Garden as Democracy
Every spring, I get excited about getting out of the house and working in the soil. Planting something…. anything.
A library is sometimes the furthest place from the timeless agrarian traditions that have permeated human cultures for millennia. One can read Hesiod and Berry only so long before the urge to implement their philosophies becomes necessary. The many great "how to" books on agricultural topics are meant to be read and applied directly into practice. There are no "arm chair agrarians".
Growing anything is a difficult proposition when you live in an apartment (which I have for much of my life). It is difficult to grow anything when you don't have access to land. If I was Adam Smith, I would be pissed that I was missing one of the key "factors of production". As it is, I am always looking for places to plant and grow things...it is in my blood.
Apartment residents are often disenfranchised and cut off from the possibility of engaging in one of the oldest of human activities: growing food. In an increasingly urbanized society, this may be cause for concern. The global demographic shift to cities is unprecedented in world history. For the first time, most of the global population will call cities their home. As many of the agro-philosophs ask, "what does this hold for democracy, culture and the timeless knowledge of the land?"
Growing food is one of the most democratic and empowering acts that anyone can participate in. The essence of liberty is having control of your own food sources. Many of the agrarian writers note the importance of this as a condition of democracy. Victor Davis Hanson writes of the key role of early Greek farmers in creating the democratic revolution that still reverberates in our society today.
There are many interesting models and ideas out there that approach the issue developing an urbanized agriculture. Some of the new models for sustainable communities employ agriculture right into the urban landscape. Global climate change puts a new twist on all this that makes it more necessary to think about some of these models and act soon.
A library is sometimes the furthest place from the timeless agrarian traditions that have permeated human cultures for millennia. One can read Hesiod and Berry only so long before the urge to implement their philosophies becomes necessary. The many great "how to" books on agricultural topics are meant to be read and applied directly into practice. There are no "arm chair agrarians".
Growing anything is a difficult proposition when you live in an apartment (which I have for much of my life). It is difficult to grow anything when you don't have access to land. If I was Adam Smith, I would be pissed that I was missing one of the key "factors of production". As it is, I am always looking for places to plant and grow things...it is in my blood.
Apartment residents are often disenfranchised and cut off from the possibility of engaging in one of the oldest of human activities: growing food. In an increasingly urbanized society, this may be cause for concern. The global demographic shift to cities is unprecedented in world history. For the first time, most of the global population will call cities their home. As many of the agro-philosophs ask, "what does this hold for democracy, culture and the timeless knowledge of the land?"
Growing food is one of the most democratic and empowering acts that anyone can participate in. The essence of liberty is having control of your own food sources. Many of the agrarian writers note the importance of this as a condition of democracy. Victor Davis Hanson writes of the key role of early Greek farmers in creating the democratic revolution that still reverberates in our society today.
There are many interesting models and ideas out there that approach the issue developing an urbanized agriculture. Some of the new models for sustainable communities employ agriculture right into the urban landscape. Global climate change puts a new twist on all this that makes it more necessary to think about some of these models and act soon.
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