RECAP: Portland, Day 1

Two weeks ago a group of Canadian and American students spent five days in Montreal (QC) exploring issues around urban agriculture, sustainability, planning and policy, community engagement, and food security and justice. On Monday of this week (8/31/2015) we kicked off another five days of urban agriculture exploration—this time in Portland, Oregon!

Blue House Greenhouse Farm, located off of North Williams and North Cook in Portland, Oregon. Pictured standing on the far right is Amanda Morse, the farm's founder, surrounded by graduate students researching urban agriculture.

We spent our Monday morning at the Portland State University (PSU) Urban Center, where we heard presentations from Nathan McClintock, Steve Cohen, and Cameron Harrington. Nathan McClintock (who is one of the two faculty leaders for this joint research project) provided an introduction to Portland’s development, and a brief overview of urban agriculture (UA) in Portland. Nathan also touched on the issues surrounding gentrification in Portland. Cameron Harrington, a graduate student at Portland State and a staff member at the non-profit organization Living Cully, was able to expand on Nathan’s presentation by providing a more in-depth look at the issues surrounding gentrification in the Cully neighborhood (located in Northeast Portland). Finally, Steve Cohen, who is the manager of Food Policy and Programs at the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, was able to provide more information about Portland’s Food Policy Council, and touch on the role of the City in supporting and regulating UA in Portland.

After a quick lunch stop at portland State's food cart "pod" (what we Portlanders like to call a group of food carts) on 4th Avenue, we took the bus to Northeast Portland, where we visited Blue House Greenhouse Farm and spoke to the farm’s founder, Amanda Morse (pictured above and in the first four pictures below). From there we went to the restaurant Nobel Rot, where the restaurant’s farmer, Marc Boucher-Colbert, led us on a tour of the restaurant’s rooftop garden (pictured in the last four pictures below).

Overall, Monday provided a relaxed (and tasty!) introduction to urban agriculture in Portland by giving students an introduction to the city's UA issues, and a look at two examples of UA in the city: a rooftop restaurant/garden, and a small-scale urban farm. Stay tuned for more recaps, as well as more in-depth posts about UA in PDX (Portland) and MTL (Montreal)!

- Gwyneth