Skip to main content

Treehugger Organic Farm: Visions for Small-Scale, Sustainable Agriculture in Broward, Florida

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability
  • 3606 Accesses

Abstract

As a response to inadequacies in the industrialized food system, small-scale, sustainable agricultural projects are on the rise in urban areas. This case study details the formation of Treehugger Organic Farm in Broward, Florida. It outlines the progression and challenges the owner and personnel faced while developing an environmentally and socially sustainable farm. The farm and personnel became deeply embedded in the local community, not just as a source of food but also as a place for community outreach and political activism. The closing of this chapter raises important questions about farming for profit and farming as a labor of love, and what happens when visions of a sustainable future are tested.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 219.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Further Reading

  • Altieri, Miguel A. 1999. The Ecological Role of Biodiversity in Agroecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 74: 19–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blakeney, Michael. 2011. Recent Developments in Intellectual Property and Power in the Private Sector Related to Food and Agriculture. Food Policy 36: 109–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carolan, Michael. 2016. The Sociology of Food and Agriculture. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson, Rachel. 1962. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choo, Kristin. 2011. Plowing Over: Can Urban Farming Save Detroit and Other Declining Cities? Will the Law Allow It. American Bar Association Journal 97: 43–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colasanti, Kathryn J.A., Michael W. Hamm, and Charlotte M. Litjens. 2012. The City as an ‘Agricultural Powerhouse’? Perspectives on Expanding Urban Agriculture from Detroit, Michigan. Urban Geography 33 (3): 348–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • EcoNexus. 2013. Agropoly – A Handful of Corporations Control World Food Production. http://www.econexus.info/sites/econexus/files/Agropoly_Econexus_BerneDeclaration_wide-format.pdf. Accessed 28 Apr 2017.

  • ETC Group. 2008. Who Owns Nature? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life. http://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-owns-nature. Accessed 28 Apr 2017.

  • Eubanks, William S. 2009. A Rotten System: Subsidizing Environmental Degradation and Poor Public Health Wins Our Nation’s Tax Dollars. Stanford Environmental Law Journal 28: 213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figuerola, Eva L.M., et al. 2015. Crop Monoculture Rather than Agriculture Reduces the Spatial Turnover of Soil Bacterial Communities at a Regional Scale. Environmental Microbiology 17: 678–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia, Deborah K. 2004. The Future of Food. http://www.thefutureoffood.com/. Accessed 14 May 2017.

  • Gliessman, Stephen R. 1992. Agroecology in the Tropics: Achieving a Balance Between Land Use and Preservation. Environmental Management 16 (6): 681–689.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gliessman, Stephen R., Eric Engles, and Robin Krieger. 1998. Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golden, Sheila. 2013. Urban Agriculture Impacts: Social, Health, and Economic: A Literature Review. http://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/sarep/publications/food-and-society/ualitreview-2013.pdf/view. Accessed 2 May 2017.

  • Goldstein, Mindy, et al. 2011. Urban Agriculture: A Sixteen City Survey of Urban Agriculture Practices Across the Country. Turner Environmental Law Clinic. http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-a-livable-future/_pdf/projects/fpn/urban_community_planning/urban_agriculture_a_sixteencity_survey_of_urban_agriculture_practices_across_the_country.pdf. Accessed 3 May 2017.

  • Guthman, Julie. 2014. Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, Alethea., Annie Shattuck., Eric Holt-Giménez., Alison Alkon and Frances Lambrick. 2009. Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned. Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy. https://foodfirst.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/01/DR21-Food-Policy-Councils-Lessons-Learned-.pdf.

  • Henry, Mickael, et al. 2012. A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees. Science 336: 348–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hinrichs, C. Clare, and Thomas A. Lyson, eds. 2007. Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt-Giménez, Eric. 2009. From Food Crisis to Food Sovereignty: The Challenge of Social Movements. Monthly Review 61 (3): 142–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, Philip H. 2009. Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008. Sustainability 1 (4): 1266–1287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacques, Peter J., and Jessica Racine Jacques. 2012. Monocropping Cultures into Ruin: The Loss of Food Varieties and Cultural Diversity. Sustainability 4 (11): 2970–2997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jetoo, Savitri, Velma Groover, and Gail Krantzberg. 2015. The Toledo Drinking Water Advisory: Suggested Application of the Water Safety Planning Approach. Sustainability 7 (8): 9787–9808.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin, R.C. 1998. The Maturing of Capitalist Agriculture: Farmer as Proletarian. Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine 50 (3): 72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liebman, Matt, and Elizabeth Dyck. 1993. Crop Rotation and Intercropping Strategies for Weed Management. Ecological Applications 3 (1): 92–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lobao, Linda, and Katherine Meyer. 2001. The Great Agricultural Transition: Crisis, Change, and Social Consequences of Twentieth Century US Farming. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 103–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McClintock, Nathan. 2010. Why Farm the City? Theorizing Urban Agriculture Through a Lens of Metabolic Rift. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 3 (2): 191–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMichael, Philip. 2009. A Food Regime Genealogy. The Journal of Peasant Studies 36 (1): 139–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michalak, Anna M., et al. 2013. Record-setting Algal Bloom in Lake Erie Caused by Agricultural and Meteorological Trends Consistent with Expected Future Conditions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110 (16): 6448–6452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, Paul K., and Purvi Shah. 2014. Cancer Incidence in California Farm Workers, 1988–2010. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 57 (7): 737–747.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mollsion, Bill. 1988. Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual. Tyalgum: Tagari Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service). 2002. 2002 Census of Agriculture County Profile: Broward, Florida. https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2002/County_Profiles/Florida/. Accessed 10 May 2017.

