Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Caitlyn Galloway weeds a test plot at the urban farm in the Mission District that she leases with her partner Brooke Budner on Aug. 11, 2010

The simple act of growing and selling food in cities is often held up by complicated tangles of red tape.  

In Oakland, author and urban farmer Novella Carpenter is facing fines from the city for selling rabbit meat and growing vegetables without a permit. 

A similar situation transpired in San Francisco last year when the two women behind Little City Gardens tried to sell their famous spicy salad mix on the up and up. They found that it was actually illegal to sell the greens they grow on a small plot of land in the Outer Mission without a permit that is expensive and time-consuming to acquire.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, inspired by Little City Gardens, passed new laws for urban farming in the city that make it easier for backyard gardeners to sell their produce.

The legislation enshrines “urban farming” in San Francisco’s zoning code. It allows for small-scale farms, less than an acre, to exist in any part of the city. The small farms are also allowed to sell their produce on-site. Bigger farms must go through a more rigorous permitting process. 

The changes come as urban farming and the eat-local movement have exploded. Experts say that that the existing zoning codes are still stuck in a time when agriculture was frowned on in cities and especially in residential neighborhoods.

Similar changes are also on their way in Berkeley, where backyard gardener Sophie Hahn famously told The Bay Citizen that it was easier to grow and sell marijuana than vegetables in Berkeley.

Little City Gardens was started on a small plot of land in the Mission by Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway. They were known for selling their salad mix to the upscale Bar Tartine and for tramping through the Mission District covered in dirt.

They moved to a larger plot in the Outer Mission with a simple quest. Budner, a part-time illustrator, and Galloway wanted to make an experiment of their venture: Could they — or anyone for that matter — actually make a living as urban farmers?

“In the last couple of years, there’s been huge jazz around urban agriculture,” Galloway told The Bay Citizen last fall. “A lot of projects seem symbolic or temporary, and I’m excited about celebrating those, but we wanted to do something that makes farming a permanent part of the city.”