A local farm harvesting a big award. City Roots earning the 2010 Downtown Pinnacle award from the International Downtown Association. More than 600 cities were in the running for the prestigious award.
"We're a new project, and they recognize community building, leadership kind of urban development," says Farm Manager Eric McClam. "They were really kind of blown away with City Roots and the kind of community we built around the farm here."
City Roots is Columbia's first urban sustainable farm. It grows everything from lettuce to turnips, even fish are harvested.
"We have free range chickens, not just for the eggs but for the fact they add fertility to the soil," says McClam We have bees not only for honey, but for pollination, we have a large scale composting operation in which we've probably diverted 30 to 40 tons of waste that would have gone into the city's dump."
City Roots sells its edibles to restaurants, supermarkets and the general public.
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