A new Chicago start-up hopes to fill up the city’s food deserts with a new approach—and with sound policy.

As the economy struggles to rebound and the foreclosure crisis takes its toll on American cities, vacant land and abandoned buildings continue to abound. For America’s once-great manufacturing cities, the impact has been even greater as metropolitan areas throughout the Midwest struggle to find an identity in a post-industrial world. In the article “Can cities become self-reliant in food?” Sharanbir Grewal and Parwinder Grewal suggest that urban agriculture may provide a solution to both of these woes.