Original Post: https://sites.uw.edu/pols385/2020/04/16/urban-farms-rapid-response-to-covid-19/

Covid-19 is showing just important it is for all people to have easier access to food, however in the United States some people with the least access to food live in urban areas. Due to many food sellers deciding not to set up shop in poor urban areas because it is not profitable enough, there are food deserts for millions of people across the county. The current pandemic is showing just how important it is for these areas to have community farms so that people have access to fresh and healthy food without it being dependent on capitalism. Champ3 notes how unreliable food chains can be and that is why urban farms are so important.

However, what I think that Champ3 doesn’t mention in great detail is that the pandemic is showing a few limitations of urban farming. With the outbreak of Covid-19 and social distancing rules in place, urban farms in general are not able to be as productive because the number of workers must decrease. Especially when these farms are squeezed into such a tight space, it is much more difficult to plant, maintain, and harvest these foods.

In a way these urban farms are quite similar to what Monica White describes in her essay about the Freedom Farmers which gave recently freed black people an opportunity to create their own economic and food-based sovereignty. These urban farms give the chance to provide food for communities that are often majority people of color without the need to depend on outside forces like the government or large food companies. However, in both cases they face the same problems of not approaching the issue systematically. The whole pandemic is showing the need for change in policy in order to better provide the people who live in these communities with access to food.

Photo Credit: https://www.vox.com/2016/5/15/11660304/urban-farming-benefits