I agree with Jama wholeheartedly. You can't really provide "data" or hard facts as to what causes theft of vegetables. But we can agree that vegetables don't get stolen because they are of high value, like stereos or jewelry. Theft of food is utilitarian and nobody should have to steal food. I worked with a boys' detention center in Quito, Ecuador helping them with their organic garden. Boyish, immature delinquents - I don't know what any of them were in for as we weren't allowed to talk about that. But we never had a problem of theft. The boys were well fed there with the vegetables from the garden despite whatever criminal behavior they had engaged in before so I have a hard time believing any theft of vegetables is driven by greed. It all comes down to what you and your fellow gardeners are willing to do in your community. A mix of "self-deFENCE" (har - I could not resist) and a frank discussion on what you as a community are willing to share with people who do not like or do not have time for gardening (because let's be honest, not everybody likes it, and liking it is nice but should not be the prerequisite for enjoying fresh local produce in the same way that being wealthy should not be the prerequisite for enjoying good food).
Meg Hourigan Americorps VISTA Member serving End Hunger Connecticut! Juniata College Class of 2013 (315) 378-7587 On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 1:24 PM, Jama Crawford <[email protected]> wrote: > This has been an interesting thread, and I'm sympathetic to those who > believe that not all theft is motivated by need. We don't have much of a > theft problem because our garden is on rural private property. It has > happened - but it is a rare occurence. But we do have a practice to harvest > some excess and put it in a location outside the garden (in this case a > barn) where our friends can take surplus items. Cucumbers, summer squash, > spindly heads of garlic, and other items land here. We also sell excess > produce at a steeply discounted price to benefit the garden as a whole, an > affordable fresh produce solution for people of limited means. > > I'm not sure if these two practices have any meaning in your setting but > thought I would toss them into the mix of ideas. > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 8784 (20130910) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20130910/de8e5279/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
