Educational Media Reviews Online

Dan Susman and Andrew Monbouquette, after both studying sustainability in college, returned to their hometown of Omaha and wondered why the expansive agriculture of the region wasn’t being used to feed its own community. Unsure of how to encourage it, they embarked on a trip across the country to investigate urban agriculture. Growing Cities is a result of that journey. The film is essentially a travelogue and survey of urban farming across the nation. The farms they visited are in locations as diverse as San Francisco, Detroit, New York, New Orleans, and Austin.

The culture of urban farming in the United States, particularly in San Francisco, has its roots in the government requested Victory Gardens of World War II. Forty percent of the vegetables in the country at that time were produced in home and community gardens. Dan and Andrew ask the question, “What if the millions of acres of lawns in the United States today were used to grow food instead?” Not only do these gardens contribute to community health and sustainability, the rooftop farms of New York are an example of adaptive reuse, the Detroit farm exists in an area where healthy food is difficult to acquire, and some farms employ individuals who would otherwise have a difficult time finding work. The New Orleans farm even functions as a program for at-risk kids to participate in outside of school. Each of the gardeners interviewed affirms the community unifying benefits of collective urban farming.

The film concludes with Dan and Andrew returning to Omaha to see urban farming efforts that had either sprung up while they were on the road, or they didn’t realize existed. Following their own call to action, they created a mobile garden in the back of a pickup truck, which can be used to educate children on the benefits of urban growing. The concluding message is to “grow where you are.”

Growing Cities is very accessible, with the personal narrative of the filmmakers in addition to their input about the benefits of urban farming from people with diverse backgrounds and reasons for doing it. It concludes with the sense that urban farming is not only important, but an attainable pursuit for anyone in any area. The DVD comes with a 58 minute Broadcast version in addition to the 92 minute theatrical version.