Greetings Truly Living Well has gardens in the community that are privately administered and address issues of poverty, while also meeting the needs of a community for food security and soveriegnty. Our program has three legs: quality food production, horticultural literacy and community development. We have three sites in the metro Atlanta and anticipate opening a larger site in our downtown area this fall. We have not encountered difficulty of any kind from municipal authorities thus far (knock on wood). Our work is far from unique. many others here and around the world engage in urban agriculture with a reasonable degrees of success. I am sorry the Winnipeg experience and the Auburn CG have left such a sour taste.
Please take at look at our website trulylivingwell.com and/or google our name to learn more about how we do what we do. Glad to entertain any questions. Let us know how we can assist your efforts. Peace K. Rashid Nuri Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farms P.O. Box 90841 East Point GA 30364 Phone: 404 520 8331 www.trulylivingwell.com It is simply service that measures success. - George Washington Carver ________________________________ From: karen jones <[email protected]> To: Christopher Bedford <[email protected]>; [email protected] Cc: Christopher Bedford <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, September 7, 2010 8:37:48 AM Subject: Re: [Community_garden] Community Gardens + the Ethics of Hunger Hi Christopher, I could see where your e-mail was going when you said 'a number of true community gardens were established this year'. Unfortunately we have the same problem in downtown Winnipeg, Canada when the 'community garden' movement was hijacked, for lack of a better word, by QUANGO's (Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organizations) who believe that community Gardens are 'good places for poor people to grow food'. We have now found, in Winnipeg, that the QUANGO employees are part of a much larger group called the Poverty Industry. In Winnipeg, these are supported by Government with lots of money, lots of bureaurocracy, lots of lawyers and the conviction that community gardens are transient uses of land until public housing can be established. In the minds of these people these are the only use for community gardens. Forget the fact that most people in these areas live in apartment blocks and don't have a cottage at the lake to get away to in the summer. Forget the fact that most people like to get out side in the summer and see a bit of green. The aim of the QUANGO's are to get these poor people off their asses and get them out there growing their own food. And to add insult to injury they call it 'Urban Agriculture'. They are getting lots of government grants. But if they go out to the country and take a look at the lives of the Agricultural workers that we import every year from Mexico, who live in barracks and work 16 hours a day with no benefits, they might not be so keen to call it Agriculture. Agricultural Workers have been and remain, low paid, marginalized part of the agricultural- industrial complex. For about a decade (before the QUANGO's took over) I have been gardening and lobbying on behalf of the benefits of community gardens (which are about alot more than 'poor people growing their own food), this was my last year. When I found myself pouring over zoning regulations more than seed catalogues and spending more time at City Hall opposing development agreements that destroy community gardens (the QUANGOs also manage the Public Housing), it dawned on me that life is too short. The QUANGO's own the gardens. And they have the machinery, to destroy the credibility and reputations of anyone who opposes them, or says, 'hey there is more to community gardening than the utilitarian motive to have poor people growing food', hey, gardens have to be in the sun, not in the shade. etc. The problem with the QUANGO employees is that they have degrees in Political Science and after a hard day in 'the inner city' they go back to their houses and gardens in the suburbs. None of them are gardeners, and they do not think that poor people can appreciate the beauty which is found in gardens, it never passes their minds that perhaps there are people who need to get away from cramped apartments where maybe there is an abusive spouse, to a place which is safe and quite and green. When the funding to these QUANGO's dries up, and it will, we maybe can go back to community gardening in Winnipeg, if there is any open space left by then. But in the meantime, they are designing utilitarian gardens which are uglier than poo, and expensiver than heck, and nobody would really want to spend much time in and that are filling up with weeds because they don't know how to manage or even identify weeds and would be hard put to even pick out annuals from perennials or identify a tomatoe plant unless it has ripe fruit on it. They don't understand that Round-up does kill all broadleaf plants or that Community Gardens are about more than poor people growing food. My life is too short to take on the Government over this issue and I am stepping out of the garden. I will leave it to the QUANGO's. Best of luck to you and there is something that can help you out, it is called a Fence. If you have got the thousands of dollars that it will cost. But here in Winnipeg, Community Gardens have become only venues for the Poverty Industry to employ 'helpers of the poor'. Where would we be without them, well, we would have more community gardens that actually looked like gardens instead of low producing agricultural projects, jammed into a shady weed filled infill housing lot until the money comes to put housing on. Hope it doesn't happen in your part of the world. Karen Message ----- From: "Christopher Bedford" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: "Christopher Bedford" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 9:35 PM Subject: [Community_garden] Community Gardens + the Ethics of Hunger > All, > > In Muskegon, Michigan -- an old industrial city on the West Coast of the > state >with high unemployment and higher rates of obesity and diabetes -- our >community gardening movement has come to a kind of crossroads. > > A number of true community gardens were established this year. By "true" I > mean >they came organically from the community and were not the projects of outside >non-profits. These gardens have flourished as individual gardeners have taken >up >roles of responsibility. They have strengthened the community where they exist >and spread positive energy throughout our entire community. People work in >them >to grow food for themselves and their neighborhoods, church members, extended >families. > > Now, as these gardens overflow with fruits and vegetables an issue has > emerged >-- one I am sure others on this list have dealt with. > > Recently, conflicts have arisen as community members who have NOT > participated >in the work of the gardens have stopped by without prior notice -- often with >numbers of boxes -- to harvest food. > > The community gardeners -- who to a person had not truly thought through > their >response to this foreseeable situation -- have insisted that the food of the >garden belonged to the people who worked the garden. They were willing to >share >what they grew, but they wanted to be asked -- not ripped off. > > This situation is complicated by the existence in our community of a number > of >church-based gardens, established and operated by parishioners, who grow food >and give it away -- often on unattended tables -- as part of their Christian >duty. These gardeners are, for the most part, NOT involved with the community >of >hunger in meaningful ways. For them, the act of growing food and giving it >away >is akin to aid for Haiti or Pakistan. Though well-intentioned, these gardens >do >not contribute to community strength and resilience. > > I believe the community gardening movement is as much about building > community >as growing a garden. > The true community gardens are amazing centers of community involvement and >innovation. They need to be encouraged and supported. > > So my question is... > > "Do examples exist of agreements, informal compacts, or just plain > established >practice that address the dual needs of supporting community gardens AND >feeding >the hungry within the community?" > > I am NOT interested in Gleaners Trucks or other outside food aid solutions. > The question is about how communities with limited resources address these > dual >questions themselves inside their community. > > We are discussing time banks as one potential process to organize community >energy in an ethical way around the issues of food. > > But this is just at the beginning. > > I am asking for feedback from this list including (1) specific examples of >systems and arrangements that deal with these issues, (2) the language of >ethical behavior in these issues, and (3) ideas for innovation. > > I believe these issues are not peripheral to the local food revolution. But, >instead, are at the heart of the changes we are seeking. > I look forward to any guidance you may have to offer. > > Peace and good food, > > Chris Bedford > Center for Economic Security > #6543 Hancock Road > Montague, MI 49437 > 231-893-3937 + 231-670-4817 (cell) > [email protected] > www.center4economicsecurity.org > www.healthyschoolmeals.org > www.chrisbedfordfilms.com > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: ><http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20100906/14f6f1e9/attachment.html> > > _______________________________________________ > The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's >services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out >how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org > > To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: >http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org > _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20100907/95b18575/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
