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.

Changing Direction: From Peppers to Self-Reliance

So I started this blog to record my experiences cooking and growing peppers. Obviously I have posted a damn thing since I started the blog!!! But, I think this project is going to expand in a significant way. As fate would have it, my family and I are moving out of the Pullman area, and going back to the West Side of the Cascades, Everett, WA to be exact. The kicker is we found a 30 acre place to rent. We are able to have animals, fish, grow food, etc. Not to mention there is a farmers market about 10 minutes from where we will be living.

We will be taking over the property as of this coming Saturday, and this will mark the beginning of an experiment where a couple of city folk and their children will embark on a quest to increase our own self-reliance off the land.

I will still stay true to my pepper fetish, but that is only a part. And somewhere in there I will find time to finish up my dissertation, but I plan for us to grow as much as possible the things we need, preserve excess, and take the remainder to local farmer's market.

Of course, it isn't like we are completely clueless about what we are getting ourselves into. I have been farming here on the Palouse with the WSU Organic CSA farm for the past few years, I have helped to manage the local farmer's market. So yes, this isn't just a whim. I'm doing a PhD on urban agriculture and sustainability. Yet, my research doesn't address anything that touches upon the experience of being a part time farmer in the city.

I want to know, intimately what it is to feed my family and myself.

Certainly, there is a lot of stuff out there on the web on how we need to change our food habits, where we purchase our food, what we purchase, and when we purchase. Michael Pollan has even gone so far as to suggest that a sustainable food system will require a mass exodus of people to take up life back on the land. He argues that we need to promote and incentivize the creation of a new agricultural revolution where farmers and consumers are closer together. Where consumers are bound by the land and seasons for their food, and where farmers can make a living from growing and selling food within in the local community or region.

Others have suggested that we not only need this sort of reconfiguration, but we need to ramp up urban agricultural production, or at least urban expansion should consider and support urban agriculture. I am a big proponent of urban agriculture. You know, the whole "Food Not Lawns" idea. While urban ag is a huge component of the food system in developing countries, in the US it is still in its nascent form. With my little project I hope to change that...

Anyway, I will be making more posts about this journey, probably sprinkled with some of my research ideas, projects, and of course, all the wonderful food creations I come up with. In fact, I'm thinking I ought to start listing all the recipes that I can't live without. Perhaps that would be a good starting point for thinking about the things to grow; consider the recipe for my favorite foods, and grow the ingredients!