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APPETIZER
SINCE WHEN HAS GETTING YOUR HANDS DIRTY BEEN A BAD THING?
Remember the empty shelves? The hysteria buying? Our food systems, as the onset of COVID-19
illumined—even in the world’s richest country—are awfully fragile. It’s no surprise, then, that the universe of urban farming—which has expanded like sun-kissed tomatoes in recent years—scaled exponentially in the wake of the pandemic. From beekeeping to vegetable harvesting to subterranean mushroom farms. Garden- ing got cool.
Still, it’s said that nearly 24 million U.S. resi- dents live in ‘food deserts’—areas “lacking access to good-quality, healthy, fresh food”—a troubling racial
and socio-economic segregation. New hardback, Urban Farmers (Gestalten), out this July, showcases the vision of numerous urban farmers, activists, and pioneers in the field who feel the momentum behind this inequi- ty can be dramatically slowed through conscientious, green-thumbed practices. In the end, the medley of cri- ses the planet faces—biodiversity, climate, health—may not be remedied entirely by a gardened awakening... but they might be given a bit more breathing room. As Renaissance humanist, Thomas More, once said: “The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you do not want paradise, you are not human.”
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