Category: Service to Others

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Urban Ag and You

gregoryjoel

A couple of weeks ago, my Monday morning meeting ended early, so I sat at the Philadelphia Airport waiting for four hours for my plane home. I’m not good at sitting but I have little choice over the next seven hours or so. It was nice to catch up on a few things, but I prefer the open fields and growing plants to rows of chairs and sitting in an airborne cigar…

I was here to attend the Black Urban Growers National Conference, or BUGs as they call it. Philly has a strong urban agriculture movement with many farms and community gardens dotting the city. They even have a Director of Urban Agriculture as part of the Parks and Recreation Department for the city government. It was great to make some connections with folks here. Hopefully, we can begin to move city government in Tarrant County, Fort Worth, and the surrounding cities to move in a positive direction for urban ag and community gardens. Jesse Herrera, Linda Fulmer, and Grow SE have moved us a long way but there’s so much to do to make Fort Worth favorable to urban agriculture and eliminating food insecurity.

Six cities currently have Urban Agriculture leaders in city government – Philadelphia, Atlanta (whose director also spoke at BUGs and was the first city in the nation to appoint a director), New York City, Detroit, Austin, Boston, Seattle, and Portland. These are also areas where there are strong food policy councils. However, each agreed that community member advocacy was essential to the formation of urban ag programs. These positions work through the mayor’s office, sustainability offices, parks, or planning departments. While Tarrant County has a food policy council, they need support from our community to have influence over policy decisions at the county or municipal level. We need is citizen support to drive progress forward for urban agriculture.

Why Urban Agriculture?

There are three primary reasons for establishing urban agriculture policies in Tarrant County municipalities – the number of food deserts, public health, and supply chain issues.

  • In 2020, NBC5 news reported that Tarrant County was one of the Top Ten counties in the country for food insecurity ( https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/fighting-hunger-urban-farming-in-fort-worths-food-desert/2292808/ ). Moreover, the USDA identified over forty areas in Tarrant County that qualify as “food deserts” – areas that are over a mile away from a grocery store. Food “desert’ is something of a misnomer. Food apartheid represented the concept far better as most of these areas are in lower income areas or communities of color. Urban agriculture and farmstands or farmers markets can make a significant impact on accessibility to fresh food in these neighborhoods. It can be costly under present urban farm and garden ordinances to build infrastructure needed for urban ag.
  • Public health is drastically affected by lack of access to healthy food. The zip code 76102 is the unhealthiest zip code in the state of Texas. Life expectancy is 66.7 years old – twelve years below the national average ( https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article244137362.html ). While lack of access to healthy food is not the only reason for poor health outcomes, it is certainly the root of the problem. In the Southside, Morningside, and Hillside communities there are only a dozen convenience stores that only sell snacks and highly processed canned foods lacking nutritional value. Locally grown, nutrient-dense fresh vegetables help the body’s own defenses against heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancers, and obesity that lead to shorter lifespans and higher medical costs. Costs borne by all of us.
  • The COVID pandemic revealed serious flaws in our present food systems. Who doesn’t remember the higher food prices and empty store shelves of many items we use every day. Breaks in the supply chain have serious consequences for the retail grocery stores. Our food travels an average of 1500 miles from the farm to your table. To reach your grocer, it has to be picked before it’s ripe, sprayed with preservatives, shipped by rail or by truck to a distribution center and delivered to each individual store. It lacks the flavor and nutrient density so many of us crave. Locally grown produce is a solution to this problem.

Moreover, local urban farmers develop a sense of community around the local farmer’s market or farmstand. The community gets to know their local farmers and their neighbors better. “Screen time”

Is often replaced by real conversations. A sense of neighborhood pride replaces some of the isolation that often plagues our senior citizens. Opal’s Farm has been a member of the Cowtown Farmers Market for five years now. We’ve developed a loyal customer base and we’ve come to know our customers as friends. We’ve been an active part of our community, and many folks have volunteered at the farm as well as become our customers.

What Can I Do?

Access to land is often easier than we think. Learn about urban agriculture in your neighborhood. Are there any community gardens? If not, is there a place for one? Are there vacant lots, churches, or schools that might be good sites for a small urban farm or community garden. Are there local learning gardens to offer growing tips and support to neighborhoods? Do your local schools have school gardens that you might volunteer with? Is there a place to gather to bring local farmers and gardeners together to offer their goods and services to the neighborhood?

