Foundation Journal

There's always a pleasant surprise during visits to sites on the KC Urban Farm Tour. This year was no different when a lively discussion on growing plants from seeds ensued at City Bitty Farm. The owners of City Bitty, a husband and wife team, gave tours of their 2.5 acre property, which included a demonstration tunnel, large rainwater container, and microgreens. One of the tour participants asked Jennifer of City Bitty Farm about their success with growing edible plants from seeds, mentioning his difficulty in consistent plant growth this year. Others described how they saved and used seeds. Another person added that corporate seed producers are engineering the seeds to prevent using them in subsequent years. Still another tour participant remarked that a failsafe way to find seeds that allow growers to save plant seeds is to use "heirloom" varieties. Someone else in the tour group mentioned that Belton's new policy on beekeeping has affected their growing. ...

The Kansas City Food Policy coalition met today to discuss distribution and production policy as a committee of the group. As meeting facilitator Katherine Kelly with the KC Center for Urban Agriculture indicated in her email announcement, the meeting focused "on policy issues that affect the production, distribution, and access of healthy, local food...which will be taking the lead on figuring out what city/state/federal policy initiatives we could create or get involved in that would help strengthen the local farming and distribution community." As a newcomer to the group interested in their direction and progress, I noted there was a good collection of representatives from many different types of organizations: local growers, CSA distributors, government health educators, financial foundation sponsors, environmental groups, and university agriculture programs. Several individuals addressed jobs for urban core youth and economic development for the same area. The food...

The bold vision of East Meets West of Troost was on display during a five-stop urban farm tour on September 2. Sasteh Mosley, tour guide with many years of working in the urban agriculture field, provided a wide view of the effort of both East Meets West, as well as other groups. Sasteh's co-worker SahjKaya accompanied the tour. Left to right: Steve Mann with EcoRadio KC, Sasteh Mosley with East Meets West, and Desire' Hendricks at Garden of Eden urban farm near 27th and Prospect in Kansas City. East Meets West focuses on three key areas -- urban farming, recycling, and young artist support. The group's ambitious program to reclaim areas such as the tough neighborhood around 27th and Prospect is underscored by the replacement of crosses marking deaths at the intersection with large vegetable farms. These large garden plots may not always be visible during a drive through this area, but abundant gardens appear when we walk up to the plots, like at the first stop ...