VSU Extension Spearheads Efforts to Establish Local Urban Agriculture Policies
Virginia State University’s staff and Petersburg local community members are clearing the row beds in the Harding St. Urban Ag Center community garden in preparation for planting.
The Harding St. Urban Ag Center in Petersburg, VA, is a flurry of activity this Spring. For Arbor Day in April, Virginia State University (VSU) Urban Forestry Specialist Joel Koci gave a presentation on caring for orchards. The community came together to plant trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. On Earth Day, VSU Food System Specialist Dr. Marcus Comer partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Virginia Turf Grass Association to lead a clean-up event with the community.
As they’re clearing the row beds in the community garden in preparation for planting, they are also preparing for an exciting initiative: creating land-use policies for the City of Petersburg. The mission of the Urban Ag Center is to address existing food deserts in the City of Petersburg by building a sustainable food production system and distribution hub that includes educating the community about indoor food production operations, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Creating urban land-use policies would expand VSU’s Extension’s ability to impact the community in terms of providing greater access to food in Petersburg.
Dr. Comer has spent significant time studying data and preparing for stakeholder sessions in the coming weeks to discuss new policies. “For the past year, we’ve combed through Petersburg policies, particularly those dealing with public health, and vetting those policies for what our stakeholders need so we can suggest updates for changes or new policies that are needed to build local food systems,” he says.
Petersburg does not have any policies relating to urban agriculture. Atlanta and Detroit are both model cities for municipalities seeking to enact urban agriculture policies. “The model VSU uses is based on Charlottesville’s,” Dr. Comer explains. “The University of Virginia developed it. From there, we’re hoping not just to update the food policies, but develop a food council for the region that can keep them updated.” The state has a food council, but none exists locally.
“We’ve got a pretty good cross-sector group of people coming,” says Dr. Comer. “Our stakeholders are people from the city, city government, and state agencies that deal with public health and education. We have food retailers, producers, distributors, and hopefully people involved in waste and compost.” In addition, officials from surrounding areas interested in similar initiatives will attend the stakeholder sessions and facilitators and content specialists who will help steer the conversation.
The first session is in mid-May, and the sessions continue through the first week of June. Each session will cover a different area: public health, social equity, environmental stewardship, land access for food production, and economic development. Dr. Comer is excited about what the group can accomplish. “We’ve put a lot of time into this,” he says.