5 Urban Farms Reshaping the Food World in New Orleans

When a city is as food-obsessed as New Orleans, it's natural that urban farming would go high-profile, too. And just as the city has more in its culinary repertoire than red beans and rice, its efforts to grow food boast a richer history than is apparent at first glance. 

Community gardens first took root here in the 1980s, spurred by economic decline that saw oil companies moving operations to Houston. Those gardens numbered more than 150 at their peak—and nearly all of them were used to grow food, says Jean Fahr, executive director of Parkway Partners, the nonprofit that coordinated those efforts. As in most cities, development pressures in the 1990s gobbled up much of that land; but here, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina more than tripled the number of vacant lots, which now number 66,000. 

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