ABSTRACT
The following dialogue chapter was developed from an interview with Matthew Moore from October 2013 by Alexandra R. Toland. For the purpose of this book, new questions were added and addressed to Brent Clothier, who, with the insight and experience of a soil scientist, reflects on many of the topics of scale and social pressures of farming brought up by Moore. Since the time of the interview, the digital farm collective Moore speaks about has evolved into a farm-to-table hospitality business that partners with city parks. The group has created one- to two-acre urban farming education centers in and around Phoenix, Arizona, with restaurants that pay for these activities and deliver meals at an affordable price for local communities. In both Moore's and Clothier's work, the question of scale is key—under the pressures of climate change and increased urbanization, innovative solutions are needed to “scale-up” food production and create systems of value that honor the services of the soil rather than its speculative yield.
