Officials from the city of Brooklyn, New York recently announced joint sponsored legislation to expand urban agriculture and maintain community shared space at Ashford Street Abundant Garden. The new legislation will insure the Department of City Parks reports on community garden food processing and agriculture and will also help protect garden coordinators with licensing requirements.
“Urban Agriculture just makes sense,” said council member Rafael Espinal Jr. “It promotes healthy lifestyle, reduces our carbon footprint and strengthens communities. Especially for low-income neighborhoods like the ones I represent, which have historically lacked access to fresh, healthy produce, urban agriculture can help close the ‘freshness gap.”
Espinal worked with Columbia University graduate students to gather information for the city’s decision-making process.
“We spent the entire year with Columbia University graduate students outlining the impact of the various sectors in the urban agriculture and what needs to be done to support them,” said Espinal. “We are re-introducing legislation that would require the city to create a comprehensive urban ag plan and telling the administration that the plan that we worked on for the past year is all they need to adopt a comprehensive plan for the city of New York.”
“We have a long way to go, but working in partnership with Council Member Espinal and our vibrant community of local farmers and gardeners, I am positive we can achieve the goal of an urban agriculture revolution in our city,” said Brooklyn borough president Eric L. Adams. “We have potential to revolutionize our city’s food system and turn a page on protecting our health and environment while bolstering our economy.”
