San Marcos City Council’s sustainability committee is moving forward with an idea that could create more local organic urban farm production.
At Council’s Tuesday night meeting the sustainability committee, comprised of Councilmember Mark Rockeymoore, Councilmember Joca Marquez and Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Prewitt, presented their goal: to enhance urban agriculture in San Marcos.
Prewitt said the idea came when talks about the SMART terminal began, as agricultural land on the east side of San Marcos is set to become increasingly developed.
“We find value in healthy, rich soils that can be used to nourish our communities with healthy produce and we want to find a way to promote small urban farming,” Prewitt said. “Right now we don’t have a policy in place, we don’t have an ordinance in place.”
One of the reasons a plan of this nature is necessary is the changing climate, according to Rockeymoore.
“Climate change is going to be something that we have to take into consideration in pretty much every aspect of what we do moving forward and anything that we can do in order to alleviate some of these issues,” he said.
Marquez noted that urban agriculture can play a role in the social inclusion of marginalized groups.
“We really need to rethink the ways we produce food,” Marquez said. “Every single council meeting we have a new development brought to us, so that reduces really the amount of available space we have for farming and food production.”
Prewitt brought up the enhancement of the local economy that can occur through small, local farms.
“It also brings in other sustainable businesses to the area,” she said. “You can bring in rainwater collection companies that will come and help sustain these urban farms. There’s a great opportunity to partner with Texas State University with their compost programs … and just keeping our money local, having people growing their produce here, selling it, purchasing it. The money stays within our community if not within our region.”
After the presentation, Council expressed support for the sustainability committee to work to produce an ordinance or plan that would require a certain percentage of industrial and commercial land development be placed in a land bank for local urban farm production.
Staff and Council agreed that money allocated for special travel funds could be used to pay an individual to help create the framework for the plan.
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