Through community, the environment and mixed greens, the Municipal Eco Resiliency Project seeks to fight gentrification and climate change by scaling farming into their very own urban backyards.
Municipal Eco Resiliency Project, or MERP, is a Portland-based environmental and urban farming cooperative committed to growing its own food in the face of climate change. MERP, founded by Yolotli X in 2021, strives for community sustenance and emphasizes power in community.
“It started as an idea (of) how to scale access of food because as workers and as climate activists, we’re dependent on the very grid system that was contrived by capitalist ownership and thievery from colonialism,” X said.
It wasn’t until 2022 that MERP really started to expand in Portland. With five member houses and more to come in the future, MERP is growing as a community.
MERP members are houses in the Portland area that are rented by someone or multiple people in the group, with crops right in their own backyard. They also serve as community meeting areas.
Steel Magnolia, the name of what is considered MERP's most popular member house, serves as the headquarters. Here, MERP hosts meetings and community events. MERP hosted its annual apple jam contest this October, which doubled as a Halloween costume contest. Members harvested over 60 pounds of apples and went through the process of creating apple jam. The apples, right from the backyards of the various houses, produced nearly 60 Mason jars of apple jam for the community to take home.
With the five houses MERP has, it actively grows food on half an acre of land. Just from the past year, MERP has harvested nearly 800 pounds of food, the most the group has seen since its start.
Houses grow foods such as apples, tomatillos, tomatoes and kale among many other fruits and vegetables. With nearly 20 active volunteers that make the organization's work possible, MERP plants, harvests and sells its goods. MERP distributes the majority of the food it harvests to its members for their food pantries, but sells some of it to other Portland libertarian socialists.
“We have had conversations to create a more organized system, but I think that's a little long-term and kind of short-minded,” X said. “We still have to build (a relationship with) volunteers who want to opt in to support that initiative. I think the best way to do that is food swaps at micro opportunities like meeting at a cafe with friends.”
With some 30 members in total, MERP hopes to make a lasting impact on the community. X hopes to get everyone involved as neighbors and volunteers of MERP. They want to be able to see every one of MERPs members be successful and create a better urban farm program that gets the community excited and allows everyone the chance to grow their own food themselves.
“In a lot of ways, urban farming is fighting gentrification, racism and food injustice — all three,” X said. “And if all three can unite, we can fight for climate justice.”
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