Felicia Kloewer, Elizabeth Bayer, Nico Curl, Elizabeth

Smith, Chris Thompson

Voting Habits of the

Urban Farming

Sub-Culture

Objectives

The objective is to immerse ourselves into the urban farming community in order to understand their political views.

With the upcoming 2012 election, this is an opportunity to see how different groups in the Eugene-Springfield community vote based on influences by their sub-culture.

We decided to focus on the sub-culture, urban farmers, because it is prominent sub-culture in our targeted region.

Definition of Sub-Culture

• A sub-culture is a group of people who break from the majority culture.

• The sub-culture defined (urban farming) is a group of individuals who live within suburban settings but practice rural activities such as farming and sustainable living.

• This group can identify with two main-stream cultures but chose to intergrade aspects of both.

How would you label the urban farming community?

• By the clothes they wear?• By the music they listen to?• Where they live?• What types of food they eat?• By their occupations?

• Hippies living “off-the-grid”

• Liberal• Exclusive

community• Wariness of the

media • Severe feelings

that the government is corrupted or flawed

Initial Thoughts

ExecutionIn order to better understand the chosen sub-

culture, we focused on the three main types of urban farming: personal, commercial, and donation-based. Based on these different types we focused on the differences and similarities of the farms and the farmers.

To gather our information we decided to interview our subjects because political opinions may be considered sensitive information. To overcome the issue of sensitivity, we worked along side the famers at their farms or homes and got to know them personally and therefore allowed for more honest dialogue.

What is Urban Farming?

• Three types of urban farming:• Personal

• Backyard plots or containers and/or pots• For personal usage and generally not shared with

public

• Commercial (uncommon)• Producing food for profit• Using private or state-owed land

• Donation-based• FOOD for Lane County• Used for donating food to poor or disabled

Eugene Zones

Definition of Zoning & Urban Farming

• City zoned into specific areas that establish different types of development

• Agriculture (golden yellow) occurs on the outer edges away from the city and most residences

• Urban farms can be found throughout residential areas such as public land (sky blue), low-density residential (beige), etc.

Personal

• Bill Bezuk: Backyard Farmer– Sustainable living:

• Bee hives• Chickens

• Nile Ann– Sustainable garden

• Garden in containers

Commercial

• The Youth Farm splits their 95-100 thousand pounds of food between:

Pay a fee for fresh produce

FOOD for Lane County

Donation-based

• Food for Lane County– GrassRoots Garden– Churchill Community Garden– Youth Farm

• The Grove– Project Tomato: grew 500 pounds and donated

it to the University of Oregon for pizza sauce.

• Huerto de la Familia – Sustainable gardening.

Meet: Merry Bradley

• Certified Master Gardener• Head of the Grassroots Garden since 1991

– Produces 50-60 thousand pounds donated per year

• The garden is almost

entirely run by volunteers

Meet: Tristan Fields

• 10 Years of gardening experience at The Grove

• 3 years on land • Leads Project Tomato

– This program will teach students about sustainable agriculture.

– The tomatoes harvested are turned into pizza sauce for UO dining facilities.

Findings

What Does Urban Farming Mean to Them?

• “First and foremost, I love growing food for people and feeding people.” – Ted Purdy, Youth Farm– Community based organization with the goal of

feeding and distributing food

• It means sustainability because organizations, like Food for Lane County, focus on building sustainable futures for the community.– Hopefully, this translates into urban farms in backyards

or in community plots in neighborhoods

Continued

• In short, urban farming means:– building community– growing food for people– teaching people how to be sustainable– Helping with social issues

• Like troubled kids, people with disabilities, low-income families, etc.

• To Purdy, this is social work

Translation into Political Views

• Measures concerning sustainability, urban areas, and farming are of importance. – Like issues supporting “open space”

(undeveloped areas of land) to garden

• Another issues is under the Farm Bill.– The government is reducing SNAP

(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

Why vote?

• Privilege• Driven to vote because “it’s easier to be cynical,

but I find it much more satisfying to embrace small changes, even if it’s not what you’re wanting.” – Ted Purdy

• Bring awareness– Ban the Bag, May 1, 2013

• Seeing a change – Passionate about making an impact– Ban the Bag achieved in Portland.

Conclusion

• “Our overall goal is simple: to better the community, get people involved and lead by example.”

- Tristan Fields