Surrounded by Suburbia

...The following six steps characterize these efforts: 1 REACH OUT TO YOUR NEIGHBORS...

...nor did it strictly involve pleas for funding...

...When we first started selling food direct to this community we never used the word "organic...

...Some of the ideas interested her, and one day she left a small scrap of paper torn from a yellow legal pad on my kitchen counter...

...I first came to Fairview to graft orange trees...

...They let this vital process take place out of sight, losing the pleasures and the connections that come with it...

...PUBLIC NUISANCE" was printed in bold capital letters on the top of her six-page document...

...In 1981 the Goleta Valley had not yet awakened from its agricultural slumber, and the 12-acre farm on Fairview Avenue was still surrounded by orchards...

...The Center is currently in the process of putting together a grassroots manual for saving small farms in response to this flurry of calls...

...I continued to struggle with bottles in the fields, restricted tractor hours, and dogs chasing livestock...

...Knowing that it will always be a farm allows my mind to wander ahead to the next hundred years...

...Michael Ableman writing and photographs of farms around the world appear in From the Good Earth (Abrams, 1993...

...We cited the agricultural history of this valley, our perfect Mediterranean growing climate, the loss of farmland everywhere, and the importance of small farms and local food for our children...

...The neighborhood was changing—it was time to change the goals of the farm...

...many assume it is the entire farm...

...The three-acre front field was, and remains...

...Before that, and deep into the past, these 12 verdant acres were part of the largest Chumash Indian settlement on the central coast of California...

...Soon Fairview Gardens was caught in the eye of a major local controversy...

...This neighbor filed his complaint with the county health department...

...Swain devised a formula to account for the number of times money spent locally gets respent in the community...

...demands for more services like roads and schools that end up costing the community more than it gains through the higher tax base...

...Instead, they have helped establish credit unions that have accumulated over * 8 million in savings and made over *30 million in loans to their members...

...In those parts of the country where farmland is giving way to housing tracts and industrial parks, this maxim might seem to have lost currency...

...Fail-view's face to the world...

...As an example, he cites the rising popularity of CSAs-there are eight in the area around Madison—as a sign of the tremendous demand for local organic produce...

...Clouds of dust floated into the farm and covered everything...

...We all hear stories of the greed that undermines our global environment...

...4 FIND THE RIGHT PARTNER...

...At the same time, my new neighbors were tentatively drifting into the produce stand...

...Know and have well established what you plan to do with the land...

...The spotlight happened to fall on Fairview in part because of my own appetite for teaching, Children are able to learn the ways of the earth at Fairview...

...We protested the sacrifice of the richest topsoil on the entire West Coast...

...In my first winter as manager I started on its renewal, planting a mix of peas, beans, and vetch that we mow under every year, just as they begin to flower...

...We can all survive without another condominium, Taco Bell, or shopping center...

...Back then we had some explaining to do...

...The newly built home he had just purchased was near our compost piles...

...matter would be turned over to the district attorney...

...Perhaps the district attorney didn't want to take on Mother's Day, the American farm, and a public dressed in rooster hats...

...Did you know...

...In 1985 they merged with the Emergency Land Fund to form the present Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, pooling resources for promoting and creating self-help strategies for the poorest, most at-risk residents of the South...

...For two months in 1984, unrelenting noise pulsed from huge machines that arrived to remove the last agricultural holding that bordered the farm...

...This land has meant different things to different people...

...The land exerted a powerful draw on the community, subtle at first, but finally so strong that many of our neighbors cannot now imagine giving up the farm...

...For 58 days, an army of 300-horsepower caterpillars, carryalls, and dump trucks moved and buried and leveled and graded hundreds of tons of topsoil...

...For years we had been huddled up next to each other, two small farms standing against the tide of development...

...Hosting programs and events will be helpful in getting the community to identify with the land and therefore help preserve it...

...The connection grew gradually as they learned to savor our corn and strawberries, slowly realizing that what the sign said was true: "We Grow What We Sell...

