Foodscaping our front yards for our health our communities our world

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i

hated tomatoes growing up and onions too

ugh the only vegetables i would really

eat were either in salsa

or pizza sauce

now i love vegetables all the incredible

variety of flavors and textures

and this year we’ll grow over a thousand

pounds of produce

and it’s not a farm it’s a foodscape

we live on a city lot right here in

ogden

and i gotta tell you there is no better

tasting

more nutritious food than the food you

grow yourself

and i don’t think we can blame our kids

for not liking vegetables

when they taste like water and the

cardboard they were shipped across the

country

two months before my 21st birthday i got

really sick

and ended up in the icu found out i was

type 1 diabetic

and it’s not easy but i really think

it’s turned out to be a good thing

i learned really quick that pizza

destroys my blood sugar

but if i have a single slice and a salad

it’s not so bad

so i started eating more fruits and

vegetables but for years

i still didn’t really like them and you

know

the key to good health diabetes or not

is healthy food years later i was in

graduate school and our campus

apartment had this amazing community

garden

so my wife and i got a plot and

ironically

we planted tomatoes and

everything changed when i tasted that

first homegrown tomato

i just had no idea they could taste like

that

crazy sweet cherry tomatoes and huge

delicious heirlooms

i couldn’t get over it and it got me

thinking you know

how many of us grow up not knowing the

flavor of real fresh fruits and

vegetables

people are fed but they aren’t nourished

unhealthy food is all around us and a

little bit of healthy food that’s around

doesn’t have any real flavor the fruits

and vegetables

at stores usually don’t taste very good

and food doesn’t have the nutritional

value it used to

davis 2004 compared 43 crops from 1950

to 99 and found significant declines

in calcium iron phosphorus protein

vitamin b2 and vitamin c

i think it’s by growing our own food

that we can rediscover the flavor and

nutrition of healthy food

in my case growing food

has totally changed my own perspective

but until 2017 we had only grown food in

our backyard

so one day i’m out in the front yard and

a mow in the grass

you know and the more i mowed the more i

thought about how silly it was to put

time money and energy into something

that doesn’t really give us anything in

return

it’s basically just curb appeal right

that’s when i started thinking you know

there’s no reason you can’t grow food

and have it look amazing too

one of my favorite examples is espalier

fruit trees

it’s where you basically grow an edible

fruit fence

and they look super cool and they

provide delicious fruit

and they encourage you to share with

your neighbors

our approach to foodscape design puts

the food bearing plants front and center

they are the features

so now our entire front yard is

foodscaped and you know when you grow

food in the backyard it’s private right

but when you put it in the front it

becomes a part of the community

people who walk by can’t help but slow

down and look around

and when they see us out there they ask

us questions

it starts conversations honestly i think

for most people when they see it in

person at first they’re in

awe and then it just sort of clicks like

why doesn’t every front yard look like

this

how many lawns are there that are

already being maintained but aren’t

really being used

according to a study in the journal

environmental management turf grass

is the number one irrigated crop in the

u.s

what that means is we use more water to

grow grass than we do to grow anything

else

and in utah i don’t think it’s

necessarily that we love having lawn

especially in the front yard and dumping

massive amounts of water on it

i think we just don’t know what else to

do and don’t get me wrong

i’m not saying that we should get rid of

all grass i love to run on the grass

with my kids

i’m just saying we plant it even when

nobody uses it

and you can’t eat the grass

the key to good health is healthy food

if we’re looking for more space to grow

local

healthy food it’s already there right

we’re planting grass

and wondering why our kids don’t like

vegetables when there’s a solution right

in front of us

in our house we have this birthday

tradition where on our birthday we get

to pick all the meals for the day

this year our six-year-old no joke

chose lettuce for her party

and also ice cream cake

but the lettuce blew me away

now my kids don’t eat everything from

the garden and they aren’t always into

it

but i cherish it when they are

and i know that they’ll do their own

thing and they might not always love

home grown tomatoes the same way that i

do

but i have no doubt that they will grow

up appreciating quality fresh healthy

food

and they’ll know about ecosystems and

how we can be good stewards of the land

i’m blown away by how an eight-year-old

can know so much about beneficial

insects

she’ll be out there telling people no no

that’s not a pest that’s a ladybug larva

she likes the aphids and the dill and

the chamomile flowers

