Updated 09/01/2009 01:10 PM
A "Truck Farm" Grows In Brooklyn
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Many people believe it is important to "eat locally" to help boost healthy food choices, but two Brooklyn urban farmers have literally hopped on the bandwagon. NY1's Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.A vegetable garden grows in Brooklyn, but it's being hauled around in the back of an old 1986 Dodge Ram pickup. The plant-laden truck, called "Truck Farm," only gets about 12 miles to the gallon, but now it is providing its own kind of fuel.
"Truck Farm" is the brain child of Brooklyn residents Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, two documentary filmmakers who graduated from Yale.
"We think Truck Farm may be the last great hope for Detroit," says Ellis. "The big three automakers are hurting and I think the answer might be to come up with the greenest car of all for their next design, which is a car with a garden in the bed."
Part-public arts project, part-community food source and part-educational tool, the two urban farmers planted their first crop of vegetables in the truck bed in May and are simultaneously working on a short film about their mobile harvest.
Joining the local foods movement, they say the goal is to help demonstrate the healthy benefits of being able to plant and grow one's own food and to prove it can be done anywhere.
"We've noticed neighborhoods all across New York City, many of them have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. And we see the sky rocketing rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes," says Ellis. It seems like part of what we need to do to fix the problem is to get more fresh, healthy food available to people."
The old truck inherited from Cheney's grandfather that used to cart futons around in their college days now sprouts lettuce, arugula, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes and more.
"The first tomato of the season was actually plucked by the guy pumping gas down by the [Brooklyn-Queens Expressway], and he said it tasted pretty good," says Cheney. "I think for the most part Truck Farm helps people pause and think, "Where might I be able to grow food?"
Since May, Ellis and Cheney have harvested more than two full shopping carts of produce. They also shot time-lapse video that shows the progress of their crops. Most of their harvest has wound up on the plates of community members who pay for the vegetables ahead of time.
Onlookers can't help but give it a stamp of approval.
"It's different, it's a truck with a garden inside of it - real fruits, real tomatoes. I think it's nice," said a neighbor.
Truck Farm roams the streets of Park Slope or Red Hook, Brooklyn.