Q&A
MOUA's approach to land identification and economic opportunities
0:45:24
·
3 min
Qiana Mickie outlines MOUA's approach to identifying suitable land for urban agriculture and fostering economic opportunities through urban agriculture initiatives.
- MOUA is aligned with the council on fostering economic opportunities through urban agriculture
- The office is developing urban agriculture criteria to identify underutilized land beyond existing agency mandates
- MOUA is working on pathways for MWBEs and supporting viable small to midscale businesses
- The office is focusing on both indoor and outdoor urban agriculture opportunities
Qiana Mickie
0:45:24
I answer that question, I I just wanted to echo our interest and support.
0:45:29
I think we're mutually aligned on wanting to increase and foster economic opportunities through urban ag.
0:45:36
You know, I think we're both on the same page on seeing that there is a need for skilled food production as well as well as other climate resilient, measures.
0:45:46
But in order for that to really happen, we need partners that are practitioners that are trained and know about urban agriculture from growing to production to logistics, to be able to see themselves in becoming the businesses that they need to scale, not just their food production, but also their operations.
0:46:06
Absolutely.
0:46:07
Absolutely.
0:46:07
So same page.
0:46:08
No.
0:46:09
No.
0:46:09
We're on the same page.
Sandy Nurse
0:46:10
People need to, like, like, have real capacity.
Qiana Mickie
0:46:12
Yes.
0:46:12
Yeah.
0:46:13
So, you know, to for the office of urban air closure, what we hear and see in order to do that work, and I think we can continue to do that work together in a targeted, approach, is identifying the land, that is suitable for urban ag.
0:46:29
In order to do that, there needs to be an urban agriculture criterion that really help to look at the underutilized land beyond existing mandates of other agencies.
0:46:39
And that is something that is in our wheelhouse and we're continuing to build.
0:46:43
So in terms of site, we've, currently, we're leveraging the DCAS inventory on-site.
0:46:51
Additional research is to build a criterion in order to look at it for the uses that we're considering.
0:46:57
But I think it's also important to not just talk about the access to land, and you definitely mentioned the need and the cost.
0:47:04
There's 2 things there.
0:47:05
1 is if we're supporting viable small to midscale businesses, and is the city also creating the opportunities for them?
0:47:14
And that is where some of our pathways work is happening with MWBEs, helping folks understand in order to do the work that they want on the ground.
0:47:24
They're gonna have to be an entities that are able to create and make good social mission profit.
0:47:30
Yeah.
0:47:31
The other thing is the awareness of how to identify funds to purchase land and, you know, continue operations.
0:47:39
As much as skilled hyperlocal food production can be, they're gonna need additional support.
0:47:44
And what we look to as an office of urban agriculture or existing resources and partnerships and, in economic opportunities and grants and other, funding mechanisms at the state and federal level.
0:47:57
And those partnerships help us understand what is relevant to the scale of partners, whether they're in the pipeline to become a business or already.
0:48:05
So the question in particular about indoor, we've seen a great robust ag tech sector in a indoor population, and I think we'll continue to see sites, grow.
0:48:17
However, in order for this to truly be equitable and sustainable and for it to support skilled food production in the city, we're going to need New Yorkers to be a part of the the sector of indoor growing and be a part of innovative production.
0:48:33
And we think that the programs and pilots that we're providing will create the opportunities to be able to readily or be primed to access land, as well as be in the right entities to be eligible for this other supports that they need to move the work that they want to, indoor as well as outdoor.
