Blooming Land Values are Tough on ATL's Urban Farmers

The celebrated vegetable beds of Old Fourth Ward's Truly Living Well garden, which occupy valuable acreage between downtown and Boulevard, will soon be replaced by something else—likely large-scale development. As Creative Loafing reports, the five-year-old farm isn't the only urban source of local, fresh produce to lose its lease on life as the real estate market blossoms (the smaller East Lake Urban Garden was recently uprooted, too). Urban farming exploded in Atlanta during the recession "because it was an efficient use of underused land and helped provide local, organic food to areas in need," as CL writes. "But farmers often lease the land where the crops are grown. And when people with bucks and bulldozers come along, the farms are faced with finding a new place to plant." Sometimes, as with TLW in the O4W, more is lost than a source of kale and cabbage. Its founder describes the garden as a true neighborhood amenity and classroom under the sun.