Some Reflections - Urban Ag and Self-Reliance

Community and backyard vegetable gardens have come to symbolize much of the urban agriculture efforts in the US. However, urban agriculture is expanding in the US with food preservation, backyard poultry operations and many other forms of small scale food operations taking root in cities across the United States. This is particularly true here in the Pacific Northwest where gardening and city farming are being advocated and supported as a policy for community and ecological health.

Concerns over global ecological sustainability, energy shortages, and neighborhood blight have inspired a movement of people seeking ways to bring a material and spiritual balance to urban life. And for a growing number of engaged citizens, this balance requires us to get closer to our sources of food, whether this is by means of buying directly from farmers, or by cultivating food on one's own. For many, the closer we are to our food source the more control we have over our own health, the trajectory of our communities, and the well-being of our families.

And ultimately, that is what this project is about. On one hand, this is about learning as a family, as individuals and as part of a larger community. On the other, it is about a philosophical orientation that requires action and a certain sense of personal responsibility about the current status of our world, and our part in this whole thing. This includes understanding and acting upon the ways my own actions (mostly through personal consumption) influence the state of inequity and environmental degradation in the world.

Nevertheless, this is one big experiment, one that is putting this philosophy to the test through practical efforts. For example, I wake up, write for a bit then get to work around the place, planting, tilling, cleaning, and watering. I chop wood, help cook dinner, you know the basic things of life. Yet, I'm still not sure about everything, it seems like a dream. But even as I scramble to start this farm and complete my dissertation, the time I have to spend with my family is immensely more rich and intimate than before, and for me this is huge in of itself.