Hi, Amy!
I think your purpose is going to lend itself to the organizational structure. There are plenty of community gardens on public land, but if your purpose isn't for neighbors to come and go as they please and to grow what they want for their own purposes, plus a common purpose, than that's not really your model. There are also CSAs on public land - some pay rent and some are paid by the municipality to "manage the open space" (supposedly in New England). I would think that a farm implied the vision and profit (such as it is) of a farmer. I think we need to hear more of what your vision is and where the land in question is (growing in CA is very different than growing in Maine) before we can give you more models. If it's more public than a farm, then I can't see why you can't use a community gardening model, but we'd need to know more of your vision. Dorene Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth A mission of St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460 _____ From: amy seek [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:58 PM To: Alliums Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Precedents for Public Urban Farm needed My questions exactly! What I can answer: "more heavily managed..." just means -- managed more centrally perhaps? Like the park agency I mentioned. This is public land, so it can't be managed by neighbors coming and going as they please, making decisions at weekend meetings, etc -- or maybe it can? I am defining this model as I ask these questions! As for "functional food system", I am not anti-charity, but wouldn't we all like to see the day when non-profits are not having to cover for faults in the larger system? When we have such a "functional" food system, that charity isn't necessary! I know of farm systems that simply donate to a food bank, (I am starting a CSA that does just this) -- but I want to think there is another way to incorporate this particular project. a On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Alliums <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, Folks! Well, this opens up all sorts of philosophical questions. What is the difference between a community garden and a public urban farm? My thoughts have always been that a "community garden" has many people working the soil for many purposes, set by themselves (feeding themselves, community gathering place, food donations, etc) and that an "urban farm" had a single unifying factor (the farmer/family) and was usually for profit. I'm not what "more heavily managed than a community garden" means. That implies a bit more laise-faire than I know most of the community gardens out here in Southeastern PA are and I'm also a bit taken aback that those who grow for charity are not "part of a functional food system." Those are my thoughts. Anyone else? Dorene Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden and Labyrinth A mission of St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of amy seek Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Community_garden] Precedents for Public Urban Farm needed Hi -- I'm proposing a large-scale public urban farm for a public park site and need examples of agriculture incorporated into public space, perhaps managed by something like a park agency. I am looking for something more heavily managed than a community garden, but more public than a private farm, and my preference would be that the food would not be grown for charity -- but be part of a functional food system. The issue is -- how do you prioritize food distribution when being produced on public land? I would love to see several different management structure-precents. I hope not a tall order. Our site is several hundred acres, and I will not be able to convince anyone of the feasibility if it hasn't been done elsewhere in any form! a -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communityga rden.org/attachments/20090217/4c481e1e/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. 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