Urban Farms: Food Deserts and Ensuring Food Security

New York City is a place distinguished for the scenery full of tall skyscrapers, it is known for the fast-paced vibrant life that consumes every street. While living in New York City yields many cultural benefits it is becoming increasingly expensive to live there putting at risk minority populations. Increased rates of gentrification are continuously threatening food security and establishing food deserts in many regions of Brooklyn. Food deserts are regions in urban areas where it is difficult to obtain affordable and good-quality fresh foods. Counts of food deserts have been increasing as a result of gentrification and higher prices of food in expensive supermarkets have left low-income minority populations with unhealthy eating alternatives.

A growing solution to the threat of food security in low-income urban regions has been has been urban farming. Over the past few years, urban farming in New York City has been a key in sustaining and providing healthy food at low costs to populations with limited access to healthy food. Oftentimes, the costs due to transportation and distribution are what inflate prices of produce and other foods which then cause inaccessibility to low-income households. The hyperlocal production of food in urban farms offer food at lower prices because the transportation costs are cut, therefore healthy fresh produce no longer become a luxury to people in low-income urban areas.

Many predominantly Latin American and African American neighborhoods have witnessed a transformation in the access to food thanks to the practice of urban farming. The Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY was once a food desert with little access to fresh produce, but it has quickly seen a tremendous boom in access to fresh foods thanks to the efforts of urban farms like Myrtle Village Green. Myrtle Village Green has been successful in fostering a community while providing food to low-income people of color in the greater Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. The plot of 20,000 square feet has seen over 50 varieties in vegetables and fruits that have provided the community with 1.3 tons of food per growing season. Supplying the community with access to fresh and healthy foods has mitigated the impacts of gentrification in the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Myrtle Village Green utilizes the plot of land that would otherwise have been purchased and converted into luxury apartments and gives back to the community by providing fresh produce grown locally.

Urban Farms like Myrtle Village Green, that use abandoned land plots to increase food security by providing fresh foods to communities in need. Urban farms, along with other projects like GrowNYC and Gotham Greens, have been establishing and successfully providing food for many New York City residents at low-cost. Urban farming practices are currently tackling the growing food security crisis in urban regions and increasing such practices will especially prevent low-income communities from consuming foods detrimental to their health.