PHILLY’s FIRST URBAN AGRICULTURE STRATEGIC PLAN
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation commissioned the plan in the fall of 2019 and hired Soil Generation and Interface Studio, a city planning firm, to co-develop the plan with input and inspiration from Philadelphia's urban agriculture community. The plan was finally completed and released in April 2023.
The planning team aimed to co-create a culturally competent and equity based approach to community engagement to ensure residents most impacted were engaged and represented in the planning process and according to the values of transparency, racial and economic justice, and inclusion. This approach was also practiced in the form of anti-racism and accessibility review of all of the policy recommendations, data, and narrative in the plan.
The plan’s foundational values
THE BIG PICTURE
The plan goes far beyond the garden itself, taking on a comprehensive interconnected analysis and re-imagination of a more just local food system. It is also rich with historical, political, and data context so it may also serve as a learning resource.
Each food system chapter has a list of goals, narrative and data for context, and a set of policy recommendations.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Garden land insecurity data & Mapping
Take a look at a graphic summary of data and maps from the plan showing garden locations overlapped with concentrations of development, poverty, BIPOC neighborhoods, and food access. We highlight this data as a key takeaway from the plan because Black and Brown gardens continue to be threatened with land insecurity. This data has the power to tell the story our communities have been telling for generations to get the necessary institutional action to protect our gardens.
RACIALIZED LAND-BASED OPPRESSION MODEL
While trying to set the historical context of the plan, we created a model to unlearn conventional colonial history, and relearn food and land history through the seldom validated lens of race-based oppression. The Racialized Land-based Oppression Model names four primary ways race-based oppression through land takes place AND names how communities have responded through self determination and collective action. This model sets the stage for the historic timeline in the plan introduction.
Displacement of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC):
The removal or displacement of peoples from their ancestral homes and/or sanctuary communities through forced migration, colonization, and gentrification.
Commodification of Land:
Capitalism and values change human relationships with the land, which results in the privatization and individual ownership of land. Land is seen as non-living, exploitable, and a means for building private wealth.
Exploitation and Erasure:
BIPOC communities have experienced labor exploitation and cultural appropriation in the context of land. The exploitation of BIPOC labor upholds colonial power over time while keeping these communities at a disadvantage.
Exclusionary Institutions:
Historically white institutions, both private and public, prioritize white communities, offer resources and opportunity to compound generational wealth and power and systematically exclude BIPOC communities.
Self Determination & Collective Action
Yet throughout history, BIPOC communities have relied, provided, and cared for themselves through agriculture, organizing solutions on the ground to resist the compounding methods of land-based oppression. These solutions often arise from cooperative strategies, such as communities pooling resources, sharing power, and utilizing traditional and cultural practices to survive colonial violence and erasure. This plan, grounded in values of racial and economic justice, sets the stage to address land- based oppression and support the continuation of collective action by Philadelphia’s urban agriculture community.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Policy recommendations each name TYPE OF CHANGE, LEAD AGENCY & PARTNERS, and TIMELINE. Look here to see which agencies would be responsible implementation!
Screenshot from the Urban Ag Plan showing policy recommendation layout
Implementation & Political will
While the completion of this plan was a huge step in advancing Black & Brown urban ag interest, the plan itself is fruitless without implementation and city accountability!
Communities don’t experience urban ag benefits or social injustices in silos, but because city agencies are siloed, approving and finalizing this plan required a lot compromises. In its final stages, the draft plan went through rigorous editing and negotiation with numerous city agencies associated with implementation.
Unfortunately, important recommendations from community input were struck out in the process —such as the legalization of hens and a moratorium on sheriff sales of active gardens. And a lot of language was adapted to be more passive than we originally drafted.
However, the final plan is a reference for explicitly stated commitment and political will by these city agencies, so the case has already been made for these recommendations. Therefore the plan should be used as a tool by communities to hold these agencies accountable to implement!
REFLECTIONS
It has taken years of dedicated community activism and advocacy to shift the narrative of urban ag from a simple hobby into a serious political issue deserving of city governments attention and support. Meaningful steps forward such as the first urban ag hearing, urban ag dedicated city roles, and now Philadelphia’s First ever urban agriculture strategic plan are a result of community mobilized activism and advocacy.
This plan is FOR and BECAUSE of the Black and Brown grower communities that have been the force in our voices as we’ve infiltrated spaces and institutions in the name of food, environmental, and racial justice as well as land sovereignty. Thank you for continuing to show up for yourself, your communities, for us. Thank you for engaging in a political process in your fullness, sharing your stories and ideas, and supporting our team in navigating the many contradictions of trying to stay true to our radical roots while working to reform the status quo.
While this plan is a huge step, we as community people know we cannot put all of our eggs in one basket. This plan covers a lot of ground, but it is a snapshot of what governing agencies are willing to do in the present - i.e., REFORM. What is possible and what we dream for our communities is far more expansive than what was published here.
Those of us who have already been doing the work of learning to live with the land in ways that policy does not reflect must continue to carry the RADICAL relationships and REVOLUTIONARY dreams beyond this plan — THAT will ultimately carry us into a way of life that is as abundant as nature herself.
We hold deep gratitude for every individual who has ever poured into Soil Generation work over the years, contributing to and co-creating community impact and resonance. Specifically, the core team who helped create this plan, Kirtrina Baxter, Soad Mana, Sonia Galiber, and Ashley Gripper. And of course Lan Dinh, Paul McGhee, and Shane Morris who were essential contributors as well.