Aspiring attorney presses the case for backyard farms

‘Food, more than anything else, is the string that tugs the entire world,’ she says

By Clint Talbott

Brittany Arsiniega has any number of career options. But she’s taking an earthier path: urban homesteading.

Now a law student at the University of California, Berkeley, working toward a J.D./Ph.D. in jurisprudence and social policy, she is a 2010 University of Colorado Boulder alumna, having graduated with distinction, earning a degree in international affairs (and a 4.0 grade-point average).

She could join the world of corporate law, but she pursues a particular passion: food. In addition to teaching at the college level, she hopes to be an exemplar and advocate for urban homesteading, in which city dwellers grow much of their own food.

I could be a full-time practicing attorney. I could work 80 hours a week,” she said, acknowledging her range of choices. But, “I want to have this dream of having my own urban homestead.”“Food, more than anything else, is the string that tugs the entire world.” Arsiniega hopes to pull it toward its roots.

Urban homesteads occupy small parcels of city land, “kind of like a mini farm, made to be as sustainable as possible.” She and her husband hope to have chickens, possibly goats, and “we would love someday to have a cow and a pig and a pretty sizeable garden.”

Her husband is interested in passive-solar home design, so they want to “feed off the grid as little as we could and become more self-reliant.”

Such small agricultural endeavors appeal to many people—and convey health and financial benefits—but many zoning regulations and homeowners’ associations discourage the practice.



Arsiniega notes that living close to and partly off of the land is nothing new, even in cities. During World War I and II, Americans were urged to grow “Victory Gardens” wherever they could, preserving scarce resources for the war effort and helping to ensure that Americans at home had enough to eat.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, Arsiniega’s parents tilled the land in rural Wisconsin. To the parents, such a lifestyle was a financial necessity. “But to us, it just sounds so wonderful to have fresh fruit, fresh vegetables coming from the garden.”

It’s easier to commit to an urban homestead when you have a choice, she notes. “I think that’s why we’re seeing this revolution back to urban farming, back to people who are starting to realize how meaningful it can be to grow your own food or raise your own animals.”

“I could be a full-time practicing attorney. I could work 80 hours a week,” she said, acknowledging her range of choices. But, “I want to have this dream of having my own urban homestead.”

Her desire to pursue this lifestyle is “especially acute” now that the young couple has a 4-month-old child. “I’m breast-feeding him now. When he grows up enough to eat solid food, I want him to know that if he’s eating a hamburger patty, that was first an animal. And I want him to have the connection between what corn looks like on his plate to what corn looks like growing in the field.”

Arsiniega notes that across the street from her home is undeveloped land that was the focus of a battle between the University of California, which wanted to use the parcel to build a retirement community, and a grocery store. The community, she said, “fought back,” arguing that the land would be better used as an urban farm.

“Just this summer, the farmers won,” she said. Now, about 15 acres in the middle of the city are being farmed, “and it’s just beautiful.”

Arsiniega ticks off reasons that urban homesteads are attractive. Saving money is one reason, “especially for low-income communities, in terms of how many calories you get for your dollar, fruits and vegetables are so expensive compared to the unhealthier foods.”

Processed food in the United States is tied to obesity and other health problems. “I would love to see my own family members become healthier. I would love to see diabetes within my own family disappear and obesity within my own family disappear. And I think the food system in general is failing them. To what extent I can as an academic, I would love to look at how that could change.”

She contends that people are “hoodwinked” by national food conglomerates that are “already pumping corn syrup into everything … and by the major American food companies that already control the majority of what the average, everyday American consumes.”

Most Americans don’t realize how much sugar, salt and fat they consume. “Once people realize that their obesity, their diabetes, their food cravings are derived from the 50,000 things on the shelf of the grocery store that are designed to do exactly that, I think people will work to start fighting back.”

Arsiniega’s interest in food simmered after she graduated from CU-Boulder. She moved to Colombia and translated menus from Spanish to English.

Later she joined a nine-month trek in a big, orange military-supply truck with 16 other people. The trip began in Iceland, wound through Europe and continued into Africa.

Each of the travelers cooked local food during the “wild, culinary adventure,” she recalled. When the group was in Ghana, she returned to the United States to be with her future husband, the seeds of her sustainable-agriculture work firmly sowed.

Clint Talbott is director of communications and external relations  for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.

Feb. 27, 2105