The Quiet Revolution
By Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.
D. (Echoing Green Fellow) The writer lived in New York City, Stockholm,
Jakarta, Taipei, Kathmandu, Leuven, Pune, Brussels and Dublin. He was a former
World Vegetable Center Training Specialist.
The Big Apple is not all concrete jungle as
often portrayed. There is a quiet revolution stirring the urban food system.
Hidden by towering skyscrapers are resident blocks where Earl Girl and
Celebrity tomatoes hang ripe and heavy in ready clusters. Along Lexington
Avenue, there is a corner where Lima
beans drape profusely while deep orange shoulders of carrots line up in long
rows buried in the ground.
Over in Los Angeles, at 103rd and
Grape in Watts, two of the city’s most violent blocks, small residences proudly showcase Milpa corn, dry
beans, hot chili peppers, epizote, alfafa, vedulaga and pumpkins.
The food growing activities are far from the
farms that still provide majority of the food. Yet it is fast spreading like wildfire . In populous Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila and
Taipei, the same events are unfolding. Because
of the basic need that every person have
to grow their own food, know their food and have a sense of control over its
safety and security.
It is a revolution that is providing people,
especially the poor, with an important safety net where they can grow some
nourishment and income for themselves and their families. And it is providing an oasis for the human
spirit where urban people can gather, preserve something of their culture
through native seeds and foods, and teach their children about food and earth.
The revolution is taking place in gardens,
small backyards, rooftops, verandas,
once-junkyards and gang hangouts. It is a movement that has the
potential to address a multitude of issues—economic, environmental, personal
health and culture. It is especially important for the
world’s poor.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are
receiving at least some of their nourishment from urban gardens. In Pune, Maharahstra, India, 9 percent of the
vegetables consumed in the city are urban-grown. In Sweden, 30 percent of the urban families farm a
million plots and in Netherlands, 40 percent of the total agricultural
production is from urban lands.
Survival
A majority of the world’s poor currently lives
in cities. Hunger and malnutrition effect approximately one billion worldwide
Earth’s capacity to feed exploding populations is reaching its limits. Current
grain reserves are at all time low and steadily declining agricultural yields
are a sobering reminder that food scarcity is increasing.
In Calcutta, India, the composted soils of old
garbage dumps are being used for food production, providing employment for
close to 250,000 people. In the US, urban farms produce 20 times more per acre
than their agricultural counterparts. Small plots in the most rundown neighborhoods
in America’s cities are producing herbs, flowers and specialty vegetables that
are being sold to upscale restaurants and farmers’ markets.
Creating Nutrient Cycle
Urban waste is creating severe ecological and
health problems while the cost of transporting and dumping it erodes precious financial
resources. Through waste segregation, much of organic wastes from cities are
being used in a sustainable system wherein food is grown. This provides
nutrient recycling because organic matter is converted into soil-enriching
compost.
Feeding Body and Soul
Along with the economic and nutritional safety
nets that growing food in the city can provide, the exploding movement towards
urban food production promotes personal health.
Even greater is the potential for urban plots
to provide much-needed psychological boost to people living in areas devoid of
trees, plant and soil. Reconnecting to
Earth and to the natural process of growing food has a balancing effect on the
human psyche. Having personal control over the source of one’s nourishment is
also empowering to urban dwellers.
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