Food and Farming in Phoenix: A Story of Three Urban Farms
Three urban farmers from Phoenix, Arizona, discuss the opportunities and challenges of growing food in an urban setting. Featuring Justin Rohner, CEO and Founder of Agriscaping Technologies; Darren Chapman, CEO and Founder of TigerMountain Foundation; and Ken Singh, Owner and Operator of Singh Farms.
Video produced by Mark Ahn Creative Services.
Transcript
How did you get into urban farming?
ROHNER: Well, my mom would say I started when I was three. So I guess I've been an urban farmer since I was three years old, when she couldn't get me back inside to do anything other than be in the garden and grow some peas. But more recently, 9/11 was a big eye-opener for me and my wife. That was the first time we had bought a house together, and food security didn't seem to feel very secure. We didn't feel safe with our food supply. The trucking stopped. The shipping stopped. The prices went up like crazy. It was rough. And so we started growing food in our own landscape.
CHAPMAN: I was introduced to it by my grandparents, and reintroduced to a by some of the great people in this community. We were looking for a way to actually provide community development. We grew a little back yard community garden. We noticed that people of all ethnicities came to that garden. So it initially did something that we wanted to intentionally accomplish, which is bring people together.
SINGH: Well, first of all, you're calling it urban farming. I'm calling it a farmer, OK? I was born a farmer. My father was a farmer. My son and I rolled up our sleeves, and there was nothing here when we started 2003. Look, in the middle of the desert, by a freeway. This farm is really to show that a piece of land that was really not used for much, because it was caliche-- nonproductive-- can be brought back to life using what's called a soil food web, the carbon cycle, you can refer to it is composting. What I'm trying to create here is an environment that's healthy, vibrant. Therefore, what it produces is healthy and vibrant. And other than that, there’s no great thought.
What does urban farming mean to you?
ROHNER: Well, urban farming, to me, means bringing the proximity of the freshest vegetables closer to the people that actually need it or want it. And so we're decreasing those distances. We're making them more accessible to pretty much everybody. So it's the absolute freshest produce that you can ever have.
How does urban farming differ from traditional farming?
SINGH: When you say urban, like, it goes back to how much land is available? You realize when you're farming, the bigger the piece, the easier to farm because you have more mass. If you're in little areas, you're going to have do a lot of handwork. This farm is mostly handwork. Now, if I had thousands of acres, I could farm a lot just as easy as hand work.
What is one of the opportunities of urban farming?
CHAPMAN: As we speak, there is an apartment complex behind us. They're probably maybe 30- 40 cars, although there is 137 units in that apartment complex. Which speaks to accessibility. Most of those people would have to hop on a bus to actually travel, to actually go further away from their community to buy produce, that typically because it was shipped in from someplace else, would be more expensive. So these types of gardens bring more reason back to being able to eat nutritious. It also has to make sense. Therefore, these gardens very close to the urban community gives people an opportunity to eat more nutritious, while working in those gardens have that same camaraderie.
What is one of the challenges you face in urban farming?
ROHNER: Well, the big challenging part is often dealing with the cities, the municipalities. It's new for them. We just say, come over to my house and check it out. If you don't like the way it looks, then we'll change it. But most of the time, they come out here and they say, this looks great. And then they hear how much it produces, and we can out-produce any farmer on an acre, it really develops a whole new way of looking at stuff.
What is the future of urban farming?
SINGH: So what's going to happen in the future? I can say that I work with cities, I work with the counties, I work with Tempe. And their minds are now changing, because their open areas now are not only valuable for future development, but in the meantime, can create green space, more oxygen, somewhere for folks to go to get out of the high rises and the hustle and bustle. And hopefully, that would encourage young people to go back to farming in the cities, if the land is available.
What advice would you give to aspiring urban farmers?
CHAPMAN: If you're looking for a more active lifestyle, what a fantastic way to do this, through urban gardening, or community gardening. It's a fantastic way to actually approach better health, better lifestyle choices, through what we do.
