Urban WWOOFer: Yours Market in Saint Louis

Saint Louis Garden Tour Highlight:  Yours Market

Especially in the past decade, urban agriculture has expanded across the country and throughout Saint Louis.  We see it in backyards to supplement a family’s summer tomatoes; around the corner in a shared community garden; and in urban lots intensively managed as for-profit farms.  With over half of the world’s population living in cities, with food miles a growing concern, and with “self-sufficiency” regaining some of its old value, it is only a matter of time before we find more ways to bring more food production closer to home.

I recently dedicated three weeks to wandering Saint Louis in search of community gardens and urban agriculture in need of help.  When I reached Yours Market in Baden in North Saint Louis, I was drawn in for a longer look.

Yours, Inc. is a nonprofit urban farm attached to Yours Market, started in 2010 to provide a wide variety of affordable food to the area.   The farm donates organic food to the market; the market sells it fresh and affordable in an area where food is rarely fresh or affordable.   

Only two years old and with not a single full-time position on the farm, there are rows of beds with robust collards and kale, and the heirloom yellow tomatoes were the best I had had all summer.  In addition to the rows of raised beds of produce, there are bees, tilapia, vertical gardens, compost, and endless ideas for growth and improvement.  The raised beds could triple in space!  We could add chickens!  We could bring in school children to plant and learn about agriculture, and bring in community members to share the space and for healthful cooking lessons! 

Even with so many successes and ambitions, there are definite challenges to successful urban farming.  It is often a challenge to find safe and healthy urban land to start:  often urban soils, even if in unused urban lots, are full of industrial chemicals from factories, improper disposition of trash, or remnant chemicals from previous structures. The Yours Market store was previously a car shop, the garden space the attached car parts lot.  From a glance, it looks like any other mowed grass lot in the city.  But upon closer look, the grass parts to show small windows of cement, as the grasses have still not entirely reclaimed and overtaken the lot.  Needless to say, the lot is considered a "brown field" with soils too toxic for growing food.  

Starting a farm dedicated to organic agriculture is also a challenge.  Using organic seeds in the city of Monsanto’s headquarters (the creator of terminator-seed technology and by nature a complete juxtaposition to “organic”,) is far from simple.  Chemical-free agriculture itself is more labor intensive for the farmer and less fruitful in the short-term ( important not to misunderstand:  non-organic agriculture is far more energy intensive and less productive when its net energetic and environment costs are factored in, but they almost never are).

There are also the many negative cultural stereotypes attached to agriculture.  Agriculture commands little respect in our culture:  people often want to have nothing to do with growing their own food.  One of the largest challenges is addressing this misconception and encouraging the community to realize the value of participation in food production and gaining control of our food supply.  

Yours Market is an exciting project, but it undoubtedly still has a steep road ahead.  It is not yet economically sustainable.  It has not yet found a way to appeal to a critical mass of community members, and it has not received the grants and funding it needs for long-term success, growth, and economic viability.

How can you help?

Contact Yours Market, or show up and request a tour.  Spend an afternoon helping to plant, weed, or harvest.   Get on the mailing “work-party” list to hear about big projects when a group of helpers is needed for a full day.   Consider it an opportunity to get some hands-in-the-soil therapy, to volunteer in a Saint Louis community and to learn about urban farming…a skill set we may all wish we had in the future!