Why Gardening Will Help End the Recession
On my fire escape vegetable garden in Manhattan.
Last week there was a post on The Big Money titled Why Gardening Won’t End the Recession.
Personally I found a lot of the points in this article to be part of the bigger problem. Everything has a dollar value associated with it, but that’s to be expected from a web site with that title.
One of the reasons that I wanted to write for FocusOrganic is the Indian Cree Prophesy at the bottom of each page, “Only after the last tree has been cut down… the last river has been poisoned… the last fish caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
I’m going to pull excerpts from the article and give my response about how it goes beyond GW and the dollar bill.
Unfortunately, the idea that gardening is going to solve household budget woes plus the obesity epidemic, to boot, is a bunch of fertilizer. Romantic notions offer poor returns on investment, and this fetishization of manual labor is no exception.
Gardening goes beyond the dollar value associated with it. When you grow your own herb or vegetable garden, it gets you to connect with your food. It also helps to increase your awareness about where your food comes from.
According to the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, on average the American Meal travels 1,500 miles.
When you garden, you eliminate the travel and the resulting environmental side effects.
The one segment of the population that might realize some cost savings are low-income urbanites, particularly minorities. Low-income residents are often cut off from the warehouse-sized supermarkets common in the suburbs (and inaccessible by public transit) and have to make do with overpriced, subprime produce in neighborhood markets. Unfortunately, the Garden Association’s research shows that only a sliver of gardeners—3 percent—use community plots, which is the only way to garden if you live in a densely populated urban area.
If you know me, you know that I couldn’t disagree with this more. I’m doing urban gardening in New York City. One of the most densely populated urban areas in the world.
There is plenty of urban gardening and farming going throughout New York City – The Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint, BK Farm Yards and in the South Bronx.
This still might not be so bad except for the fact that entire crops ripen within a period of days. What to do with this overflow? If a gardener can’t bear to see it go to waste, he or she can barter with friends. But if they have their own gardens, it’s likely they’ll be awash in the same kind of veggies, and if they don’t, they’ll have nothing to give in return. They can just give it away, but that counts as a loss, financially speaking.
Is it a loss? There are sites that are becoming popular such as VeggieTrader that allow gardeners to connect and swap crops. It also helps to build community.
Other options for your extras include canning, dehydrating or adding to your compost.
Before I get charged by the trowel-wielding faithful, let me clarify that this isn’t meant to be an anti-gardening treatise. Eating produce you cultivate yourself is an immensely satisfying experience. Growing your own food lets you control the application of things like fertilizer and pesticides. Gardening with kids can be a great way to get them interested in the food they eat. Being out in the sunshine and exerting physical effort is a great stress reliever—something many people need these days. It’s a great hobby, but it’s not a financial fix-it.
This mentality is part of the problem. We are looking for one solution to solve the issue and “fix-its” instead of long-term solutions. Many things make up the puzzle that will solve the issue.
Gardening is one part of the puzzle. It addresses the long-term financial and environmental aspects because, “Only after the last tree has been cut down… the last river has been poisoned… the last fish caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
