[GJM] Fw: [FixGov] Royal Parks to Food Gardens

[mary rose]

This message fits in with what I have suggested previously
with regard to utilizing the huge grassy lawn areas associated 
with most office and light industrial parks.here in the U.S. 

We need to dramatically change the way we think about land
use. And, these wide open spaces while providing ambience 
for the parks are certainly a major waste of land as are the 
green lawns that surround most of our homes.    

The open areas of these parks are maintained through association
fees just as residential areas of clustered homes are maintained 
by association fees.  So, all it would take would be for a change 
in the CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions)  which 
govern the associations to include instructions that these open 
areas include edible organic landscaping. Since the current 
maintenance people for these areas are not familiar with either 
edible or organically grown landscaping, this will entail training 
programs for those who will create efficient food resources that 
replace inefficient land use practices.  

Corporate personnel going back and forth to work each day and
passing by these gardens will be "in-formed" in the process and
begin to take the ideas fomented in this manner home with them. 

Food produced in this manner could be made available free to 
organizations providing food for the hungry.  But it might also
be a good idea to make a percentage of what is produced 
available for sale to the tenants of the buildings surrounding 
the open space growing grounds.  

Another idea is to bring in youth from surrounding schools so 
they may participate in this "learning experience" as well. 
Recall how I previously wrote about "Food From the Hood,"
an L.A. Crenshaw high school  program where youth not only 
grow the food,but produce bottled products, e.g., salad dressings
which are then sold through retail outlets nationally. And from the
proceeds of this company, graduates receive scholarships 
to aid them in going on to acquire college courses in related
subjects.  http://www.certnyc.org/ffth.html
http://www.foodfromthehood.com/2004-2005/food/Home/home.htm  

There would be some tax benefits for corporate participation in 
a program like this, so of interest to all and a win-win situation 
for everyone. 

This type of program could also provide a basis for setting up
Community Learning and Information Centers in every community.
As more growing grounds were established, the program could be
extended to create more retail products and, in turn, more job 
opportunites for homeless and poverty-stricken people. 

Once started here in the U.S. it could be expanded internationally. 

As I wrote previously on this, all it takes is someone to step forward
and administrate the program.  But, this takes a "big thinker" and 
how to locate one is a good question. However, what pops into my
mind as I'm writing is the name: Lynne Twist.  Ms. Twist, if you recall 
is the author of "The Soul of Money." And, she was for 20 years, head 
of The Hunger Project. http://www.thp.org/.  She now has her own 
organization: http://www.soulofmoney.org/about/about-lynne-twist

I am currently over my head in projects as I am working to pull together
the Crystal Clearwater Alliance in order to get the website up that will
connect everyone worldwide who is into sustainable living and self-reliance. 
And as well, facilitating the Co-learner's list, and tending to our garden
here on the ranch.  All the while continuing my research for The Sacred
Quest of the Who of I Am, and writing a chapter outline now and then 
when time permits.

In further considering this, it might be possible to find a graduate of the Food
>From the Hood program who has completed their college education and has 
some related experience now behind them that could do start up and management
of a program this size.  Everyone put on their thinking caps and let's see if we can
move this one from the first step to worldwide.solution to a big problem. There is
unlimited potential here to do this.    

So, is there anyone on the Co-Learner's list who would volunteer to 
draft up a short outline of this proposal along with a cover letter to 
Ms. Twist, so we could get this project underway and benefitting 
the world?  

With love and in gratitude again, Bill, for all that you do and all that 
we do together. 

    .     

  
     

     .    


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bill Ellis 
To: LearningCommunities 
Cc: FixGov FixGov ; Judith Zimmerman 
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 4:08 AM
Subject: [FixGov] Royal Parks to Food Gardens


FORWARD
Could American cities feed themselves ?

