“My purpose here is not simply to advocate food gardening, but to plant a seed, an idea. The idea is that facilitating strong person-to-person social support for food gardening could improve the food supply for those who need it most, empower those who engage in it, and strengthen our caring for one another’s well-being (Kent 2016, Kent 2018a).
After years of study of the issue I concluded that widespread and sustained hunger in the world is due mainly to the fact that people don’t care enough about one another’s well-being. Caring can be increased by encouraging social interaction (Kent 2016). This can be done in many different ways, but here the focus is on providing social support for people interested in producing food for themselves. Many communities have people who produce food in their gardens and gladly share it with their neighbors. They also share their knowledge and enthusiasm for gardening. This is a huge underutilized resource. The project envisioned here would facilitate that sharing (Kent 2011, 110-121; Kent 2019a).
Producing food at home can be very worthwhile. It is a pleasant way to get exercise, a way to shift to a healthier diet, and a way to save money. Knowing how to produce your own food establishes a do-it-yourself safety net, increasing one’s capacity to cope with disasters and fluctuating food prices. Food gardening improves food security, helps to strengthen local communities, and empowers individuals and their families…
This project should support food gardening not only where it is already commonplace, but also where there is little of it and people rarely imagine it. Many people don’t know about the gardening that can be done in buckets and bags and on rooftops and walls. There are many obstacles to food gardening such as little access to land and the risk of theft of the products by predatory animals or people. The challenge is to find ways to overcome or work around the obstacles. In Defiant Gardens, Kenneth Helphand showed many ways in which gardens can thrive even in challenging conditions (Helphand 2006). The website at http://defiantgardens.com/ offers many examples. This essay dwells on the opportunities, not the obstacles.
Food gardening here refers to household food production, not the production of flowers or ornamental plants. It includes many kinds of small-scale food production, not just fruits and vegetables planted in soil. For the purposes of this discussion, “gardening” can include sprouting, hydroponics, aquaponics, permaculture, small animal production, and other methods. Maintaining fruit trees is a form of household food production. The emphasis here is on foods produced mainly for direct consumption rather than for sale. The focus is on producing food, not money (Kent 2018b). “Producing” here includes not only growing the products but also preserving and preparing them for consumption. Some of this gardening might take place in small plots at a distance from the main homestead, possibly in spaces designated for that purpose by the local government.
We can imagine a network of food gardeners, based on interconnected organizations at various levels, local, regional, national and global.”
“How Could We Provide Social Support for Food Gardening,” Dr. George Kent, University of Hawaii,” (Draft September 17, 2020)
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