The following is a reflection and expansion on the state of the Lobo Gardens located at UNM campus.
How do our daily, essential food practices affect the world around us?
My group and I arrived at Hokona garden at 2:00pm to show Mara, our fellow group member the tasks we have been completing thus far. We showed her our vertical garden that is home to wild flowers, arugula, cilantro, lettuce and bell peppers. Each of us visits the garden once a week to ensure they are sufficiently moist and not overrun by weeds.
It is of great consensus that we need a new watering hose, or at least a key to turn the faucet nearest our vertical garden on. The current hose is riddled with holes as if it functions as an irrigation system needing to water multiple beds strewn across the ground. Attempts at patching up the holes resemble band-aids on a child that likes to climb trees.
Hokona is a pollinator garden that hosts a small variety of flowers and herbs that encourage visitors such as butterflies or bumble bees to frequent the pentagonal garden. The garden would inspire visitors of the student variety if sufficient seating arrangements were established. I also feel the addition of more shade would help raise awareness of its existence.
My group also noted the need for shade for our vertical gardens. We are lucky enough to have two vertical gardens available to us, however one of the gardens is struggling. We believe the reason for this is its location, it withstands far too many hours of direct sunlight. I imagine those poor plants trying to grow beneath the scorching soil wishing for an abundance of water.
Analogues to a food desert the plants receiving too much sun are parched in the nutrients they desperately need to grow. Because plants cannot walk to the nearest watering hole they simply do not develop. Unfortunately, the same happens to humans when they are not provided with accessible nutritious food. Not everyone has a car and some locations cannot be reached by walking alone.
Building a portable shade contraption for the vertical garden can been seen as building food pantries in communities deficient of locations that offer nutritious options. The problem with food deserts however, is not only that the locations are far away but also that healthier options are higher in cost. If we water the plant underneath a flaming sun does the soil not dry up too quickly for the plant to receive its nutrients? Likewise a person cannot feed themselves healthy food if they can’t afford it.
Unfortunately, we cannot teach the plant to water itself. However, we can construct devices that diminish the amount of times we must water or physically water our gardens. Building a shade and irrigation system will retain moisture and ensure plants are not getting burned or dried up by the sun. Similarly, food pantries meet the basic needs of the under-privileged.
Food pantries help teach people about balancing a diet by providing the needy with food. They can also help in the production of food sheds. It has become more and more popular to grow your own food and the alliance between food pantries and local community gardens can dramatically change the way we as a society view our food. We can offer the recipients of the food to work in the gardens with us, therefore, teaching them skills needed to help them feed themselves.
The ability to take care of yourself is empowering. Like the saying goes, “you can give a man fish and feed him for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime”. Gardening and food pantries create a medium to teach people how to take care of themselves. By growing our own food we become aware of not only our own needs but the needs of the world around us.
Food culture defines individual identities and the lack of food can only be a detrimental factor to a person. This is because human beings literally need food to survive, but like the thirsty plant, lack of the correct nutrients inhibit growth; humans are no different. What kind of culture will a child have if they are not fed properly? How can their brain and body develop occur correctly without the right amount of vitamins and proteins?
We are extensions of the planet we live on. We grow by eating from what the land produces and then we die to return back to that land of which gave us sustenance. What type of matter are we putting back into the planet when we die? We are defined by our food cultures. Why not base our food culture on the most efficient, safe and healthy way for both humans, the planet and its occupants to benefit?