-
Pray and Grow Rich
May 16, 2013 | 63 comments
-
Ruthie’s Way
May 2, 2013 | 6 comments
-
A Free and Indivisible Union
April 25, 2013 | 70 comments
-
Revoke Obama’s Peace Prize
April 18, 2013 | 80 comments
-
What the New Atheists Ignore
April 11, 2013 | 103 comments
The Nation's Pulse
God’s Quarter Acre
On the burgeoning urban “farming” movement.
One hears much these days of the Urban Farming Movement. One almost expects to glimpse a combine harvester winding down South Broadway or hear a milch cow lowing in a misty alley. But so far, with the exception of a few speckled hens and one ornery rooster in the backyard of an immigrant Haitian family, urban livestock, to say nothing of winter wheat, has been a scarce commodity.
I suppose what is meant by urban farming is just old-fashioned city gardening, and anything with the old fashioned label pegged to it is by definition a good thing. However, in these days of hyper-inflation in everything from grades to gas prices, a Garden-Variety Garden will not do. Hence, the hyperbolic, and mildly insulting name “urban farm.” Katherine Dalton put it best:
The word “farming” means something, and its meaning is not “gardening,” and it’s not “puttering,” and it’s not “edible landscaping.” As small farm advocate Mary Berry Smith likes to emphasize, farming must mean (among many other obvious things, like real work) putting equity at risk…. Urban farming also implies the idea — unproven and unlikely — that we can feed ourselves in the city from city ground, and don’t need to worry about our rural neighbors’ employment, small towns with dead economies, and leaching topsoil.
In other words, just because you know how to apply a bandage to a paper cut does not give you the right to call yourself a trauma surgeon.
Gardening, wherever done, remains chiefly a pleasant, middle-class preoccupation. This is unfortunate, especially these days when local school districts are being ordered to feed poor students three squares a day, presumably because families cannot afford to. In much of the world, gardens are not merely hobbies for the bourgeoisie, they are a way of life, perhaps even a matter of life… or death. But then in much of the world, people practice self-sufficiency and have a healthy fear of the government and its goon squads.
Probably the most well-known self-proclaimed urban agronomist is former professional basketball star Will Allen. Allen, whose parents were South Carolina sharecroppers, left a lucrative marketing job at Procter & Gamble and purchased a foreclosed nursery and 100-acre farm outside Milwaukee. With the help of a MacArthur Fellowship (you heard right, a pro basketball player won a Genius Award), Allen founded Growing Power, Inc., an “urban farming” project that teaches inner-city residents to grow vegetables and such. Says Allen: “It will be an irony, certainly, but a sweet one, if millions of African-Americans whose grandparents left the farms of the South for the factories of the North, only to see those factories close, should now find fulfillment in learning once again to live close to the soil and to the food it gives to all of us.”
IRONY, NOTHING. It will be a miracle, though one devoutly to be wished. One hurdle would-be green-thumbs face is the lack of land. Few of the urban poor own property. Programs like St. Louis’ Gateway Greening try to address this by helping connect residents with garden space, much of it leased from the city’s swollen Land Reutilization Authority (the LRA has more than 8,000 lots), though so far the program has been mostly adopted by — you guessed it — middle-class hipsters and urban pioneers. And even these so-called “community gardens” must be gated and fenced in, which would seem to defeat the whole purpose of a “community” garden. But, in the main, Gateway Greening and other community food projects are merely educational, working to involve poor children in “garden-based education.” Last count, there were more than 60 school gardens in the St. Louis area. If nothing else, students learn that food comes from seeds that somebody must plant in the soil, and does not appear fully-formed through a fast food drive-through window.
Here in the city, the wife and I have a few tomato vines and some edible landscape blooming in our (likely) lead-contaminated soil. We probably do not even rate the distinction of gardener, let alone farmer. We do try to support our local growers, however, by purchasing our fruits and vegetables at the gritty old Soulard Farmer’s Market (“a St. Louis tradition since 1779”), though few of the produce vendors there are actual farmers. Most vendors are urbanites who simply buy leftover produce on the cheap from a nearby wholesale market. This allows them to undercut the real farmers, who, because of this practice, no longer bother attending the market.
But all is not doom and gloom. There is, after all, a burgeoning Urban Farming Movement. I mean urban gardening.
