As you know, we have untold acreage within town that can easily be converted to sustainable gardens. There are several main benefits from doing this:
1. Reduced Gas Consumption from less mowing.
2. Increased Local Economy and Income for Households (see below).
3. Increased Education and Participation from the Community.
4. Less Distance for Food to Travel.
5. Security of Food Supply.
While this would be a good spot for private enterprise, I believe this project would be best managed and funded by the City. The basic idea is as follows:
First, the City announces that anyone who wishes to give their lawns for the "City Garden Project" (or whatever it will be called) will receive a portion of the produce sales at the Farmer's Market or other markets (such as Hy-Vee). In addition, perhaps not advertised, these lawn-owners would have immediate access to the food grown on their land.
The City could then sponsor a one-to-two week hands-on educational certificate training program, run by M.U.M's Sustainable Living Department. Those who complete the course will be hired by the City to transform volunteer's lawns into gardens. By continuing this process, the City could create "roaming bands of gardeners" in charge of, essentially, farming Fairfield.
There are many benefits from a community-based structure, the best of which is increased efficiency. For example:
- By having a city-wide oversight, timing and types of crops can be localized to reduce unnecessary traveling.
- The City can set aside some land as a central composting area, where many types of compost can be made, and then distributed via truck as needed across the city.
By selling the produce, the City can recoup a large segment of money spent. The aim should be profitability, that the community itself will improve by the increased cash flow for our local government. I assume that the City would maintain it's own booth at the Farmer's Market, which could be used to help fix or float the rest of the market by adjusting prices as needed. It could also interface with nearby food distribution centers in the county, and then nearby counties. In short, there should be no shortage of demand for our local food, and the more we sell the greater the project becomes.
Payback for the people who give their lawns to the project can be figured out by how much land they give - say, some percentage of yearly profit based per square yard. Some special allowance would have to be made for those who own/operate/have greenhouses, as they can continue to produce year-round.
It would become tricky if, say, a family eats everything their lawn produces and then receives a check as well. There are ways around this.
One idea is the make several different plans that a family could opt-in on. For Example:
- Setup Plan 1: The family pays a fee to the City, which is partially flat-fee and the rest based on square yardage. This means the Fairfield Gardeners will garden their land in exchange for that fee, and the family can do what they want to with the produce (eat, sell, trade, whatever).
- Setup Plan 2: The family/householder donates their lawn to the City. The City takes full responsibility for it's care, and takes the full harvest of produce. Based on the size of the land donated, the householder gets a percentage of sales of that produce OR a percentage of city-wide sales of all produce to minimize risk should a crop fail or not sell well.
- Setup Plan 3: A hybrid of the two, perhaps a flexible plan where a homeowner can trade a portion of cash-return for a portion of fresh produce (in effect, buying food from the City at a discount).
I'm sure someone smarter than me can find a good solution to this situation.
The best part of all of this is it's flexibility. It could start small, with just a few lawns, and grow from there. This plan could create hundreds of jobs as people find they can make money AND food by working for the City, and Fairfield could transform quickly into a self-sustaining, overabundant producer of food for the region, with every group reaping profit (City, Individual and Homeowner). I make the assumption that our local government works for our best interest, so even if it becomes a huge success it will control supply and prices at the local Farmer's Market to keep private enterprise alive. It can do this by increasing the range and markets in which the City Produce is sold, which will in turn open doors for private farms as well.
As far as I can see, this is win-win-win across the board:
Increased Profits for the City and the Local Economy,
Increased and Healthier Food for the Community,
Increased Support and Exposure for the University,
Increased Media Attention, which leads to
An Influx of Eco-Tourism to see how a small town can easily provide for itself.
Ron Khare
Author of "The Sharp Knife of Forced Simplicity, Volume 1: The Numinous Rebellion"
#1 in Sustainable Agriculture, #1 in Taoism on Amazon.com!
www.ForcedSimplicity.com - ronkhare@gmail.com
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