Urban Agriculture: Feel good about climate change
Posted on 14 June 2011 (Permalink) by Thomas
It’s hard not to feel dispirited sometimes: wanting to do something for the climate but being faced by huge odds. It’s not surprising that political activism isn’t for everyone.
Otherwise unused land reclaimed as a community garden
But there are things that we can do, acts which make us feel good about ourselves, which help us feel part of the community in which we live, and which allow us to feel reconnected to the soil that was so fundamental to humans for millennia. Crucially, they are also actions for the climate.
Many of those actions fall under the category of urban agriculture: growing vegetables in your back yard, tending fruit trees in public open spaces, having potted herbs on the window sill, watering a planter box out on the street, composting kitchen scraps, or reclaiming a bit of unused land for a community garden.
The YCAN Local Urban Agriculture Team intends to work with Yarra Council, other local community groups, local businesses and individuals, to help make a practical difference, literally at a grass roots level. Future blogs will talk about what is happening in Yarra, what is new, and what you can do too.
I was a bit sceptical when I first heard about urban agriculture. Then I saw a doco about Havana, a city of 2 million people, which now grows about 90% of its fruit and vegetables. Imagine if we could do that in Yarra!