I always utter a little giggle of glee when the conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong. Take politics ("John McCain's candidacy is dead") or sports ("The New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl") or gardening ("Americans don't have vegetable gardens anymore"). Well, the last one may be true. But it shouldn’Äôt be.
There are so many reasons that we should all be growing some of our own food. And when we can't, we should be supporting local growers through farmers' markets and Community Supported Agriculture or CSAs (prepaid arrangements in which a local grower provides a weekly supply of fresh produce).
Local food is the freshest and therefore the best-tasting and most nutritious. Local food doesn't cost as much to transport and doesn't release as much pollution in the process. Local food supports our farmers and our economy, not some corporate factory "farm" in California.
Even when our supermarkets sell organic food, you may discover that it has been imported from distant states and even abroad. It was a real shocker for me to learn in Michael Pollan's recent book The Omnivore's Dilemma that he once bought asparagus that had been organically grown--in Argentina--at his local Whole Foods store. How about that for a something-is-wrong-with-this-picture moment?
In Chicago, Mayor Daley is keen to see the development of "urban agriculture," a word that's no longer an oxymoron. Last summer Growing Home, an organization that trains homeless and unemployed individuals to grow and market organic food, opened an urban farm in Englewood that will grow food year-round. Drive by the site at 5812 S. Wood and see the hoop houses where even in January the trainees are growing spinach, lettuce, kale and salad mix.
Alderwoman Toni Foulkes called this Englewood area a "food desert" at the groundbreaking ceremony last fall. She recounted how the produce shops and good grocery stores of her childhood had all disappeared. Growing Home's farm in Englewood is a hopeful move in the other direction, but the city is vast, and there should be many, many similar operations.
Still, there are glimmers of hope. Growing Home is gaining national and even international attention for its work, and local food-growing operations are sprouting up all over.
Last August, I went to Vancouver, British Columbia, for vacation. My first day, the hotel delivered to my door the Vancouver Sun, and there on its front page was a story about a man who sells fresh produce that he grows in the backyards of anybody who lets him do it. Business was good, he said, and he was hoping to expand.
My hopes are more modest. Along with the tomatoes, beets and beans, I've just ordered some fingerling potatoes for this year's garden. Half will go in the ground and half will be grown in big pots. They'll be in the front yard because that's where the sun is. No problem. Potato plants are pretty.
