Urban farms find success amid ongoing drought, extreme heat in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO – Jeremiah Slavit’s garage isn’t filled with any vehicles, tools, or holiday decorations. Instead, it’s filled with thousands of microgreens.
“It all started with a tray of radish and a tray of broccoli,” Slavit said. “It kind of grew from there.”
Microgreens are the shoots of salad vegetables.
Slavit owns San Antonio Microgreens, selling greens to more than a hundred people on a regular basis.
San Antonio Microgreens is an urban farm — a form of agriculture where production and distribution happen in a city or town.
Slavit said he sees this as the future of farming.
“Two ounces of this broccoli is the nutritional equivalent of 40 heads of broccoli from the store,” Slavit said. “You can run a whole farm that can feed a couple of hundred people with less than it would take to do an extra shower.”
This style of farming has grown by more than 30% over the last 30 years in the United States.
With ongoing drought and extreme heat in Texas, Gary Joiner, the director of communications for the Texas Farm Bureau, said this could be the future.
“We are very vulnerable,” Joiner said. “There’s room really for all sizes of farms and ranch in Texas agriculture.”
These farms are both indoors and outdoors.
Stephen Lucke, the founder of Gardopia Gardens, said his garden harvests fresh food and a sense of community.
“We’re creating a really sustainable community,” Lucke said. “That’s just one of the realities of living in south central Texas that you just have to adapt to.”
