My obscure Community Studies undergraduate degree provided a multitude of lessons, but the main things I gained were these two ideas: 1. The personal is political. 2. To affect change you must begin right where you are. With these dictums in mind, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about communities that are coming together to become self-sustaining. With food safety threats, economic destruction, globalization, outsourcing of jobs, and the homogenization of our food sources, it is no wonder that people are starting to get more and more organized. It seems like just this week, I have heard about a variety of examples, not just nationally but really close to home here in my small-ish town of Santa Cruz.

My boyfriend and I already try to support our local economy as much as possible and grow our own food. We have our own source of water and know that if the time came, our little mountain road would come together and help each other out. Once we get chickens, pigs, a couple of goats and a grape vine or two, we’ll be even more set. Actually, we’ll never want to go into town even in the most peaceful and harmonious of global climates. We are lucky to have the resources to keep ourselves and our neighbors okay if the shit went down, at least for a longer period of time than most urban and sprawling suburban communities.

But then I hear about Jerry Belanger of Detroit who has created a regional currency called “Cheers” to stimulate inter-city spending and Lyle Estill in North Carolina who is doing the same thing with the Pittsboro Plenty. That town is moving closer and closer to becoming totally self sufficient through their own food and biodeisel co-ops and now, separate money system.

Closer to home, I see so many people on the forefront of creating this momentum, businesses that are sharing a vision through collaboration and supporting each other to promote the importance of keeping the focus on locality. The popularity of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs are a prime example of this concept, where people contribute to their food sources up front in exchange for consistent fresh produce and the knowledge that their dollars go towards supporting a sustainable system. In Santa Cruz County, where organic farms are a dime a dozen and CSA’s have novel length wait-lists, I’m seeing several local farms offer an ever-increasing diversity to their CSA clients. The rise in collaboration between producers is creating an exciting new approach.

Blue Moon Organics in Aptos is a special 40-acre farm tucked away in a unique microclimate where at times, “all four seasons are experienced in one day,” says owner Greg Rawlings. For this reason, their crops feature intense flavor and they are able to grow an incredibly diverse selection of atypical varieties. Greg’s disgust with the polluted disconnect of watching his fellow chemists pour harsh materials down the drain while researching cancer fighting formulas guided him towards his current career, creating healthy food for people and the planet. Co-owner Patrick Deyoung left a lucrative career in finance to get his hands dirty in the farming business for the very same reason. This spring marks Blue Moon’s first CSA schedule, as well as a unique partnership with Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz. Now, the weekly CSA boxes will contain a bag of freshly roasted artisan coffee from farm-direct beans, to the clients who sign up for it. Not only is this a delicious and convenient ideology, it also helps both businesses in that they share marketing efforts, promote each other’s brands, and widen the scope of who becomes involved in this positive food movement.

Another example here is Freewheelin Farm, located on the Santa Cruz Northern coast, who presents a very low impact philosophy to farm delivery. They use bicycles for all distribution, and are now teaming up with another business to increase the variety in their CSA’s. Yellow Wall Farm, located in a sunny pocket near downtown, has the climatic advantage of growing hot summer produce successfully. Because Freewheelin can offer coastal crops like greens, broccoli, herbs and strawberries, the collaboration with Yellow Wall will round out the offerings with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons and orchard fruit while further enhancing a local network and utilizing the benefits of two diverse landscapes.

A purely simple, old-fashioned idea in a modern time comes in the form of I-Rise Bakery. Fortunately for my mountain community, we can have weekly deliveries, straight to our door, of organic sourdough breads, cookies, granola, and scones at amazingly affordable prices. We can pay monthly or upon delivery, and have the pleasure of conversing with the baker each time on our front stoop. It is as basic as the milk bottle service of yore, and so rewarding to support. “By making a conscious choice to know where your food comes from and keeping it local, you strengthen our community,” aptly written on the latest monthly specials list. I-Rise also collaborates with local chicken expert Brandon Faria of Faria Farms. All of the baked products use his eggs, and there is an egg delivery option by the dozen as well.

The ultimate self-sustaining tactic is to grow your own food supply. For those who don’t necessarily have the time, energy, or confidence to utilize their space for edible means, there are now a number of landscapers turned food activists who are doing the work for them. Custom garden consultation, installation, and harvesting is an important service leading the way towards re-thinking our outdoor spaces, especially in urban locales. One such company, GROW, is taking the idea a step further by implementing neighborhood food sharing. Owner David Stimpson envisions a network of yard spaces, each producing crops suited for their particular climate, then harvested, combined, and distributed among the inhabitants. It is essentially a community owned, community created, community grown CSA.

The Dervaes family seem like they’ve come from another time. Only instead of on the prairie, they’ve settled within the city limits of Pasadena, where Jules Dervaes and his children Justin, Anais and Jordanne grow over 6,000 pounds of food, power their computers with solar panels and make their own biofuel on a fifth of an acre in the front and back of their house. They are the focus of a new film by Robert McFalls called Homegrown, which tells the story of eco-pioneering, showing viewers a picture of what our not-so-distant future could look like if we were to live up to our eco-ideals.

The story is a simple one: Jules Dervaes dreamt of cultivating the land, but found himself living in the city without the means to resettle somewhere with acreage. One day, after years of thinking about leaving, he decided instead to do away with his lawn, which he considered too much upkeep for very little return. So the family began to grow edible flowers, later moving onto food and animals (they have chicken, geese and goats). Once they got on this track to self-sufficiency, it was easy to jump to changes in the way energy was being used on their homestead.

