Can gardening save lives?

               This question might seem a bit ridiculous. How much good can sticking seeds into the soil do? When seriously considering this prompt, it is necessary to look at the big picture. Coming up with solutions to world hunger is one of humanity’s greatest endeavors – right alongside ushering in an era of world peace. When kids refuse to eat their mother’s cooking, the response is usually “think of all the starving children in Africa.” Thus, it is common knowledge that there are people in other countries who don’t have access to food. The group of people that are often overlooked by society are those battling hunger in countries like our own. This is where gardening comes in. Creating community gardens in places known for having a population that lives beneath the poverty line has numerous direct benefits for that community – the main one being an increase in the availability of fresh produce.

                Technically, only a very small percentage of malnourished people are from developed countries. In fact, only 2% of 821 million chronically malnourished people are from first-world countries. Even so, that means that there are still around 16.4 million people who should be able to eat but don’t have access to food. This number does not even take the people who can only afford cheap, non-nutritious meals into account. This is, once again, where gardening comes in.  Community gardens have been around for a while, but they have not truly been taken seriously until relatively recently. Urban communities have taken a shine to them, as the population density and similarly-grouped socioeconomic classes of their residents make them an epicenter of need for fresh produce. In New York City, there is now a city-wide movement to use community gardens to boost the amount of fresh produce in the diets of poorer communities. While the gardens in this movement are a bit disconnected from one another, they are making progress. A garden run by a mother of six – Tanya Fields – in the South Bronx has supplied many poorer residents there with plenty of fruits and vegetables. The community was in dire need of this produce, too. There were plenty of places to come across food for low prices in the South Bronx, like a cake place, McDonald’s and a Burger King. But the one massive grocery store in the area sells healthy, nutritious goods at much higher prices. Prices that were so high, in fact, that many members of Tanya’s community found healthy food unattainable. Unfortunately, one member of the community has raided the garden several times to buy money for their drug habit, so the harvest was not always as plentiful as it should have been. But Tanya reached out to various organizations for help to repair the damages to the garden – proving that there is a growing commitment to find alternate sources of nutritious food in cities.

                Larger organizations have sprung up in addition to the efforts of individual communities. A group called L.A. Green Grounds, founded by Rob Finley, has made it their mission to turn every unused and abandoned plot of land in Los Angeles into an edible garden. The group had a charming origin – Finley saw a mother and daughter sneaking food off of a private garden he had created on a grassy median outside his home, and rather than fuss about it, he decided to make his little garden something bigger than a saved trip to the grocery store– a way to help feed his neighbors and fellow community members. While the group’s goal is perhaps too ambitious, it cannot be denied that Finley’s drive has benefited the community in both appearance (plentiful gardens are much more attractive than empty lots) and nutrition. While community gardens help increase access to healthy food in an economic sense, they also help increase access to food in a sense of distance. 

       From causes.com 

As seen in the diagram, nearly a quarter of low-income urban households have no grocery stores that are close enough to actually access. This means that they must make do with the restaurants and smaller stores that are close to them – which usually means that acquiring fresh produce is not an easy task for these people. A diet without fresh produce is a poor diet, and unfortunately, far too many Americans are aware of what comes as the result of this. Nearly three quarters of American adults are overweight or obese, which has been proven to contribute to the three leading causes of death in the United States – heart disease, cancers, and strokes. So even if a low-income community has enough to eat, they might not be able to afford to eat healthily. Community gardens provide food that is fresh, free, and healthy – and in this sense, they can indeed help save lives.

                To be sure, community gardens cannot rid the world of hunger on their own. Many other things need to change for that to happen. The amount of edible food that is wasted each year is more than enough to feed those who are malnourished. Thus, the issue is not due to a lack of food – it’s due to food distribution. The people who need the food that is wasted the most are either unable to physically access it or unable to purchase it. While community gardens help with both issues, they do nothing to actually reduce food waste. That will have to be something that society as a whole figures out. Most food waste occurs at the consumer level. Until people learn to only buy what they need and donate the rest, food waste will never be resolved.

                To continue this sentiment, there are many ways in which individuals can help. Perhaps if enough individuals are more conscience of food waste and distribution, society as a whole will change. Wherever possible and as needed, more community gardens should be created – this will help with the issue of food distribution. Reducing food waste itself, on the level of individuals, will require several slight lifestyle changes. One change would be to pay attention to how much food one is putting on their plate. The saying “their eyes were bigger than their stomach” can be applied to this situation. Food waste can be reduced just by lowering the sizes of portions, and in some cases, by decreasing the size of plates. Another lifestyle change could involve paying closer attention to where we are getting our food. If enough people only shop at stores with better food waste policies, perhaps every grocery store will reflect upon its own waste policies and change for the better.    

                In conclusion, gardening helps communities in many ways. In addition to increasing the availability of nutritious foods, community gardens have a host of other benefits including making vacant lots more attractive, getting people outside, increasing community bonds, reducing pollution from shipping and store trips, and making the air cleaner. And, to answer my original question, gardening can save lives. Poor diets can result in the leading causes of death in the United States (heart disease, cancer, and strokes) and are entirely preventable. While more action must be taken to ensure that global hunger is done away with, community gardens are a great and entirely local start.