Berry’s reading for this week reminded me of a conversation I had with a great coworker in the office about community and food memories. We were discussing the role of home gardening in everyday life, which was part of a greater conversation about state wide rural and urban planning. Both of us were in favor of home gardening for several reasons, but his main reason was that gardening, and a strong connection to food in its natural environment is key to inspiring people about food and its place in society. I couldn’t agree more.

The question, as in many occasions, is how do we create and promote such access to food inspiration on state wide development policies, both in rural and urban environments. I believe that regional planning that focuses on neighborhoods and small towns (or sections of cities) is the key, and we should avoid investing solely in highly populated urban areas. This would enable regional development of the economy, education, health care and create a stronger local food system. A key benefit would be that it would mitigate urban migration, thus reducing unemployment, overcrowding and the associated effects of these.

Regional planning of this kind still does not provide food inspiration by itself. To address this, there must be an emphasis on community and neighborhood based food and energy projects. Picture this: a city block that has one main community farm (either a typical soil garden or vertical farm), and most of the other buildings also have rooftop gardens that supplement / support the greater production of the block. The majority of the food will be consumed by the neighborhood, and any surplus could be stored/ sold/shared with another neighborhood. Specialty crops, and probably some other variety would still be available at farm stands that deliver from farms outside the city (probably more common in areas with much limited vertical space).

Naturally, the value system of such neighborhoods would be very different from what it is today. To begin with, gardening (and farming), wouldn’t look like a burden or a chore, but as a way of life that everyone contributes to the food system. This in turn would bring the realization of the sense of interconnectedness we have with the social, environmental and economic spheres of our lives, and cultivate mutual responsibility. A necessary outcome of such an approach is also, in my opinion, a change to our diets and menu – we will mainly eat much more vegetables and much less meat. To begin with, in order to support more vegetable and fruits demand the out-of-city farmers would transition away from corn (that feeds cattle mostly) and soy in order to grow fruits and vegetables. This would also greatly reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture but that is a different conversation. To inspire in the way that our conversation begun, and as my coworker said recounting his childhood memories from wild berries, we have to focus on sparking the imagination of food in order for this to happen.