The Future of Sustainable Food: Are we on the Edge of a New Era?

Following a huge grassroots effort to get a victory garden reestablished on the White House lawn, Michelle Obama made it official last week: an organic kitchen garden is now in progress near the fountain on the South Lawn. As we had hoped, Mrs. Obama is helping to elevate awareness of healthy, locally and sustainably grown food. So, does that mean that sustainable food revolution is about to sweep the country?

During World War II, victory gardens became a necessity as the government rationed foods like sugar, cheese and meats and labor and transportation shortages affected the ability to harvest and transport fruits and vegetables to markets. The government asked citizens to shoulder some of the burden of food production, and what resulted was a nation where nearly every yard supplied fresh produce. But, it didn’t last. Once the war was over, we went back to our lawns.

The importance of sustainable food can’t be overstated. Our food system is a mess. The vast majority of the foods we consume are grown thousands of miles away from our homes with liberal use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, processed heavily and then shipped to our local supermarkets. It’s hard to even tell where the foods we eat come from anymore. We’re so far removed from the source of our food, it’s really kind of disturbing. Children hardly even realize that food comes from nature, as opposed to the store down the street.

Food recalls are becoming more and more commonplace as farms and processing centers cut corners and fail to properly oversee operations. Contamination is widespread and has reached stomach-turning heights in recent years. Most of what’s found in grocery stores is loaded with empty calories, preservatives, sodium and fat. Conventional farming practices are robbing our soil and our food of nutrients, polluting our waterways and causing vast oxygen-deprived ‘dead zones’ in our oceans.

People are beginning to realize the value of authentic food – thanks in large part to a receptive First Lady and skyrocketing interest in the green, eco-friendly lifestyle – but making the dream of a sustainable food revolution into reality on a nationwide scale is a gargantuan task, and one that may still take many years to be fully realized.

Advocates of conventional agriculture – including, naturally, the powerful National Corn Growers Association – are pushing back, arguing that organic farming can’t provide enough food because yields tend to be lower.

From The New York Times:

“We think there’s a place for organic, but don’t think we can feed ourselves and the world with organic,” says Rick Tolman, chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association. “It’s not as productive, more labor-intensive and tends to be more expensive.”

Although some people argue that there are hidden costs to cheap food, from environmental damage caused by factory farms and fertilizer runoff to the health costs associated with eating highly processed, calorie-laden food, the fact remains that commercially produced food is relatively inexpensive.

As the Obama administration took over in January, many advocates of organic, sustainable food had hoped to see an ally appointed as secretary of agriculture and were angry at the appointment of Tom Vilsack, who has been called a Monsanto shill. Obama’s choice to put Vilsack in charge of the USDA was seen as a devastating blow to the movement.

From Counterpunch:

“Vilsack’s nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration,” said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association. “Our nation’s future depends on crafting a forward-thinking strategy to promote organic and sustainable food and farming, and address the related crises of climate change, diminishing energy supplies, deteriorating public health, and economic depression.”

Vilsack has taken to fighting that perception, turning a patch of pavement outside his headquarters into a “people’s garden” and claiming sustainable food as one of his main priorities. Among his stated goals are improving the quality of children’s school lunches, helping small farms develop regional distribution networks and overhauling agriculture and food policy to place an emphasis on nutrition and fighting climate change.

Sustainable food activists are wary, and take Vilsack’s statements with a grain of salt given his past, but they’re still hopeful that sweeping changes in the way things are done could push local and sustainable food into the mainstream.

Still, even the most ardent of sustainable food advocates warn that the movement isn’t ready for its closeup. Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and supporter of diversified, regional food networks, told The New York Times “The movement is not ready for prime time. It’s not like we have an infrastructure with legislation ready to go.”

But, momentum is building all the same, and across the country, thousands of people are turning back to that World War II-era tradition of growing their own food. This time, there’s even more at stake – so we’ve got to make sustainable food a reality. Luckily, our fortunes have changed dramatically since the Bush administration left office with its collective tail between its legs. We’ve got friends in powerful places – even Oprah is speaking out for sustainable food.

So, what can you do to help? For starters, consider following Michelle Obama’s example and plant a kitchen garden, start some potted herbs and veggies on your balcony or even take over an abandoned lot. Learn more about growing your own food no matter where you live with our guide to urban gardening, and get more info about the sustainable food movement at SustainableTable.org.

