According to Cultivating the Commons, a 2009 analysis by UC Berkeley Geography Department students Nathan McClintock and Jenny Cooper, the City of Oakland has more than 800 acres of unused, arable public land — much of it consisting of vacant lots in East and West Oakland — that, if cultivated, could easily supply as much as 5 percent of city residents’ total fruit and vegetable needs.
That statistic is one impetus for Oakland Spring Rising, a new initiative by a group of Bay Area food justice advocates — to launch forty new urban farms and community gardens in Oakland in forty days. David Grefrath, the main organizer, explained that the idea is to put the city’s many vacant lots to new use, with a lofty goal of growing enough to provide 100 pounds of fresh produce to each of Oakland’s roughly 400,000 residents.
Read the full article at East Bay Express
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