Urban agriculture can provide communities with environmental sustainability and a reliable food source; they can also generate social, economic, and energy-saving benefits.

Ph.D. student and community-organizer Gloria “Glo” Ross researches the social, economic, and technological landscape of urban agriculture and explores models for developing community gardens. “What does it look like for an urban area to be environmentally sustainable using urban agriculture and urban gardening? And what does it look like for communities to actually guide that process?”

Ross is in her second year in the History, Technology, and Society (HTS) Ph.D. program. Atlanta is an ideal city for Ross to conduct her research. There are many existing urban garden systems that were built from successful models. There are production-oriented gardens, where residents farm on individual plots where they can grow their own food and harvest it for themselves. In community-supported systems, several members of the community put forth a collective effort to grow and harvest the food as products, and the contributing members divide the earnings. Another model is strictly educational, where the food is a byproduct but the purpose is to educate the members of the community about agricultural systems and gardening. There are many Atlanta communities that have potential for using these models to build successful urban agriculture systems, but are presented with difficult challenges. It is these communities that Ross has focused her energy on to help guide the planning process and overcome the challenges.

Ross is particularly inspired by the work happening in English Avenue, East Point, and Edgewood. These neighborhoods are close-knit communities, but suffer from low property values, abandoned homes, and crime. Ross questions, “What’s happening in communities that have particularly been disinvested? What are they envisioning? What do they see in their future to strengthen their communities and to strengthen their safety and their role in the economy?”

Urban gardens may not seem like a priority in neighborhoods facing social and economic challenges every day, but gardens have the potential to turn neighborhoods like these around. And people in these communities envision urban gardens. Ross spoke with a woman in English Avenue who expressed her desire for a community garden but was unsure of how to make it a reality. She asked if she could start a garden in the yard of the abandoned home across the street, unsure of who owned the property. The woman obviously wanted to improve the neighborhood, but didn’t know where to start.

Ross understands community challenges and knows how to plan and implement successful public projects. In New York City, she worked with homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth on a project to develop a public garden space. Ross worked with architects, public planners, and the community to put the project together. In order to plan a successful urban garden in Atlanta, Ross knows that she will need to navigate both the political system and neighborhood organization and help bridge the gap between them. In her current research, she is examining what plans exist for Atlanta, what is needed by communities here, and the alignments and disparities between the two. She’s also exploring the process for merging those efforts. Ross notes that “sourcing local food” is a benchmark of the strategic plan for the City of Atlanta put forth by Mayor Kasim Reed. Atlanta also aspires to be an environmentally sustainable city. Ross is preparing feasibility studies incorporating qualitative data from the communities with the intention of presenting those to the Mayor’s office. Ross will participate in an initiative to assist Westside communities to develop patterns of sustainability spearheaded by Ivan Allen College Dean Jacqueline J. Royster and Dean Alan Balour in the College of Architecture.

Story by Lauren Langley, Master's Student, Digital Media Program