ROHNER: People's hearts are leaning towards urban farming. What I would say to those people is follow it. Trust it. And look at the income that you might want to make and reverse engineer it. Find some people like us, like me, like some of the others out there that have reverse engineered the opportunity of making a great living into a space that they really love. You've got to be a little courageous in that space, though, right? It's like you've got to be willing to look like the farm guy but revered as a doctor. And that's how we live.
ROHNER: Well, my mom would say I started when I was three. So I guess I've been an urban farmer since I was three years old, when she couldn't get me back inside to do anything other than be in the garden and grow some peas. But more recently, 9/11 was a big eye-opener for me and my wife. That was the first time we had bought a house together, and food security didn't seem to feel very secure. We didn't feel safe with our food supply. The trucking stopped. The shipping stopped. The prices went up like crazy. It was rough. And so we started growing food in our own landscape.
CHAPMAN: I was introduced to it by my grandparents, and reintroduced to a by some of the great people in this community. We were looking for a way to actually provide community development. We grew a little back yard community garden. We noticed that people of all ethnicities came to that garden. So it initially did something that we wanted to intentionally accomplish, which is bring people together.
SINGH: Well, first of all, you're calling it urban farming. I'm calling it a farmer, OK? I was born a farmer. My father was a farmer. My son and I rolled up our sleeves, and there was nothing here when we started 2003. Look, in the middle of the desert, by a freeway. This farm is really to show that a piece of land that was really not used for much, because it was caliche-- nonproductive-- can be brought back to life using what's called a soil food web, the carbon cycle, you can refer to it is composting. What I'm trying to create here is an environment that's healthy, vibrant. Therefore, what it produces is healthy and vibrant. And other than that, there’s no great thought.
What does urban farming mean to you?
ROHNER: Well, urban farming, to me, means bringing the proximity of the freshest vegetables closer to the people that actually need it or want it. And so we're decreasing those distances. We're making them more accessible to pretty much everybody. So it's the absolute freshest produce that you can ever have.
How does urban farming differ from traditional farming?
SINGH: When you say urban, like, it goes back to how much land is available? You realize when you're farming, the bigger the piece, the easier to farm because you have more mass. If you're in little areas, you're going to have do a lot of handwork. This farm is mostly handwork. Now, if I had thousands of acres, I could farm a lot just as easy as hand work.
What is one of the opportunities of urban farming?
CHAPMAN: As we speak, there is an apartment complex behind us. They're probably maybe 30- 40 cars, although there is 137 units in that apartment complex. Which speaks to accessibility. Most of those people would have to hop on a bus to actually travel, to actually go further away from their community to buy produce, that typically because it was shipped in from someplace else, would be more expensive. So these types of gardens bring more reason back to being able to eat nutritious. It also has to make sense. Therefore, these gardens very close to the urban community gives people an opportunity to eat more nutritious, while working in those gardens have that same camaraderie.
What is one of the challenges you face in urban farming?
ROHNER: Well, the big challenging part is often dealing with the cities, the municipalities. It's new for them. We just say, come over to my house and check it out. If you don't like the way it looks, then we'll change it. But most of the time, they come out here and they say, this looks great. And then they hear how much it produces, and we can out-produce any farmer on an acre, it really develops a whole new way of looking at stuff.
What is the future of urban farming?
SINGH: So what's going to happen in the future? I can say that I work with cities, I work with the counties, I work with Tempe. And their minds are now changing, because their open areas now are not only valuable for future development, but in the meantime, can create green space, more oxygen, somewhere for folks to go to get out of the high rises and the hustle and bustle. And hopefully, that would encourage young people to go back to farming in the cities, if the land is available.
What advice would you give to aspiring urban farmers?
CHAPMAN: If you're looking for a more active lifestyle, what a fantastic way to do this, through urban gardening, or community gardening. It's a fantastic way to actually approach better health, better lifestyle choices, through what we do.
ROHNER: People's hearts are leaning towards urban farming. What I would say to those people is follow it. Trust it. And look at the income that you might want to make and reverse engineer it. Find some people like us, like me, like some of the others out there that have reverse engineered the opportunity of making a great living into a space that they really love. You've got to be a little courageous in that space, though, right? It's like you've got to be willing to look like the farm guy but revered as a doctor. And that's how we live.