Creating an Oasis in the Desert: The Introduction of Urban Gardening to the Nation's Food Deserts

From chia seeds to spirulina powder, specialty and health food stores are filled from corner to corner with pricey items, often marketed as superfoods, that claim to have plentiful health benefits. With hopes of staying healthy, middle and upper class American families often spend hundreds of dollars buying such items on a routine trip to the local food coop. While I do not in any way deny the potential benefits of superfoods, I feel that it is important to take into consideration the millions of Americans who are not able to afford them. According to Michael Pollan’s film, In Defense of Food, designer products are not required in order to have a healthy diet. Throughout the film, Pollan emphasizes the simple concept “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” He specifically focuses on the idea that avoiding processed foods and sticking to a predominantly plant-based diet are the keys to being healthy. This may sound simple enough, but many barriers, ranging from unavailability to cost and lack of education, prevent lower income families from following Pollan’s dietary suggestions. This problem raises a natural question. How can fresh, local produce be made a viable option for people of all economic classes? 

Lack of accessibility to fresh, local produce is an issue that is most evident in urban areas, although it effects all regions of our nation. From Los Angeles to our home of Tacoma, people struggle to access healthy, nutritious foods. This phenomenon of low access to healthy food has been appropriately labeled with the term “food desert”. According to the USDA, a food desert is an area in which a minimum of 500 people and/or 33% of the population live more than one mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a car. Across the US, about 23.5 million people live in food deserts. Highly populated with fast food restaurants and corner stores specializing in highly processed, packaged food items, residents of these areas are left with no choice but to consume unhealthy foods on a daily basis. 

Healthy food is the basis for a healthy neighborhood. When lack of accessibility to healthy food is an issue within a neighborhood, other problems such as poverty, crime, and environmental issues typically occur concurrently. Vacant lots are notorious for being a sign of instability in historically less desirable areas. Just as these lots have a negative impact on communities, there is great potential for them to create a positive impact. As described in the following Ted Talk, urban gardening does not only have the potential to change the way that people eat, but also the way that people live within their communities. Ron Finley, self-proclaimed “Gangsta Gardener” describes how urban gardening can impact the culture of neighborhoods in areas such as South Central Los Angeles. Finley describes the area in which he gardens as “home to the drive-thru and the drive-by”. Watching Finley’s talk may leave some viewers wondering why the practice of urban gardening isn’t being implemented on a more widespread scale.

Lack of community encouragement and local governmental support is one reason why urban gardening isn’t as prevalent as it should be. Ron Finley describes some of the legal challenges that he faced early on in his gardening effort. In many cities, acres of median land, or the space between the street and the sidewalk, goes completely unused. Residents are typically responsible for maintaining this area in front of their house, but maintenance typically doesn’t expand beyond weed-whacking a couple of times per year. Although gardening within the median is most certainly a form of maintenance, not all cities recognize this. In South Central LA, Finley initially received a citation from the city for improperly maintaining the strip of land. However, this setback did not discourage Finley and his team of gardeners. Through publicity and petitions, the LA Green Grounds movement got the city on their side, allowing for expanded gardening in median strips and city-owned vacant lots.

A study on Food Deserts by graduate students in the University of Washington Urban Design and Planning reveals the extent of the problem in the Puget Sound area. The following map demonstrates the percentage of of the population in Tacoma neighborhoods who are considered to be living in a food desert. Seeing as how the nearest full grocery store to PLU is QFC, which is 1.1 miles away, followed by Safeway, which is 2.7 miles away, families residing in this area of Parkland who don’t have a car are classified as living in a food desert. While improving transportation to grocery stores may be one part to the solution, healthy food can also be brought directly into the neighborhood that need it most - by means of gardening. The benefits that a widespread gardening movement could have on the City of Tacoma are numerous and would positively impact the city in ways that encompass each of the three pillars of sustainability - social, economic, and ecological.

The main intended benefit of bringing urban gardens to food deserts is obvious. People in food deserts experience much higher rates of death from preventable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and access to fresh, healthy food is the first step in reversing this trend. However, urban gardens also help to build community and reduce violence. This concept, known as the broken window theory, states that signs of neglect in any given area encourage further crime while signs of care and maintenance deter crime. One study in Philadelphia, recorded 18-27% lower rates of narcotics possession in areas where baren median spaces between roads and sidewalks were converted to well maintained plots of vegetation. In addition to such roadside plots and vacant lots, schools often have plentiful unused space that could be used for gardening. By making gardening into a regular school subject just like math and writing, students will become educated on healthy eating and will have greater motivation to become involved with garden projects outside of school. As seen in the example of the high school culinary program in New York featured in the film In Defense of Food, growing healthy food is truly the first step to establishing healthy diets among people who reside in food deserts.

Economically, urban gardening is one of the most sustainable practices possible. Small initial investments in seeds and tools lead to huge savings on food costs in the long run. Monetary incentives for planting and maintaining edible gardens have the potential to reduce dependence on supplemental nutrition assistance programs which allow for the purchase of healthy foods but also for the purchase of unhealthy items such as “soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream.” Greater encouragement and support for using these funds for the purpose of growing food can not only cut down on food costs, but also on the long term costs associated with unhealthy diets including medical bills. Creating a culture around growing food in current food deserts also has the potential to benefit communities from the ecological standpoint. From preventing soil erosion during heavy rainfall to improving air quality through carbon sequestration, the increased presence of vegetation in urban areas positively impacts neighborhoods in many ways. 

            Working our way back to Michael Pollan’s statement, “Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants,” we can see that there is a long way to go before this ideology is universally attainable. However, urban gardening does create a promising future for current food deserts. Bringing healthy options to areas with low accessibility to fresh, unprocessed foods will require work and effort, but will pay off in the form communities that thrive off of fresh local food. 

Dana Baughman

1271 words