A farmer gets a 90-day notice from the city to relocate his #farm to somewhere else. A farm in which he has already poured a decade’s worth of hard work and commitment. How justified is that? Farms feed us and provide a wealth of other public benefits, such as reducing pesticide use, decreasing soil erosion, recycling animal wastes back into the farm, and lowering the leaching of nitrates into ground and surface water.

Until recently, the City of Phoenix had its eye on Crooked Sky Farms, a 40-acre tract of farmland that offers organic produce to the area. The city council intended to install a water treatment plant on that land. Farmer Frank Martin was not at all happy about this plan, and he expressed real distress about the future of his family business. "To move a farm, it’s just horrible," Martin said. "To pick up everything, move over, and start a new crop. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights and my stomach is in knots."

Martin was only given a 90-day notice... is that all the government should have to do? Martin does not own the farm, he leases it and has been doing so for more than 10 years. The son of a native farmer immigrant, Martin owns Crooked Sky Farms- an organic produce booth at Gilbert Farmers Market. His farm has been providing food for the locals in Arizona and has been addressing the “food access” challenge during the COVID19 pandemic.

How fair is it for the government to produce a notice for the farm to be moved? It’s a farm and not a pizza parlor for God’s sake. The most surprising point of this whole affair is the government was not even in charge of the land, nor had they ever possessed it! Michael Hammett, who was the Chief Service Officer for the City of Phoenix at the time, confirmed that the city does not own the land, but was trying to purchase it from the current landowner. 

So, the government didn’t own the land and Martin couldn’t afford to buy that piece of land. But hey, the government was generous enough to bear the expenses of relocating the farm. How considerate! Will they also pay for all the nutrients the farmer put in the ground over the years? Well, no, I suppose they won't. "All the fertilization and building up the ground we did here, and they’re just going to make a sewer treatment plant that does not have much need in that,” Martin said.

The question once again rears its ugly head – how can the government send Martin a notice without owning the property? 

Farmers do not stand alone, they are intertwined with the community and have been supporting and serving each other for centuries. The same can be said for Martin. His farm and his organic produce shop isn’t just an asset, it’s a source of food for the area, for hospitals nearby, for hotels and restaurants, and more importantly, a source of livelihood for Martin and his 14 employees. Where would these people go? 

And not just that, Crooked Sky Farms also provides fruits and vegetables to families in Tucson and metro Phoenix through CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscriptions, food banks, farmers' markets, and nonprofit organizations.

But the city of Phoenix is fast-growing and too busy to take these kinds of facts into consideration. They are focused on forecasting the future population’s need for a water sewage plant. Who cares about a farmer and his produce. Well, the locals do. And so do the two organizations that worked with Martin in the past. The Joy Bus and Pinnacle Prevention are two nonprofits that spoke up for Martin and wanted his farm to stay. This organization promotes access to healthy food and realizes why the farm is more important than the water treatment plant.

They got their way this time, and Phoenix is no longer trying to buy the land on which Crooked Sky Farms operates. What about next time though, or the time after that? This needs to stop or we will run out of farms entirely.

Arizona is quickly losing viable farmland, and the loss of Crooked Sky Farms would have been destructive to the farming population. The relocation of farmland for city resources is an absurd idea and a very unwise move. We need to stand with farmers like Martin and support organic farming. The city can find another plot of land for its water treatment.