A model for agricultural growth
The Joint Powers Authority can do just that by reserving undeveloped land at McClellan for farms. Agriculture on McClellan would protect and improve Anniston's standard of living, traditions and health while helping our environment recover from a rough and troubled past. It would set Anniston apart as a forward-thinking model for other cities to follow. Between PCBs contamination and the chemical weapons incinerator at Bynum, the city name has been linked and sometimes interchanged with environmental risk. We say we've learned from the past. Now we have a chance to take pride in Anniston's name as a model for smart use of our natural resources. McClellan's development will sway the future of Anniston and Calhoun County. It will prove how deep those lessons have really cut. • “Food space,” as West suggested, is one possibility. Just southeast of Birmingham, developers set aside farm land before they planned housing projects. Mount Laurel farm provides produce, eggs, chicken, lamb, milk and bread for nearby residents and surrounding Birmingham neighborhoods. Birmingham's Jones Valley Urban Farm, which uses an entire city block for agriculture and gardens, is another model for including food growers in urban development. A similar plan at McClellan would expand existing markets for local farmers, create opportunity for research and education and strengthen local ties. A local, convenient food source would mean a distinct quality of life for the old guard as well as new residents on the base — and possibly motivate folks to move there in the first place. • Open land could be used for community gardens where residents can grow their food. Community gardens could offer plots for Anniston's residents to harvest, or could partner with local schools such as Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School at McClellan. For many Alabamians, “family activity” used to mean planting, hoeing, picking corn and shelling peas. Unlike soccer or ballet practice, garden projects don't use much gas or require much commuter time. Children who learn to grow food work hard and gain knowledge, physical strength and patience. The reward is sustenance for the family. Gardens also educate adults. It is critical that we rear more Americans who know how to grow food. This most basic survival skill is being phased out of our whole culture, and as it dies, we lose histories, health and self-sufficiency. Right now in Calhoun County, there is only one listed vegetable farmer below the age 40. Although Auburn University's College of Agriculture pumps out about 900 graduates a year for research and industrial agriculture, only a handful know how to grow produce. • Growing fuel is another possibility for smart land use at McClellan. If you just choked back a snicker, don't write it off so fast. The JPA, local and state administrations are exploring various ideas for the military — industrial or scientific research projects that are more complex and expensive than agricultural research, such as forensics and animal testing labs or an AgriBio research facility.
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Yet, talk of agricultural innovation in Alabama — at McClellan or elsewhere — always turns to industry or processing plants. Industry is different from agriculture. It is agriculture that has built Alabama's economy and its culture. In addition to switch grass, sunflowers, soybeans, wheat, corn or other oil-producing crops could be used to make fuel — and build on Alabama's great potential for horticulture. One acre of sunflowers produces 720 pounds of oil. A few acres could supply a demonstration farm for research and education; a mid-sized farm could supply small-scale commercial production to help supply state gas stations or municipal services. Or McClellan could be a laboratory for a self-supplying fueling station. Why not sow seeds in addition to building industry? Why not create new jobs for our farmers in addition to jobs for high-tech, high-salaried employees with Ph.D.s we will have to bring in from somewhere else? “In Calhoun County, open space is getting to be something we need to talk about,” according to Calhoun County Commissioner Robert Downing, who has built a reputation on the commission as a champion of the environment. Rural land is vanishing quickly, he said, and long-term economic development goes hand-in-hand with preserving natural resources. Agricultural projects could match up McClellan's vast open space with its seat between two strong universities. The strengths of both Auburn's research operations and Jacksonville State University's contributions to the state's environmental sciences could be harnessed. As a result, both institutions could benefit from funding and partnership opportunities. Calhoun County's agricultural heritage is more than quaint farms that are pretty to drive past. It's true that tomatoes, corn, peaches, melons, muscadines, okra, cow horn peppers, pink-eye peas and turnip greens all are part of why Alabama means home. But our local food is also about the people who grow it. Many of the county's residents grew up raising food - and still have skills and knowledge to teach. Yet it is not enough to say, “We know where we came from.” Heritage is practiced, as well as believed. It is work to maintain. Time brings changes that can alienate people, even from their own homes - and suburban sprawl is alienating many traditions, many towns and many ways of life across our nation. Worse, it's putting us at risk. New industrial and housing development devastates some of our best farmland, just as food security in our massive industrial food system is raising concerns - like spinach, mad cows, bird flu and bioterrorism. The USDA recently found unapproved, genetically modified rice contaminating our conventional supply. The FDA is about to approve the sale of meat and milk from cloned cows - without the labels that tell us what's what. Eventually, food safety will be a question as urgent as fuel. No one expects industry and housing development on Fort McClellan to screech to a halt. But we must find ways to integrate farming into new urban development - an idea practiced by cities around the world. There is enough space on McClellan - 45,679 acres of it - to consider food space, small farms, community gardens and biofuel - all viable options for land use. If our future is truly about “development,” we must carefully consider the definition of that word. Vision works forwards as well as backwards. Urban development is already upon Anniston - although some of it yet cannot be seen. A new Interstate 20 bypass, Atlanta's trickling-in and competition with Oxford will all make demands on McClellan's open land - and change the face of Calhoun County. Before selling off to highest bidders, let us consider that fertile land, skillful hands and the daily bread they produce come before all other human needs - and are not to be taken for granted.
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