Data Explorer Hub Lets Public Contribute Information About Urban Agriculture Sites Across the City; Data Will Help Inform Urban Agriculture Policy Initiatives
January 16, 2025
CONTACT: Kimberly Winston, [email protected], 917-853-6832
NEW YORK – As part of its endeavor to build new metrics for the urban agriculture sector and to share data to demonstrate its impact, the Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture (MOUA) is announcing the release of the MOUA Urban Agriculture Data Explorer Hub, a free, public interactive mapping tool and dashboard. Launched during a demonstration at the first-ever NYC Urban Agriculture Data Convening at Pier 57 in Manhattan, the Urban Agriculture Data Explorer Hub allows users to explore and contribute information about urban agriculture sites across New York City. Nearly 3,000 farms and gardens have already been identified in the data map and dashboard.
“Historically, there hasn’t been a system for ensuring there’s comprehensive data collection and reporting when it comes to the city’s urban agriculture landscape,” said Mayor’s Office of Urban Agriculture Executive Director Qiana Mickie. “We wanted to design a data collection strategy that would give New Yorkers access to relevant and updated urban agriculture information. This means more residents will be aware of the breadth of farms and gardens in the city and critical activities happening at these sites such as reducing food insecurity, strengthening community engagement, and providing educational programming available to all. Having more of this information available in one hub means it can also better inform our upcoming policy initiatives.”
“Urban agriculture means increasing healthy food production, growing business opportunities for emerging entrepreneurs, and creating more accessible spaces of wellness for families across New York,” said Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. “Better data can help us increase these vital growing greenspaces like school gardens and urban farms while we also democratize data – a key principle of environmental justice.”
The NYC Urban Agriculture Data Convening brought together urban growers, land stewards, advocates, students, researchers, and other stakeholders. MOUA reported on its historic progress to gather data, support data innovation, and increase equitable access to information. Panelists included Kwesi Joseph, Urban Garden Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY; Ranya Perez Santana, Project Member, Farming Concrete; Kenneth Reginald Otero-Walker, Biocultural Diversity Collections Project Manager, The New York Botanical Garden; and Nathan Hunter, Foodway Coordinator, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. They covered the range of urban agriculture in New York City: climate, food, and other relevant data; future opportunities for data gathering; and the role of community-based research and accessibility.
The mapping tool uses existing datasets for school gardens, urban farms, and community gardens and will include other datasets in the future. MOUA will continue to engage stakeholders in the coming year to help inform its urban agriculture data effort, from collection to publishing, through varied community engagement activities.