Link [The New York Times] + [CounterPunch]

Photo credit: Slow Food Nation & The Huffington Post

Urban Gardening: You Can Grow Food, No Matter Where You Live

(image via: Flickr user iamterris)

Gardening is regaining popularity as a pastime for all types of people across the world, with gardens popping up in the most unexpected places. While the traditional image of a garden may not exactly fit into the reality of most urban environments, the fact is you can grow your own food whether you live on a rural farm or in a tiny Manhattan apartment. Urban gardening is all about using space wisely to regain a closer connection with your food and beautify your home or neighborhood.

There are a handful of different types of urban gardens, and the ones we’re going to focus on here are indoor gardening, container gardening, community gardening and guerilla gardening.  Perhaps you’ve got a tiny townhouse yard, a balcony, a south-facing window – or perhaps you live in a basement apartment that won’t support anything but mold. You can still grow enough of your own food to save a considerable amount of money and enjoy the freshest, healthiest produce possible.

Container Gardening – Growing Food on a Small Scale

(images via: Technology for the Poor)

Container gardening allows urban residents with small yards, patios or balconies to grow practically any plants in practically any container that will hold soil. One of the most fun parts of growing food in containers is that you can get incredibly creative with coming up with new uses for old junk. Wine barrels, used tires, feed sacks, kiddie pools, buckets, leaky watering cans and even shoes are among the items intrepid container gardeners use – and that’s just the beginning. You can also build your own self-watering containers, as illustrated in the video below.

(images via: PathtoFreedom.com)

Raised beds make a great alternative to containers and allow you to grow a lot more. Like containers, they can be placed on hard surfaces like concrete slabs or rooftops and are great for smallish spaces or yards where the soil quality isn’t so great. Raised beds are freestanding structures typically made from wood, stone or concrete that are filled with soil and compost. Most often, they’re constructed of planks of wood screwed or nailed together in sizes typically ranging from 3’ x 8’ to 5’ x 20’ and are between 8” to 3 feet in height. They keep soil warmer, provide better drainage and require less maintenance than traditional gardens.

For amazing eye candy, inspiration, tips and info about growing food in raised beds on a small lot, check out the journal at PathtoFreedom.com. ‘Path to Freedom’ is the urban homestead of the Dervaes family, who grow almost all of their own food – plus enough to sell to local restaurants – on just 1/10th of an acre. They also raise goats, chickens and ducks, keep bees, brew their own biodiesel and basically live as self-sufficiently as possible on their tiny parcel of land in Pasadena, California.

Beginners and experienced urban gardeners alike will also enjoy FreedomGardens.org, an online social community of gardening enthusiasts “digging their way to a free and secure food future”.

Indoor Gardening – Apartment Dwellers Can Grow Food, Too!

(image via: Flickr user ramsey everydaypants)

Okay, so growing pumpkins, corn or zucchini indoors probably isn’t all that feasible. But, any window that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day can support leaf crops like lettuce, endive and arugula as well as small-crop tomatoes, peppers, root crops and even bush beans.

Growing vegetables indoors requires different soil requirements, watering, pollination, and pest control techniques than doing so outdoors. You must also consider things like air circulation and ambient temperature. You may need supplemental lighting – cheap shop lights from the hardware store work just as well as expensive grow lights.

If you’re a total novice and growing veggies in your kitchen window seems intimidating, try herbs first. Chives, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro, peppermint and rosemary are among the herbs that do well indoors and they’ll add lots of fresh, pesticide-free flavor to your meals.

For tips on indoor gardening, including planting requirements, potting media, how to hand-pollinate with artist brushes and which varieties will be most successful, check out GardenGal.net and this article by the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Community Gardening – Rent a Plot in Your Neighborhood

(image via: Flickr user jeffschuler)

If you don’t have any space at all to grow plants, community gardening may be your best bet. Most cities have some kind of community garden program, where residents can rent a plot of land for a nominal fee (it’s even free in some places). There are an estimated 10,000 community gardens in the U.S. alone, allowing people who don’t have land of their own or who simply want the community experience to grow food, relieve stress, connect with the environment and interact with other members of the community.

