I have to admit, being a St. Louisan, that I am addicted to St. Louis sports like many people are. Anything Cardinals, Blues, or SLU related, I have to know what it is going on and I want all of them to win championships every year. It is nothing new to draw the conclusion that St. Louis is a sports town. But after listening to a local sports radio station, I have become more in tuned with how this city is perceived.

From the beginning of human settlement, towns and villages have adopted an identity from what they do well, or do lot of. Whether it is rich culture (tourism), fishing, car/plane industry, manufacturing, retail, tech, information (Hollywood), health care, major league sports, or farming, you can mention any major city or town and link the previous industries to said city or town. This then forms a identity to the rest of the country and world at large.

After having many conversations with my father about major industries abandoning St. Louis as their hub, I begin to wonder if there is an identity for St. Louis. Two things come immediately to mind, Monsanto and sports. Monsanto isn't the most popular around the world, and they tend to cause reactions that in my opinion are bigger than their actions. However, Monsanto and Ag science is still one of, and if not the only, major industry that makes St. Louis their home. I can think of three more major industries that carry a big stick in this town but lack the impact of a Monsanto. Those three are health care, education, and major league sports.

After the departure of major airline hubs, corporate headquarters, and I suppose the Rams, St. Louis still needs an identity that can turn heads across generations. An identity that someone from another city or country would say, "I heard about that, that's going to make a difference".

I want to use this blog to identify a new industry that has been picking up steam in St. Louis, modern agriculture. It is coined as modern because it is agriculture for our current time and the future. Just like a dandelion flower jetting out between the distorted cracks of what was a concrete membrane sealing us off from nature, St. Louis is slowly regenerating itself. Slowly, steadily, and under the radar, St. Louis has been accomplishing things that otherwise would garner national attention in other cities.

Just from what I have heard of, volunteered for, worked with, or have a connection to, people are doing some amazing things in this city. To name a few:

Earth Dance Organic Farm and Farm School

Urban Harvest, St. Louis Food Roof

Straw Hat Aquaponics

Real Earth Design, Permaculture Design

Grow Exhibit, St. Louis Science Center

Local Harvest Grocery Store

Good Life Growing

Urban Buds, Urban Farm

Seed Geeks, Heirloom Seeds

Gateway Greening

Hosco Foods

New Roots Urban Farm

The International Institute

St. Louis Food Policy Coalition

Missouri Coalition for the Environment

LifeBridge Farms

Bailey's Restaurants' gardens

Vin De Set Restaurant gardens

The Green Dinning Alliance

Please comment and let me know who I left out!

It is more than likely that if you ask someone who is from St. Louis or from a 100 mile radius of St. Louis, farming was or still is somehow apart of their family's history. I can attest to that because all sides of my family were farmers. Not all of them farmed in the St. Louis area but some definitely did. I feel a movement happening back to what made this area of the world so great: farming.

Not just farming though, modern farming. Farming for the times we are living in now. Aquaponics, hydroponics, small scale, medium scale, hoop houses and raised beds, soil remediation, mushrooms, permaculture, composting, food forests, orchards, vertical growing, community building, local food shed, restaurants serving local foods, these are the elements that are forming the new identity for St. Louis.

Cheers,

Drew Hundelt