From the latest Food First newsletter (issue #120):

The value of growing your own food

A dime spent on seeds yields about one dollar’s worth of produce, and people are taking note.^[1] Because of raising prices and a stagnant economy, more and more people have been forced to choose between buying food or fuel. Such an impossible decision has led both suburban and urban dwellers to rip out laws, and garden on fire escapes and rooftops, and grow vegetables on empty lots. Interest in growing produce has always picked up during economic downturns, most recently during the 1975 national oil crisis. At that point, says Bruce Butterfield, the market research director of the National Gardening Association, “49% of households were growing veggies.”^[2] During World War II, 20 million Americans planted victory gardens, producing 40% of the country’s food supply.^[3]

The largest U.S. seed company, W. Atlee Burpee & Co, reports selling twice as many seeds this year as last, with half that increase from new customers.^[4] Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving heirloom vegetables, sold 34,000 packets of seed in the first four months of this year, already exceeding total sales of last year.^[5]

Cities are also getting involved, often in collaboration with nonprofits such as People’s Grocery of West Oakland, CA. With a few public urban gardens in the neighborhood and a 17-acre plot in Sunol Water Temple Agricultural Park in South Alameda County, People’s Grocery is growing food for a community that suffers from severe food insecurity. For example, the area of West Oakland has just one grocery store and 36 liquor stores.^[6] The AgPark in Sunol is owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Sustainable Agriculture Education, a Berkeley nonprofit, holds the master lease. AgPark farmers pay nominal rent and water costs.

Last year the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development helped farmers gain access to two half-acre parcels of city land to grow food and develop community gardens.^[7] More cities are making food more accessible for families feeling the crunch of high prices by making land and other resources more available to nonprofits.

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^[1] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24729307/

^[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/02/AR2008080201397_pf.html

^[3] http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/canada/urban-farmer-veggie-garden-1940.html

^[4] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24729307/

^[5] ibid

^[6]http://www.odyssey.org/toolkit/4_Case%20Studies/1_Case%20Study_Food%20Access%20Projects%20in%20Oakland.htm

^[7] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/02/AR2008080201397_pf.html