Find out what the urban agriculture and community garden ordinances (or if you even have them) are in your municipality. Is zoning an issue? Neighborhood associations are often a great place to start if you have one. If not, local code compliance or development departments can provide guidelines.

Here in Fort Worth, urban agriculture ordinances were almost non-existent and what we did have was more of a barrier than a help. A local initiative by County Commissioner Brooks Office called Grow SE brought local non-profits and urban farmers together to address this issue. Grow SE worked diligently to address and change the city ordinances that limit urban ag and have made it much easier to build the infrastructure to make it successful but – we have a long way to go!

Get involved with your local food policy council. Food Policy Councils were first authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill and re-emphasized in the 2018 Farm Bill. If your city does not have one, then start one. Here in Tarrant County, we are fortunate to have a council with working groups in urban ag and food waste (a significant issue as Fort Worth faces having to build the infrastructure for a new landfill). Food policy councils can have a major effect on local food policy and urban agriculture.

Contact your local city council member and make your voice heard. Attend city council meetings and ask your neighbors to do so as well. Talk to your local officials and let them know this is a big issue to deal with. Changing the food system and delivery to your table begins at the local level!

I’m excited to be home and to continue our Fall growing and prepping for next Spring. I’d love to have you come out and start your urban agriculture journey with Opal’s Farm. Come see the possibilities for positive change here in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Bring your kids. Kids (and unfortunately many adults) have no idea where their food comes from. Once they learn how good food is grown and distributed to our communities, they get excited to be a part of the process. The fresh air, vitamin D, and “playing in the dirt” is great for them (and for you!) Come and see!

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Too Late to be a Good Samaritan

gregoryjoel

Fall is normally my time for self-introspection. North Texas summers usually keep that habit away – one can only think of finding air conditioning! It’s been above one hundred degrees for most of the summer with constant excessive heat warnings. Nights have stayed above eighty degrees since the first week of July so there’s little relief when evening comes. Most of North Texas is in severe drought. I suspect the media is right when they refer to this as the “new normal”. The sad thing is that everyone seems to accept it and do little to mitigate the problem, but that’s another blog post…

Back to reflection…

It was 111 degrees according to my truck thermometer when I left the farm. I cranked the air conditioning and headed to the house for a Zoom meeting. It was a brief hour break on a hot summer day to enjoy the AC, grab a snack, and change out of sweat-soaked clothes. I headed towards the turn to Interstate Thirty and there he was – lying next to the entrance ramp – sun beating down on him a mere three feet from the shade of an overpass. He was on his back and his arms outstretched slightly to the sky above. He was in the direct sunlight with shade only a couple of feet away. It was obvious he wasn’t merely sleeping. He was dead. His arms were stiff, rigor mortis had set in, and his body bloated from the afternoon sun.

One officer from the Fort Worth police came followed by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s van. I stayed long enough to give a statement and notice all the cars going by. How long had he been there, and no one noticed, or cared enough, to stop and call 911? I remembered the parable of the Good Samaritan. I guess I wouldn’t qualify here. I didn’t get here soon enough. I wondered what I would’ve done if I did…

The crime scene tape was never put up, no investigation made, and the ME loaded the body to take back to the morgue. The whole affair was over in about thirty minutes. The police seemed put out that the ME was taking so long. Just another homeless guy. No signs of violent trauma so time to get on to more important things like the comfort of air-conditioned squad car.

The scene has been seared on my brain ever since. I can’t help but wonder who the man was – what was his name, where was his family? Few people are totally alone in this world although many feel that way. He was somebody’s son, maybe a father, or maybe a brother. Would they find his family and report his death? Would he be missed? Would anyone grieve over his passing? Would anyone care? The news came on that evening. No one talked about the passing of another homeless person. I wasn’t surprised. Anonymous dead homeless guys simply aren’t newsworthy.

The farm is close to the night shelter and Union Gospel Mission. The city has worked hard to isolate the homeless (or more PC – “unhoused”) population to the “mission district”. Still, there’s far more homeless people than there are beds. Around the bend in the river there are several acres of thickets between the old drive-in and Gateway Park. There you’ll find several homeless camps and their number is growing every year. If you look closely, you find camps all around the city – under bridges, wooded areas, abandoned houses. The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition reported that “more than 5,000 households experienced homelessness throughout 2022 in Tarrant County” (Fort Worth Star- Telegram, February 13th, 2023).