...It currently represents 12,000 black farm families as well as white, Chicano, and Native American members in 11 southern states...

...Over a homegrown meal of sweet corn, green beans, vine-ripe tomato salad, and fresh baked bread, we talked things through...

...for the Spanish ranchers, a conquest...

...The pain for us was real...

...and in fall, pumpkins, popcorn, and squash...

...Give someone a tree-ripe peach or a strawberry SMALL IS PROFITABLE Larry Swain likes to quote a once-popular saying: "When farmers prosper, everybody prospers...

...But this effort is not just about this little farm...

...FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN COOPERATIVES/LAND ASSISTANCE FUND For decades, America has been aware of the growing demise of the family farm, but nowhere are farms more threatened than in the rural South...

...Small farms are disappearing at a staggering rate...

...For the Chumash, who did not farm, it was an unspoiled homeland...

...Fairview Gardens' efforts received national, regional, and local coverage—all of which helped to attract support...

...We invited our new neighbors over to discuss composting and other issues...

...A number of open and fallow fields remained, vulnerable to the frenzy of real-estate development that was just getting started...

...Local radio stations set up recording devices to capture the offending noise on tape, and the newspaper assigned a reporter to cover the daily developments...

...Here, in classrooms and on a demonstration farm, members are taught business skills, sustainable agriculture practices, alternative crop options, credit union development, and cooperative marketing skills...

...For much of the year, it is bordered along the road with 300-foot beds of flowers—zinnias backed by tall sunflowers...

...5 HAVE A SOLID PLAN...

...Working out of the Rural Development Institute at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, Swain conducted a survey to assess the economic value of small farms to their communities...

...I would like to see Fairview Gardens move beyond "organic" and explore what truly sustainable agriculture can be...

...An outgrowth of the civil rights movement, it began with 22 low-income cooperatives representing black farmers and poor people searching for solutions to problems in their communities...

...The company owners will most likely live elsewhere, which is also where they spend their profits...

...Legumes such as these fix nitrogen on their roots, and their leaves and stalks provide the essence of good soil—organic matter...

...And while a factory or business may bring more jobs, it also bring...

...Today, recycling and composting have become a popular way to ease the guilt of unbridled consumption...

...Food safety issues were surfacing in the media, as were environmental issues about agriculture...

...From offering veggies for children to feed to the animals to hosting a summer concert series, from programs in horticulture therapy for the disabled to the creation of an herb and vegetable garden at a local AIDS hospice, Fairview Gardens has found ways to involve consumers and neighbors...

...Meanwhile, most decisions that affect individuals are made at state and county levels, with power too often in unsympathetic hands, leading to discrimination in disbursement of vital government loans...

...To learn more, contact: The Rural Development Institute, University of Wisconsin-River, Falls, River Falls, WI 54022, 715/425-3083...

...We were now completely out of context...

...Until the bulldozers are idling at your back door, it is an intellectual concept...

...Two centuries ago, it was a tidy corner of a grand rancho—4,000 acres of pasture land and live oak between the foothills and the Pacific Ocean...

...Since establishing The Center for Urban Agriculture, Ableman and company have been inundated with phone calls from people asking for advice on their farm-preservation efforts...

...He wanted the piles removed...

...6 KEEP WORKING TOWARD THE VISION...

...Tract home developments with names such as New Horizons and Village Terrace are bordered and connected by Kings Way, Via Fiori, and Fairview Avenue— the corridors of suburbia running east-west and north-south across this valley...

...I quickly learned that high visibility was a tool to save this place and to bring attention to something that could be replicated elsewhere...

...The excerpted text and photographs in this article are from his latest book, On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm (Chronicle, 1998...

...With each day the farm was becoming more like an island...

...Working the rows just adjacent to the road, it seems that I have grown a bumper crop of soda cans, napkins, Taco Bell salsa packets, and hubcaps...

...Whatever the reason, the district attorney withdrew his charges and the county backed down...

