WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

South Side activists approached Jennifer Hudson to help save Yale Elementary from closure. They say the school's garden is integral to larger urban agriculture efforts.

The first thing you see upon entering the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s new exhibit on food is a 19th century hand plow, its modesty a bit disarming as the climax of a walk-up whose walls are splashed with projections of grain nodding majestically in the wind.

The first farm to open under Chicago’s new urban agriculture ordinance broke ground in Englewood on Friday.Honore Street Farm will be on 58th and 59th Street and managed by Growing Home, a nonprofit organic agriculture business that employs individuals who’ve had problems with employment instability

The Chicago City Council passed an amendment to the zoning code that recognizes urban agriculture.This now makes urban farming of fruits, vegetables and fish legal in Chicago.Farms settled on vacant land have been popping up around the city – particularly in blighted areas.

Urban agriculture is a growing movement in Chicago to help increase access to healthy food – especially in food deserts.

Chicagoans who want to farm in the city have had to wade through a lot of red tape. There’s nothing in the city zoning code that formally recognizes urban agriculture.Advocates say vacant neighborhood land is ripe for harvesting vegetables.