Food for Thought

I've been thinking a lot about food and food networks over the last semester. One of the doctoral students in communications was very big into food networks, urban gardening, and not being reliant on faraway sources for food.

Also, my bff is involved in a start-up non-profit called Institute for Bionomic Urbanism (headed up by a Ms. Laura Burkhalter), which seeks to develop urban gardens, even temporarily.

http://www.ibu-la.org/index.php/programs/urban_farms/

See their page on the Whitley Gardens as an example of their work-

http://www.ibu-la.org/index.php/projects/whitley_gardens/

An article by the founder of IBU called Beyond the Crisis: Towards a new Urban Paradigm

http://www.archinect.com/features/article_print.php?id=90159_0_23_0_M

I am a fan on Facebook of Edible Landscapes and Roots of Change. And the lady who runs the Edible Landscapes page posted an article from the Atlantic that left me more than a little gobsmacked-

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/school-yard-garden

I don't want to summarize the article, as it'll be shaded by my bias

But here's my take on it-

I don't think the intent of school gardens is to stilt or shortchange kids so much as an opportunity to teach them to be mindful stewards of the earth and to know where their food comes from. (hint: it's not grown in Styrofoam packages in the supermarket) Is the author implying that migrant farm worker parents have some kind of "edge" over non-agricultural parents?

(scene: in the grocery store): Hey kids, daddy used to harvest this, don't you feel all warm and fuzzy?

And besides, Euclid isn't in high demand these days :( I'd rather kids know where their food comes from than who Descartes was. I am an amateur philosophy enthusiast, but it's ridiculous to think that a little school garden is going to hamper kids' learning. If there is one thing I really have no patience for (besides post-post modern art), it's displaced liberal guilt. Kids need to know where their food comes from just as much as they need to know their three R's. Boo Atlantic boo.

Also, one of my favorite memories from childhood was growing alfalfa sprouts in washed out milk cartons in second grade. I took great pride in being able to grow something myself. And yeah, now I'm a masters of urban planning candidate. A little ag learning didn't hurt anyone.

And here is the reply to the article from the administrator of the Edible Landscapes page-

Ok, now I’m really mad. I’ve been a Master Gardener since 2004 and have designed and run public school gardens for the last 10 years. Granted, I’ve seen some garden programs that started off being not what I’d call “rigorously designed”. But as with all rapidly institutionally adopted programs, roll-out and resources for school gardens were erratic and scare at first, so many teachers and parents were left “to find their own way”. My standards-based garden curriculum, covering more than the nutrition education aspect, NEVER replaced book learning in the classroom. In fact, it proved to be another invaluable teaching tool in the educator’s toolbox. As any of our education reformers will tell you, book learning alone is not effective in teaching students who do not learn that way (Multiple Intelligence Learning styles: visual, auditory, tactile/kinesthetic learning). Garden, if well designed and supported by the school staff and parents, can be a VERY powerful teaching tool. EVERY talented teacher I know uses a variety of many different modalities of teaching a single concept; not just books and not just inside a classroom.
Many of my fellow Master Gardeners can share dozens if not hundreds of stories of witnessing a child, struggling to overcome the obstacles of language, economic and, yes, even health issues, become engaged and even inspired by a lesson augmented by a garden activity. Why? Because the abstract concept introduced in the classroom from a book came alive to that child when they experienced that same concept in a hands-on, project-based learning activity in the garden.
Ms. Flanagan comes very close to equating the School Garden Movement to …racism and directly (and nastily) bashes the parent volunteers who push for gardens as being “a certain kind of educated, professional-class, middle-aged woman (the same kind of woman who tends to light, midway through life’s journey, on school voluntarism as a locus of her fathomless energies)”. WOW! MG’s are mandated to work with the under-served. We can tell you that this does not accurately describe the parents OR typical volunteer we see.
Oh yes…I could go on venting but suffice it to say that Ms. Flanagan REALLY needs to walk a mile in my garden boots!
Geri Miller - LAUSD