Now Here's Something to Make You Smile...

Down but not out, indeed, LGS!

Jim Kunstler predicted a while back that we'd be seeing a lot more small scale urban agriculture with the decline of cheap oil, and it would seem that his notion is coming true, as evidenced by this rather interesting story on yesterday's Morning Edition. Urban Farming, the group profiled in the story, has already begun to expand beyond its native Detroit, into New York, Newark, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities, St. Louis... What I find really interesting is that rather than following the community garden model, they take a totally open source approach and make their projects available to the community at large; neighbors, volunteers, even the homeless (especially the homeless...) are welcome to give to or take from the project what they can or what they need. What's left over goes to local food banks. Pretty amazing stuff!

I think we'll be seeing more stories like this one in the future: Communities left behind by a shrinking manufacturing economy finding new ways to make do for themselves. It's a shame that so much has to be lost in order for people to rethink their relationship to their surroundings, put it's all part of the game, I suppose. But enough with my cynicism, already. This kind of thing really does give me hope for the future.