UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:	Heifer International

Affiliation:	- Non-governmental organization

Name of Focal Point:	Alison Cohen, Northern Program Manager, Heifer International

Initiative Title:	East New York Farms! Growing a Community Food System

Internet links:	http://www.eastnewyorkfarms.org/ http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/urbanag.htm http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/cn17/2000/ecn172000-7add1.htm http://www.fao.org/FCIT/ http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2007/1000484/index.html http://www.heifer.org

Scope:	Global

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: July 2004 End:

Lead Institution:	Heifer International

Stakeholders/Partners:	Pratt Institute for Community Development United Community Centers East New York Food Policy Council and Food Coop East New York Gardeners’ Association East New York Planning Group Greenthumb and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Just Food “Brooklyn’s Bounty Network” of Independent Brooklyn Farmers’ Markets New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Brooklyn District Public Health Office and Brooklyn Task Force on Food and Fitness Farmers’ Market Federation of New York

Relevent issues:	- Job Creation and Enterprise Promotion - Integrated Planning and Decision-Making - Adaptation - Greenhouse gas sinks - Managing transportation demand (e.g. improved city planning, promotion of public transit, intermodal shifts) - Environmental Management - Food security and sustainable agriculture - Community-based and indigenous approaches to food production - Capacity building - Access to local markets - Research on local and resource system, site-specific, low-cost technologies and extension services - Strategic urban and peri-urban planning for poverty reduction - Capacity building - Agriculture - Others - Community food systems, urban agriculture, youth job opportunities,

Objectives/Challenges:

Objectives
1. To nurture local food systems through agricultural development that contributes to economic, environmental and social justice.
2. To enhance the capacity of more than 30 urban growers to increase local food production by 10 percent annually through training, passing on the gift, and internal sharing of resources and knowledge
3. To diversify urban garden sites, as well as products for sale, by incorporating livestock in at least six different urban farms.
4. To strengthen the local economy of East New York and regional rural communities through the development of marketing opportunities for three to five urban and rural farmers each year.
5. To increase neighborhood access to locally and regionally grown, fresh nutritious food through a 10 percent annual increase of locally grown food at the neighborhood farmer’s market and other venues.
6. To support the development of 20 local youths each year through an internship program that includes hands-on educational and employment opportunities for youths within their own community.
7. To increase local leadership capacity and self-determination by developing the organizational structure of East New York Farms! through a participatory strategic planning process and establishing a board and steering\advisory committee composed of market vendors, youths and members of the community.
Challenges
1. Social instability. East New York has long struggled with economic and social instability, most recently between 1970 and 1990, when the community lost much of its population, housing stock and economic base through urban renewal, speculation, mortgage fraud, abandonment, crime, drugs and arson. Thirty-one percent of East New York residents live below the poverty line.
2. Consistent quality and quantity for market. For local community gardeners making the transition from personal production to production for sale means using more time-intensive and consistent methods. Additional training is required.
3. Attracting rural farmers to make the offerings at ENYF! weekly market more abundant. The trip to the market from upstate farms requires driving through Manhattan and most of downtown Brooklyn, passing many more upscale and therefore more attractive markets en route.
4. Creating a financially self-sustaining market. For much of the program’s existence, the market expenses were in the same budget as other program activities. In 2006, the market costs were isolated, and it became apparent that the market could not support itself due to extremely low market fees. The project is gradually raising fees to meet these costs.
5. Forming good partnerships. Though ENYF! is part of an extensive network of organizations supportive of urban farming, forming working partnerships can be difficult. Many local East New York organizations are already strapped for time and resources, and ENYF!'s location on the outskirts of Brooklyn makes it geographically difficult to draw volunteers and partners to the farm site from outside organizations.

Lessons Learned:

1. Urban agriculture has multiple uses – greening, food production, education, income generation and community revitalization.
2. Moving from individual urban agriculture projects to a wider support program has contributed to effectiveness.
3. There is no single “model” to promote urban agriculture but a number of different promising approaches.
4. Urban agriculture can be used to create successful markets in low-income communities by forming a base to attract rural farmers to stigmatized urban neighborhoods and by giving the market a community feel.
5. Livestock may not always fit into urban agriculture projects.
6. Investing substantially in youth training by providing opportunities for enriching, challenging and long-term involvement can improve outcomes.
7. Urban agriculture must be linked to food consumption, nutrition and health.
8. Networking and building strategic coalitions is essential to success.
9. Documentation of activities is needed for raising funds, for good public relations, and to win over allies for urban agriculture.

Policy Options:

1. City-wide, state-wide, or national initiatives to promote sustainability should support community-driven, community-managed activities as a way to create sustainability in some of the most vulnerable communities.
2. Community urban agriculture should be used as a method of building community food systems, supplying fresh, healthful food to inner city residents and reducing the incidence of obesity and diabetes.
3. Urban agriculture should be employed as a participatory learning opportunity to pass on basic agricultural skills, a basic understanding of business concepts and practices, and an understanding of the relationships between health, nutrition, environmental degradation and poverty.
4. Urban agriculture should be used to help youths explore methods to create change in their communities and to develop the skills necessary to engage their communities around these issues.
5. East New York Farms! experience may be replicable in urban settings of the Global South in working to meet Millennium Development Goals addressing hunger and poverty, primary education, gender equity, primary education, maternal health and environmental stability.

Summary:

This case study focuses on Heifer International’s work with young people and adults through East New York Farms! in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn to strengthen and sustain food security and increase economic opportunities for about 80 families. This urban agriculture program restores vacant land for bio-intensive vegetable production, incorporating honeybees and vermiculture into diversified systems. The group, composed largely of neighborhood youths and women immigrants from the West Indies and the American South, also manages and participates in a local farmers’ market to help meet the area’s need for fresh, high-quality produce while providing social and economic entrepreneurship training to youths, local urban farmers, and small rural farmers.
East New York Farms! is set apart by its model that focuses on working intensively with both youths and adults, and by its dual mission of creating income-generating opportunities for local growers and meeting the acute need for affordable fresh food in the local community.