Before it became home to hundreds of start-up and global technology companies, Silicon Valley was once known as “Valley of Heart's Delight”. With its rich soil and perfect climate, this was a valley that was known for its agriculture, which is of course a far cry from its present day claim to fame. These conflicting roles of global tech versus a rich agrarian heritage have created a void in the Valley and beyond to access both dependable and consistent healthy foods.
Cue a rewind to three years ago when I received a pivotal phone call from Zach Lewis, who was at the time a student at San Jose State. In the course of our initial conversation, Zach informed me that he was actively in the process of looking for vacant parcels within the downtown area. He was in search of these parcels because he was quite eager to create a sustainable local food system, one that would not only produce a significant agricultural output but would also build a sense of community. Establishing a system of urban farming was his primary objective. To say the least I was pretty intrigued by the entire concept he had laid out for me.
In working closely with Zach to help him achieve his outlined goals, we found that most of the parcels were either owned by the city or developers. The city had too many layers to get through, and there was little incentive for a developer to lease their land to us for farming purposes in the midst of an area dominated by tech giants and startups. Why would any developers of note even bother to give us the time of day! Well, as equal parts fate and circumstance would have it, Zach was also the lead policy writer for AB 551, which is perhaps more commonly known as the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act. This policy in force would mean that landowners can receive a tax incentive if an active urban agriculture project is taking place on their property.
Armed with this literal ace up our sleeve, we first approached Barry Swenson Builder, one of the top real estate development and construction firms in Northern California for over 100 years. I have worked with BSB for many years, so because of this business connection Barry Swenson himself was generous enough to take a meeting with us. After only about 15 minutes of negotiations, Barry allowed us to lease one of his parcels. In the 11 months since that lease first began, we’ve transformed a vacant one-acre lot into a productive farm with 7,000 square feet of raised beds, five green houses, a chicken coop, and aquaponics. Our farm now acts as an educational hub for community members to learn about and interact with food through classroom field trips, hands-on gardening, cooking, and nutrition classes. Fortunately for us, and specifically Zach’s vision, Barry likewise had the vision and commitment to his community to allow us to achieve all of this.
I have been on the board of directors for two years now and couldn’t be more proud of all that our collective has accomplished. Watching firsthand Zach’s vision go from proposed scenario to wholly realized working concept has been such a personal reward for me on so many levels. My children think of the farm as a second home and eat vegetables straight off the plants. “Valley of the Heart’s Delight” indeed.
