Help Us Preserve Our Phoenix Farmland
Maricopa County is losing farmland at an alarming rate. In 2000, there were 640 square miles of agricultural land in Maricopa County and 540 miles of residential land. In 2019, agricultural land decreased to 410 miles while residential land had increased to 750 miles, according to the Maricopa Association of Governments. In the past year alone, 200 acres of the remaining prime farmland have been permanently lost or threatened (about to be lost) due to urban sprawl and development growth. For example, last year, Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield lost 70% of their farmland when it was sold to Fulton Homes, and Agave Farms in Phoenix, which housed 20 local growers, was sold for development.
What does this mean?
This means that at this rate, we won’t have farmland left to help us feed our communities, create a resilient food system in Arizona, teach our children where healthy food comes from, and we won’t have farmers who can supply our farmers market with nourishing local food and support for our local economy. Once farmland is gone, it is gone forever.
Why should we care?
Farmland provides many benefits, such as creating jobs, preserving green space, providing heat mitigation, promoting valuable diversity, and offering educational and agritourism opportunities. But those, at times, can seem like abstract concepts and not enough to motivate us toward action. Why we should immediately care about preserving farmland is related to what we are experiencing right now— going to the grocery store and not having food items on the shelves or the items we typically buy are doubling or quadrupling in price. Or, we don’t have access to healthy, affordable food at all.
Relying on food brought in from other states like California and other countries like Mexico (and big, industrial agriculture) means supply chains are fragile, and prices are volatile. This reliance does not make Arizona resilient.
Preserving our local farmland means localizing our food system. By creating a localized food system, there are fewer supply chain disruptions and fewer price swings for the food that we eat. In formal terms, this is economic security and nutrition security. In an everyday context, localized food systems provide us with healthy, affordable food for our families and our rapidly growing Arizona community.
So what’s the solution?
Right now there are concerted efforts to preserve Phoenix Farmland so that we stop the hemorrhaging of our local food farms and farmers. One of the initiatives is the Coalition for Farmland Preservation (CFP). The CFP is partnering with Central Arizona Land Trust (CALT) and the City of Phoenix to place food producing Phoenix farmland into an agricultural preservation easement (ACE). An ACE is a method used to ensure that farmland remains in agricultural production and the land cannot be subdivided. It’s a way of preserving farmland and a proven tool used to conserve farmland. This initiative is especially groundbreaking since it is addressing the loss of farmland in an urban agriculture setting. Urban farms help us feed a rapidly growing population and are on the front lines to step in to feed communities when fragile supply lines are broken.
The first easement project is conserving the land that Maya’s farm currently sits on. Maya Dailey has been full-time urban farming since 2006, providing community supported agriculture (CSA) boxes to her community, and educating children on where healthy food comes by being a strong advocate of local farm-to-school efforts. (Read the full press release here)
What can you do right now to help?
If you want to help preserve the land that Maya's Farm sits on, as well as safeguard our Phoenix farmland for future generations, here are THREE things you can do now:
1. Donate directly to this farmland conservation easement program and help preserve our Phoenix farmland.
2. Join the Coalition for Farmland Preservation to be made aware of other farm situations and actively participate in farmland preservation efforts.
3. Go visit your local farmers market, buy some local produce, and let our farmers know that you value them!
ABOUT CENTRAL ARIZONA LAND TRUST
CALT is a community-based, nationally accredited Arizona non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the irreplaceable landscapes that define central and northern Arizona.
ABOUT THE COALITION FOR FARMLAND PRESERVATION
The CFP is a collaborative effort involving farmers, non-profits, government agencies and municipalities, community organizations, and universities dedicated to protecting small to medium-sized farmlands to sustain local food production in Maricopa County. Its formation is a response to the rapidly increasing loss of farmland and the difficulties farmers face in finding suitable, affordable, and secure land for farming.
ABOUT CITY OF PHOENIX’S FARMLAND PRESERVATION PROGRAM
This program seeks to achieve healthy food for all and a long-term resilient system by conserving agricultural property within the City of Phoenix. In partnership with nonprofits and land trusts, this allocation assists in the purchase and preservation of land for agriculture in Phoenix.