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have national departments, and Buenos Aires, Ias Parcelas-a demonstration compost project and
<br /> Jakarta, and Mexico City have metropolitan agencies environmental pazk containing 16 family vegetable
<br /> to promote urban agriculrure. Even at the indi-: id- plots, an orchazd with peach, peaz, and nectarine
<br /> ual level, enthusiasm is growittg. A mov'm-:nt trees, flower and herb gazdens, and a patio for cook-
<br /> toward community-supported agriculrure (CSA) outs. By building a community azound growing
<br /> that started 25 years ago .~i Switzerland now things, says a local schoolteacher, the res~denzs "can
<br /> includes 600 such programs azound the world. promise [their children] what no amount of income
<br /> ' Urban dwellers purchase shares in a farm's produc- and no amount of security systems, guazds, guns,
<br /> tion-receiving fresh produce throughout the grow- and locks in suburbs and new towns can buy-the
<br /> ing season and sharing the risks of weather and pests hazd-woven Fabric of neighborhood-"
<br />
<br /> • with the fazmer. Such programs also bring commu- By closing the biological loop, even if only a lit-
<br /> nines together and restore a sense of connection tle, such projects enable food security to bolster a
<br /> with natural processes-benefits that aze too fre- lazger kind of security. Seeing the connection
<br /> quently lost in the asphalt jungle of modern cities. between the judicious use of vital resources and the
<br /> productivity of a local gazden can alert urban resi-
<br /> denzs to the existence of a lazger connecrion-
<br /> Closing the Psyeholo8ical Loop between the stability of the whole region's ecology
<br /> As cities industrialize and concrete buildings and that of the increasingly hungry city that depends
<br /> with sewer lines replace shantytowns and dirt roads, on it.
<br /> the direct connection between humans and narure
<br /> becomes increasingly obscured, and it is not unusu-
<br /> al for children to grow up thinking that milk comes
<br /> from paper cartons or honey from jars. While in
<br /> many ways cities are more environmentally friendly Toni Nelson is a staff reseazcher at the World-
<br /> than other forms of human habitation, they also sep- watch Instirute.
<br /> crate people from nature and give them the false
<br /> sense that they exist outside the limits imposed by li,
<br /> narure. Urban agrictilrure can bring nature back ~ ~ ~ *~"i
<br /> into the cities and help restore this connection.
<br /> In the United States, city gazdens are helping „ on
<br /> communities reclaim their neighborhoods from
<br /> ' crime and ollution and ofren the focus is on savin ~ ~ 4 ~ ~ ~ jl
<br /> P ~ I i1 'f ~
<br /> kids from the street. A local urban gazderilng org S P , ~t
<br /> I
<br /> nizarion in Washington, D.C., called From the
<br /> Y
<br /> Ground Up, is growing organic vegetables for shaze- ~ ~ '
<br /> ' 1.Sh,iA
<br /> holders, providing produce for fazmstands that train I a
<br /> low-income residents in business skills, and teaching ~ ~ ~ ~ I trc .
<br /> inner-city youth about nutritional, environmental, w=2~ ~ '
<br /> and food security issues. This yeaz, the group's ~ `E'„
<br /> eight-acre farm on the outskirts of the city will pro- - ~ ` -
<br /> . ~
<br /> duce over 110,000 pounds of fresh vegetables. '
<br /> In San Francisco, high school srudenzs are 6T3~ 1~cin ~
<br /> employed at the St. Marys Urban Youth Fazm, 6I~ ~ ° s ,
<br /> operated by the San Francisco League of Urban ~
<br /> Gardeners on an old dumping site for spoil dirt and ~
<br /> waste concrete. The four-acre site, adjacent to a _ ;{'r
<br /> low-income housing site, now produces collazd and z'`'~'~E,
<br /> ' i ~ ~ ~ ~il i'~ r.•
<br /> mustard greens, potatoes, broccoli, and other ZU ~ I i g~~'~ ~ }y j
<br /> • organic vegetables, and has approximately one hun- 20Z9`9~ ~~i I~ I .i,,z ~;j
<br /> dyed fruit trees that provide food for neighborhood ~,?Zl
<br /> residenzs and public soup kitchens. ~ ` C`
<br /> Anew book by Patricia Hynes, A Parch of Edcn: ~ ~F
<br /> America's Inner-City Gardeners, documents similar ~r•~ sr~~
<br /> projects around the country. In Philadelphia, for ~ _r .
<br /> ~ t~'..
<br /> example, a neighborhood called Norris Square, once `-rt`,;::i'?
<br /> -
<br /> known as the "Badlands" for its pervasive drug cul- 61' 3; A one r
<br /> cure, has been transformed by the introduction of 6I` 3_9416 076~~ ;y +
<br /> world RSmh•\u.cmiur. I)ec<ml•cr !`~~~n
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