Seeds of change: cabbages and carrots could replace flowers in royal 
parks
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/gardens/story/0,,2288118,00.html
Sam Jones
Monday June 30, 2008
The Guardian

Designed for the Prince Regent by the architect John Nash, Regent's 
Park is noted for its lovingly tended blooms. But soon the flower beds 
of that - and other London royal parks - could make way for rows of 
humble carrots, cabbages and globe artichokes.

In a plan inspired by American cities, the royal parks are pondering 
the creation of a string of model allotments to give the public a 
living, ripening illustration of the virtues of growing your own fruit 
and vegetables.

"The royal parks' role is not to have huge areas of land changed, but 
to act as a demonstration area to show what can be achieved," said 
Colin Buttery, the parks' chief executive. "We very much want to 
support the idea of people growing their food by doing small-scale 
demonstrations."

Buttery was one of a group of London officials who visited the US this 
year to see how American cities were feeding themselves. "We went to 
Grant Park in Chicago and they had some quite formal beds that had been 
converted into vegetable production but which were still quite 
physically and floristically attractive," he said. "They were clearly 
producing food but they had selected certain vegetables to give 
structure to the beds, so they had globe artichokes that produce 
flowers as well as a product."

Last month, the royal parks set up two dig-for-victory allotments in St 
James's Park to show schoolchildren the benefits of sustainability and 
recycling. The experiment has proved a success and demonstrated that 
the green-fingered need not fall prey to the light-fingered. "It's been 
quite intriguing - the allotment garden at St James's has had no 
problems at all," said Buttery. "I don't know if we've been lucky, or 
it's because we encourage people who visit to take the produce away 
with them. Schoolchildren have found it amazing to take away tomatoes 
and eat them later in their sandwiches."

The royal parks' allotment plan is one of the subjects on the agenda of 
the Growing Food for London conference which opens today. The event, 
held at City Hall, will bring together a coalition of 
environmentalists, food growers, park-keepers and architects to discuss 
how best to keep the capital fed.

Ben Reynolds, of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming 
which is hosting the conference, believes that urban agriculture is 
already beginning to take root in Britain's cities. "We've had a lot of 
interest in this, and it's coming from a few different angles," he 
said. "There are the people wanting to grow their own food because 
they've been inspired by Jamie Oliver and then there are the people who 
have had allotments for years."

While the Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall effect may have helped 
vegetable seed sales outstrip flower seeds sales for the first time, 
Reynolds argues that economics also play a big part in our budding 
taste for horticulture. Rising oil, gas and food prices have all 
conspired to make urban agriculture "a very topical issue".

He points to Havana, in Cuba, whose residents grow 40-50% of their own 
food through economic necessity.

If food shortages and prices continued increasing, and climate change 
worsened, he said, "we'll get people saying 'Well, bugger this, if I 
can't get the food I want, I'll grow it myself.'"

Another of the topics at the conference will be how to combine social 
housing and urban agriculture. A joint briefing paper by Sustain and 
the Women's Environmental Network sets out the health and money-saving 
benefits of growing food in and around London's social housing, which 
makes up more than 20% of the capital's homes.

Other initiatives include encouraging cultivation on derelict council 
facilities, planting more fruit and nut trees in parks and along roads, 
and getting people to use whatever green space they have, be it a 
windowbox or a roof garden.

"This conference is about saying that you don't need to have your own 
allotment or a huge garden to grow your own vegetables," said Buttery. 
"It's about the link between how food is raised and what it tastes like 
on the plate."

Dr Martin Caraher, reader in food and health policy at City University, 
agrees that the conference is a timely one. "I heard some people saying 
that the problem is that the food crisis hasn't hit properly yet and 
we're not feeling the pinch. But some people - like those who live in 
flats and rented accommodation - have started to feel the pinch but 
have fewer options to grow their own things."

The problem, he said, was reaching a social, political and economic 
consensus. And legislators and planners - the latter of whom "hate food 
in cities because it's messy" - would need a huge amount of 
persuasion."



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