The world is faced with a difficult dilemma. Available food supply and access to this supply are out of sync. For the poorest, this is a matter of survival. For others, it is a matter of economics and land use. The right amount of food in the right location is the goal.
Community gardening can be an important part of the solution.
Silicon Valley has a rich history in horticulture and was historically called the Valley of the Hearts Delight. During World War II, Victory Gardens abounded. Santa Clara Valley is now part of the resurgence in community gardening that’s playing a role in this new century. Local examples are Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, Emma Prusch Park in San Jose and the Beresford Community Gardens in San Mateo.
Community gardens invite people of all backgrounds to participate in the first step in what ecologists call a food chain that at minimum keeps humans alive and at optimum healthy.
The movement is growing. The community gardens in Los Gatos have a program in horticulture during the school year for high school students that switches to an Adopt-A-Garden program in the summer for people of all ages. The Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose has a gardening program for young children, and schools develop gardens to grow food and to serve as tools to improve mental and physical well-being.
Public versus private approaches to solving problems are undergoing intense national debate. Community gardens show that these approaches need not be mutually exclusive. In community gardens, the public shares land to grow produce to use, exchange or give away. At the same time, each person has proprietorship over an individual garden.
Decentralized community gardening also works. Individuals and families can cultivate gardens on their own property. Produce can be kept, sold, exchanged or given away.
Community gardens provide an alternative to large agriculture areas. They grow food where food is needed. This decreases the expense of fossil fuels needed for transport, and because more work is done by hand, there is less reliance on fossil-fuel-consuming machinery to sow, maintain and harvest. Community gardens are sustainable, since synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are not necessary.
The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco is publicizing ideas that work in urban areas, such as green roofs as garden ecosystems. The science of agroecology pioneered at the University of California-Santa Cruz demonstrates that the sum productivity on small parcels of land is greater than on single large parcels.
The United Nations is using funding from the Gates and Buffett foundations to help small gardening operations have access to food markets. Much of the investment is in sustainable agriculture and focuses on small land-holders and female farmers, who make up 60 percent of the world’s hungry.
In wealthier areas such as Silicon Valley, kitchen gardens and potagers yield a variety of flavorful and nutritious fruits and vegetables. The organization I work for (www.CommunityGardensAsAppleseeds.info) gives free advice on starting community gardens and gives small stipends to young people to empower their participation.
Community gardening provides a connection to the land that is intellectually and emotionally rewarding. It’s not the whole solution to connecting food supply with locations where food is needed, but as the world struggles with ways to improve our collective well-being, it can be a significant part of the solution.
LES KISHLER is a community gardens advocate who works for the Los Gatos-based non-profit Community Gardens As Appleseeds . He wrote this article for this newspaper.
