Oakland, Calif., where I live, doesn't have a lot to celebrate, what with budget-driven police layoffs and an unemployment rate of 11.5 percent. Still, one piece of good news has urban agriculture proponents cheering.

Not about Oakland's plan to sanction (and tax) large-scale marijuana farms, but the announcement that City Slicker Farms, a leader in urban-farming and food-justice circles, has been given $4 million to buy land on which to farm.

City Slicker got its start in 2001 on a parcel of borrowed vacant land in the "food desert" of impoverished West Oakland (see Grist's food-justice story), where 32 percent of residents live below the poverty level and mortality rates for diabetes and heart disease are well above the county rate. They soon started a "pay what you can" farm stand, and then a program to help residents grow their own food in their back yards. Today, City Slicker Farms operates seven Community Market Farms, more than 100 backyard gardens, a greenhouse, and Urban Farming Education programs. It grows 20,000 pounds of food annually.

And soon, with state money, City Slicker will be purchasing a 1.4-acre parcel in West Oakland, the vacant, fenced-off former site of a paint factory that has undergone a thorough brownfield cleanup. On it, it will plant and construct what it's calling the "West Oakland Urban Farm and Park," which after extensive consultation with area residents will contain lawn space (for kids to run, play, and exercise), a vegetable-growing area, a community garden, a fruit orchard, a chicken coop, a beehive, a dog run, and a tot lot. It will be free and open all day, seven days a week.

The funds come from Proposition 84, a 2006 California bond initiative that earmarked $5.4 billion for statewide park development and community revitalization. It's amazing that what was once an eyesore will become a living, growing green space that will provide fresh food and sanctuary to a community that has very little of either.

-Bonnie Azab Powell in Grist.

It truly is amazing what Oakland has accomplished as a unique model for urban agriculture. Last year, a report identified 1,200 acres of vacant and underutilized public land within city limits that could potentially be used for food production. According to City Farmer, if only half of this land were cultivated using intensive ecological farming methods, the authors conclude that these “commons” could contribute at least five percent of the city’s recommended vegetable needs to the local food system, a significant step towards Oakland’s goal sourcing a third of its food locally. How much vacant land does Spokane have for green space? A lot. We've seen the success of urban agriculture in our city already with Riverfront Farms, what's to stop us from adopting a friendly policy towards sustainable food sources.

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