Saturday, March 1, 2014
Urban Agriculture in the Bay Area - Documentary
For my PE I will be working with urban farmers in the Dakar region of Senegal. My curiosity, interest, and passion for food and the system it lies within has been ever-growing as a student in Berkeley, and as a resident in the Bay Area - rightly accredited as one of the epicenters of the food movement in the United States. Being able to see urban agriculture in the works and how even a small farm can make a difference in an entire community gives me a lot of real hope for changes in our food system so that a more just system can, and will happen.
This documentary, though reminiscent of other food documentaries in the beginning, developed into a very good representation of all the different kinds of efforts around the Bay Area, while also showing how all of them were aiming towards a common goal - to get food, healthy and yummy food, to people, especially to those that don't have access to it because of various political, economic, and social factors. It is a well-edited film about the urban food movement, where it is, and where it intends to go.
It's inspiring to see how many different people - in regards to their age, their race and ethnicities, their class, their gender, their backgrounds, their experience in farming - can fight for a common cause. From food and environment all-star scholars such as Miguel Altieri and Nathan Gimenez-Holt, to young kids and teenagers from poor communities that have to go to special schools for not being able to handle/"behave" well in a typical school, people have united to fight for a better food system, to fight for access, and to take change into their own hands when change doesn't happen. This movement is active participation.
Even though there are similarities between the Bay and Dakar, such as guerilla urban farming (farming on land that one doesn't own because they don't have the power or resources to buy the land, or the land is open and would be otherwise neglected) and urban farming to lower food insecurity, it has been perspective-opening to me to learn about urban farming in another region of the world. Here in the Bay it is very much a social movement of access to the community and equality, whereas in Dakar, much of urban agriculture is aimed towards economic support of farmers. Unlike in the Bay where many people in the community are learning how to farm from a few experience gardeners to do urban farming, in Dakar, people who are farmers by trade, or subsistence farmers by necessity, are working to keep a living.
And as a trailing off final though... I've been pondering the pattern to return to traditional farming features as a solution to modern day problems of the food system. It really makes me question "development" that has occurred in regards the the food system, who was driving this "development," the intentions behind it, and how much it was thought through.
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Thank you for sharing a review of the film as well as your thoughts on the Bay Area food movement!
ReplyDeleteI love how you said, "It's inspiring to see how many different people - in regards to their age, their race and ethnicities, their class, their gender, their backgrounds, their experience in farming - can fight for a common cause." This made me think about the diversity that can factionalize various social movements and sectors of poverty. For example, issues of gender, race, and socio-economics in a shared physical space can create tensions that need to be overcome. However, the issue around food is unique because it is a common biological necessity that transcends gender, race, and socio-economics- we all need to eat.
Because we all need to eat, what we eat can be used as another indicator of our wealth or poverty. In Berkeley, we have access to fresh organic food and produce as it is the epicenter of the food movement. Why is it that only a few miles away in Oakland, there is a myriad of fast food restaurants, lack of access to nutritious food, and hunger? Why is it that Africa continues to be the poster child of malnourishment while the United States produces exorbitant amounts of food waste? Beyond this, are the answers to these questions a matter of political policy, trade policy, or land fertility? California's central valley is the bread basket of the United States, so should we be surprised that the Bay Area reaps the benefits of our close proximity to fertile lands and an abundance of produce?
These questions have yet to be answered, but thankfully there are ways to get involved in the food movement, especially in the Bay Area! I am a member of the Berkeley Student Food Collective, a grocery store located on Bancroft just past Wells Fargo Bank. This Berkeley treasure is cooperatively run by students and offers a plethora of locally grown produce at affordable prices.
As Asia points out, the food system still needs "development" in many regards, but there are places in our community where we can participate and participate in the evolution of this "development".