Ground Broken for Seattle's Ambitious Food Forest Project

Plans are now finalized, and ground has been broken, in a 3 year old project to turn an seven acre lot in Seattle into a “food forest” for everyone to use. And when it’s complete, the Beacon Food Forest will be the largest such public food source in the United States. In a food forest, everything from the tree canopy to the roots is edible or useful in some way.

The entire project will be built around the concept of permaculture — an ecological design system, philosophy, and set of ethics and principles used to create perennial, self-sustaining landscapes and settlements that build ecological knowledge and skills in communities. There are many issues ti be resolved to make the project successful and sustainable. NPR's recent story on the forest has already sparked nearly 100 comments.

Seattle’s Mayor and city council have established urban agriculture as a priority, with council passing the Local Food Action Initiative, a series of actions meant to promote local and regional food sustainability and security.

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