2pm- 2:45pm
- Gleaning good short-run but not long term solution
- Urban food forestry may be better than gleaning
- food systems are complex but society’s solutions tend to be linear and patch up one niche at a time rather than looking at interactions among niches.
- solutions may be useless if patch up one hole but other unaddressed holes prevent solution from impacting whole system
- Alameda Point Collaborative: Commercial nursery and straw bale greenhouse and community garden
- Lease to farmers > looking at this process holistically to help farmers, people who distribute to farmer’s markets, etc.
- no indigenous farms in Alameda so this was created from scratch
- info on them is available online
- Lack of household economies and other small-scale economies in favor of large-scale all-encompassing has been detrimental
- but new cottage industries are popping up in response to this (local food, urban agriculture) and could be huge opportunity to grow
- as an example, local chicken industry is growing rapidly where there was no market two years ago
- these local systems distribute money better locally as well
- some backlash: people often complain that the fruit doesn’t look “perfect”, but… we can change this mentality
- people with fruit trees see them as a nuisance but this is changing too w/ gleaning efforts that show people value of their trees.
- varieties of fruits in supermarkets are ones that may be less nutritious but “look better”
- Most organic agriculture efforts are “less bad” rather than being truly sustainable
- “Tending the Wild” – book about indigenous peoples’ management of ecosystems
- in areas where paving new roads could plant something living right alongside (since doing new building anyway)
- in places like Alameda where there’s large continuity of real estate, there’s a big opportunity to sell the idea that they could so something more productive/sustainable with their backyards
- and we’re in an ideal climate
- planting trees allows us to think long-term (which historically has been the majority with perennial, only nomads thought one year at a time)
- victory gardens making a comeback (first appeared in recession, but became liability post-war when people started going to supermarkets)
- permaculture slogan: “should be in danger of falling fruit”
- allows for tithing: neighbors who need fruit can pick from your tree without shame
- community gardens can turn into commons that provide for all neighbors when start to ignore share lines and yields are more than any one neighbor can eat.
- gangster gardner Michael Finley in LA: takes gangsters off the streets and gets them gardening
- Seattle has created edible municipal parks
- Sacramento is mapping all vacant lots and brown fields where gardens could start
- may have tax breaks for these
- planning for perennial gardens rather than community gardens with individual plots.
- large upfront cost but sustainable long-term
- Historically diet tied to place > transportation of non-native food largely energy intensive but people have come to expect it
- with “global weirding” creating vulnerabilities, we need to build in resilience.
- Guerilla gardening takes some getting used to > very easy to start feeling protective when people start to take the stuff you’ve grown.