The Urban Food Park isn't an attraction reliant upon manipulative gimmicks or cartoonish renderings to sell what they are growing. Emmanuel Roux's organic project incorporates the natural world into its design. Swarms of honey bees, pale yellow baby carrots and lush sprouts will ornament the park. The indelible perfume of gardenia and oak will tantalize your senses upon entry.

The mission of this Urban Park concept is to reconnect the community with the source of their food. This project tasks itself with introducing citizens to sustainable methods of preserving natural resources. The park will address economic issues through action. With demonstrations about community food production in urban and suburban settings, visitors will leave with information they can put into practice at home.

Urban Food Park aims to be an educational and entertainment outlet for people of all ages. Within the park will be a Fresh Local Market. The market will act as a retail outlet for the products grown by up and coming businesses involved in the "food business incubator." The market will organize itself as a co-op to allow members to capitalize on the successes of their combined efforts.

An Artisan Cafe in the park, which seats 40, will serve the fresh grown food from the park along with organic coffees and teas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Local Food Market Cafe will be accessible to the public daily, without touring the whole complex. A pavillion acting as a menagerie will harbor birds, bees and small insects for visitors to observe.

The vision is a 14-acre food-centered theme park attraction. If you'd like to see this Utopia come to life in the Burg, you can donate here.

*Photo via Urban Food Project

From Urban Food Park: "Diabetes and obesity are two chronic diseases affecting health in our community. Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower-extremity amputations and blindness among adults aged 20 to 74. 65% of adults are obese; 1 out of 3 children is at an unhealthy weight. In 2007, less than 22% of high school students and only 24% of adults reported eating 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day." These conditions and habits stem from a lack of education about basic nutrition and a lack of economic and local access to fresh foods.

Speculation for the park's location in St. Pete points toward the open lots in Midtown. The inclusion of the theme park into the Midtown area could mean economic development for the surrounding restaurants/markets if they were to become partners in the farm-to-fork movement. Help the Urban Food Project help you. You can find more information by visiting their official website or their facebook page. 

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