Advancing access and sustainability of local food systems.
Regenerative and Controlled Environment agriculture have converged to offer communities a resilient solution for growing fresh local foods. The combination of these sustainable crop production strategies allows us to develop thriving gardens, equitable food access, and healthy communities.
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Our mission is to build and support economies by unlocking the value of community green spaces. We do this by growing genuine partnerships with our stakeholders, community partners and members, employees, vendors, and ecosystem.
OUR STORY
The Urban Farming Initiative started as a passion project in 2020 led by Kevin Mackey and a collective of Cincinnati community members looking to adapt underutilized urban spaces and commercial warehouses with indoor agriculture. As an early research effort, Mackey formalized the business when going through the Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub’s Sustainable Cincy program that year.
After a few additional years of research and honing the business model while running other companies, the new vision of the Urban Farming Initiative was taken forward by co-founders Kevin Mackey and Ben Booker in 2024 with the mission to galvanize local economies around urban farming. We do this by providing a farming-as-a-service capability in which we design, install, maintain, and connect communities at urban farms with raised bed and hoop house gardens, controlled environment shipping container farming units, and composting and recycling centers. We power our efforts through our technology platform, the Urban Farm Network.
Kevin Mackey, Co-founder and Board President, is an experienced entrepreneur and operator who has been building businesses and communities in the Cincinnati ecosystem since 2008. His combined businesses have raised more than $100MM in equity and debt capital. As a multiple time founder and executive, Mackey also has deep experience hiring, building, and coaching high performing teams. Besides the Urban Farming Initiative, Kevin’s other companies of note have included Coterie Insurance, and Halcyon Salsa, which was founded in 2018, headquartered out of the Incubator Kitchen Collective in Northern Kentucky, and sold out of nine different markets in the Greater Cincinnati area.
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Ben Booker, Co-founder and Executive Director, is a 2024 UC graduate with degrees and certifications in Finance, Real Estate, and Urban Agriculture. He has 3+ years of experience as a sustainable development and higher education non-profit founder and community leader. During which he managed and executed projects and programs with public and private partnerships and strategies. Ben has been dedicated to developing sustainable and equitable urban agriculture for 5+ years. He started farming as a volunteer in highschool and college, which grew into leadership roles in the design, implementation, optimization, and growth of urban agriculture and sustainable food programs at the UC Horticulture Department, UC Bearcat Pantry & Resource Center, UC Office of Sustainability, and 80 Acres Farms. During this time he helped research, write, and review urban agriculture grants in excess of $1M. In addition to his working experiences he has been conducting research and visiting urban agriculture operations across the United States and globe for 5+ years.