Final Project: A Look to the Future of Local Growth

Our project revolved around the theme of “community” and specifically, how food growth and the sharing of that food facilitate the emergence of community among individuals. Our presentation acted as a testament to the message we were trying to convey by showing how resources gathered from the community, along with the money used to buy that food acted as components to both an immediate community with those who share the meal, as well as a larger more implicit community that is facilitated by a circular movement of money and food that is retained within the community. By making the choice to buy locally, the money from your wallet goes straight back into the pocket of the local grower, which in turn makes it easier for him or her to sustain the operation as a sustainable food producer, thus providing you with more food in the future. Local growing eliminates many of the of the negative components and subsequent feedbacks inherent in systems of mass international food shipments that fill large grocery stores with food all year round. By eliminating the degree of fossil fuel use and lessening the exporting of monetary resources to large conglomerate food distribution companies, people can support their local economies through something as simple as considering where their food is coming from.

Just as the FH King program examined by Ben offers as a way for students to participate in this kind of community building, I would like to propose a potential extension of this practice that could be adopted specifically by students, but also others whose lives are too hectic and busy to commit that amount of time and energy to participate. Home-growing and rooftop gardens are both alternative options for attaining virtually free produce with varying degrees of work and difficulty depending on the size and scope of the garden one decides to create and maintain.

Rooftop gardens are growing in popularity amongst urban dwellers as the long-term recession continues to shrink wallets and a garner a revived sense of green awareness that appears to be convincing people to rethink the way they get food and at what expense. Many industrialized European countries begun popularizing the practice of rooftop gardening many years ago and today they exist as impressive examples of human sustainable ingenuity. As Jessica Kwik explained in an article in Alternatives Journal, “European countries such as Germany and Switzerland have become forerunners of green roof technology as research and government support have led to today’s thriving industry.” (Kwik 2000)  More specifically speaking, sustainable architect Monica Kuhn notes, “In Germany, the green roof market expanded quickly in the 1980’s, with an annual growth rate of 15-20%, ballooning from one to ten million square metres. This growth was stimulated largely by state legislation, municipal grants and incentives…” “…Other European states have adopted similar types of support. Several cities now incorporate roof greening into regulations. Stuttgart, for example, requires green roofs on all new flat-roofed industrial buildings. Vienna also provides subsidies and grants for new green roofs at the stages of planning, installation and 3 years post construction to ensure ongoing maintenance. Over 75 European municipalities currently provide incentives or requirements for green roof installation.” (Kuhn, 2009) As she explains, the growth of these sources for plant growth have grown to garner support from city municipalities and federal grant programs that provide enough resources and support to boost it to industry status. However, before this degree of growth can be attained, local support organizations are necessary for proper public and cultural exposure. As this represents a potential future reality in American cities, urban home-growing must first grow as a viable option to those currently living in apartment buildings.

It is said that until the active participant understands the benefits of a behavior, the idea will remain unattractive as long as the current problematic behavior is seen as easier and more advantageous to the participant. In this instance, the idea of healthier food that can be grown without the use of chemical pesticides could potentially provide health-conscious city dwellers with the drive to begin creating a garden. If the rooftop is not an option, the benefits of alternative gardening methods such as hydroponic indoor growing are also a viable possibility. Trading outdoor roof space for indoor window-space, one can establish a simple hydroponic system that can yield growth from within the temperature-controlled environment in an apartment. For health fanatics, this could actually make fore even more pure, healthy food due to the absence of pesticides altogether. Alexandra Gross’s explanation in The Environmental Magazine examines this benefit further saying, “Without soil, there is little to no microbial activity, so the plants depend on direct nutrients from nutrient solutions. And because hydroponics occur in a highly controlled space and microbial activity is at a minimum, pesticides, insecticides and herbicides are not needed. “ (Gross 2010) Organizations supporting the use of at-home hydroponics already provide those interested in starting their own grow unit with downloadable templates and instructions for starting their own operation. Britta Riley, curator of windowfarms.org provides visitors with a plethora of information for both the novice and experienced grower in regards to making the transition to hydroponic systems. However as enthusiastic as she is about the implications widespread home growing could have, she is also aware of the obstacle s that we as a society must overcome, saying, “these things will not start to take root until people really want sustainable solutions, good nutrition and local food.” (Britta 2011) The benefits of Britta’s home growing awareness movement are explained more in depth in her TED Talk:

