The Biggest Tent on Earth: How Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood is Developing Urban Ag and Food Enterprises for the 21th Century

With over 300 vacant lots, the Englewood Community is one of several Chicago neighborhoods that are in the process of planning what urban agriculture and food enterprises will look like in the future. Englewood is one of sixteen ‘new communities’ in Chicago that have undergone a lengthy process to create a vision of what will make their communities healthier, safer and economically vibrant. The Englewood Quality of Life Plan envisions agricultural in various forms and a new food economy as a part of this new landscape. With a grant from the Chicago Community Trust, Growing Home, Inc. has hired a consultant to bring together community leaders, food and health advocates, politicians, city planners, gardeners and the local community college, to determine the types of urban ag and food enterprises the neighborhood wants to see to transform itself from a ‘food desert’ to a ‘food destination’. The Greater Englewood Urban Ag Taskforce has been meeting for several months, in what is likely to be a two year process and currently has over sixty members.

Click here for Harry Rhodes' Bio & Warren King's Bio.