We often have some homeless folks who make their way along Trinity Trail above the farm. They will occasionally ask for a bottle of water or rest in the shade of the farm’s only tree. Sometimes they carry on loud, and sometimes angry conversations with people unseen by us. Mental illness accounts for a significant portion of the homeless population. Panhandlers covered all the main intersections from the freeway to the farm. It’s easy to look past them; to avoid eye contact and hope the stoplight changes before they approach the car. I know. I’m guilty at times.

I’ve been praying about that a lot the last couple of weeks. I’ve been in their shoes and yet I forget all about them when my life got back on track. Suddenly, I’m too busy “doing good things with the farm” to notice them, to really see them, or to have a kind word. I become the priest or the Levite in Jesus’ tale of the Good Samaritan. It’s not that I don’t care. I’m just in too big of a hurry and don’t want to have any distractions from the day ahead. I have important things to do – at least in my own mind – and I fail to see Jesus right in front of me (see Matthew Chapter 25…?). Nothing is too important to not to see and acknowledge the divine in each of God’s kids.

Joan Osborne recorded a song in 1995 that resonates with me today especially. It reminds me that I can see God everywhere. He might even be panhandling on the street corner.

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Celebrating Juneteenth and Freedom

gregoryjoel

Happy Juneteenth to you all! Ms. Opal’s Walk for Freedom starts at 9:30 this morning. I hope you can be there. I will be at Opal’s Farm irrigating since veggies don’t like the hundred-degree heat. It is June in Texas!

I hope you all take a moment to reflect on the celebration of emancipation and what that means for all of us. I keep hearing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” in my head this morning – “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our mind”. Freedom from racism, from hate, from all the isms and ways of thinking that hold us all in bondage. As Ms. Opal Lee always reminds us, “If someone can be taught to hate then they can be taught to love” and “No one is free until we are all free.”

I hope you all celebrate release from bondage today in the spirit of Juneteenth and freedom for all. Ms. Opal says we should celebrate from Juneteenth to July 4th. I can do that and hope you all will too!

Side note – Taste of Juneteenth will be on July 1st at Panther Island Pavilion. There will be BBQ pitmasters competing in the BBQ cookoff and delicious sides. Come for a day of celebration and great food!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOFu6b3w6c0

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Enough is Enough

gregoryjoel

I sat on the porch this morning drinking coffee and soaking in the morning. It’s been sprinkling off and on all morning but not enough to keep the mockingbirds and the doves from their vibrant singing and cooing. It’s been unseasonably cool and overcast this morning, but the birds reminded me Spring is really here.

It’s times like these I see how blessed I am. I most certainly don’t deserve it. I spent most of my life making poor choices and living the way addiction dictated how I live. It wasn’t until almost twenty years ago that I finally surrendered, choosing life, and living in the Spirit as best I can. I haven’t been wealthy – this is not another “Prosperity Gospel” tale – but I’ve always had enough. Enough truly is enough…

I was speaking with a friend the other day. They have lived a life of escaping poverty. They grew up in the rural Midwest where the average income was less than ten thousand dollars a year (substantially less) and they didn’t even have electricity for many years of their young life. It’s still difficult for me to remember that there were (and are) people who lived like that in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As a result, they spend time worrying about never having enough and the fear of losing what they have.

I have also lived in poverty in the past, but mine was of my own making. It was something I never imagined growing up in an upper middle-class home in the suburbs. The fear and constant looking over my shoulder and harming the very ones I loved was something I never intended, but it became more real as my addiction progressed. I often fail to understand the trauma that comes with poverty forced on someone by birthplace and circumstance. I can’t pretend to know the fear that comes with falling back into such a state. I can, however, be present to the reality of my friend.

I believe that has led to so much introspection over the last few weeks. Most of the fear has been removed through my years of recovery. I’m no longer confused. As Brennan Manning says, “Everything is grace.” I have what I have, not because of my own efforts, but because God has graciously provided enough – enough of life’s necessities so I can share and be of service to those around me. I work hard because I have something to offer the world around me. As such, it’s become much easier to live in the world and to be present.

