Plant Tomatoes. Harvest Lower Crime Rates.
A growing body of research shows that urban farms reduce violence
—Photographs by Emily Schiffer; Text by Alex Kotlowitz
Looking at Schiffer’s photos and talking with people involved in urban farming, I’ve come to realize that their efforts have less to do with providing healthy food than they do with a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of their community and their daily lives. Growing Home is one of Chicago’s larger urban farming projects, much of it located in Englewood, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. While it harvests 13,000 pounds of vegetables a year on a half-acre site, nearly all are sold to restaurants and at a farmers market on the city’s more prosperous North Side. But Growing Home has altered the landscape of the neighborhood—and it employs local residents, many of whom because of past indiscretions have trouble finding work elsewhere.
FILMS: The Interrupters, Generation Food