...Through their educational and legal support systems, they provide a proactive land-retention program that helps people find their way through the often complex morass of government processes...

...Rural traditions like these are the inspiration behind all this dedicated work, accompanied by the knowledge that loss of Land means losing a way of life...

...Consumers today equate 'small' with safety," he says, but farmers have been slow to understand their advantage or to think creatively about "niche farming," as it is called...

...Black farmers lose their farmland at a rate of 1,000 acres a day— twice the national rate—and the U.S...

...By the same formula, a family with an income of'40,000 is worth * 86,000...

...And much of what he says is directed to the farmers...

...Newer houses stand at one end...

...In 19941 began to search for a way to give the farm owner, Cornelia Chapman, fair value for her land, while at the same time preserving it for the community...

...Long before I arrived at Fairview, the valuable topsoil on the front of the field had been scraped off and sold...

...I felt that if we could preserve this land in one of the most expensive real-estate markets in the world, then our example could be used anywhere...

...Hard work and perseverance are what make it happen...

...Together we were figuring out what a farm could mean to a suburban population...

...When the cover crop gets to be about four feet high and taller, we can hear people as they walk by discussing how lazy we are for not controlling the "weeds...

...The main venue for the Federation's work is 850 acres near Epes, Alabama, at their Rural Training and Research Center...

...The "order" commanded me to restrict this nuisance, and deemed me responsible for enforcement costs...

...When was it harvested...

...The bone-rattling noise started at seven each morning and didn't stop until evening...

...Though Fairview had grown and flourished, our neighbor had given in years before...

...This information will be written up formally in the conservation easement...

...From the ground the image clarifies into avocados and peaches, peppers and tomatoes, cherimoya and mulberry trees, surrounded by gas stations, fast-food restaurants, shopping centers, and Highway 101—a straight shot 99 miles to Los Angeles...

...in summer, tomatoes, peppers, basil, and eggplant...

...I could not believe what I'd gotten myself into...

...Craft a mission and design steps tor carrying that mission out...

...Your relationship with the land trust will exist indefinitely, so that groups goals and philosophy must be aligned with your own...

...There were a few indications of what was to come: a small shopping center, two gas stations, a library, and a retirement community...

...I had watched the developers sniff around the edges of this land and covet this last island for more houses...

...The landowners welcomed short-term farmer tenants, not for the rent they would pay but for the increased water usage they represented...

...By this calculation, a medium-sized farm with a gross income of *200,ooo that is then multiplied through the local economy is worth '720,000 to the community...

...If I did not comply, the SIX STEPS TO SAVING A SMALL FARM The campaign that raised the 1750,000 purchase price of Fairview Gardens and put its 12 acres under trusteeship of a land trust didn't happen overnight...

...Now farm and community can explore the remaining challenges together...

...John Zippert, the Federation's director of program operations, laments: "I think there are some people in Washington who are sincere about wanting change, but the bureaucracy is huge...

...Commission on Civil Rights has warned that unless things change, "there will be no more black farmers by the year 2000...

...A South Dakota farmboy himself, Swain guesses that he gives around 250 seminars and talks a year on the economic value of agricultural development...

...This farm has provided a way for people to reclaim a connection to one of the most important and intimate acts: growing the food that they and their children eat...

...750,000 Firm and No Bickering...

...Identify an individual in your community who has the means and connections to make the campaign happen—the kind of person who can ask for money and get it, from individuals and foundations...

...Key to marketing is the exploration of commercial opportunities for new markets and the Rural Urban Market Project that provides quality affordable food for inner city families...

...For more information contact The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, 2760 Church Street, East Point, GA 30.544...

...I chose the latter...

...3 CHOOSE A CAMPAIGN MANAGER...

...At first it was just to pick up the head of lettuce they had forgotten at the supermarket...

...We agreed on Cornelia's price, but only after months of research and discussion to design the easement that would protect the land...

...fewer have an interest in cultivated land, so you may need to look beyond your local land trust...

...picked hours before and nothing need be said...

