Iowa City can easily implement ways to grow food locally.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred people to try new things, but one hobby that requires attention is gardening, especially in the Iowa City community. Iowa City could use more than four community gardens, and with multiple unused open spaces, more urban gardening could be implemented.
Urban gardening is when people grow plants in an urban setting, i.e. on lawns, decks and balconies.
Creating a small garden at home can be quite cheap. Depending on what you grow, you can save money on products that you would normally buy in the store. Urban gardening is something that individuals can easily do as all it takes is solos, seeds, water, and sunlight.
This would help on an individual level as it would save people money, but what about the community level?
There are some solutions to growing more locally. One of them is improving the Iowa City community gardens.
There are currently only four community gardens. Based on the current system of community gardens in Iowa City, people can rent lots for around $ 15 to $ 30.75. This is where the problems begin when individuals rent out land where the focus is on the individual rather than the meeting of neighbors.
Iowa City should encourage people to create their own community gardens so neighborhoods can grow gardens together. People could then get to know their neighbors better while learning valuable lessons about gardening.
Gardening has also proven useful in teaching children healthy eating habits, as it is an alternative to fast food and teaches children to take control of their food.
Iowa City shouldn’t stop there, however. Guerrilla gardening could be a way to grow locally without being stuck in a place like community gardens.
Guerrilla gardening became increasingly popular in Los Angeles when Ron Finley began growing crops on unused public lots such as medians and roadside grass. He has encountered some backlash from the local government who originally claimed it was illegal.
With great public support, however, he was able to change the judgment and it became legal to practice guerrilla gardening. It is still controversial whether or not it is illegal in other states, such as Idaho, to ban growing crops on public land without permission from public land management authorities.
Like community gardens, guerrilla gardening offers a place where other city dwellers can get to know each other and learn about gardening.
All of these solutions can be easily achieved by either pushing for more community gardens or just planting.
Food shortages caused by the pandemic can be addressed by growing locally, which is a relatively inexpensive solution. The people of Iowa City can take their food into their own hands by having it healthier in the garden and providing a reserve supply of food.
In many ways, local growth is more than a solution to current problems, but also to future problems. Iowa City needs to act as soon as possible to take control of its own food by creating more community gardens and guerrilla gardening.
The columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the editor, The Daily Iowan, or any other organization that the author might be involved with.
