Add community oriented farms to the conversation

community gardens, gardens, community 1 Minute

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Gadfly:

I had a second comment.  (cf. “Maintaining a community is harder than maintaining a garden“)

I think the distinction between community gardens and farms is important. Both are important. To me, a community garden is more about improving quality of life by giving people in cities a conveniently located place to dig in the dirt, grow a few plants, learn, play, and interact with neighbors. A community-oriented farm can provide some of those benefits but is scaled up (more land, equipment, paid staff) to provide a much more significant amount of food to the community. The Seed Farm in Emmaus is a good example. And then there are organizations like Rolling Harvest that focus on the distribution of food, which is the biggest need right now. Farmers are producing plenty of food to feed everyone in this country, but we need governmental and nonprofit leadership to get the food to the people.

Gray Simpson

Published by The Bethlehem Gadfly

Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.

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One thought on “Add community oriented farms to the conversation”

  1. I think Lafayette College’s LaFarm does a good job providing food to the community, both directly and through the Kellyn Foundation & the summer nights project that host community meals in local parks. Because it is a college project, it depends on the college for infrastructure needs, not the city.

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