New Roots Urban Farm

By transforming vacant lots in North City, we provide a local food source while integrating education and sustainability into an urban lifestyle. We believe that urban sustainability is only possible when a city is actively involved in the production of its own food.

The mission of New Roots Urban Farm is to increase the accessibility of local, chemical-free produce to the people of St. Louis, specifically those with little or no income. We straddle the geographic border of two neighborhoods in north St Louis city where we maintain and nurture two farm sites, two green houses with an outdoor kitchen, several fruit trees, chickens, a few community houses, and each other.

New Roots focuses on bio-intensive mini-farming, a low-income farmers' market, and a children's education program. We are a consensus-based collective that feels it is imperative to create radical systems that actively oppose the dominant capitalist model of exploitation and oppression. Instead of further human expansion to our diminishing natural areas, we strive to reclaim abandoned urban areas in order to create a model and community rooted in sustainability, evolution, love, and justice. We work towards this by creating alternatives to our current food, housing, and transportation systems. We also believe that social justice cannot exist without food security: the access of safe, culturally appropriate foods to all people, regardless of race or class. We see the current exploitation and toxification of our soil and food sources as most threatening to our bodies and communities. New Roots challenges our current food systems by creating urban agriculture models, teaching and empowering inner city youth through food production and cooking, and feeding and nourishing ourselves and others in the St Louis community.