Taking food back to its roots

Someone once said, "Who do you think you are? You won't get far. Unless you eat." (Source: Checkers Commercial, circa 1999).

These poignant words still ring true today: Everybody eats food. And yet, we are so disconnected from the process of growing it.

Only about 1 percent of the United States labor force works in farming, forestry and fishing. And only 1 percent of our gross domestic product comes from agriculture, with a whopping 77 percent coming from the service sector. This wasn't always the case.

For me, the last farmers in my family were my grandpa and uncles. For you, it could be another generation before, while for others it may be two generations ago. Look before then and you'll realize that at one point, virtually all of our ancestors toiled with soil.

But then this thing called the Industrial Revolution happened. It hit the 18th and 19th centuries like a punch and brought a host of improvements in the quality of life for average Americans. But in our migration to the cities, we left a lot behind.

Today, it is all too easy for us to feel disconnected and powerless as we go through our daily routines in an increasingly complex society. We spend so many hours every day in front of screens and there are so many uncertainties, complexities and technologies we rely on. We are told to just accept it, even if we'll never really understand it.

One countervailing force that helps me feel grounded and in control of my life is growing my own food. This summer, I planted strawberries, two peach trees, two blueberry bushes and three raspberry canes at my house in Silver Spring. I also got involved in the Rooftop Community Garden here on the campus where I planted some tomatoes, eggplant, a grapevine and more raspberry canes.

I had never really gardened before or even thought about where my food comes from. But I found out this summer my food does not have to come from the grocery store. It felt good to get my hands dirty and to see new growth on my peach trees when I looked out my kitchen window.

One of the best parts of growing my own food has been separating myself from huge agri-business firms, such as Monsanto, that are known to abuse workers, ship food thousands of miles, bully smaller family farms and peddle genetically modified food. Finally, it was easier than I thought (I only killed a few plants along the way), and cheap (my raspberry canes were $5 each on the Internet).

People need work and people need food. There is no shortage of space in the urban environment, as many roofs and parking lots can be converted into gardens or host planter boxes. One in seven American households are food insecure.

Fortunately, organizations like theurbanfarmingguys.com are leading the way in agriculture innovation in every major city, building the self-reliance that can help communities help themselves to prosper in any economy.

I'm not telling you to birth cows, Terps family. I'm not telling you to sit on a mountaintop and cry. But I am urging you to give growing your own food a shot. As a friend of mine said, it's easy to be a bean-counter. But what we really need right now are seed-planters.

As part of a huge national movement to grow your own food, four organizations on this campus were founded in the past few years: the Rooftop Community Garden, Am Ha'Aretz (at Hillel), the Public Health Garden and the St. Mary's Garden Club.

So get involved — we can have a healthy, prosperous today. All we need to do is sow the seeds.

Ben Simon is a senior government and politics major. He can be reached at simon@umdbk.com.