While sustainable food, small farmers and community-based agriculture are all the rage right now, a small farm that struggles is not sustainable at all. And many small farms do struggle with the cost of maintaining land and growing food in times when food prices drop, crops fail, or the market for a particular food disappears. Small farms have to be adaptive and savvy to become financially sustainable.
One of the newest trends in small farming is the micro-farm. Micro-farms have small inputs of land and serve a niche market. They may provide produce for a community that is measured in blocks rather than in cities. They may also provide produce for communities that are not well-served by larger farms. These may be ethnic communities searching for a particular food that is challenging or expensive to import but that grows well in the local area. These may also be communities of upscale restaurants looking for fresh herbs or delicate and time-intensive produce.
In New Orleans, the Viet Village Urban Farm is an example of both local food and a project that aims to tap into the ethnic and restaurant markets. New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but the hurricane also raised important questions about sustainable communities and self-reliance. Combine this with the tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that poured unimaginable quantities of oil into the gulf, and you have a community that is looking for answers for long-term sustainability. Many of the small fishing companies impacted by the oil spill have employees who are of Vietnamese origin. The Vietnamese community has deep roots as food providers for New Orleans, including a longstanding weekend market for local food growers.
After the hurricane, the MGVN Development Corporation purchased 20 acres of land in one of the hardest-hit areas of New Orleans. The new micro-farm will break ground in 2011. It will grow local, sustainable food for restaurants and traditionally-raised livestock for the Vietnamese community. From the wreckage of what was New Orleans East will come a working farm that also provides garden plots for community members. The farm will highlight sustainable water and waste management practices, such as composting and using the storm water on the site to provide irrigation.
One of the challenges of maintaining and growing local, sustainable food is the challenge of maintaining links between generations of gardeners. Long before community gardens and urban farming became fashionable again, generations of immigrants gardened to provide food for their families and to sell the excess. Micro farms not only provide a small and productive land base to grow local food that sells, they also provide social sustainability, a link between communities and generations that is one of the gifts of the urban micro-farm.
