Poverty can be defined a few different ways. For example, African poverty is much different than American poverty. U.S. poverty pertains to a lack of quality education, healthcare, and access to fresh, nutritious foods. These problems usually stem from the economic hardships of inner city living. Food security should matter to everyone. Without access to food and proper nutrition, humans cannot flourish and are more burdened with health issues, thus increasing the need for government spending to care of the impoverished.
Solutions do exist. Reducing hunger with better food quality and health works. It’s one of the most effective and important ways to relieve poverty. Localized production of fresh, nutritious foods increases physical health, builds communities, and empowers people to build small economies. Community gardening or micro-farming offers incredible benefits to people of all ages, creating access to better food and improving the quality of life.
Many Americans have access to fresh local foods, but other communities don’t even have grocery stores. Due largely to segregation from poorly executed civil rights movement strategies, inner city areas have become gang war zones. They’re riddled with diseases like diabetes and obesity. Although ethnicities within these areas have become more diverse, they are still largely minority areas. The inner city areas became predominantly ethnic as white people fled to new suburbs. Then, developers wrote racism into building codes and neighborhood covenants. These segregated areas were rich with industrial jobs and thriving communities at first. However, due to a number of cultural pressures, they morphed into poorly funded ghettos and food deserts. The abundance of convenience stores, liquor stores, and pawn shops offer little fresh options for families suffering from persistently trying times.
Past movements have worked to reduce food security issues and relieve other effects of poverty. A great example, which also focused on segregation issues of inner cities, was called “Free Breakfast for Children.” It was initiated by the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California. As Nik Heynen notes, at the Breakfast Program’s peak in early 1970, volunteers “fed thousands of children daily before they went to school across the country.” How can we improve on the ideals of these past successes? We have the power to start movements like this today. Many people want to restructure our American food chain and focus on localism.
Community gardening plots, farmers markets, and gardener education programs are forming quickly. People are seeing that our food system is damaging the environment. It is destroying soil and creating an excessive carbon footprint. It harms indigenous peoples and their land with our connoisseurial desire for exotic foods like acai berries. The food production system is a massive monopoly. Farmers won’t focus on crop variety because of the government’s hand in the industry. This all ties into the obsession with specific crops like wheat, corn, soy, cotton, and canola.
The benefits of micro-farming and urban gardening are undeniable. They may mark the beginning of the next great agricultural revolution. There aren’t many things more pleasing than planting seeds with your children. It’s fun to watch them grow as you spend minimal money and energy. The food could not be fresher. More people are creating the ability to share with friends and family, trade for other products from neighbors, or go to local markets and sell produce.
Food activists are working to transform our system. They’re gathering supporters as people become either needier or more aware. As an FAO report states, “Growth in small-farm production reduces the number of people in poverty and reduces its severity: the consumption of the poorest may be increased.” Growing leads to food security, but our reliance on supermarkets has stripped us of our roots. The small farming movements can combat our flawed food system and keep money in our communities.
Some very notable initiatives assist the small farming movement. Grassroots organizations are teaming with visionaries and policy makers, cultivating a movement that is changing the way Americans look at food. Communities that work toward a greener future will experience financial growth and more overall control of their own environments. This empowers those struggling to rise above their situation and create a less-hungry future. Micro-farmers and people in poverty can secure funding and grants. This means a chance at experiential-based food security.
Communities can choose to take control of their situations in order to reformulate their options and create success from the dirt in their yard or the dirt on the street corner, abandoned lot, or churchyard. Urban agriculture is happening, and we can help by becoming involved. Statistically, with population growth rates, we need to produce more food now than ever before in history. If we can take responsibility for producing good quality food in our own yards, we can change our food system, economy, and health. Everyone deserves access to high quality foods that don’t travel thousands of miles to our grocery store. We should pick them from the soil on which we stand.
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Tessie Walters is a writer from the Colorado Springs area.
