Community Through Local Growing

(Peter: Late post date is due to an apparent failure of the original post to categorize to my page.)

Sam Swiech

ILS 252

Peter Allen

November 23, 2011

Walking into a grocery store on Sunday evening, one could expect to find long lines of people holding baskets stuffed with groceries waiting to checkout and run home to replenish their cupboards and refrigerators with boxed food that may have very likely been processed and shipped from a far away country. Thinking about the components of this vast system of food consumption, the immense amount of nonrenewable resources that are used to facilitate the luxury of grocery shopping all over the industrialized world is contributing to the broader problem of out of control energy use through nonrenewable means as well as other problems that are harmful at a more local level. According to Roni Neff of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “it takes about 7.3 to 10 calories of energy inputs to produce, process, and transport each calorie of food energy,” adding “feeding each American requires approximately 528 gallons of oil equivalents annually.” (Neff, 2011) As we ship in food grown by large conglomerate food companies, the money we spend on this food is exported out of our community where it could be used to aid local growers who in turn invest in the future of a supportive community. With less being given to corporate giants in return for cheap, fast food, and more given instead to local agriculture, customers would not only receive a higher quality of organically grown food, but would also contribute to the growth of many beneficial components of the community system in a time where the growth of many smaller businesses has slowed due to a stagnant economy. Through my research of the issues surrounding my project’s goal, I have come to the conclusion that a higher degree of public participation to employ sustainable methods of local food production would result in a more prosperous community in both financial and social areas.

In times of economic stress, especially for college students, the opportunity to devote personal time and energy to grow free food is greatly appreciated and taken advantage of by those who are aware of its benefits. However, with an expanded program and a greater awareness of its purpose, organizations like UW-Madison’s F.H. King could leave students with more money in their wallets and more importantly, a sustainable attitude toward consumption in general. By utilizing small sections of fertile land, and using techniques such as high-density farming, students could enjoy far higher yields relative to what the same area of industrial farmland would produce. “Using this technique, one southern California family has managed to achieve eye- popping yields: three tons of food, constituting more than three hundred plant species, grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizer on one-tenth of an acre in suburban Pasadena. This represents approximately 60 to 150 times the efficiency of an industrial field of rice or corn.” (Clark, 2006)

Although an increase in community participation in self-reliant forms of food production would help greatly to conserve resources within a local community, those who cannot manage the responsibility and devotion needed to maintain a garden can also contribute to a more self-reliant, independent community by simply purchasing their food from a market of local growers. Farmer’s markets, co-ops and other organized establishments that sell locally made goods provide a feedback for which money can be funneled from the consumer directly back to the grower or producer without ever leaving the city limits. This money is in turn re-invested in the production of food. Put eloquently by Brian Halweil, director of the Nourishing the Planet organization, “to recover our nutritional, ecological, and spiritual balance, we need to build communities of food producers and consumers rooted in a network of social relationships that honor the intrinsic value of both food and farmer and supported by an understanding of the plant communities and soil biology that make truly sustainable farming possible.” (Halweil, 2011)

This project challenges the attitude of unrestrained growth that has manifested within the American psyche since World War II, and aims to inspire change first through the UW community as well as the greater Madison area. A small initial step such as a greater sense of awareness of sustainable, practical changes to one’s routine of consumption has the possibility to grow into more significant realms of community preservation primarily through food production and local distribution. As those who participate in this downsized scale of consumption begin to see the benefits of their actions, other communities might catch onto these ideas. As global economist Helena Norberg-Hodge puts it, “social and economic rationales call for re-localized food supply chains within a framework of sustainable consumption. In direct contrast to the globalized food system which divorces economic transactions from social and environmental contexts, the New Economics favors ‘‘socially embedded’’ economies of place, developing connections between consumers and growers and strengthening local economies and markets against disruptive external forces of globalization.” (Norberg-Hodge et al., 2000). Our project will offer a possible rebuke of the globalized attitude that permeates multiple dimensions of our lives. Just as our culture has embraced a reckless consumer-driven attitude toward how we attain our food, economist Roger Levett explains that “a sociological analysis of consumption suggests that the scope of individuals and groups to change their behaviour is limited by existing social infrastructure and institutions – systems of provision – which ‘lock in’ consumers into particular patterns of consumption.” (Levett et al., 2003) If the media and other social institutions that influence public behavior portray sustainability and local food distribution positively, it is not unreasonable to presume that these principles could be embraced by a very large amount of people. By explaining and defining the roles of student organizations that aim to provide students with a nutritiously healthy, financially sound option to food consumption, our hope is to raise awareness of existing opportunities already available to students while showing the positive outcomes that could emerge from potential growth in these ideas.

Works Cited

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Halweil, Brian. “Changing the World, One Bite at a Time.” WorldWatch 19.3: 18-24. Web. 29 Oct. 2011.

Justin Clark, “Pasadena Paradise,” Natural Home and Garden 8 (May-June 2006): 56–61.

Levett, R., Christie, I., Jacobs, M. and Therivel, R. (2003), A Better Choice of Choice: Quality of Life, Consumption and Economic Growth, Fabian Society, London.

Norberg-Hodge, H., Merrifield, T. and Gorelick, S. (2000), Bringing the Food Economy Home: The Social, Ecological and Economic Benefits of Local Food, ISEC, Dartington.

Robert S. Lawrence, et al. “Peak Oil, Food Systems, And Public Health.” American Journal Of Public Health 101.9 (2011): 1587-1597. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.