Though the film paints a captivating portrait, the poignancy of Homegrown doesn’t rest on this particular family’s ambitions as much as it delivers a new vision of the future food system. What the Dervaes are doing, in some ways, is not new. At one point in recent human history (in my case, my grandparents all grew up on farms) we knew our way around a garden patch. Instead, this film shows that after the industrial revolution has come and gone, and the infrastructure that made us great is already in place, our cities having sprawled, how will we reclaim land and provide for ourselves in a world without easy oil? We will, by necessity, have to get smart about our consumption. We will have to make better use of urban space for garden plots. The Dervaes are so admirable precisely because their effort shows that growing enough to feed a family and more is possible with less land than we’d assumed. In other words, they make a great model.

This is the first film by director Robert McFalls, who spoke at the screening at Green Screens, a regular environmental films showcase at Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. He said he was looking for a story about family and persistence. As a food policy wonk, I could have used more specifics on the food, the planting and planning. But then, after saying that to myself at the end of the film, I realized that the Dervaes have a helpful website that could fill in those blanks for me.

Living in the city is at once the most and least ecological choice; you must endure the pollution, crowded conditions and lack of land but you don’t need a car to go to the farmer’s market, and are in contact with like-minded people with whom you can set-up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Many, including Michael Pollan and Vandana Shiva, are now speaking out on the three-fold energy, food and global warming crisis, saying that these three issues are so intimately connected that they must be dealt with together, and right now. In their way, the Dervaes are doing exactly that. Their genius in growing food in the city is the ability to sell it to local restaurants, creating a relationship between a chef who must have food to serve in order to stay open, and an urban farmer who brings produce by bike or biodiesel car.

But their life is by no means easy. They don’t take vacations, or buy many foods they don’t grow themselves. They often eat the same things again and again. And I could not help but wonder why the grown-up Dervaes children don’t have significant others, and whether or not they will ever move out of their father’s home. Maybe the Dervaes are re-thinking community too, while they are at it. Should we stay close to our families, and create support networks, maybe we would be better adjusted and happier than our doppelganger typing away in a skyscraper cubicle. But it brings into question the notion that President-elect Obama has brought up in his speeches: will we be willing to sacrifice in order to better the planet for all of its inhabitants? Or will we keep going at the rate we are now and see what happens?

Perhaps what we are seeing in Homegrown is a future food system in the making, where, instead of sprawling fields, everyone has a little bit of earth planted.

The election is over, and it’s time to think about the future. Glass ceilings have been shattered, and all sorts of barriers we thought existed have disappeared. I’ve got gardening on my mind…it seems even more important now.

The Victory Gardens of World War I and World War II – and the garden efforts of the Great Depression – helped Americans successfully negotiate hard times. These gardens helped the family budget; improved dietary practices; reduced the food mile and saved fuel; enabled America to export more food to our allies; beautified communities; enabled every American to contribute to a national effort; and helped bridge social, ethnic, class and cultural differences during a time when cooperation was widely needed. Gardens were an expression of solidarity, of patriotism, and shared sacrifice. They were found everywhere…schools, homes, and throughout public spaces in communities all over the nation. No gardening effort was too small. Every effort counted. Americans did their bit. And it mattered.

Consider this: In WWI, the Federal Bureau of Education nationalized a school garden program and funded it with War Department monies. Millions of students gardened at school, at home, and in their communities. A national Liberty Garden (later Victory Garden) program was initiated that called upon all Americans to garden for the nation, and the world. In part because of the success of home gardeners (and careful food preservation), the U.S. was able to increase exports to our starving European Allies. During 1943, an estimated 3/5ths of Americans participated in some sort of gardening activity, including Eleanor Roosevelt, who planted a Victory Garden on the White House Lawn, and Vice President Henry Wallace, who gardened with his son at the VP’s residence. Nearly 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed stateside during 1943 were grown in school, home and community gardens. In addition to providing much-needed food, gardening helped Americans accept the nation’s plurality, providing a positive experience that transcended race, class and socioeconomic divisions. That bridged rural/urban differences. They provided a way for all Americans to provide a service to the nation. Gardens were not a diversion…through gardening efforts, Americans made significant contributions to the war effort.

Our nation has many needs right now. Families need help with their personal economies. Entire communities are food-insecure. We have a tenuous connection with the land, and a poor understanding of our food system. Obesity is an epidemic. Environmental concerns – and declining oil supplies – dictate a need to recreate more sustainable and local food systems. And Americans have proven that they are hungry for change, eager to re-engage with their neighbors, their communities, their nation.

A revival of the successful national gardening programs of the past could help in many, many ways. This would not be a costly program. All of the educational materials that support school, home and community gardens is available through existing government agencies and private organizations. A government-sponsored program through the USDA, state land grant institutions, and county government fields thousands of highly-trained Master Gardeners who could be called upon to share their expertise with school, home and community gardeners.

What is needed to make this idea a reality is an “ask” by our new President. Simply encourage all Americans that can to plant some sort of garden for the spring/summer season of 2009. Encourage them to plant for their families, and their communities. To share extra produce with food banks and the growing number of hungry in our nation. Put a vegetable garden on the White House lawn. (You might consider talking to my friend Roger Doiron about that -visit him at Eat The View).

And please visit my UC Victory Website for additional information about how the past could inform current public policy in this area.

Video: Original WWII film on victory gardening