The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
Greenberg’s budget plan puts farmers at risk
In government, you can see the priorities of the city based on where the elected officials place the budget. With skyrocketing food costs due to inflation, Louisville should be assisting residents with new government resources and departments to help solve food access and insecurity issues in Louisville neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, Mayor Craig Greenberg seeks to cut almost the entire working budget of the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District, the only elected officials in Jefferson County whose responsibility is helping farmers easily access ways to grow food in the county. Whether it is Fisherville or Smoketown, the JCSWCD gives every resident of Jefferson County accessible soil testing, help with USDA grant applications and access to the larger state network of farmers.
To see the disconnect between elected officials and the residents they supposedly serve, look no further than the crops the elected officials grow. For most of our decision-makers, the main “crop” is a grass lawn with no food grown on the property they own. Many agencies currently in Louisville Metro work on food security, nutrition and health, but they do not work together.
Community gardens are critical resources. Mayor Greenberg wants to take them away
As a candidate for Metro Council District 4, I know firsthand how easy it is to start a community garden, a critical neighborhood resource that is now in danger of being taken away by the mayor. I believe that there is a critical need for a Metro agency that can work with city farmers and the Soil and Water Conservation District to better access federal funding for these programs and scale urban agriculture initiatives downtown — especially readapting parking garage rooftops and vacant paved lots across the city.
As a small-business owner teaching residents about edible landscapes and “yardens” in the front and backyard of many neighborhoods, the first thing I recommend if a client decides to grow food is to test the soil for lead and other toxic metals.
This is a free service to Jefferson County residents thanks to the existing funding for these programs. With these programs cut, residents will have limited access to critical data regarding whether or not vegetables planted in the ground will contain heavy metals that can impact their families’ health.
Additionally, hundreds of gardeners, some starting for the first time, will lose a local connection to grant resources that could potentially save them thousands of dollars on garden infrastructure like greenhouses and high tunnels to increase their harvest times.
Other cities are embracing green space. Louisville is behind the curve
For the government of the largest county in Kentucky to have such contempt for farmers and food is abhorrent, especially when Louisville has some of the most critical needs for nutritious and accessible food in the state due to decades of policies restricting gardens and orchards.
The cities of Boston, Atlanta and Austin all have growing “Food Forest” design plans for vacant lots and green space, incorporating fruit trees, berry bushes and edible plants that can help residents feed themselves within walking distance. Boston is incorporating them into its park system.
Currently, the same design plans are illegal within our park system in Louisville. We have elected experts in agriculture who can help Metro Council and city officials change these outdated policies, and our mayor instead just decided to cut all funding to this. The blatant disregard that the Greenberg administration has for urban agriculture and creating edible food within communities is apparent and shocks the conscience.
What is the end goal of defunding the JCSWCD by the majority-Democratic city government? Elected officials unanimously legalized gardens via the “Weeds Ordinance” changes two years ago, and within two years the city government is withdrawing funding for gardens. This is a whiplash to the hundreds of farmers in Jefferson County who rely on this Soil and Water Conservation District for resources like soil testing, signage and critical grant resources.
I urge every resident and elected official to support farming, support the existing groups doing the work and support the right of every Louisvillian to grow fresh, safe and healthy food. We do this by funding urban agriculture. We do this by funding the Soil and Water Conservation District every year in our budget. We must show the people we represent where our priorities lie.
Jody Dahmer (he/they) is the founder of the Louisville Seedbank program, focused on finding heat-resistant varieties of crops that can thrive in Louisville neighborhoods. Jody is currently running as a candidate for Metro Council District 4. They are an advocate for safer roads and community agriculture programs. The specific policies they’d like to implement are creating a Beargrass Creek trail plan, making walkable design a standard in future neighborhood design plans, and readapting our public spaces like parking garages and empty office buildings to allow residences and gardens.
The blatant disregard that the Greenberg administration has for urban agriculture and creating edible food within communities is apparent and shocks the conscience.