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KellnerAAG15
- 1. Community Gardens and Food Security in Denver, Colorado Based on: University of Denver Thesis Research Proposal Grace Kellner
- 3. Huffington Post The Inside Post
- 5. shiftn.com Culture Politics and Governance Science and Technology Environment Energy Economics Food Security
- 7. How? Food Security Yadav Bajagai
- 8. Who? Communities of color Low-income communities Inner city residents Children
- 9. Alternative Food & Denver
- 10. Denver as a Case Study Unique situation in Denver Shorter growing season Growing population Water limitations Limits in foods that can be grown Climate Change Progressive Sustainability Efforts Office of Sustainability
- 12. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- The title in the program uses the term “food justice”, instead of food security, which is what I will more be discussing today. Define community garden: “urban gardens that produce food products and are created and maintained by community members” * Community gardens are part of a broader social movement around sustainable food systems, thus enabling the garden movement to reach non-gardeners and to influence policies that support healthy and active lifestyles. Research Questions: How do community gardens in Denver affect food security for households who participate in the gardening process? In what ways do community gardens contribute economically to garden participants? How does garden location and accessibility influence garden participation? How does the socioeconomic status and racial profile of gardeners compare to that of residents surrounding the garden?
- When we picture hunger, what do we think of? Often images of hungry children in developing areas, like many countries in Africa.
- It is difficult to picture these individuals as hungry. It’s easy to write off homeless individuals as not doing enough to help themselves, and with children, hunger is often hidden in the form of obesity which is a characteristic of malnutrition.
- While the majority of undernourished people obviously reside in the developing world, in 2010 there were 49 million food insecure households in the US. *** In 2010, 17% of all urban households in the US experienced food insecurity “Hunger can persist in the midst of adequate aggregate supplies because of lacking income opportunities for the poor and the absence of effective social safety nets”. The underlying problem is money. Without money you have to choose between paying rent, for medicine, for food, or for clothes/school supplies, etc. Low income literally harms people in terms of health. NOTE: I do not naively believe that community gardens will solve global food security problems, but I think that they may have an impact on food security for some urban people. I want to know to what degree this is or is not true.
- We have a food system that is massively complicated. We also have a food system that is massively important. It is also broken in that it does a good job at producing food, but produces mass negative externalities that disproportionately harm low-income people, and people of color. Economic injustice Environmental injustice Issues with our current food system: Neoliberal Corporate food regime Subsidies for farmers in the EU and US Encouraged overproduction Undermined food production in global south Corporate conglomeration 5 firms control 48% of all US food retailing >80% of all beef packing in four firms >90% of global grain trade controlled by 3 corporations Mechanization and monocultures Soil erosion and depletion Water pollution Soil subsidence Factory food cheaper than healthy, fresh food Diet-related illnesses Obesity Diabetes malnutrition Resource-intensive food system Decrease in food quality Crops have to be able to travel long distances without going bad or bruising Results in a loss of nutrients Disparities in food cost and location Inner-city food more expensive than food in suburbs Food deserts Food access Income disparity Redlining Food access and food security Concentrated, specialized food system Hunger in a wealthy nation
- I have some of the w’s listed (Who, what, when, where, how?) – but we know what it is hunger, when it is now ****Today, due to time constraints, I will discuss the who and how. The what is hunger, we know this. The where is more complicated, and for now I am focusing on the US, specifically cities because that is where the majority of the population is, and Where do food justice and food security fit into the food system? I need to know for my research. Food Justice = “communities exercising their right to grow, sell, and eat food that is fresh, nutritious, affordable, culturally appropriate, and grown locally with care for the well-being of the land, workers, and animals”. – Organization Just Food. Food security: Whether a community or household has access to enough fresh, healthy food, or the food that they want to consume, in order to meet their caloric demand. More than just access and quantity, but takes into account quality of the food consumed. “Equity is an important principle for a successful food system; everyone must have equal access to healthy, safe, and fresh food.” Food system as a racial project: we have problems with race and class, production, distribution, consumption, and access to food Equal access to healthy food Like that of many progressive movements, the leadership of a fair food movement was for many years primarily white and middle class. AT THE SAME TIME, those who are being most negatively affected are on the lower rungs of the economic ladder and often live in communities of color. It does a bad job of actually feeding people
