How Does Your Garden Grow?
Dear Leading Ladies,
Though the solutions to climate change require major disruptions in the current operations of large industry, our individual actions can still have positive effects on our personal and shared quality of life.
As we celebrate Earth Month 2021, we turn our sights to community and family gardens.
“…these gardens help fight the problems of poor nutrition and obesity that plague poor urban areas…”
In urban areas, community gardens provide particular benefits for residents. For instance, according to Katie DeMuro writing for Greenleaf Communities, “they help improve air and soil quality; increase biodiversity of plants and animals; reduce ‘food miles’ that are required to transport nutritious food;” and can improve water quality, reduce neighborhood waste through composting, and “positively impact the urban microclimate.” In addition, these gardens help fight the problems of poor nutrition and obesity that plague poor urban areas while they increase access to fresh foods, improve food security, and encourage physical activity, says DeMuro.
Image by Elaine Casap via Unsplash.com
Beyond these benefits to health, well-being, and the environment, De Muro cites other social and economic impacts that can be cultivated with urban gardens.
Because they correlate with decreased crime rates, urban gardens can help to mitigate the detrimental health impacts (cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders) of living in a high crime area.
When vacant lots—which are associated with lower property values, drug use, and illegal dumping—are used to grow nutritious crops instead, the whole community benefits. In Philadelphia’s New Kensington neighborhood, for example, improving vacant lots led to a 30 percent increase in property values.
Urban gardens can teach tangible job skills: agriculture and land use; business, marketing and merchandising; nutrition and food preparation.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention The Food Project, a Massachusetts-based initiative that combines elements of community gardening and small farming. Operating in various urban and rural areas, The Food Project stewards more than “70 acres of land on urban and suburban farms across eastern Massachusetts” and builds “gardens to ensure that anyone who wants to grow their own food has access to non-toxic growing space.” Every year, “The Food Project hires 120 teens, grows 200,000 lbs. of food, and donates more than 180,000 servings of fresh produce to hunger relief organizations across eastern Massachusetts.”
Those of us who live in suburban or rural areas and seek options other than those offered by The Food Project have many opportunities to plant our own gardens, participate in community gardens, buy a share in a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA), or buy from farmers markets. The benefits can be improved health, safer food, saving money, better tasting meals, and helping the environment.
“Growing your own vegetables helps the environment in at least a couple of ways,” according to Professor Leonard Perry at the University of Vermont. “Non-local but domestic produce we buy in stores travels an average 1500 miles or more. Produce from other countries obviously travels even farther. This shipping and transport burns fossil fuels, which produces greenhouse gases that increase global warming”
“Non-local but domestic produce we buy in stores travels an average 1500 miles or more…”
To put it another way, “This large-scale, long-distance transportation of food relies heavily on the energy from burning fossil fuels. In fact, it is estimated that we currently put nearly 10 kilo calories of fossil fuel energy into our food system for every one kilo-calorie of energy we get as food,” according to onegreenplanet.org. “So buying local, or growing your own produce, reduces these effects,” Perry explains.
“Another environmental benefit from your own production is the ability to produce relatively small amounts, with little or no pesticides and synthetic chemicals,” says Perry. “Farms, even small ones, often use these with some ending up staying in soils or washing into waterways. Even organic farms often use plastics and fossil fuels for tractors, items you can avoid in a small home garden. If you can't produce some or all the vegetables you'd like, at least buying locally and organically will have better environmental and economic impacts.” For those who can’t plant their own gardens, Perry suggests going to communitygarden.org to find a community garden near you.
As we celebrate the Earth this month, let’s reduce our carbon footprint by making tracks in our own backyards, a local community garden, or organic CSA instead.
This week we suggest you watch:
Detroit: Urban Farming Documentary on YouTube
For more ideas for things to attend, watch, hear, and read, go to our Facebook and Instagram pages.
We love to hear from you. Please send us your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions to ladies@leadingladiesvote.org.
Be well, stay safe, keep your hope springing.
Therese
Judy
Mary
Beth
Leading Ladies Executive Team
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org
leadingladiesvote.org