Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Erik: Based on your experience, what is the greatest challenge preventing home and community
gardens from having a larger impact of the American food economy?
Cathy: Well, there’s just not enough of them right now and there is not enough participation
throughout all different types of communities. I think that people feeling that they have
to work around the clock and actually having to do that limits their amount of time they
spend going to gardens and growing things. It’s kind of like having a dog, you have
to look over your vegetable patch if you want it to grow successfully you have to take some
time. I think that what I’ve been seeing that there is a lot of community gardens in
a work place. Like in an office space, they have a garden outside. That is something that
employers could do to make their employees have a better lifestyle. Like instead of a
pool table or a snack machine they can invest in this as one of their expenses. They should
engage their, enrich their employers lives with community gardens. Community gardens
in the neighborhood are great, but there’s just not that many and they are so small.
Yeah, they’re small. I’m thinking of this city but I’ve seen a lot of community garden
in suburbs, you name it. They’re just this little patch and a lot of people can’t visualize
that being anything substantial in their food supply.
Erik: I think that’s a really interesting point. Why not invest in a garden? Big corporations
also have campuses, so, why can’t a corporate campus also have a garden. Because people
may want to go and work out, and they have a gym, and hey have showers and some people
might want to go during lunch and go garden. And that can be brought around to building
a stronger culture. You’re onto something.
Cathy: And, also teamwork too. You can share the duties of these plants.