NPR:Urban Food Forests Make Fruit Free For The Picking

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/21/408293431/urban-food-forests-make-fruit-free-for-the-picking

Urban orchards are dropping everything from apples to persimmons to avocados onSeattle, Bloomington, Ind., Boston, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other North American cities. Groups like the Portland Fruit Tree Project advocate for public access to existing fruit trees so that people can glean crops that would otherwise go uneaten — an idea some are calling radical. Other groups are more interested in planting new groves of fruit trees on previously fallow city land.

Fruit trees produce food, but also provide shade, keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, improve water quality and may evendeter crime. Advocates say they also have a longer lasting impact on communities than vegetable beds.