In tying these concepts into a cohesive idea for local action, the act of education and awareness on the issues of community sustainability through the means of food production and consumption as well as the idea of retaining our monetary resources within the community all translate to a more active student body as well as general community in contributing and actively participating in sustainable practices. Engaging in home growing reduces wasteful spending on international groceries and supports a more sustainable lifestyle by lessening dependency on an outside service to provide you with a commodity as essential as food. As our current paradigm of mass food distribution begins to strain under the weight of a slowly collapsing global economy, the prices of our groceries will inevitably rise. Thomas Helbling and Shaun Raoache’s article in Finance & Development describes, “The world may need to get used to higher food prices. A large part of the recent surge is related to temporary factors, such as the weather. Nevertheless, the main reasons for rising demand for food reflect structural changes in the global economy that will not be reversed.” (Helbling, Raoche 2011) Knowledge of self-sustainable food production might very well become a matter of survival if the consequences of our society’s sensational thirst for growth and resource consumption is not slowed and adapted. Simple changes such as sustainable gardens and window planters are a great way to enter a life lived by sustainable means, and we are confident the UW campus as well as the city of Madison is capable of embracing these ideas and modeling them to other communities.

 

Annotated Bibliography:

Gross, Alexandra. “Beyond Organic.” E: The Environmental Magazine 21.4

(2010): 18-19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.

Alexandra Gross describes the benefits of hydroponic in-home growing as a result of a lack of chemicals used on the food through the use of pesticides. She goes on to suggest that hydroponic systems are actually “beyond organic” because they follow a rigorous food safety management system that addresses production, handling, manufacturing and distribution.

 

Helbling, Thomas, and Shaun Roache. “Rising Prices on the Menu: Higher Food

Prices may be here to Stay.” Finance & Development 48.1 (2011): 24-7.

ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 14 Dec. 2011.

Thomas Helbling and Shaun Roache cite statistical trends such as the “dinner index” which graphs the food price surges throughout time. It also offers arguments for sustained high food prices in the future as a result of fuel costs, crop yields, production costs, and the international food market.

 

Kwik, Jessica. “Gardens Overhead: Rooftop Culture Sprouts in North American

Cities.”Alternatives Journal 26.3 (2000): 16-7. Alt-PressWatch; ProQuest

Research Library. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.

Kwik gives a brief albeit insightful examination into the recent trend of rooftop gardens being created in America. She cites the history of rooftop gardens and their steady popularization in much of Europe, explaining how many municipalities now require buildings to maintain green roofs for purposes of maintaining clean air conditions.

 

Monica Kuhn. Design Guidelines for Green Roofs. Toronto: Ontario Association

of Architects, 2003. Print.

Kuhn gives insight from personal experience as a Toronto-based “green” architect into how the rooftop garden industry has flourished and spread from Europe to the United States.

 

Riley, Britta. Windowfarms. Windowfarms, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

<http://www.windowfarms.org/abouttheproject&gt;.

Riley provides a plethora of information on her organization’s website about DYI hydroponic growing solutions for the home. Both selling kits and providing templates and instructions for growers to make on their own, her product has sparked a small movement of growers to turn to hydroponic systems.

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.

Better Living Through Self-Production

Ben and I plan to shape our project around the problems presented by the overuse of mass-produced foods in every day consumption. After brainstorming about some of the inherent problems posed by almost everyone’s complete dependance on outside entities to provide them with sustenance, we were able to frame our potential solutions around ways people in urban areas can be able to grow their own food and lessen the demand for food attained by means of unsustainable systems. Specifically, we plan to provide solutions for UW-Madison students living on campus within the city limits.

The biggest obstacle preventing students with the ability to grow their own food is the fact that many students live in apartments which unless a large enough porch or balcony is present, does not provide any room for gardening. A solution we plan on looking into is the idea of utilizing much of the unused rooftop space that could potentially be turned into garden space. This space would be ideal for food production because depending on the height of the building, it’s possible a lot of roof space receives sunlight all day. In addition to this, we plan on examining rooftops that have already been utilized for growing space and attempt to ask questions to those in charge of it to see how useful they are and how plausible it would be to expand the practice throughout the city. For those without rooftop access, we will also explore the possibilities of indoor growing and explain some ways food can be made with very little space to work in.

To illustrate the costs, work involved and other factors that go into sustainable cooking, we plan on cooking a meal that consists of locally grown ingredients. Using a local farmer’s market for our food, we will be able to find out from the vendors where the food was grown, and how it was grown, ultimately showing how plausible and financially beneficial it could be for students to engage in gardening themselves.