Last month, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground for a new vegetable garden on the South lawn of the White House. It's the first time food will be grown at the President's residence since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her Victory Garden during World War II. Back then, as part of the war effort, the government rationed many foods and the shortage of labor and transportation fuel made it difficult for farmers to harvest and deliver fruits and vegetables to market. The First Lady's Victory Garden set an example for the entire nation: they too could produce their own fruits and vegetables. Nearly 20 million Americans answered the call. They planted gardens in backyards, empty lots, and even on city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different types of produce, and formed cooperatives -- all in the name of patriotism.
By the time the war ended, home gardeners were producing 40 percent of the United States' produce. They aided the war effort by creating local food networks that provided much needed produce in their own communities, but their effect on the social fabric of the nation was greater still. Urban and suburban farmers were considered morale boosters who had found a great sense of empowerment through their own dedication to a common cause.
Today, home gardening is on the rise, but most Americans still know very little about where their food comes from, and even less about how the changes in temperature and precipitation associated with global warming may alter national food production. If you break down the fossil fuel consumption of the American economy by sector, agriculture consumes 19 percent of the total, second only to transportation. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a concentrated effort to mitigate its impact on the climate. If we want to make significant progress in reducing global warming we will need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary solar energy.
Resolarizing the food economy can support diversified farming and shorten the distance from farm to fork, shrinking the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers many other significant benefits: Food eaten closer to where it is grown is fresher and requires less processing, making it more nutritious, and whatever may be lost in efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience; regional food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks.
Here are few examples of how we could start:
This isn't just about government reform. Organizations, businesses, and even individuals like you can help advance these key initiatives and support both the revival of food local food economies and the health of our nation.
Next month the Natural Resources Defense Council will honor individuals who have demonstrated leadership and innovation in the field of sustainable food in its first annual Growing Green Awards. As the Chair of the selection committee, I'm excited to be part of this initiative and join NRDC in recognizing the extraordinary contributions this years honorees have made in the areas of ecologically-integrated farming, climate and water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility. The Growing Green Awards is an opportunity to highlight the contribution individuals can make in creating a more sustainable future through better food production practices that improve the health of people and the planet.
Along with my fellow Growing Green Awards panelists, Larry Bain, Fred Kirschenmann and Karen Ross, I'm pleased to announce the nine finalists in three categories: Food Producer, Business Leader, and Thought Leader.
Food Producer
Will Allen, Growing Power, Milwaukee, WI
Judith Redmond, Full Belly Farm, Guinda, CA
Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Swoope, VA
Business Leader
Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit Management Co., Palo Alto, CA
Michael Rozyne, Red Tomato, Canton, MA
Thaleon Tremain, Pachamama Coffee Coop, Davis, CA
Thought Leader
Ann Cooper, Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, CA
James Harvie, Institute for a Sustainable Future, Duluth, MN
Sibella Kraus, Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), Berkeley, CA
The winners will be selected on May 9 at an NRDC benefit at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Calif. I hope you will consider joining me in celebration of this important event.
Resources: Find out what's fresh near you and get great recipes at NRDC's Food Miles page.
This post originally appeared at Greenlight, from NRDC's OnEarth magazine.
Small farms have to throw away food ...which is a shame. Market is the key.
I hope that is what you menat- because that is much like throwing it away in a business sense.
One instituion that definately should get these grants...SCHOOLS AND DAY CARE CENTERS!
Having purchased locally grown tomatoes, garlic, onions, potatoes, celery, cilantro and fennel last weekend at downtown Phoenix's farmers market - in addition to harvesting eggplant and artichokes from a neighbor's garden - I wondered why NRDC thinks us poor AZns must import food from CA, CO and NM to sustain life this time of year.
I even understand that Pollan will not allow nutrition majors to take any of his classes, nor will he accept nutrition questions. For someone claiming to know everything about food and nutrition, he certainly doesn't want to have anyone critiquing his pre-destined imaginings about what food should be.
Pollan, again and again, says that nutrition does not have all the answers and proceeds to claim that he knows all about how food will react with our bodies.
He seems to revel in a religious-esque, anti-science viewpoint. Just because we don't know how these things operate in entirety now, is simply no excuse for not trying to figure it out. If we go by Pollan we would still be thinking that fatback is the most nutritious food we can get and if we were able to afford it, it should be the only thing we should eat.
www.thebassguy4u.blogspot.com
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/01/09/the-white-house-has-a-rooftop-vegetable-garden/
Be the Change You Want to See!
http://vanillaseven.com/
Gardening and canning were important to my grandparents that were children in the Dirty 30's. I worked in the garden from an early age and I am grateful for that influence. I didn't learn much about the canning process an adolescent so I'm doing it now. It's about time.
I am dragging my mom out of canning retirement this year-she is gonna show me how!
Worldwide Protest;
http://www.chemtrails911.com/archive_pages/00_2007_01_07.htm
I tend to grow plants and veggies that I have had success with, and I find it rewarding to do the work and reap the harvest. We grow pumpkins for my granddaughters, and to use in outdoor decorating from October through the end of November. We grow tomatoes and cucumbers, which are just better right out of the garden, before they're ever refrigerated. We grow peppers and corn. Gardening is also a great stress reliever, it's good for the soul; even weeding.
-Monique and Jeff