Yes, there is that.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Christopher Orlet
More Articles From The Nation's Pulse
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/04/12/gods-quarter-acre
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Jack in Wi.| 4.12.12 @ 7:45AM
I have been into urban gardening my whole life. My parents and grandparents had gardens, and my children are into it as well. It is great relaxation and the vegtables taste great too. One of the best things you can do for your kids is have a garden, and put them to work, helping you maintain it.
Teaghan| 4.12.12 @ 9:24AM
Growing your own benefits your health as well. The fresh fruits and veges we buy at the local supermarket are depleted of any real nutrients due to over farming. The soil is giving us food with not much in it.
We keep a small garden on our 5 acres to feed us through the summer and fall. Need to try winter crops this year. Chickens are next.
I like this program though for the sake of children learning where food comes from.
Harry the Horrible| 4.12.12 @ 10:50AM
Darn. I need to figure out how to follow your example.
Problem is, I like books and hate gardening...
potkas7| 4.12.12 @ 11:37AM
Me too. But I did come across a book - Mel Batholomew's "Square Foot Garrdening" - that introduced a gardening regime I figured I could follow without sacrificing too much reading time. So a few years ago I built some 4X4 boxes, mixed up some artificial soil, and now each year I grow some tomatoes and vegetables that I both eat and share with the neighbors and some friends. Yes, it may in the end be cheaper to buy the stuff at Publix, but I do know my home-gown tomatoes taste a whole lot better than those little red Florida stones they sell at the supermarket. And I get a bit of exercise cultivating and dragging the watering-hose around the yard.
Harry the Horrible| 4.12.12 @ 12:23PM
Thanks!
Had a copy sent to my Kindle...
Appleby| 4.12.12 @ 8:13AM
We had gardens at home, and there is nothing to beat butter-and-sugar sweet corn fifteen minutes from the garden to the table. Most of the corn that is sold in markets is what we called "field corn" and we would not touch it any more than we'd drink pasteurized milk until forced to do so at school.
We have community gardening in "allotments" at High Park, Toronto's biggest city park; although the "farmers' market" has been closed down, presumably due to lack of interest, we have several outfits that will deliver fresh veg to your front door that are grown there and elsewhere.
I don't care about gardening myself, but it's a good way to teach kids that food from the garden is a whole lot different from what your supermarket sells.
Chalkdust| 4.12.12 @ 8:24AM
Here's what I know about the "urban gardening" craze. It has helped drive the cost of seeds and vegetable set (tomato, peppers, cabbage, etc.) through the roof. It's now cheaper to buy a head of cabbage than the cabbage sets. But isn't that the way of all crazes. Take the Obama craze. It's now more lucrative to go on welfare, sign up for unemployment checks and tend an "urban garden" than find a job and go to work.
tdiinva| 4.12.12 @ 8:38AM
Mr. Orlet:
You seem not to know much about real hyperinflation. So far inflation isn't anywhere near 1978-80 levels.
Bob K.| 4.12.12 @ 9:52AM
You can grow an awful lot of stuff on 2 acres and sustain yourself throughout the year on it. But you also need some Chickens, some fruit trees, berry bushes and a Roto Tiller. And you have to be able to can the surplus for use in the winter. And someone still needs to work to purchase staples like Flour, Sugar, Peanut Butter, Dried Beans, canned salmon, sardines, cheese, margarine and the like. That is how myself, my 2 brothers, parents and grandmother lived in the 1950's.
Cromulent| 4.12.12 @ 10:49AM
Better yet you can live a longer and healthier life if you skip the flour. Margarine too.
Bob K.| 4.12.12 @ 6:43PM
We would have eaten butter if we could have afforded it. And there was no way we could avoid eating bread (made out of Cere Sota unbleached flour) which my mom made and sold all over the neighborhood, including to the man who ran one of the most exclusive "speak easy" restaurants in the area. And we also needed it to put the Peanut Butter on.
You must not have had much fun as a kid!
Peppermint Tea| 4.12.12 @ 10:09AM
Christopher, sorry to hear about the loss of a real farmers market in St. Lou. Demand needs to increase before it will be lucrative for some of us farmers to spend the time and travel expense to set up a booth in the city and sell our produce. Economies of scale always kill us little guys.
Will Flynn | 4.12.12 @ 12:46PM
Visit the City Seeds Urban Farm run by Gateway Greening to see a functioning farm right here in St. Louis. It's the farm in the picture at the top of this article.
