Beekeeping, Animal Husbandry Eyed For New City Ag Board

Soil contaminated? Have to shlep five gallon buckets of water by hand to your thirsty veggies because no spigot is nearby? Is a zoning conundrum blocking you from planting a garden in the first place?

City food policy staffers want you to bring those concerns to a new community advisory board in formation. That board will be 60 persons wide. The aim is to bring grassroots (no pun intended) ideas to help inform a first-ever master plan for urban agriculture in New Haven.

Plans for the board were at the heart of a discussion Tuesday night at the Quinnipiac East Community Management Team meeting. The Zoom-assisted meeting drew 15 participants and was helmed by Chair Kurtis Kearney.

Having nabbed a coveted $590,000 in new grants from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Urban Agriculture & Innovative Production., City Food Systems Policy Director Latha Swamy and the food policy analyst, Kimberly Acosta, were on hand to announce the formation of a community advisory board and to solicit resident applications.

At the original announcements of the grants back in the fall, Swamy said a large portion of the funds will go toward overseeing the process of forming the board and paying the participants: ​“The bulk of the money,” she said then, ​“will go towards paying community advisory board members who will be compensated for their time over the next three years for participating in community workshops and providing their input on changes in zoning law, community land policy, and access to fresh foods citywide.”

At Tuesday night’s meeting Food Policy Analyst Kimberly Acosta elaborated\: Compensation will be $25 an hour for up to 34 hours per year. Compensation will be $25 an hour for up to 34 hours per year for the three-year planning process. All individuals with an interest in urban agriculture (for example, backyard or community gardening, beekeeping, flower growing, chicken keeping) are encouraged to apply. Formal or significant experience in urban agriculture is not required for participation. Translation and interpretation for both meetings and materials will be provided. Visit this site to apply by May 10.

The news and opportunity were well received by the QEMT attendees.

One questioner asked if the overall urban agriculture plan will include living things beyond fruits and vegetables.

“There is already a chicken ordinance,” Swamy responded, ​“but, yes, we’re thinking about other small livestock and beekeeping … These are things other cities have addressed and have ordinances. In our division we strongly believe in not reinventing the wheel. And we’ll bring to the advisory board stuff other cities are doing … but animal husbandry is something we’d like to consider as well, and we’ll be guided by the community board.”

Representatives of the Housing Authority of New Haven/Elm City Communities were particularly enthusiastic for the program to reignite participation in gardens at their developments.