Newark’s urban agriculture movement connects local food production with placekeeping: preserving cultural identity, sustaining resident leadership, and promoting environmental resilience. Through municipal programs like Adopt-a-Lot—originally launched to transform vacant City-owned lots into productive neighborhood assets—local growers have created pathways toward community stewardship and long-term land ownership.

Urban Seeds Grow, Inc. stewards over 6,500 square feet of active growing space across its flagship sites, Eden’s Farm in the South Ward and Jannah on Grafton in the North Ward. In collaboration with partners like the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and Newark community organizations, we integrate practical conservation practices—such as drip irrigation, seasonal cover cropping, and soil health testing—to generate actionable evidence for urban growers across the region.