People have always grown food in urban spaces—on windowsills and sidewalks, and in backyards and neighborhood parks—but today, urban farmers are leading an environmental and social movement with intent to transform our national food system. To explore this agricultural renaissance, brothers David and Michael Hanson and urban farmer Edwin Marty document twelve successful urban farm programs, from an alternative school for girls in Detroit, to a backyard food swap in New Orleans, to a restaurant supply garden on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Each essay offers practical advice for budding farmers, such as composting and keeping livestock in the city, decontaminating toxic soil, even changing zoning laws.

For seven weeks, David, Michael, and videographer, Charlie Hoxie, traveled the country in a short school bus powered by veggie grease (and a minivan after too many breakdowns delayed the production). The trio slept in empty lots overlooking the Pacific Ocean, mall parking lots, and alongside the very farms they were documenting.The images and stories to come out of these farms show that America’s urban landscape is rich with opportunity for fresh local food. Hanson’s book, Breaking Through Concrete : Building an Urban Farm Revival, published by University of California Press, was recently released.

-courtesy Michael Hanson.

Father Luke Nguyen and the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church were the catalyst for the development of backyard gardens that helped resurrect the predominately Vietnamese Versailles community of East New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Mary Seton Corboy, the director of the Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, tends to her bees. Initially, Mary kept bees to deter intruders from entering the farm. Now she has hundreds of CSA members throughout the Philadelphia area and provides produce for restaurants, community members and the farmer’s market.

Children eat mango at the Garden at Westerly Creek Park in Denver, CO. Refugees from countries including Bhoutan, Somolia, and Sudan gather at this community farm where they now grow a city block’s worth of produce.

Annie Novak at Eagle Street rooftop garden in Brooklyn, NY. Her farm provides produce for a CSA, local restaurants, and a farmer’s market.

Photo © Brian Widdis.

The 50th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade rolled through Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood Sunday afternoon, March 15, 2009. Following the parade, two area high school marching bands, including Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences Marching Band (pictured) squared off for a marching band battle in front of Detroit’s abandoned Michigan Central Station. The train station has been vacant since 1988 and stands as a powerful symbol of Detroit’s problems. In 2004, a proposal to refurbish the station and move the Detroit Police Department headquarters there was announced, however the plans were canceled in 2005. In early April, 2009, Detroit City Council voted to expedite demolition of the building.

This image is from a collaborative project between Widdis and photographer Romain Blanquart called “Can’t Forget The Motor City.” Widdis and Blanquart are Detroit photographers who contacted us after reading a PDNPulse post about the abundance of photo projects showing run-down spaces in Detroit. “Our goal is to show Detroit as a whole—to tell the story of the city and its people,” they wrote. “We believe that beyond the easy and exotic snapshots of crumbling buildings lays the real story of the Motor City.” Widdis shoots in black-and-white and Blanquart shoots in color.