...Begin with a mental picture of what you want the place to look like when the preservation effort is complete...

...Televised hearings were scheduled and a throng of community supporters of the farm showed up in pop-up rooster hats...

...We cannot all go back to the land, but we can provide something of the land to everyone...

...With this last development, the farm would be surrounded by suburbia...

...Organic then was considered a bit weird...

...Just 50 years ago, half of America lived on the land, and this was just one small farm among many...

...And large corporations that move into rural areas not only contribute little but often ultimately become a drain on the community...

...Parents and teachers wanted new ways to educate their children...

...Based on a survey of some 5,000 residents in 18 communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota, he found that small farms spend 75 percent of their money locally, as compared, say, with people in a medium-sized city, who spend only 54 percent locally...

...When I refused to sign the document, the officer stood bewildered at first, then became angry...

...Can we really survive without fertile soils, without fresh and unspoiled food, without a place to teach our children about interconnections and context, or a place to gather on the land...

...After decades of suburban expansion, people were looking to rediscover their relationship to the land...

...I responded with an editorial that ran in the local newspaper on Mother's Day about the archetypal cry of the rooster and our lost connection to the land...

...Some people have asked why preserving this tiny farm is so important...

...For me this is a small miracle...

...Tract homes could always be shown to require less water than farms, and water—or lack of it—was an overarching concern in this region...

...Turn-of-the-century settlers saw a place to build a home, establish orchards, and hunt in the lush watershed that once thrived here...

...it said...

...lecturing, and publicity...

...One of my new neighbors was once a tight end for an NFL football team...

...But Swain, a specialist in community development, says it's true, and he's got the figures to prove it...

...People were beginning to think about food in a new way...

...Perhaps the public outcry had actually been heard and heeded...

...The Campaign to Save Fairview Gardens also drew the support of prominent environmentalists and fellow farmers such as Wendell Berry, David Brower, Wes Jackson, and Alice Waters, who now serve on the Center's advisory board...

...Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has verbally taken a strong stand on civil rights issues, but the department has a long way to go toward achieving fairness and equality—some refer to it as "the last plantation...

...Most land trusts deal with open space...

...We have made great strides and succeeded in developing a local, low-impact food system, as well as a vital and ongoing relationship with the community...

...Swain is still evaluating his findings, which he thinks should be useful to rural communities trying to decide whether to invite in "outside" development...

...Then, look at its current state, and take small steps, one at a time, toward achieving that vision...

...Surrounded by Suburbia FAIRVIEW GARDENS PROTECTS ITS PLOT by Michael Ableman The following story Is excerpted from On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm, to be published in July by Chronicle Books...

...Though most of the money came in over about a two-year period, the community outreach activities of the farm over the years and the dedication and devotion of Michael Ableman himself were key factors in the creation of the nonprofit Center for Urban Agriculture...

...He stands about six feet tall and weighs close to 200 pounds...

...Dotted with orchards and lined with field crops, it forms a different pattern, less linear, more undulating...

...They have recently been active in supporting a class action suit brought against the USDA by black farmers (Pigford vs...

...When the first plow cut into this land some time in the late 19th century, the topsoil was 30 feet deep...

...But the destiny of this farm was its own as well...

...Fairview Gardens was not always an urban farm...

...U.S...

...Last August the Federation celebrated its 30th anniversary in true country style with music, a fish fry, and a prayer breakfast...

...In the years that followed we spent an inordinate amount of time defending our right to be...

...404/765-0991...

...They issued an official order for me to "cease and desist" composting...

...One evening as our produce stand was closing, he rushed in unannounced and angry...

...The Federation of Southern Cooperatives was founded in 1967 to enact grassroots, innovative means to stem this tide...

...I often thought about putting a sign up on the road to identify those "weeds" as our most important crop of the year, the one we grow as a gift to nature for the bounty that she provides on that field during the rest of the year...

...All around us, the once fertile and agrarian valley had become a sea of tract homes and shopping centers...

