Turning Development Pressure into a New Agricutural Market

By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 11-27-07

In the Boise Metropolitan Area of Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem and Owyhee counties, the landscape has become a labyrynth of homes. Development has meant more people, traffic and air pollution. It has also reduced the Valley’s once vital agricultural lands.

Long defined by industrialized agriculture magnates J.R. Simplot, Ore-Ida Foods and Albertsons, which began at the corner of 16th and State street, Boise has been redefined by the sprawling development. And while the large processing corporations still operate and provide a mainstay of Boise’s economy (although Albertsons was sold to Supervalu in 2006), this expansive development has displaced many of the working, agricultural lands that surrounded Boise.

The Boise Valley had 16,000 farms in 1940 but by the 2002 Census of Agriculture, there were only 1,400 farms in agriculture in Ada County. According to Boise State research, farmland acreage decreased by 15 percent across the Treasure Valley from 1987-2002.

The loss of farms to development is a common story in America where 20 million acres of rural land were developed between 1970 and 1990.  According to the American Farmland Trust (AFT) 86 percent of U.S. fruits and vegetables and 63 percent of our dairy products are produced in areas that are urban influenced. Even so, AFT believes that growth itself is not the problem. Instead inappropriate land use and development is the issue. 

In response, AFT has developed a toolbox that many City planners are using to protect farmland. From principles of smart growth (opens pdf) to conservation easements and agricultural zoning. Through these tools some farmers in urban influenced areas have been able to stay on the land.

Others, have turned expanding urban areas into a source for new markets. 

In 2005, Janie Burns Meadowlark Farm sat just beyond the suburban sprawl and box stores in Nampa, just 20 miles from Boise. That year, the University of Idaho highlighted her farm on the urban gringe as a part of their ”Northwest Direct Farmer Studies,” which detailed the work of farmers in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. For four years, the University talked with farmers and ranchers in the Northwest to complete 12 case studies of producers’ lives to elucidate the importance of local food producers and the role they play in the economy, environment and society.

As a certified organic farmer, Burns raises naturally raised lamb, poultry and eggs and sells them directly into the urban market around her, and primarily at the Capitol City Market in Boise. To be more successful, Burns labels her products with her name and farm logo because, as she says in the report, “The most important thing that you can do is have your phone number in someone’s freezer.” When eaters get to the last piece of meat, they call her directly and order more.

Two years later, Burns is no longer on the urban fringe. Meadowlark Farm, once on the edge of Nampa, is now directly in the Impact Zone. While Burns worries about new residents with pets that can endanger her livestock, she is most concerned that development has put, “the farming network at risk.” For example, Burns relies on her neighbor, just two miles away, for her hay. But he is under pressure to develop his land, threatening the loss of farmland along with her source of local hay.

While development has threatened and complicated farming in the Treasure Valley, Burns decided to harness the growth to expand her business.

“I’ve always felt development can increase the local market,” she says. “When I started, I grew European lettuce that others found weird. It was difficult to sell what wasn’t found in the grocery store [in Nampa].” But she found a great audience for those vegetables in Boise. “At that time, the ‘80s, and even today, Boise was more cosmopolitan, in part because people had moved from other states to the area. Now,” she says, “the market has changed and people who are from Idaho are buying from small farmers as well.”

And while the market for local food continues to grow with so much attention and media focus, Burns believes we must come to understand the effects of development on our food sources. “Now it seems that everybody is on the local food band wagon. Meanwhile access to land is a serious issue. Land prices at development prices aren’t accessible to a young person who wants to start farming. You can’t begin with that large capitol investment.”

Even while she sees these barriers and challenges, Burns believes that the market opportunities are so great that they might be able to encourage local policy makers to foster and support local agriculture and protect agricultural landscapes.

In the coming year, Boise will have just that opportunity as it begins to revise the Comprehensive Plan, which guides development. Meanwhile, Burns is helping to form the Treasure Valley Food Coalition in the hopes of creating a sustainable local food system. (The website is still under development.) While they are just beginning, the Coalition will represent a diverse group of organizations working on food issues, and in the process, use the economic benefits of a localized food economy to further protect the agricultural spaces needed to make it all happen.

Check back each Tuesday for Spade & Spoon: Localizing The Way Westerners Eat at www.newwest.net/spadeandspoon.