By the age of 14, Greg Peterson saw the need for more locally grown food instead of imported livestock and crops.
While working on his bachelor’s degree of interdisciplinary studies in 2001 at ASU, Peterson started The Urban Farm in North Central Phoenix to teach people how to raise a farm to produce and share food with neighbors and the community.
“It came out of a deep desire or a deep milling for me that the way we were raising food on the planet didn’t work and there had to be a better way,” he said.
Peterson was assigned to write a paper his freshman year in college where he had to describe what he wanted his career to be, but Peterson was already doing what he wanted to do.
The University alumnus was raised as a farmer in the Valley and received his bachelor’s degree in 2004; in 2006 he completed his master’s degree in urban and environmental planning.
Peterson will be an ASU professor in the spring semester, teaching SOS 327, sustainable foods and farms.
His 1/4-acre farm is used for educational purposes, including tours and classes for raising a sustainable farm.
He also raises chickens for egg production and grows fruits and vegetables on the farm.
There are 15,600 farms and ranches in Arizona, with the majority of them being less than 10 acres, Arizona Farm Bureau spokeswoman Julie Murphree said.
A farm has to produce at least $1,000 in real or potential livestock or crop sales annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Asset-wise, it doesn’t appear that (people) have to take much to possess the capital to establish a farm or ranch,” Murphree said.
Both urban farming and backyard chicken farming are growing trends in not only the Valley but in the U.S. as well, Valley Permaculture Alliance program director Doreen Pollack said.
“More and more people are saying, ‘I’m slowing down in life here, I’m not out spending my money so much on things like movies and fancy dinners, I don’t quite mind taking a little more time in treating my lifestyle,’” Pollack said.
Pollack said families are now looking for ways to consume food while still saving a few bucks.
“As the economy went bad and people lost jobs … people started saying ‘hey I need to take control and let me start doing this for my own self,’” she said
Tour de Coops is an introductory guide for new urban chicken farmers and was started in 2009 as a way of showing people how to raise chickens for their eggs, Tour de Coops spokesman Brian White said.
“Nationwide there’s a movement to add chickens to backyards and grow food,” White said.
White said Phoenix is a little behind the times when it comes to urban farming as a result of the harsh desert climate. White and his wife started their backyard chicken farm in 2006 with a half-acre farm in Phoenix.
“(Seattle is) far and beyond out in front of us in regards to Phoenix,” White said. “So (people) can look at the trend in the Pacific Northwest and see where we’re going.”
Newcomers should explore the movement and begin right away, Peterson said.
Another important aspect is to name the farm, Peterson said.
“By naming (the) farm, (people are) creating a place and place making is really important in the whole scope of what we do.”
Reach the reporter at sraymund@asu.edu
Videography by Aaron Lavinsky
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