- “Access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum: The ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. – USDA World bank report in 1986 included “access of all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life” World Food Summit – “Food security at the individual, household, national, regional and global levels is achieved when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” FAO: similar definition that takes into account access, nutritional food, availability of food, stability of access, availability, and nutritional food. One of these indicators is food security, which we can measure through surveying people in terms of how secure they feel in their access to food and access to the type of food they like. This is where my research fits in: Do community gardens contribute to a more sustainable food system in Denver, and if so, to what degree, and for what people, and where? If they don’t, why don’t they, and in what ways can we support a sustainable food system, if not through the creation and management of community gardens? THE AVAILABILITY OF FOOD DOES NOT ENSURE ACCESS, AND ENOUGH CALORIES DO NOT ASSURE A HEALTHY AND NUTRITIONAL DIET. have to look at access and include “healthy” food. Nothing inherently environmentally or socially just about local. Gardening is hugely time-intensive CSAs, farmers markets, and other food security projects actually “disproportionately serve white and middle-to upper-income populations” Universalism: the assumption that values held primarily by whites are normal and widely-shared. Obviously not the case. Food production is not an easy task, and romanticizing it benefits nobody, but makes it seem easy for new gardeners/farmers. ***No space is race neutral! Run the risk of offending people, or putting off survey respondents by assuming they are low-income, non-white, or struggle with food security. Is it even possible to create an environmentally sustainable agriculture and food system?
- The graph shows the prevalence of very low food security in the US in 2013. The circled bars on the graph are: The first one shows that the percent very low food security for households of Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and other race/ethnicity are all higher than those of white. The second: the ratio of income to poverty and its relationship with food insecurity. Under 1.0, Under 1.3, under 1.35, and then 1.85 and above. Communities of color and low-income communities sometimes overlap.
- Well-established alternative food networks and an emphasis on alternative food in Denver Given what a fair, sustainable food system should look like, how can this be applied to Denver, and how do community gardens fit into this vision?
- To what degree does growing your own food here, whether in a community garden or in a backyard garden, contribute to increased food security and sustainability for the city? Climate change: increasing drought instances, decreased availability of fresh water that needs to be distributed amongst more people. Sustainability for Denver. Is it possible for gardeners to produce enough food in the months where production is possible so that they can support their family throughout the entire year? CO is expected to warm by 2.5 degrees F by 2025, and 4F by 2050. Warmer temperatures will affect evaporation rates in our rivers, streams and reservoirs, perhaps making less water available for beneficial use. The Office of Sustainability in Denver, CO has a set of sustainability goals for 2020. One of these is to grow and/or process at least 20% of food purchased in Denver. Where I fit into this is that I will contribute to the growing body of knowledge regarding food security in urban areas – this is a unique case study that will add to the handful of similar case studies that exist. But, this case study is unique due to the aforementioned issues with which Denver must grapple. Is it even possible for people to be sustainable in food production? Why does any of this matter? Because food should be a basic human right. But it is not. And the ability to have space within a city to grow one’s food can help provide someone with the ability to have a secure source of food during the growing season.
- How can I make a meaningful impact in my own, small way by investigating Denver community gardens and the impact of food security for the gardeners? DUG helped grow 899 tons of produce which is valued at $3,077,680. They do a weighing project every year where they weigh the produce from community gardens (7 yrs) Altogether, the gardens are 878,750 sq feet Estimate that every square foot of garden yields 1.23 lbs of produce Each pound of organic produce would cost an average of $1.71 based on a survey of organic produce prices for produce that can be grown in Colorado In total, 540 tons of produce Research Questions: How do community gardens in Denver affect food security for households who participate in the gardening process? In what ways do community gardens contribute economically to garden participants? How does garden location and accessibility influence garden participation? How does the socioeconomic status and racial profile of gardeners compare to that of residents surrounding the garden?