On
an average-looking street next to a park in the West End of Pittsburgh,
a red door stands.  This would not ordinarily be a source of interest,
but this door is not surrounded by walls, nor does it lead into a house. 
It is merely a frame and a front door standing alone, and it leads not
into a comfortable living room, but into a small member-owner farm.

The
owner of the property, who lives in the house in front of the small
farm, approached Jeff Newman of Steel City Soils about setting up a
member-owner farm. In March, the land behind the house was simply a
lawn.  Today, the sod has been torn up and composted, and the yard
is planted with peppers, tomatoes, cabbages, peas, radishes, and other
produce.

“We
want more people to get rid of their lawns and eat their backyards,”
said Newman, whose truck sports an “Eat Your Backyard” sticker. 
The member-owner setup of the farm means that Newman does maintenance
work on the farm and consults with the owner, who pays the upfront costs. 
They share the produce.

Newman,
who graduated from college in 2006, actually studied electrical engineering. 
When he and his roommate wanted to go into business together, their
first thought was electronics, not agriculture.  However, when
they looked at long-term trends, they found that the best option was,
as he put it, “investing in soil.”  Newman quit his job and
walked through that old red door and into the composting business. 
He now drives a truck that runs on vegetable oil that he uses to pick
up waste from restaurants that he can compost.  “The backbone
of organics is in the compost,” Newman said.

He
also pointed out that composting is a way to make money in order to
support this type of urban farming.  One of the biggest problems
in getting people involved in the urban agriculture movement is convincing
them that it can be profitable.  “It’s really hard to make
money farming or else people would do it,” Newman said.

One
difficulty, he said, is that organic gardens and farms don’t take
off right away.  Just putting up a red door doesn’t mean that
it will lead to anything.  They take a few years to build up, and
that process can be frustrating.  At the moment, Newman is merely
eating his portion of the produce.  The homeowner, a chef with
In Good Taste Productions, takes his produce to work.  The ultimate
goal is to get together enough small farms like this one that a CSA
(Community-Supported Agriculture) can be formed.  The basic idea
of a CSA is that members pledge support and pay a fee that helps cover
farm costs and the farmer’s salary.  In return, the members get
a share of the produce.  Because the establishment of a CSA would
require more produce than Newman can obtain from his small plot, he
hopes to get other small urban farms involved.

The
greatest obstacle to urban farming is the perception that building apartments,
houses or offices is a more valid and effective way to use vacant urban
land.  Newman hopes that that perception can be changed. 
“Once you can make it fashionable, everyone will do it,” he said. 
Just as an old house door can become a garden entrance, what was once
a vacant lot can be a productive urban farm, and a young entrepreneur
can develop a profitable business providing healthy, locally produced
food.