  • National Center for Appropriate Technology. 2017. A National Sustainable Agriculture Assistance Program. Urban Agriculture. Retrieved 12 May 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Cancer Institute. 2011. Agricultural Health Study. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/ahs-fact-sheet. Accessed 3 May 2017.

  • Ollerton, Jeff, et al. 2014. Extinctions of Aculeate Pollinators in Britain and the Role of Large-Scale Agricultural Changes. Nature 346: 1360–1362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettis, Jeffrey S., et al. 2013. Crop Pollination Exposes Honey Bees to Pesticides Which Alters Their Susceptibility to the Gut Pathogen Nosema ceranae. PLoS ONE 8 (7): e70182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Postma, Johannes A., and Jonathan P. Lynch. 2012. Complementarity in Root Architecture for Nutrient Uptake in Ancient Maize/Bean and Maize/Bean/Squash Polycultures. Annals of Botany 110 (2): 521–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rayer, Stefan, and Ying Wang. 2014. Measuring Population Density for Counties in Florida. https://www.bebr.ufl.edu/population/website-article/measuring-population-density-counties-florida. Accessed 10 May 2017.

  • Reeves, D.W. 1997. The Role of Soil Organic Matter in Maintaining Soil Quality in Continuous Cropping Systems. Soil & Tillage Research 43: 131–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosset, Peter. 2006. Food Is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture. New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schindler, Sarah. 2012. Of Backyard Chickens and Front Yard Gardens: The Conflict Between Local Governments and Locavores. Tulane Law Review 87 (231): 1–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, Haley. 2005. Intellectual Property and Genetically Modified Seeds: The United States, Trade, and the Developing World. Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property 3 (2): 160–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilman, D. 1998. The Greening of the Green Revolution. Nature 396: 211–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsubo, M., et al. 2003. Productivity of Maize–Bean Intercropping in a Semi-Arid Region of South Africa. Water Sustainable Agriculture 29 (4): 381–388.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. 2014. World Urbanization Prospects: Revision. Final Report 2004. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/. Accessed 20 Apr 2017.

  • University of California, Berkeley. 2017. Monoculture and the Irish Potato Famine: Cases of Missing Genetic Variation. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/ article/agriculture_02. Accessed 20 Apr 2017.

  • US Census. 2016. QuickFacts. Broward County. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/12011,00. Accessed 14 May 2017.

  • USDA-ERS (United States Department of Agriculture – Economic Research Service). 2016a. The Number of Farms Has Leveled Off at About 2.1 Million. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=58268. Accessed 3 May 2017.

  • ———. 2016b. America’s Diverse Family Farms. https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details/?pubid=81401. Accessed 3 May 2017.

  • Wang, Zhi-Gang, et al. 2014. Intercropping Enhances Productivity and Maintains the Most Soil Fertility Properties Relative to Sole Cropping. PLoS ONE 9 (12): e113984.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, Monica M. 2011. Sisters of the Soil: Urban Gardening as Resistance in Detroit. Race/Ethnicity: Multicultural Global Contexts 5 (1): 13–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wines, Michael. 2014. Behind Toledo’s Water Crisis, a Long-Troubled Lake Erie. The New York Times, August 4. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/us/lifting-ban-toledo-says-its-water-is-safe-to-drink-again.html. Accessed 5 May 2017.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The data for this case study was collected through interviews and email communication with the owner and staff, April through May 2017. Additional information was collected using content analysis of the Treehugger Organic Farms website and Facebook page.

http://www.treehuggerorganicfarms.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TreeHuggerFarms/

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Velez, T.I. (2018). Treehugger Organic Farm: Visions for Small-Scale, Sustainable Agriculture in Broward, Florida. In: Brinkmann, R., Garren, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71389-2_22

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics