Every winter, Cultivate KC convenes local and regional farmers and food activists to connect, converse, and contribute ideas regarding issues affecting our city’s urban farming community. For the past 21 years, the Annual Farmers and Friends Meeting has acted as a mid-winter check-in of sorts. We get together, we talk, we eat, we dream, and we plan. There’s equal parts reflection, forecasting, and whimsy.  

This year, the planning team had many in-depth conversations about what the urban farming community might need from the Annual Farmers & Friends Meeting in 2026. These conversations always seemed to circle back to the theme of Growing in Community. To us, this means building strong neighborhood, city, and bi-state relationships. It means taking care of one another and seeing one another as people worthy of support. It also means having hard conversations and acknowledging the sometimes harsh reality that farming is difficult, time-consuming, often joyous, and always necessary work. 

For the past few years, we have produced a zine to accompany this event. This complimentary document served as a more in-depth look at the things that make the growing community in KC amazing. This year, we thought we might expand on this artifact by utilizing the technology available to us. Hence, this webzine. Some of it will be similar to past issues- there are recipes and art, flyers and essays. But some of it will feel new, leaning into the multimedia capabilities afforded us by the internet. Videos (which we are particularly proud of) take a prominent place. As does music. We tried to strike a balance between giving readers some practical information, while also taking some time to be silly wherever possible. Silliness is a crucial part of community building, in my humble opinion.  

So enough of my ramblings. Use this document however suits you best. We worked hard on it and are proud of it. A huge shoutout to Jessica Garcia on the Cultivate KC staff for taking the lead. And to all who submitted or participated in these submissions. 

I, for one, very much enjoy how it turned out. I hope you will too,

Eric Hemphill 

Metro Farms and Food Systems Program Manager –  Cultivate KC  

Land Acknowledgement

This land on which we gather, live, learn and grow is located in the heart of Kansas City’s Midtown, which has been home to some of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods since the 1920’s, providing a wide variety of venues for housing, entertainment, and social engagement. But the human history of this land goes back at least 10,000 years before that. Many people have stewarded this land, including the people of the Hopewell exchange in ancient times, and more recently the Kaw, Kickapoo, Oceti Sakowin, and Osage peoples. Many Native peoples who lived east of this land–including the Sauk and Fox, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee, Shawnee, and Wyandot peoples—passed through here when they were displaced from their homes by colonialist forces that continue to this day.

Today, there are four federally recognized tribes in the Kansas City area: 

The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska

The Kansas Kickapoo Tribe

The Prairie Band of Potawatomie

and the Sac and Fox Tribe of Missouri in Kansas, and Nebraska

All these peoples are the past, present, and future of this land. We know this in part because of the excellent work done by local organizations like the Indigenous Community Center in Lawrence, KS, and the KC Indian Center here in Kansas City. We offer this acknowledgment with presence and awareness, and pay our respects to our ancestors and elders.

Scientific papers have been published as far back as 1990 on the effects of sound on plants. One paper from 2014 suggests that particular sound waves greatly increased the yields of test horticultural crops. Evidence exists to support that vibrations similar to those created by chewing creatures will elicit a defense response in plants.

Yet, before this field of study began to be explored, Mort Garth created an album for plant listening. Whether this album has any effect, positive or negative, on plants, I don’t know.

But regardless, it’s a playful look into the mid-70s and their GROOVY perception of plants.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility.

It’s easy to say “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.”

Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

-Mr. Rogers

Howdy,

I wanted to take a minute, as we approach the end of our Webzine experience, to thank all of the heroes who see the needs in their community and respond every day. Through the process of planning our Annual Farmers & Friends Meeting and the Webzine, I have had the opportunity to connect with folks in their excitement, joy, and struggle as they try to feed their neighbors and strengthen their community, and I can honestly say that I’m blown away by their fighting spirit when things get dark….

Growing a community is a responsibility. This is our neighborhood, our city, our world, and we should be proud of the work we have done while recognizing how far we have to go. I hope that both the Webzine and the Farmers & Friends Meeting have reinvigorated your resolve to continue learning, caring, and growing your community, while offering a little fun along the way! 

Now go forth into the world! Be the helpers that Mr. Rogers looked to in the darkest times!

Your Friend,

Jessica Garcia

-Public Education Specialist, Cultivate KC

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