In community gardens, residents share the responsibility of maintaining and managing the garden. Some community gardens are communal instead of divvying up land between members, so everyone shares in each others’ efforts.

To find out if your city has a community garden or to start one, check out the American Community Gardening Association.

Guerilla Gardening – Who Cares if it’s Someone Else’s Land?

(images via: Flickr user ubrayj02)

For those with no access to land at all, or people who would just prefer to put their efforts into beautifying forgotten public spaces, guerilla gardening will satisfy your impulse to dig in the dirt. Guerilla gardening is planting vegetables, fruit, herbs or any other plants in land that’s not yours – whether it’s a vacant lot, a park, a median, the side of the highway or those sad little strips of dirt between streets and parking lots.

Also called ‘pirate gardening’, the essential goal of guerilla gardening is to improve public spaces and make sure perfectly good land doesn’t go to waste. Some guerilla gardeners surreptitiously sow and tend patches of vegetables or flower gardens under the cloak of night, ready to run for it if cops or the property owners appear. Others get permission from landowners or the city and openly garden in spaces that aren’t technically theirs.

There are lots of different ways to guerilla garden. Some people secretly plant food – like strawberries, melons, zucchini or tomatoes – among ornamental plants in city-tended gardens. Some take over vacant lots altogether, or simply throw ‘seed bombs’ anywhere that plants could potentially take hold. Seed bombs are little balls of soil, clay and seeds – check out our video below to learn how to make them yourself.

GuerillaGardening.org is a great resource for anyone interested in greening up their neighborhood on the sly. Get tips, see photos of guerilla gardens around the world and meet fellow guerilla gardening enthusiasts in your area.

Help Convince the Obamas to Turn the White House into an Organic Farm

A campaign called Eat the View is urging the Obamas to replant a large organic Victory Garden on the White House lawn. The food would go to the White House kitchen and to local food pantries, and serve as inspiration for all Americans to grow some of their own food. Check out this video, Garden of Eatin’, to learn more about the history of ‘America’s Garden’ and why we should revisit this idea.

So, how can you help? We’re glad you asked! Go to Eat the View and sign the White House Food Garden Petition, which states in part:

We, the undersigned, are petitioning President-elect Obama to plant a large organic food garden or Victory Garden on the First Lawn with the produce going to the White House kitchen and local food pantries. The White House is “America’s House” and should serve as a model at a time of economic and environmental crisis. President-elect Obama would not be breaking with tradition, but returning to it (the White House has had food gardens before) and leading by personal example on global challenges such as food security, climate change, and energy independence.

It’s time that we take back the land and use it more wisely – no more wasting space and water on useless lawns. The White House could set an example for the entire country and provide food for needy Washington DC communities. It just makes sense!

Link [Eat the View] via [Green Upgrader]

San Francisco Scrambling to Prevent Victory Garden from Becoming One Big Toilet

The victory garden currently growing in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza was meant as a celebration of local food, planted over the summer as part of the privately sponsored “Slow Food Nation” festival. The garden, which is home to a variety of herbs and veggies, is prized enough by Mayor Gavin Newsom that he decided to pay thousands of dollars a week for security to keep vagrants and drunks from using it as a toilet. Unfortunately, that’s not working out too well.

From SF Gate:

Once the food fest ended in late August, however, the mayor decided to keep the garden going. His office contracted with Jeff Gutierrez Security, a local outfit, to keep an eye on the pea patch from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m.

“If they don’t have security, it will become a toilet,” said one city gardener who was planting a fresh bed of marigolds in the plaza the other day.

Newsom initially planned to keep the garden as part of his drive to turn the Civic Center into a model of green sustainability. But Ballard said it soon became apparent that it “was imprudent to sustain security at that level.”

Now, the garden is set to come out in December. And three weeks ago – after trimming back the level of protection – the security price dropped to about $2,200 a week.

Who wants some tomatoes that smell and taste vaguely of human waste? Yum, yum. It’s a shame that they can’t keep this going, because we’d really love to see more examples of victory gardens in cities across the nation. Call me crazy, but it sounds like some public restrooms are in order. Although I suppose that still wouldn’t stop the dude who just drank seven Jack & Cokes from deciding to unload his burden in the basil.

Link [SF Gate]
Photo credit: Ads of the World