Vita Nuova Hosts Sustainability Series Webinar: Developing a Business Plan for an Urban Farm
Event Details
Christopher Choi, USEPA & Jim Rocco, Vita Nuova LLC
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Whether to help address community challenges such as vacant properties, food deserts, neighborhood crime, and unemployment rates, or just to better connect residents with what they put on their plates, interest in building farms as part of the urban landscape is growing. The idea is simple enough: taking vacant or underused lots to grow healthy food. Therefore, it is not surprising that this concept has appeal to a diverse range individuals and organizations with farming knowledge, skills and experience, or a lack of them, to match.
While urban farms may share the basic process requirements of traditional agriculture, there are also many elements that are unique to urbanized areas that will require attention such as local zoning, neighborhood crime, utility access, and storage/refrigeration space. Individuals and organizations will improve their ability to establish a successful, economically sustainable urban farm if these and other issues are acknowledged and planned for up front.
The Vita Nuova webinar will focus on the Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook, a guide that provides a framework for any organization or community interested in developing an urban farm to help address neighborhood blight, food access, or community development challenges on brownfields or vacant sites. The handbook provides guidance on how to assemble marketing, operating, and financial strategies to communicate your urban farm project to potential partners and funders along with worksheets to help identify and address the issues important to the development of these strategies.
