The sober reality is that most urban agriculture projects are underfunded, understaffed, and confronted with difficult management challenges. Urban agriculture is not seen as the “highest and best use” of vacant land by most local government policy officials who would like to attract “better” tax paying uses on this land. The conventional view is that food production is something that takes place and belongs on rural land and requires a lot of it to create a profitable enterprise.

Unblight.com has a thoughtful post over on their site: “Food for Thought: The Promise and Disappointment of Urban Agriculture in Low-Income Communities“.  I have rolled the questions of economically sustainable urban agriculture in my head for years now.  What do you think? Is this a passing fad?  Can it work without subsidies? Is the financial bottom line the only measure of an urban farm/garden’s success?