Urgent Evoke

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Food sustainability is food security

I live in an area that has a vast disparity between the rich and the poor. It is a tourist-based area divided into a small population of wealthy part-time residents, a slightly larger population of middle-class white collar workers and a large population of low-paid service workers who are highly dependent on seasonal work and who compete in the off season for a small number of low-income jobs. This means that a lot of people can't afford to buy healthy food on a regular basis.

On the other hand, the climate and land here is great for farming. The one exception to this is that since we are in the mountains, available land is limited and expensive. So it can be difficult to find or afford the space to grow food.

In this area, community gardens make a lot of sense for solving both issues. They enable people who have more time than money to provide their families and community with healthy, fresh produce and other products. And they allow the community to pool resources to make creative use of available land like unused baseball lots, abandoned property, awkward or unusably small building lots and so on, as well as communal tools, manpower and money.

There are several community gardens and CG organizations already working in the area. One is even branching out into creating sustainable income for the residents by setting up a tailgate market and offering for-fee garden workshops, consulting and resources for your putting in your own garden.

Updated to add: We also have a growing version of Cropmob, which are like a flashmob that descends upon a lucky local farmer and takes care of projects they don't have the time, manpower or ability to do. Projects have included setting up greenhouses, putting in beds, preparing land and reclaiming land from invasive species to plant with fruit trees.

Not only do these programs create food security, they also empower communities by returning that security to them rather than outsourcing it to corporations and distant lands. When you realize that you can feed your own family whether you're employed or not, that gives you a dignity and strength that no one can take away from you.

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Comment by Nick Heyming on May 13, 2010 at 2:20am
You live in a great place for sustainability in Asheville! I'm kind of jealous. Good thoughts on food security, have you ever participated in a community garden or CSA?
Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on May 13, 2010 at 2:29am
Hi Soni-- I recognize you from the Sher board! Great insight about the independence growing your own food gives you. I remember reading the puzzled comments of a member of a native tribe on a tropical island. He was studying anthropology-- basically a member of a 'primitive' culture studying Westerners. I was really struck by his pity of our dependence. He said no one had to worry about keeping a job in order to eat in his culture-- you just tended your garden and ate what you grew.
Comment by Soni Pitts on May 13, 2010 at 2:40am
I did get a chance to work in a community garden during part of my last Americorps service year. It was so awesome!

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