my kids can walk out our front door pick

their own strawberry and i know exactly

what’s not

on it every kid should grow up with

experiences like these

and knowing about real healthy food

and for those who can’t have it at home

we got to food scape our schools

the average american has become so

disconnected from real food and where it

comes from

that food production and environmental

issues are just so far removed from our

radar

i think we treat farming and

sustainability like it’s some giant

living in the hillside

like it’s bigger than us sustainability

is

us our health is tied to our

environmental health

the soil and the air quality look

healthy soil healthy plants healthy food

healthy people i believe that if we

really want to be more

sustainable if we want to pursue healthy

lives for future generations

we need to start right where we live we

need to live it

sustainability is us

the trouble with our current food system

is that things like conventionally grown

apples

which i think maybe we should call

synthetically grown apples by the way

they form our perception for what we

think an apple should cost

after growing my own apples i’ll tell

you it’s not really an apples

apples-to-apples comparison

real apples are grown in healthy soil on

healthy trees trees that are cared for

and grown on well-stewarded land

and the same goes for tomatoes you know

and i totally understand why people

might not want to pay

a dollar each for farmers market

tomatoes

when the tomatoes at the grocery store

like less than half that price

but the thing is that’s not a tomato

that’s water masquerading in a tomato

suit

this is a tomato

our food’s been bred to grow bigger

faster and for storage and ship ability

and it’s picked too early stored too

long and shipped too far

all at the cost of flavor and nutrition

people are fed but they aren’t nourished

these issues are complex but i think the

solution is simple

we need to put the healthy food right in

front of us i think

foodscaping is the way that we can bring

not only beauty to our surroundings

but also affordability flavor and

nutrition

back to our food i don’t think our

broader food system will change until

consumers start wanting real food

and caring about how and where that food

is produced

and consumers might caring about real

food when they grow some food themselves

and it doesn’t have to be big and fancy

even if you grow just one tomato plant

it reconnects you with food in a way

that nothing else can

for me it’s been the the connection with

the real food and with the soil

that’s inspired me to truly start caring

about issues like soil degradation

and the importance of compost and

compost if you think about it

it’s pure magic really like how

incredible is it that we can

turn our waste into soil regeneration

why doesn’t every city offer curbside

greenways pick up for compost

when we’re filling our landfill fills

with compostal materials

and we’re rapidly losing soil fertility

why don’t we incentivize incentivize

home food growing the way we do other

sustainable activities

i mean photosynthesis is the original

green energy

so how are we going to bring food

growing to the masses

that’s the big question right i think we

start right where we live

the way our non-profit foodscaping utah

works is we get together volunteers who

help people

foodscape their front yards we all work

together for a couple of hours and then

a master gardener teaches a class

and it’s been so cool to see multiple

generations seasoned master gardeners

working alongside total beginners

and they’ve started showing up in droves

so far we’ve food scape 16 front yards

7 500 square feet that’s over a hundred

thousand gallons of water per year

it doesn’t have to be wasted on unused

grass and that’s

thousands of pounds of the most

nutritious food

that doesn’t have to be shipped across

the globe and that’s just me and a small

group of volunteers

imagine if every community did something

like this

this year with covid we only did a

limited number of foodscapes this spring

but the ones we did do were especially

powerful

for one in particular i remember this

overwhelming feeling of catharsis

just this incredible relief to be out

doing something positive

in the middle of all the stress and

uncertainty

hint when all the work hard work was

done and we took off our masks and

we sat six feet apart

i’ll never forget the look on everyone’s

faces

they just had these giant smiles of

relief

relief to be out of our houses

but relief to be helping people and i

think

satisfaction because we knew that we had

participated in something bigger

food gardening is like a silver bullet

for today’s biggest problems

our own personal health our community

health and our long-term sustainability

and i think foodscaping is how we can

weave healthy food

into our daily lives and sustainable

health

into our surroundings sustainability

is us so foodscape your front yard your

rooftop your school

foodscape your community so we can bring

flavor back to tomatoes

health back to our communities and

sustainability

back to our world thank you and grow

your own

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you