“Food gardening tends to be focused on individual benefits. But with the crises we are experiencing, it is more and more obvious that for our own good, we need to work for the common good.”
The world is experiencing enormous changes in climate, environment, natural resources, and communities. Some of these changes represent challenges to successful food gardening, including resource scarcity, climate change, socioeconomic inequity, and an increasingly diverse, urbanized, unhealthy, and older population. Current trends mean that many familiar gardening strategies are no longer effective, and may even have negative impacts.
Enter a new book – Food Gardens for a Changing World ( FGCW ) – which provides an important resource for those seeking to understand the role of food gardens in a changing world. The book is organized around a framework of five key ideas: ecological thinking; evolution by selection; social organization; knowledge diversity; and “prosocial behavior” (the kinds of behaviors necessary for successful gardening efforts, including resource management and access to benefits in ways that support social justice and equity).
The book is authored by UCSB faculty members David Cleveland and Daniela Soleri, and Steven Smith (University of Arizona). The authors generously answered a few questions for me. Their biographies are included at the end of this post.
Q: Food gardening is a long trend line. What do you see as being distinctive about this moment in time?
Food gardening in many cultures is part of the on-going subsistence strategy. This is true for farming families in Ghana, Mexico, and other places we have worked. In our industrial society – where most of us buy our food in stores – food gardening is usually considered a hobby. However, during emergencies food gardens become much more important, e.g. Victory Gardens during WWI and WWII. The growing crises of climate change, environmental degradation, economic inequity, and the public health emergency from diet-related diseases such as diabetes, have all contributed to the growing interest in food gardening.
Q: Your framework is really interesting. Can you elaborate more on the prosocial behavior aspect? Are there aspects of that which might be beneficial in other ways, given the larger social and political context we’re living in?
Food gardening tends to be focused on individual benefits. But with the crises we are experiencing, it is more and more obvious that for our own good, we need to work for the common good. This means thinking prosocially in ecosystem terms. For example, as the climate crisis brings higher temperatures and less precipitation, it might be easiest for you to simply use more water in your garden and pay higher rates, if you can afford it.
But thinking prosocially and ecologically means thinking about how others who get water from the same system as you will be affected. It also means some rethinking of assumptions many of us have made as gardeners, such as doing everything ourselves is always best environmentally and socially. In some cases, the evidence suggests that doing things at larger scales is more prosocial in that it can reduce our climate impact and spread the benefits more widely. For example, municipal organic waste composting with methane capture for energy would have lower greenhouse gas emissions than most of us can attain from composting in our home or community gardens, and it could also make compost available to more community members.
Q: Many people are concerned about decreasing biodiversity. You discuss seed saving in your book. What are some basic things people should know about that?
Many gardeners are justifiably concerned about the loss of biodiversity in general, and in garden crops in particular. They understand that diversity is the foundation on which selection for local adaptation to changing conditions like climate is based. Yet, it is often not appreciated that selection eliminates diversity that is not adapted now, but may be in the future as conditions continue to change. Maintaining this diversity can be a lot of work.
Working together as communities not only spreads the work, but gives gardeners access to a wider range of diversity to select from. Seed libraries are an important way that gardeners have come together to maintain diversity and select for adaptation, as Daniela has documented for California in a recent article. Like gardens themselves, grassroots seed saving and sharing have been neglected by researchers, so we really don’t understand what has happened since this gained momentum in the mid 1980s, and more recently in the early 21st century. Understanding the potential for community management of garden crop seeds is critical because of the local consequences of the global crises we face.
Q: Community knowledge…can you talk about this a little more?
Gardeners often have knowledge of their local crops and environments that is much deeper than that of outside scientists. Scientists can often bring a broader perspective and techniques for evaluating different ways of adapting to change. In FGCW, we include lots of scientific information in relationship to gardens in environmental and social contexts. We also provide worked examples of formal experiments that gardeners can do to see what the effect of new methods is. Still, overall, we are strong advocates of partnerships between experienced local practitioners and scientists throughout the entire process of any research or other activity in the garden.
Q: What are ideas you have to get more people gardening?
Make it fun, social, and intellectually stimulating, as well as relevant to concerns about the climate, environment, equity, and health crises. And of course, celebrate the incredible wealth of food cultures we have, including in California, and the gardens plants that are a part of them.
Q: Who should read your book?
FGCW focuses on basic ideas with examples, as tools to help readers understand new situations as they arise. It is not a recipe book. It is a great text for college and advanced high school courses on gardening, sustainable food systems, agroecology. It is also a resource for inquisitive gardeners who want to understand more about food gardens in their larger environmental and social contexts. It provides the concepts and resources needed to document the benefits and costs of gardens, which is very valuable for improving the ability to reach goals, and for documenting the benefits of home, community and school gardens needed to justify grant proposals etc.
FGCW focuses on basic ideas with examples, as tools to help readers understand new situations as they arise. It is not a recipe book. It is a great text for college and advanced high school courses on gardening, sustainable food systems, agroecology. It is also a resource for inquisitive gardeners who want to understand more about food gardens in their larger environmental and social contexts. It provides the concepts and resources needed to document the benefits and costs of gardens, which is very valuable for improving the ability to reach goals, and for documenting the benefits of home, community and school gardens needed to justify grant proposals etc.
About the Authors of Food Gardens for a Changing World
David A. Cleveland (UC Santa Barbara, and The Center for People, Food & Environment) is a human ecologist who has done research and development project work on sustainable agrifood systems with small-scale farmers and gardeners around the world. His current focus is the role of local food systems and diets in climate change, nutrition, and food equity.
Steven E. Smith (University of Arizona) is a plant breeder, botanist and statistician whose research, training of students, and teaching cover those areas of expertise. His research interests reflect both his training in application-oriented plant breeding and his fascination with plant survival in natural plant communities in arid environments.
Daniela Soleri (UC Santa Barbara, and The Center for People, Food & Environment) is an ethnoecologist whose research is on local and scientific knowledge systems and potential for collaboration in small scale agriculture and gardens. This includes quantifying farmer practices, documenting risk assessment and cultural identity related to seeds, and investigating new semi-formal seed systems.
Want More Information?
Are you growing food this year? If so, it helps to have a credible source of growing information. Maybe you need someone to answer your questions about pests or plant diseases. Perhaps you need good advice on selecting varieties, growing tips and maximizing harvests. For many Californians, the UC Master Gardener volunteers come to the rescue.
These trained volunteers offer free science-based gardening information to people all over the state, according to Melissa Womack, UC Master Gardener Program Statewide Marketing Coordinator. The UC Master Gardening Program is administered as part of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Visit the website for more information, or find the Master Gardeners on social media:
Twitter – @UCMasterGarden
Facebook – @UCMasterGardeners
Feature Image Credit: Elaine Casap, Unsplash