Sunday, April 1, 2012
For Schoolyard Gardens, a Global Network
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/a-global-network-for-schoolyard-gardens/
Cities and towns are defined as "food deserts" if they do not have supermarkets and do have toxic soil. The Hunters Point district of San Francisco has been defined as a food desert, but has been getting help to combat this problem from the Edible Schoolyard Project. This project was designed to educate students on growing, cooking, and eating their own sustainable food. The goal is to integrate food education into school curriculum just as physical fitness education has been. The Edible Schoolyard Project has just launched a social media site that makes all of their resources public. The site is all encompassing for people who want to start their own project, and it offers tips and lessons from other schools that have already implemented a similar project. If a school is having financial problems with starting their own project, they can come to this website to search for help from the founders of the ESP. The founders can even offer specialized programs for different regions of the United States. For example, those students in Hunters Point cannot use the soil that they already have, and must use raised garden beds, while students in the Adirondack Mountains of New York are learning to shear sheep.
The site has seen huge success, and so has the ESP. There are 160 participating schools, and they are all over the world. An interesting point to note is that environmental groups have been late in supporting this project, according to the founders. People must realize that how the world grows food must be part of the environmental conversation, since it truly has an impact on the soil, air, and water.
I think the Edible Schoolyard Project is a really important initiative. It truly brings environmental justice to those places who simply do not have the option to eat healthily. Something that stuck out to me in this article was a quote from a girl who is participating in the Hunters Point garden project. She said "When I’m not here, it’s back to eating fast food.” When this girl is not spending time working in the school's garden, she must resort to fast food. Expanding the Schoolyard project to something that is community wide could really help many more people who must eat fast food on a daily basis. By putting time into the garden, they see the benefits first hand of what they plant in the ground and what they feed their bodies.
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I really enjoyed this article as it showcased a very unique spin on sustainable living. While some projects offer only long-term rewards and expensive upfront prices, the schoolyard project seems manageable and very tangible for everyone to get involved in. Not only are we teaching the youth from a young age the importance of sustainable living, but this is a project that touches on many other issues, such as education and healthy eating and living. It seems that the potential for benefits is endless and I would very much enjoy shearing sheep at school.
ReplyDeleteThis is an uplifting initiative. I am glad to hear about a program that is dedicated to educating young people how to maintain a start-up garden and live sustainably. I believe that these efforts are the beginning of what eventually might turn in to a sort of necessity. As the world becomes more dependant on mass-produced crops and processed foods into the future and as land and water resources become increasingly limited, those that have mastered the art of sustainable living will have a competitive and healthy advantage. I think that these skills are just as important as physical education, and will become even more so in the future. This initiative also provides a sense of empowerment to those that previously had little or no access to healthy food options. I wish I knew how to start and maintain my own garden. I hope to learn one day.
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ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible initiative. Twist's comments highlight an important reality we will all soon face: the globalized food market is unsustainable and unhealthy. We've surpassed the bell curve of Hubbert's peak and fossil fuel prices are rising quicker than one can say climate change. The energy costs of producing and transporting mass produced food commodities and dispersing them across our growing population requires petroleum based fertilizers, pesticides, and gasoline that we simply will not have. In light of these considerations, we need ingenuity to promote localized sustainable food production practices, and what better place to start than in the urban communities? Being divorced from the process of healthy food production relegates the culinary options of a community to an american culture of cheap convenience as diets are filled with prepackaged (petroleum based plastics) and/or processed food. The 'food deserts' are specifically a problem in low-income neighborhoods crowded with liquor stores, fast food restaurants, pawn shops, and gun dealers, but lacking an essential component of public urban health in the modern world of commoditized food--full service grocery stores. If the global food market cannot justly provide healthy foods for these underprivileged peoples then maybe all of us urban folks could use some course lessons in the schoolyard garden--we should grow our own. This initiative is cultivating an invaluable skill set in the youth of America, and what better way to find affordable organic produce than to grow it yourself. Healthier for the planet; healthier for people.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent article. Very encouraging to counteract the food insecurity of urban marginalization.
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