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Uncommon Ground: A memorial to taxpayers.....except that it is privately owned 


                        

These pictures were taken on July 27th, 2009 and show barely enough "farm" to make a salad.  On the face of the building (left) notice the half dead plants.  In the roof top planters, notice the sparse growth.  Is this really a farm? It looks like a glorified back yard garden, put together by anything but a green thumb.

Q and A With The Farm Manager

Question: I note with interest your call for volunteers to construct your rooftop "farm". I recall that your owners also received $500,000 from TIF funds to procure the building you are in. Did you also receive a grant from the city of Chicago to construct that "farm" as you call it, and if so how much was the grant? And by designating it as a farm, are you now also elibible for subsidies from the US Government Department of Agriculture? I'm also wondering: are you a not for profit organization? Are you giving away the produce that you grow to your volunteers? Or are you using free labor to increase your margins on the food items on your menu?

 

Answer: The certified organic rooftop farm is located on top of our restaurant, Uncommon Ground. All of the produce goes to the restaurant to make sure that we are using the freshest ingredients possible. We do host volunteer days, mostly out of interest from the community to be involved in the project. Being that there are not a lot of opportunities for people to experience farming at 2 stories high, it's something that gets a lot of interest and attention.

We did not receive any TIF funding to build the rooftop farm. I'm not sure where you received that information, but it's not true. We built the farm out of pocket. The grant ($20,000 according to our information) we did receive from the city is the same amount that anyone who applies for a Green Roof Grant can get, and it is very minimal. We are not a non-profit, but we are considering becoming one, mostly to expand our existing educational programming about urban agriculture. We are not eligible for subsidies from the USDA, to my knowledge, but we aren't seeking any subsidies. We do not use "free labor to increase our margins on the food items on our menu" as you put it. I am a full time paid employee and do all of the planting, maintaining and harvesting myself, along with our summer interns. We do not use volunteer help for this. However, all farms use volunteer help to do different jobs around the farm, we are not unique in that. Farms don't make a huge profit and it takes a lot to keep them running. Any urban farm is especially unique and I get a large amount of emails from people looking to help out to learn more about what it is we are doing. Natalie Pfister, Farm Manager

UNCOMMON GROUND: A PRIVATE ENTERPRISE THAT YOU HELPED FUND
Where did the money come from? Well, the owners of this so called restaurant used $500,000 of taxpayers money (through a TIF) to acquire the building they are in. From their website, you would think the extensive work they did on the building infrastructure was financed by them. In fact, it was in large part funded by you!
 
Then, this outfit created a separate corporation for the restaurant, thereby safeguarding their ownership of the building itself in case the restaurant went belly up. Thats the responsible thing to do.
 
Then they got $20,000  of taxpayers money for their farm. They didn't even pay for their sign on top of the building announcing the farm: Goose Island Brewing did.
 
It has been said that the musical acts that perform there do it own their own dime and rely on tips from those eating there. Is this the way a for profit undertaking takes care of the "people"?.
 
And despite all the public funds that have gone into this operation, the menu is still some of the most excessively expensive in the area.....for what you get. Come on, $11 for a veggie burger? Hey good samaritans: why don't you rebate some of the public monies you got through lower prices.
 
This operation must be laughing at how they are bamboozeling the public! Just read their website. Do these people use their own money for anything?