Atlanta’s Urban Farms Are Revitalizing the City’s Lost Green Space

For years, Atlanta has touted the title of a “city in a forest” with its metro skyline dotted with trees and expansive green spaces. These days, a walk down the Beltline or a glimpse at the skyline reveals a view interrupted by towering construction cranes. The rapid commercial growth is taking greenery — and potentially Atlanta’s nickname, with it.

A recent report from the City of Atlanta Arborist Division shows that the city’s urban tree coverage has steadily declined over the past decade, with a study by Georgia Tech researchers revealing that Atlanta’s tree canopy shrinks by nearly half an acre daily. The City of Atlanta Arborist Division found that close to 24,000 trees were removed or slated for removal from June 2021 to 2022, a drastic increase from 19,000 from the year prior. As of 2023, the Atlanta City Council responded with approved legislation to achieve and maintain a 50 percent tree canopy in the area.

While Atlanta continues to lose tree coverage, the changes to the local ecosystem have empowered numerous urban farms to crop up. Atlanta is home to over 150 gardens and around 50 produce farms. From eliminating food deserts to supplying fresh produce to local restaurants, these urban farms are strengthening communities with work opportunities and farming education — like teaching residents how to foster apartment rooftop plots to growing plants in plastic yogurt containers.

Farming for local community and restaurants

Gaia Gardens is a community fixture of five acres belonging to East Lake Commons that allows urban farmers to learn about and grow produce. Judith Winfrey, owner and worker at Love is Love Cooperative Farm is part of a team that leased the space for 11 years and established themselves in Atlanta as fixtures in the community.

“Gaia Gardens offers land and infrastructure including equipment required for a farm to operate which can be expensive,” Winfrey says. “Turning greenspace is more than willing hands, it’s support with the right equipment.”

Love is Love expanded into a larger space in Newton County, serving more than 450 Atlanta-area families through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. This summer they supplied fresh, seasonal produce to Atlanta institutions including Chai Pani, Lucian Books and Wine, the Daily Chew, Little Bear, Talat Market, Miller Union, Kimball House, Wrecking Bar, Poco Loco, Farm Burger, El Ponce, Staplehouse, St. Cecilia, and Little Sparrow.

Now, Gaia Gardens is cultivated by Stephanie Simmons, a farmer who worked with Love is Love and created PolyCulture Production. Her farm also offers a CSA program. She hopes to offer more community farming education, a gardening fitness membership, and school field trip programs.

Turning cityscapes into gardens

Atlanta farmers are creative in adapting to urban spaces — take the Five Points Farm, a Community Garden, part of the AgLanta Grows-A-Lot program. Before construction in 2024, the MARTA’s Five Points Station’s rooftop was lined with plots. When the garden relocated, Jim Hackler and his team repurposed an abandoned parking lot into a sprawling garden on Forsyth Street, established a pollinator garden at the Atlanta Underground, and a rooftop irrigation garden on top of the Kessler City Lofts building.

Jim Hackler/Avery Centrella

“Our members live and work in metro Atlanta, so these spaces serve as their backyard gardens,” Hackler says. “It’s collaborative. We’ve got plenty of produce growing, the growers share their harvest, and are happy to look after the other plots when others can’t.”

Fresh produce in Atlanta food deserts

Metro Atlanta Urban Farm’s Bobby Wilson used his retirement savings to purchase five acres in the College Park neighborhood which he revitalized and cultivated to provide fresh produce to hundreds of marginalized and underserved Atlantans. The seasonal harvests are affordable, fresh, and free of pesticides. This fall, they’re harvesting basil, oregano, rosemary, broccoli, kale, turnip roots, and collards.

Atlanta’s Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill was the first of its kind for the metro area, integrating farming into the Browns Mill neighborhood, where access to fresh, affordable, healthy food choices was a 30-minute drive away for residents. With a grant from the U.S. Forest Service and the support of the city of Atlanta, the Conservation Fund, and Trees Atlanta, the farm provides over seven acres of seasonal nuts, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms for community members. Visitors are welcome to the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill and are encouraged to explore the orchard and the mushroom walk.

Over a decade ago, Jamila “Farmer J” Norman created an organic farm on Atlanta’s Historic West End called Patchwork City Farms. Crowned with accreditations from Farm to Table, Slow Food, and Sustainable Agricultural movements, the farm expanded and relocated to the Oakland neighborhood. While running the farm, Jamila founded and now leads South West Atlanta Growers Cooperative (SWAG Coop), a coalition of black urban farmers maintaining and enriching the local food system. This autumn, seasonal vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers are available at farmer’s markets in the Atlanta area and through their pre-ordered produce option called the Weekly Seasonal Farm Shop.

Is Atlanta’s future green?

Atlanta’s depleting greenspace worries Atlanta’s City Council and residents, but it has only fueled the creativity and support of the city’s urban farms. Thanks to the abundance of dedicated farmers, food deserts have greater access to fresh and affordable produce, city dwellers can easily learn how to make the most of their urban gardens, and Atlanta’s restaurants can work with seasonal, local produce. It’s the effort of such farms that keeps the city’s foodways fresh and seasonal.