Slacker| 4.12.12 @ 1:47PM
I grow almost all my own veggies. It is fun. All fun stuff costs money.
Any respectable urban gardener needs a roto tiller and a substantial collection of hand tools and gadgets. One must construct planters, fences, trellises, and an automatic irrigation system. One (hopefully) needs a giant pressure cooker and a numerous ball jars. I nearly forgot about the vacuum bagger, extra freezer, grow lights, and suppressed pellet gun.
I have not saved a nickel. It is like hunting. Always need a new gun or gadget and the elk burger approaches the cost of Kobe beef.
Cost aside, I don’t think the inner city demographic has much use for gardens because they hardly cook. They eat mostly pre-prepared foods. What use is a garden if you don’t cook from scratch?
cicero| 4.12.12 @ 2:08PM
I have been home gardening for over 40 years, having been taught the fine points by my Italian immigrant uncle Frank. Most of my kids indulge in same to one degree or another. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew that 10 acres would support a family nicely. In my case, a 20ft by 20ft plot works fine. I can get enough veggies to fill the late summer and fall months, and with a freezer, have enough to last almost through to planting time. The food is good, and gives you the feeling that you are saving some money. The exercise and the mental relaxation is a bonus, or maybe the chief benefit. In addition, teaching the grandkids how to get muddy without being scolded is worth the price of admission.
cicero| 4.12.12 @ 2:10PM
Forgot a point: Unban gardening in places like Detroit will never work. Once the theives figure out that they can get money for produce, no tomatoe or beet will be safe. They will steal it before the farmer gets to it.
Pat| 4.12.12 @ 9:13PM
Cicero, How true you think and write. The Corn Bangers-62 street gang in Detroit will be the death knell for “Imported from Detroit” tomatoes and fresh sweet corn. And most of these urban thugs were formerly Copper Wire Devils-47 members who earned their livings stripping copper wire from abandoned buildings around Detroit, not exempting the empty school buildings owned by the city.
From experience, law-abiding Detroit residents know any good thing they attempt to create will be vandalized, stolen or urinated on in short order. So, neat rows of corn growing in former backyards on the east side adjacent to the river or cherry orchards blooming among west of Woodward Ave. neighborhoods are a sweet dream, but one never to be realized.
Some Detroit politicians have urged fellow Detroiters to take up urban farming in a big way. When they learned the federal government provides millions in crop subsidies for doing absolutely nothing with the land it seemed like a perfect occupation for Detroiters. And there is no shortage of unused land both behind and in front of the thousands of vacant homes within the Motor City. In a different vein, filming apocalypse movies is another use for Detroit given the surreal landscape of deserted homes, abandoned cars and shadowy figures occupying doorways.
Or a series of Hobbitt movies: The Hobbitt, Return of the Hobbitt, My Favorite Hobbitt, etc. It seems wild vegetation has taken over and turned many abandoned Detroit homes into weird Hobbitt dwellings straight out of Return of the King. Many homes are now overgrown with leaves, weeds and tree branches, leaving only a partially covered door and one uncovered and forlorn front window. They’re so bizarre in appearance their pictures are popping up on the internet for viewers’ amazed inspection.
Sugartown Super| 4.12.12 @ 2:24PM
We presently farm 300 acres 25 miles out of center city Philadelphia - the reason farmer's markets died in the cities is the cost and difficulty in moving one's produce into the city. We have a farm stand / pick-you-own business which thrives and supports our family. The death tax will take this from us when the time comes [land being taxed for estate purposes at its highest value, which is development, not farming] but for the moment we far. Farming is to derive one's livelihood from the land; everything else is gardening.
Bob K.| 4.12.12 @ 6:53PM
All the bastards who argue either for or against the "Death Tax" have to do is to agree to exempt the first $50 Million dollars or so of an estate from inheritance taxes and we could keep most of our valuable farm land, like we have in Lancaster County, in farming if there were Farm Easements like there are Conservation Easements restricting the use specifically to farming.
Occam's Tool| 4.12.12 @ 8:13PM
There's a reason I live in rural areas...
Richard Baker| 4.13.12 @ 2:45PM
Detroit should be the haven for this type of farming, then. The numerous square miles that have been cleared within the city limits should offer a bonanza. That is if you could stay alive what with the gangs and ghetto dwellers out and about. Don't think that the "citizens" of the city will be tilling the soil.