bigcitysmalltown<\/a>, host Cory Ames interviewed Hagney, a big proponent of combining agriculture and environmental sustainability efforts to \u201ccross-cut\u201d benefits. <\/p>\n<\/p>\nOperating since 2012, the farming programs was initially set up to make sure the food bank had a steady supply of produce, Hagney said. It\u2019s slowly transformed into a way for the city\u2019s residents to \u201cconnect\u201d with agriculture. <\/p>\n
The food bank\u2019s farmland is split between two locations: 25 acres at the food bank\u2019s Westside headquarters and 50 acres attached to Mission San Juan on the South Side. Hagney said the land has its own advantages and challenges. <\/p>\n
Summers in San Antonio are very hot, making it difficult to produce goods like tomatoes. In some parts, the soil is also very thin, especially when farther from rivers and other water sources. On the other hand, Hagney explained, winters are very productive since temperatures don\u2019t drop too much too often. <\/p>\n
San Antonio winters are especially productive for crops like cabbages, brassicas and root vegetables. <\/p>\n
Keeping sustainability and future food needs in mind, Hagney\u2019s team implements several strategies to keep the land fertile and keep a solid baseline of food production. The food bank rotates crops, deals with weeds mechanically instead of chemically and plants crops that come naturally to the regions like nopales and figs.<\/p>\n
The farming team also plans their planting on perennial timelines instead of seasonal timelines. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to think long-term,\u201d Hagney said. \u201cIt\u2019s not to just extract as much as we can for this season, but to make sure that we\u2019re sowing the seeds and increasing the fertility of the ground to protect the food supply as we move forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside of the food bank\u2019s own farming efforts, Hagney has ideas outlining how local governments and residents can contribute to environmental sustainability and food security. <\/p>\n
A study by the food bank found that the city owns about 16,000 acres of viable land for agriculture. Hagney also suggested planting trees that can tolerate floods, like pecans and figs, in designated flood planes instead of residential and commercial development.<\/p>\n
Urban agriculture can\u2019t solve the hunger problem, Hagney said, but it can establish a baseline volume of food while providing environmental benefits. <\/p>\n
On a cultural level, Hagney said residents should consider buying and consuming foods that are more resilient to the region\u2019s environment, shifting the culinary scene and prioritizing locally grown crops. San Antonio should take advantage of its proximity to Mexican and indigenous culture, he added, letting it influence the way people eat. <\/p>\n
To improve San Antonio\u2019s agriculture scene, Hagney said the region needs more farmers, more protections for farmlands against residential and commercial efforts and shifted culinary practices. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything about agriculture in the region can be better,\u201d he said. \u201cIt requires changing what\u2019s on our plate. It requires us thinking seasonally, and it requires thinking about agriculture as land use with other aspects.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local food supply chains fluctuate with changes in climate and international affairs. The San Antonio Food Bank is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":284026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[2906,5229,11884,146384,12833,146385,7202,14063,7203,358,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,146386,68,2969,7819],"class_list":{"0":"post-284025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-agriculture","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-bigcitysmalltown","11":"tag-environment-sustainability","12":"tag-farming","13":"tag-mitch-hagney","14":"tag-san-antonio","15":"tag-san-antonio-food-bank","16":"tag-sanantonio","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-typedaily","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-urban-agriculture","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-wc-500-750"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115333072557229013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}