Photo by Hugo Magalhaes on Pexels.com

Saint Francis said, “Above all the grace and gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.” It constantly amazes me when I find joy in driving in rush hour traffic because the bluebonnets and other wildflowers are in full bloom along the side of the freeway. When I let go of who I think I am, both when I have an over-inflated ego or tell myself I’m the scum of the Earth – I’m free to acknowledge what a loving God thinks of me. I see the God lives in everything that surrounds me.

“We have very little, so we have nothing to be preoccupied with. The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have, the more free you are.”

– Mother Teresa

As I sit at my desk writing this morning, I have four dogs sleeping all around my feet. Ricky and Lucy – the “twins” have exhausted themselves playing together. Jameson is laid across my feet, most likely keeping me working (I’m afraid to move but my foot’s going to sleep!). Sadie is gently snoring by my side. I’m not sure life will get any better. They remind me constantly that I’m important to them and somehow, it’s a constant reminder that God loves me unconditionally. They remind me that “everything is grace” …

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count more than birds.

Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller. All this time and money wasted on fashion – do you think it makes much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby beside them.

If God gives such attention to the wildflowers… don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do what’s best for you. What I’m trying to do is get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving… Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your human concerns will be met.”

Matthew 6.27-33 (The Message – Jesus quoted by Eugene Peterson)
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Impatient Patient

gregoryjoel

I’ve learned that if you won’t take a break from work then the universe tends to make you! I’ve spent the last five days in the hospital (more on that in a minute) due to a raging infection that started with what appeared to be a fire ant bite. No one knows for sure but that triggered it. The swelling, redness, and heat have gone down a lot, thanks to some high-powered IV antibiotics. I can actually see my knuckles again! Hopefully I will be discharged from the hospital and switch to oral antibiotics on Monday and then it’s back to the farm.

When they admitted me, they put me in the “Hospital at Home” program. I feel like I should have an ankle monitor since I’m required to stay home (it’s a good version of house arrest), but “facts are not feelings”. This is a wonderful care program developed by Texas Health Resources. They put in all the tech equipment necessary to keep me in touch with my care team. I receive several visits per day from paramedics to help with medications and IVs as well as from Nurse Practitioners. The iPad keeps virtual doctor and nurse contact, and my vital signs are monitored the same as in the hospital itself. They’ve also discovered that patients heal quicker in their own homes. I get it. I never thought I would say that I’ve enjoyed a hospital stay, but the care team is amazing. Texas Health Resources is not only a great sponsor of the farm but a great health partner personally.

Amber and Amanda have done an outstanding job of keeping things going at the farm. This is probably the worst possible time to be down, but they have kept the growing season going strong. They’ve also kept me updated several times a day. They had the best day so far at Cowtown Farmers Market this morning for Opal’s Farm. Amber has done such an incredible job with the biointensive beds that we have more produce than we have storage for. That’s a great problem to have, but it’s still a problem. Thanks to the Rainwater Foundation and Grow SE we will be getting a cargo trailer and a chill bot to handle cold storage issues.

I’ve tried to be a good patient and follow doctor’s orders. I stay in bed much of the day and prop my arm with a pillow. I’ve seen more Netflix in the last five days, than I’ve seen in a year. I’ve been able to catch up on the endless stream of paperwork that comes with the farm. I’ve also had time to reflect on this life I’ve been given. I recently reconnected with my best friend in high school and college, Tim Dwyer. Twenty years and quite a few miles have come and gone since we’ve talked. Facebook provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with each other.

I remember little of my childhood. The mental health folks assume I must have some kind of repressed trauma that restrains my memories. The only trauma I can think of was growing up in the Church of Christ but that didn’t become apparent until my adult years. What I do remember is having loving parents and growing up in a white middle class home, but never quite fitting the mold of all the other kids.

Music made life tolerable, but when I discovered alcohol, the world became alive – at least for a while. Music was always by my side. Alcohol and drugs betrayed me. Tim was my friend through both.

That’s why this reconnection was so important to me. True friends, like Tim, are rare.

Enough of waxing nostalgic for now anyway. I can hardly wait to get back to the farm and although I will have to stay “out of the dirt” for a few days I can still do the tractor work waiting for me there. I will try to be better at posting updates and writing. It’s been quite infrequent over a very long Spring. Amber and Amanda have posted some great stuff on Instagram though. See what’s coming to market there – @opalsfarm.