AUDIO: How a Phoenix farm program could save urban farmland

Slug: URBAN FARMING
Runtime: 5:17
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BYLINE: Emma VandenEinde, Cronkite News

URBAN FARMERS ARE RUNNING OUT OF PLACES TO PLANT. THE AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST REPORTS THAT TWO-THOUSAND ACRES OF FARMLAND ARE LOST EVERY DAY. BUT THE CITY OF PHOENIX AIMS TO FIX THAT, WITH A PROGRAM DESIGNED TO PRESERVE FARMS.

CRONKITE NEWS’ EMMA VANDENEINDE [VAN-DIN-INE-DEE] VISITED ONE PHOENIX FARM TO SEE HOW THE LAND IS BEING PROTECTED.

———–

THE RAIN IS PICKING UP IN PHOENIX, AND MAYA DAILEY IS HUNCHED OVER, DRIVING HER TROWEL INTO THE DIRT. SHE’S TRANSPLANTING SOME SMALL ZINNIAS.

“It’s just trying to beat the rain to get those in.” (4 SECONDS)

HER WIDE-BRIMMED HAT BLOCKS EACH RAINDROP FROM HER FACE AS SHE PLANTS QUICKLY.

“Whoops! I covered that one.” (4 SECONDS)

THIS IS PART OF HER DAILY ROUTINE AT MAYA’S FARM, A THREE-AND-A-HALF ACRE FARM LOCATED NEXT TO SOUTH MOUNTAIN. THIS IS LAND SHE’S RENTED AND FARMED FOR OVER A DECADE. AND IT’S JUST OFF A BUSY PHOENIX STREET. IN FACT YOU CAN HEAR CARS JOINING THE CHORUS OF HER FARM’S GOATS AND CHICKENS.

“It’s working with nature. We’re blessed by rain only once in a while. So it’s sort of like you take advantage of it.” (8 SECONDS)

BUT DAILEY DID NOT KNOW HOW LONG HER ZINNIAS WERE GOING TO LAST…. HER FARM WAS PUT ON THE MARKET A FEW YEARS AGO.

“It takes my wind out of my sails and makes me say, OK, I don’t want to move again. I’m going to quit, I’m going to go farm some place else. What am I going to do? I’m not going to put any energy into the farm because I don’t know if it’s going to be here tomorrow.” (17 SECONDS)

MAYA’S FARM ISN’T THE ONLY ONE. URBAN FARMS ARE DECLINING. IN 20-20 ALONE, PHOENIX LOST 200 ACRES OF FARMLAND DUE TO URBAN DEVELOPMENT. THAT’S EQUIVALENT TO 151 FOOTBALL FIELDS.

THIS IS NOTHING NEW TO DAILEY. SHE SPENT HER SUMMERS IN GILBERT, AND WATCHED THE SMALL TOWN BOOM AS SMALL FARMERS MOVED OUT IN EXCHANGE FOR BIG PAYOUTS.

“It, to me, is a natural disaster in some ways. We didn’t think about how much food production was coming out of those areas… All of Gilbert was food production all my life, and in a matter of less than 10 years, it just turned into houses.” (17 SECONDS)

DAILEY’S LAND COULD SELL FAST IN PHOENIX WHERE HOUSING PRICES ARE SOARING. BUT SHE SAYS SHE NEEDS THIS LAND.

“You can’t just take a farmer and pick it, pick them up and place them somewhere else…Farmland exists in different areas because geographically, that’s the soil, right? And so we’ve made a big mistake in Arizona.” (13 SECONDS)

BUT IN LATE MARCH, DAILEY RECEIVED SOME GOOD NEWS THAT MIGHT SAVE HER FARM FOR YEARS TO COME.

“Because the conservation easement’s gone through, I’m back to OK, the lands here. It can be mine someday.” (8 SECONDS)

THE CONSERVATION EASEMENT SHE MENTIONS IS A CONTRACT MADE BETWEEN A LANDOWNER AND A LAND TRUST THAT AIMS TO CONSERVE WORKABLE LAND FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

“How the conservation values remain intact is that they are giving up their rights to subdivide the property.” (10 SECONDS)

THAT’S SHARMA TORRENS. SHE’S THE CONSERVATION SPECIALIST FOR THE CENTRAL ARIZONA LAND TRUST.

“Basically what you’re doing is you’re keeping it as a working farm. And that’s what we want to see is we want to see that local food supply remain intact.” (9 SECONDS)

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: LANDOWNERS CAN AGREE TO DONATE THEIR DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS OR SELL THEM FOR 60 TO 80 PERCENT OF THE LAND VALUE TO THE CITY OF PHOENIX. THE LANDOWNERS STILL GET TO KEEP THE LAND, BUT IT HAS TO BE USED FOR FARMING–FOREVER.

SELLING THE DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS DECREASES THE LAND’S VALUE. THIS CAN HELP MAKE EXPENSIVE FARMS MORE AFFORDABLE TO FARMERS LIKE DAILEY.

“At this point, to farm on a piece of property that was, you know, a million dollars, right? And try to buy it at that. You can’t grow vegetables in a year to even make that happen.” (16 SECONDS)

THE CENTRAL ARIZONA LAND TRUST HAS WORKED WITH THE PHOENIX CITY COUNCIL SINCE FEBRUARY TO FUND THE FARMLAND PRESERVATION PROGRAM. TOGETHER THEY’VE RAISED ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO HELP COMPENSATE LANDOWNERS FOR DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS.

TORRENS SAYS THAT THEY HOPE TO HELP TWO TO THREE MORE FARMS IN THE NEXT YEAR. SHE SAYS FARMS HAVE SHOWN INTEREST, BUT NOT MANY HAVE APPLIED…

“I think there are a lot of inaccurate conceptions about what conservation easements are or there’s just not enough knowledge about really what they are” (10 SECONDS)

FOR MAYA’S FARM, SOME THINGS STILL NEED TO BE SORTED OUT, LIKE HOW DAILEY COULD EVENTUALLY BUY THIS LAND. BUT FOR HER, IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN JUST THE LAND…

IT’S ABOUT BEING A SOURCE OF LOCAL FOOD.

“We don’t want to become dependent on food from other places. That’s vulnerable to me. It doesn’t feel food secure.” (10 SECONDS)

THE CONSERVATION EASEMENT MEANS THAT EVERYTHING ON HER FARM, FROM GOATS…

…TO DUCKS…

…IS AVAILABLE FOR FUTURE FARMERS, TOO.

“It’s not just about me owning the farm, it’s about creating something that’s here for the next generations, surrounded by education and farming.” (11 SECONDS)

THE CENTRAL ARIZONA LAND TRUST IS STILL ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION EASEMENTS ON FARMS IN PHOENIX. THE PROCESS IS COMPLICATED, BUT THEY HOPE TO SEE OTHER FARMERS LIKE DAILEY DIG INTO THEIR SOIL BEFORE IT GETS PAVED OVER IN DEVELOPMENT.

EMMA VANDENEINDE, CRONKITE NEWS.

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Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication | Cronkite News

AUDIO: How a Phoenix farm program could save urban farmland