The Urban Farming Lifestyle

By Cindy Naas

When I planted my first vegetable garden in the city, I was hoping for a connection between my dad’s farm and my children, and also wanted a few good tomatoes.

I hoped that I would be able to gain both from my few pots of cherry tomatoes and my small rows of lettuce.

What I really got out of it was a renewed love of gardening, a much keener interest in issues affecting farms and farmers, and some pretty basic lifestyle changes.

Here are a few areas in which urban gardening has affected my life:

A greener lifestyle: the city I live in has always pushed recycling since I moved here, and I was an enthusiastic supporter. However, I began to rethink how I recycled, and now everything I throw away is examined to see if it has a secondary use before being recycled in the blue bins for the recycling truck. If I can reuse something, that’s an even greener way to recycle, and I’ve gotten some good things for my garden, too.

A commitment to local farms: As the urban farming movement grows, the ‘eat local’ movement grows too. Many of us who Read the rest of this entry »