SHADES OF GREEN: Focusing on the essentials

There is an old saying that “when it comes time to railroad, people start laying tracks.” In this spirit, I am noticing how much track laying is going on now in the realm of urban gardening and the idea of local food. So much so that I’m beginning to realize just how important this may become, along with other trends that may develop out of it.

This is a stretch for me, personally. Besides being an amateur sustainability philosopher, I’m primarily a built environment guy: buildings, machinery, gizmos. Gardening has not been my trip. Nevertheless:

A friend just the other day remarked to me that some companies here have been doing pretty well during the economic crash. They’re food-related companies and so you could say they deal essentially in basics. Yes. It’s about time we focused on the essentials, the things people have to have.

The focusing is already happening. Consider: The Sheboygan Falls High Sustainable Living Program is under way on 5 acres on Willow Road and the students are not only growing fruits and vegetables; they will soon have a flock of turkeys in their care as well.

In my own backyard is Springdale Farm, one of the first Community Supported Agriculture establishments, (CSAs) in Wisconsin, where people sign up in advance for a share of whatever is produced in a given week. Many subscribers also participate at the farm doing various chores.

In nearby St. Cloud, the School Sisters of Notre Dame have established the Sunseed Eco-Education Center, which includes organic gardens, and classes in food preservation, whole foods and organic cuisine.

And get this! The May 10 Time Magazine is the annual edition featuring the 100 most influential people in the world. One of the 100, in the “heroes” section no less, is Will Allen, a Milwaukee man at the center of Growing Power Inc., an urban farming initiative that is indeed getting worldwide attention.

All of these things make me think in a more focused way about the need to shift our attention somewhat to the basic aspects of life. It is only a generation or two ago that gardens and home canning were a commonplace aspect of family living. If things continue to be uncertain in terms of income and jobs, one can visualize a re-enlargement of the household economy, where more things are done at home once again. Further, one can easily visualize neighbors getting together to help one another, and perhaps specialize among themselves, too.

I understand it is legal in the city of Madison to raise chickens in the back yard. As much as noises and smells could be a point of contention, couldn’t this also be a positive part of the local picture in some neighborhoods? In our climate, season-extending devices like cold frames and greenhouses could also become an ingredient.

In Milwaukee it is the inner-city people who are motivated by the scarcity of grocery stores and the lack of healthy food in general to begin to grow some of their own food. At Growing Power, a part of the system is the raising of fish, too.

One of the pervasive aspects of modern life is our disconnection from basic realities. Young children frequently don’t have the foggiest idea where food comes from. (They think it comes from the refrigerator.) Family and community food making could become part of the social fabric for young and old alike: useful work, and working together for solid gain in providing the basics.

I recently chatted with a gentleman living near Oostburg who has been developing a broad vision for how some of this could shape up. He knows that earthworms are a master catalyst in transforming organic waste into soil enhancement. He foresees a countywide organic composting setup involving worms and yielding edible and non-edible products. The idea involves both volunteers and a group of large industrial supporters, companies who may need to do something with their own waste. Large-scale agriculture, “factory farms” could benefit from the worm component in controlling the odors and runoff from manure.

Socially he emphasizes the need to work with the underserved; for the project to have a mentoring and teaching component, a place where children can be safe and can interact with effective people.

There is need for something like this, he thinks, which could help industry, agriculture, education.

My own feeling, an image I have, is a facility like the Plymouth Intergenerational Center, now a building, becoming in time a site for these kinds of things on a small scale, with grandmas and grandpas working with kids, setting the atmosphere for replication, more local food, neighborhood food, in our community, and in the bargain, a community with more meaning and purpose coming out of the experience of real group work and cooperation.

Is it far from this to other spontaneous innovation, such as specialization among the residents of, say, a city block, and perhaps even the establishment of local currencies?