Cornell Cooperative Extension Oneida County (CCEOC) has established
the Oneida County Urban Farm Learning Lab which is
located in the retired Railway Express Agency (REA) wing at historic Union
Station, in Utica, NY.
The Learning Lab has become an experiential training
facility for aspiring urban farmers who face business start-up barriers and
limited resources. Through the completion of the six-week aspiring farmers have
a better understanding to help manage their business risks in the areas of
production, market development, and business/financial planning. In addition,
we have assisted aspiring farmers in locating potential growing space, access
to capital, and other resources.
Overall, we had twenty-three individuals that participated
during the ’21 and ’22 summer growing seasons. Participants worked in
teams in this experimental training facility, learning to cultivate and harvest
products. This allowed them to have hands-on experience and to learn some of the
challenges that might happen in their urban growing settings (i.e., aphides and
water conditions in an indoor growing system).
Education and training provided individuals with business
planning and risk reduction in a workshop, focus-discussion groups, and
hands-on participation in growing vegetables, herbs, and food items. Without
the learning lab programming, these aspiring urban farmers would not have the
ability to access this information.
Through grant funding received from the Northeast Extension
Risk Management Education Center (NERME) and a facility-use partnership with
Oneida County, the Urban Farm Learning Lab was established in 2021 and
successfully offered two years of free public programming to Oneida County
Residents.