Urban Gardens: Redeveloping Urban Areas as Greenspace to Build a Healthy Community

Peter Rossi

UST302

Urban Gardens: Redeveloping Urban Areas as Greenspace to Build a Healthy Community

        A young child, obese by society’s standards, is waiting to be seen by his doctor.  The nurse checking him in is asking the usual questions.  When asked about his eating habits, he proudly states “We ate healthy today, we had chicken nuggets!”   This is too common in Cleveland, and many other urban areas in this country, but efforts are underway to reclaim our nations’ health.  Creating greenspace and developing urban gardens is not as simple as just planting some seeds, but it is also not an impossible dream.  Just redeveloping urban areas into urban gardens are but one small part of this plan. It will take more than simple redevelopment.  Education of our youth, as well as their caretakers, is going to play a key role in the success of creating healthy greenspace.  The areas we choose to develop will need to be selected carefully; they need to be accessible as well as fertile and safe.  The communities need to buy in to the idea of cooperative gardening, and be willing to commit to its success.  Municipal governments are also going to need to support the creation of the greenspace, by creating statutes and a regulatory framework for the areas.  All parties involved need to realize the health benefits associated, physical and mental, and in the case of the end product users it is their health and for the governments it can mean savings on health expenses due to the healthier community.  Lastly, the communities will need knowledgeable resources to help teach the people not only what to grow, but how to grow it and how to use their harvest.  I am going to give a blueprint on how to start the conversation on redeveloping land into greenspace in your community, which in turn will help change your neighborhood into a healthier, safer, and more pleasant place to live and raise your family.  

        We need to understand what community gardens, or urban greenspace, are in order to continue a reasonable discussion on them.  Community gardens, or urban greenspace, are a small part of what makes a community food system.  The community food system can be localized, as it is in neighborhoods or larger scale when it relates to cities, counties, or regions.  Community food systems distinguish themselves from our typical, globalized food system by four major aspects.  First is food security, not security in safety, but in access within the community, particularly low income households.  Many low income communities do not have access to healthy food, and if they do it is at a premium.  When is the last time you noticed the Trader Joe’s or the Whole Foods in the middle of the low-income neighborhood.  You did not, but you did notice the abundance of fast food restaurants.  The few grocery stores in the neighborhoods often charge a premium for being located there.  Secondly is proximity, which describes the amount of distance to food must travel to get to the end user.  In our global system, food often travels an average of 2400 miles, producing 19 million tons of carbon dioxide3.  We are hurting our environment brining in food that we are capable of growing in our backyard.  We are paying with the planet’s future for our laziness and ignorance.  Next we look at self reliance. This is the amount that a community can meet its own food needs, not that total self sufficiency is the goal, but it can be a goal of the partnership leading the group.  This is simply looking at what we can provide for ourselves.  It may not be reasonable to think that pineapples can grow in Cleveland, but we are able to look at what can be grown.  Lastly is sustainability.  This is the amount that the practices of this food system do not affect future generations.  We would look at environmental protection, ethics, profit margins, and community development when looking at sustainability.  When forming a community food system, specific and general goals should be determined.  The partnership should be looking to optimize the health benefits by reducing diet related disease, change the eating habits of a community, improve access for all members of the community, encourage food and agriculture related business to move into a community, and increase the participation of the community in the project.  Common elements of the community food system are farmer’s markets, community and school gardens, community farms, roadside stands, and community kitchens.