Big city, local agriculture?

On my walk to my apartment from my internship on Wyoming Road, I realize I am starving, and should probably eat something before biking out to White Clay. I open my fridge, grab my half-gallon of 1% Hypoint Farms milk and pour it into a full bowl of Cheerios. As I put the milk back, I notice a new carton of organic milk on the door. While I’m eating my Cheerios, I start to wonder about what I’m putting into my body, and if I should start drinking organic milk. With each bite, I think about what is in my milk that might not be in my roommate’s—antibiotics and growth hormones. But, if I switch to drinking organic milk, can I really be sure that I am drinking better milk? Direct health benefits aside, buying organic foods has its appeals to people conscious of the damage industrial farming has on the environment. Organic farms do not consume or release synthetic pesticides into the environment (or at least they say they don’t), they use less energy and produce less waste, so in my mind, even if it is not necessarily healthier by-the-label to drink organic milk, I just might start to buy it.

When I sit on my rock on the side of the creek, I notice a layer or silt at my feet and all around me, about a foot off the shore. Sometime during the week a storm with heavy rain and wind must have come through the area. Listening to the water rush over the rocks on the dam, I realize that in a short while I will not have the luxury of experiencing nature like this so close to my home. I won’t be able to ride my bike a few miles from my apartment in the Bronx to a quiet spot, undisturbed by traffic and people. I begin thinking about what living in New York City will be like, and even more about the students I will be teaching. Over the weekend, I was talking to my Mom and Dad about what we’ve been learning in class, and how it common that supermarkets don’t build in many poorer, dodgy urban areas. My Dad then said, “Well Maura, think about the North side of Binghamton… No grocery store. How do those people get their food?” My response? Wow, he was right. I had never even noticed. My Dad then told me that within the last year there has been a huge push to develop community gardens in Binghamton, and an increasing number of plots of land are becoming available for people to grow. My friend’s Dad is a professor at Binghamton University, and over the last few years he has led many of the community garden projects throughout the city.

After listening to the part of the presentation in class on Wednesday about community gardens in urban areas, I searched nytimes.com for any articles. One of the first hits was an article about a co-op in the South Bronx, which ended with this:
Later, at the Nos Quedamos center, Ms. Washington reflected on the co-op movement, which she hoped would encourage a new urban agriculture movement of community gardens and locally grown produce.
“Some people say poor people are not going to buy organic,” she said. “But many poor people are from Africa or the Caribbean or Latin America. Most of their grandparents grew up on farms.
“So people of color know the taste of a red tomato that was just picked in the morning on a farm like Lenny Bruno’s!” she exclaimed. “The juices just burst in your mouth and you have that sensation of loveliness growing in your mouth.”
Compared with?
A look of disdain came over Ms. Washington’s face. “A tomato that tastes like cardboard!”

And Ms. Washington is exactly right. Thinking about bringing local agriculture to poor urban areas is exciting, and I am going to research as much as possible about the opportunities in the Bronx to do so. I hope to educate my students about local farms and community gardens and healthy eating so that they can begin to change their lifestyles and communities. After searching the American Community Gardening Association Web site, it appears that there are community gardens at schools, churches and YMCAs throughout the Bronx, which is exciting. Community gardening not only teaches people how to grow vegetables and fruits, it brings the community together and fosters community revitalization, growth and development and peaceful gathering. In my mind, not only is it important to educate according to a state-determined curriculum, educating our nation’s youth about the natural world and eating healthily as well as major issues such as global climate change and obesity is just as important. After all, if they are not aware, how can they even begin to change?