I wake up early, eat some breakfast, and walk a few blocks to what used to be an athletic practice field, but is now Harrisburg's urban farm. Passing lots of "For Rent" signs, trash by the street, an empty plastic container gathering rainwater quite unintentionally, a wide side lawn of well manicured ivy. Climbing the steps and shutting the gate behind me, I pause briefly to observe the beauty of growing things. The basil, the peas, okra, each one of these plants has a mission in life: to produce something to be consumed by humans. However, according to Michael Pollan's book "The Botany of Desire", these plants might be a bit more in control than we would tend to assume. He proposes that "They evolve with certain properties that make humans want to propagate them, so they are the ones in charge".
Up in the high tunnel, the tomatoes are looking pretty sweet. Tall, stretching up on our hanging trellis system. I can't wait for the first fresh summer tomatoes. And neither can the farm stand patrons. Tomatoes are that classic homegrown vegetable that just aren't the same purchased at the grocery store.
I love to watch plants develop, blossom, produce fruit. There is something so healing for someone with a tendency towards perfectionism to work with something that I have little control over. God is the one who truly directs the growth and development of these little plants, and all I can do is try to help in the process.
So, just to give you a heads up, I am going to begin posting some information from my current independent study course.
I have not blogged for a few weeks, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking.
It just means that I've been thinking too much, and didn't know how to express it.
As a basic intro to what is to come, I'm going to give you 3 definitions that you might find helpful, for "Food Security", "Food Deserts", and "Urban Agriculture".
These aren't just terms created for no reason. These are actual realities, and I am in the process of learning about them, and considering how to implement change.
Food security is defined by Boyle and Holben as “access by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life” (Boyle & Holben, 2006). “Sufficient food” can be further clarified by pointing out that nutritionally adequate and safe foods are readily available, and can be acquired in socially acceptable ways. Food insecurity is in contrast with food security, and entails limited ability to acquire nutritionally adequate and safe foods in a socially acceptable way.Individuals with food insecurity may also present with hunger or without hunger. Hunger is “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by a recurrent or involuntary lack of food, which can lead to malnutrition over time”.While food insecurity with hunger is prevalent in many societies, in the United States, it is more common to find food insecurity without hunger.Here, individuals are concerned about having enough resources to purchase food and cannot afford to eat balanced meals.They tend to purchase calorie dense foods with little nutritional value, often times resulting malnourishment presenting in overweight and obesity.
Food deserts are described by Thomas Christian, in the department of Economics in Georgia State University, as poorer neighborhoods where “food options are often limited to fast food restaurants, convenience stores, or grocery stores more poorly stocked- both in quantity and quality- than suburban groceries”. These areas are characterized by a lack of opportunities to purchase adequate nutrition, often leading to the insecurity-obesity paradox.
Urban agriculture, is well defined by Charles W. Lesher, Jr. in his literature review on Urban Agriculture: Differing Phenomena in Differing Regions of the World. He defines it as “any processes that produce traditional subsistence, nutritional or commercially profitable food or other grown or raised products, removed from rural domains, and instead cultivate them in special intensive conditions within the urban context or in its surrounding buffer, peri-urban, regions”. In order to appreciate the extent of this phenomenon, it is interesting to note that according to the website of the Alternative Farming Systems Information Center of the USDA National Agricultural Library, around 15 percent of the world's food supply is now grown in urban areas.
Sources:
Boyle, M. A., & Holben, D. H. (2006). Community Nutrition in Action: An Entrepreneurial Approach (4th ed.). USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Christian, Thomas J. 'Grocery Store Access and the Food Insecurity–Obesity Paradox', Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 5:3, 360 - 369
Lesher, Charles W. ‘Urban Agriculture: Differing Phenomena in Differing Regions of the World’. Accessed 15 Feb 2011.
Alternative Farming Systems Information Center Website:
