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.”
WOW!! You really inspire me to start a vege garden. My wife and I live in an apartment and only have a small balcony and thought it was not possible, but if you can do it on a fire escape in Manhatten then I am going to give it a try.
I agree with what you said about growing your own food being important because it puts you in touch with your food!!
Cheers
Great job Mike, love the photo too! Well done :-)
P.S. would like to contribute something to my category The Green Room on my site? just drop me a note. Wishing you happiness Katherine
Thanks.
@Katherine I will certainly be willing to contribute.
Right on Mike, The Big Money is entirely clueless, they can’t see the forest for the trees. They will not arrive at the correct answer by counting pennies and pounds of this and that when the fundamental mindset is in so far off. Gardening isn’t supposed to fix the recession. It is a part of the remedy for the consumerist tom-foolery that causes recessions.
Mike, it’s wonderful, as you can modified and reused the fire escape to change it into a greenish garden!
@Wilson Thanks. It’s something that anyone can do with the space that they have available to them. Just takes some creativity and imagination.
We used to have gardens almost in the center of our city but it did look terrible. 2 years have passed since they removed them. It does look a lot better but I still feel a bit sorry for the gardeners.
To put a dollar value on the advantages of gardening negates the point of why it is done, in my opinion.
The day when money becomes less important to society (as a whole) than stewardship of the planet we live on will be a beautiful one indeed!
Great post!
@Ambrosia Very well put. The problem is that we put a dollar value on everything. CREAM = Cash Rules Everything Around Me
@CrowsRaven Thanks for the comment. Agree with what you saying.
Ha. That is really awesome what you did there. I have been working with my wife to make a small green room on the west side of our house. I have made a portion of the deck there into the green house but we haven’t started to get the plants into it yet. We have gotten a beet lazy. But I got after it again and found this pic of you and it has made me quite excited to get the project done. Thanks.
After reading your post I went to all my co-workers, since we all live with in a block of each other because we work and live at the drug rehab we work for Narconon. I pointed out to them the value of us doing some gardening together and we each could choose a veggie or two and a few herbs to grow and them trade out to cut down on costs. Everyone thinks it’s a wonderful idea. So, thanks for the info
@LandForSale That’s great. Anything is possible. Keep me updated.
@MelissaH Amazing. More companies need to do that.
If humanity wants to live further healthily – we have to realize that gardening is one of the ways which are necessary to follow!
Even though I live in a New York condo, I, too love to cultivate a garden and fully believe that it is one small step that can be easily accomplished and create an eco-friendly environment. Plants are great at cleaning the air! Love the quote, BTW.
Nice job with this article. I recently posted something along these lines for a new squidoo lens. I will bookmark this blog for future references.