...How will you sustain it, financially and otherwise...

...USDA) charging systematic discrimination...

...I fought the demise of that land, feeling feeble standing in the city-council chambers with a few other locals facing off against the highly paid lawyers hired by the developers...

...I could keep fighting or begin to educate...

...I ignored the order...

...This opens the door to exploitation from unscrupulous, powerful lawyers and land developers, backed by a legal system that supports them...

...Most conservation easements provide for open space...

...The penalty for noncompliance was jail...

...Fairview Gardens came to represent this opportunity, as do farmer's markets and community gardens throughout the world...

...in spring, onions, beets, and green garlic...

...Goleta was farming country...

...Thus, to replace one farm, it will take eight '40,000 incomes...

...Use all forms of media to get your plea out there...

...Compounding the problem is the tradition of black ownership of property without inheritance through a legal will, the land having been passed down through extended families...

...Fairview Gardens was not the strange sight that it is now...

...Our agreement with a local land trust specifies that the land must remain a working organic farm and that educational work must continue under the nonprofit organization, officially named The Center for Urban Agriculture...

...He doesn't say it should never happen, but he is very clear about the dangers, insisting that "local agricultural development is still the best development we could do...

...Our voices were drowned out by housing statistics, traffic studies, and promises for parks and tennis courts, all supported by sophisticated maps and graphs...

...Suddenly, after almost two decades of running the farm like a benevolent dictator, there was a board of directors, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, bylaws, a mission statement, and a 50-page document that defined how the land could be used...

...The farm is now 104 years old and after a monumental effort its future is secure...

...He is convinced that today's farmers are missing opportunities because they don't understand what consumers want or how to provide it...

...Approximately 46 acres of prime farmland are converted to nonagricul-tural use every hour...

...This field came to epitomize both our struggle and our opportunity...

...Exactly one year later, a uniformed county officer was tramping purposely through the peach orchard, her shiny boots threatening the tender celery transplants we had just placed between the rows of trees...

...For information contact The Center for Urban Agriculture, 598 N. Fairview Ave., Goleta, CA 93117, 805/967-7369...

...It's like turning around a big battleship...

...His lemon orchard, now falling to the big steel blade of the bulldozer, was a wild, derelict remnant...

...This tiny piece of land has also stirred controversy and galvanized a community to save and protect it...

...Instead we tried to focus on taste and freshness...

...Television crews waited outside the house...

...There is farmland everywhere, they say...

...A small, committed group of local activists helped to form a nonprofit organization to buy the land and place it in a public trust...

...Over the course of a few generations, most people have given that power away to distant farms...

...How was this grown...

...I considered holing up on the farm, building fences, guarding our borders, acting as if an alien force had surrounded us...

...Especially vulnerable to the "crisis" are black farmers who, in addition to facing the economic realities shared by all farmers, must also face the age-old demons of racial discrimination and exploitation...

...From the air, this area is a vast, gray, gridlike expanse with one strange exception: a small green oasis...

...The internal battle that raged inside me swung to extremes...

...Large farms, however, tend to spend their income outside their communities...

...Now, the remaining 12 acres feed a growing suburban population, educate their children in the ways of the earth, and provide a place for music and cultural events...

...While they actively advocate for public policy change, the Federation is not waiting for miracles...

...It was cheap to lease farmland on those doomed fields...

...For his study...

...2 CULTIVATE THE MEDIA...

...At the other end is the public library, where the county prisoners who maintain the grounds sometimes get overzealous with their weed whackers, taking out some of our vegetables...

...In time, this field would be filled with successions of corn and gradually an array of crops—in winter, brassicas and lettuces...

...These roosters had run free for many years, fulfilling their part in the balance of the farm, and crowing about it most mornings...

...we were in effect a convenience store...

...The public nuisance was my roosters...

...Irrigation smoothed the way for the eventual sale to developers and the requisite zoning changes...

...Reaching people through their kids and their stomachs seemed the most powerful and direct approach...

...People eventually wanted to know more...