more land, more than anything, he sees this work as a path to self-determination for his community.

“I don’t really see our work as solely urban agriculture,” Chavis said. “It’s more of us working to develop urban and rural food systems that center BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and other people of color] farmers as the primary producers, aggregators, and distributors of the food, building Black-owned and controlled food chains.”

For Niewolny, it’s the community-based work of groups like Happily Natural Day and the insights of leaders like Cherry and Chavis that give urban agriculture its rich history and its potential.

“This Virginia Tech and Virginia State University partnership is committed to working toward our shared goals with community leaders and urban growers like Duron Chavis and Tyrone Cherry in Virginia,” Niewolny said. “We are also eager to work with state and national leaders from the USDA to grow the promise of urban agriculture and help make an impact at the community level.”