Day 4: The Soil Will Save Us

Do civilizations fail because soils fail or do soils fail because civilizations don’t know how to take care of the ground beneath their feet? From the book, The Soil will Save Us

Dirt is the new revolution!!

The goal of today's readings is to help you think differently every time you see a vacant lot or wasted food.

Have you ever thought seriously about dirt and food? People are becoming dirt entrepreneurs, land-use visionaries, and urban farmers to address significant problems, mainly food insecurity, food deserts, and hunger.

Have you ever thought about becoming part of a food organization or following a food group on social media? Becoming smart about food and the soil can make a difference in the lives of individuals and the community. It can also be profitable. We will  ground our conversation in community resilience.

There are almost a billion people struggling to get enough to eat. However, in the U.S., people throw away more than 30 percent of the food after they buy it. The price is so low that they don't value it.

Today, we will read two texts that provide ideas for turning food and garbage into profits. This lesson was inspired by the book, The Soil Will Save Us by Kristin Ohlson.

History shows us that you do not need a degree to play in the dirt. However, you do need knowledge. Read your way into the next dirt revolution. There are thousands of vacant lots on Chicago's South and West sides.

 We read about personal resilience or avoiding the Inferno earlier this week. Today's focus is community resilience and its relationship to personal and economic benefits.



I look forward to today's writings.

Community Resilience and Soil

     

I learned about that Urban Farming is that you don’t need a degree to farm you need the knowledge to know what you doing and I think urban farming is good because you can save a lot of people that does not have food or people that can’t  live in their own area because of war or put out.

    

I learned about that food Insecurity is there are lack of affordable nutritious food and there are millions of people live everyday with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion. And some of the foods are not healthy for you.

 I learned about that Resilience is that you can have people work with you so you won’t have to work alone and protecting the soil can make you fruits or vegetables grow the right way and partnership is always the best thing to have.

I learned about Greater Authority is that taking charge of something like a position at a job or babysitting your siblings or taking change of your life.

S1H

                               Community Resilience and Soil 

1 in 6 children in the United States lives in a food insecure household. More than 48 million Americans lived in food insecure household in 2014. 24% of households had at least one member in poor health. 66% of households had to choose between food and medical care. 58% had a household member with high blood pressure. 33% had a household member with diabetes. Those numbers and percentages are in the dirt. A lack of access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. More than 800 million people live everyday with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion. Great resilience is the key to change some of these numbers and percentages. Remaining steadfast in the face of things that can place you out of balance, is a big challenge but resilience means having more protections than risks that prevents you from giving up. Five urban farming projects in Chicago to watch in 2017 as apart of the community resilience and soil movement. The farm on Ogden is one to watch. Communities are trying to expand new farming projects throughout the city. We need to become more self-sustainable as a city, so we need to find ways to do more year-round production all around.

S2N

                                          Community Resilience Soil

Lack of access to a sufficient quantity of affordable nutritious food. “More than 800 million people live everyday with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion”. I know this is true because plenty of people in Chicago don’t have food to eat or struggle on getting it. I read the passage five urban farming projects in Chicago to watch in 2017. There is a Chicago Botanic Garden urban farming program that grows more than 100000 pounds of produce food a year in addition to training low income people of color how to farm. I see this as a great way to end hunger in Chicago because they are building these urban farms in vacant lots in Chicago. And there is thousands of vacant lots all through Chicago. I feel like if people take advantage and put the lots to use we can really cut the amount of people that struggle with food real low. It provides jobs and new skills and provides plenty of food for the hungry and the poor in the communities in Chicago. And there reusing scraps of food to grow fresh food so that way landfills will not fill up with waste. 52 million tons of material being dumped into landfills that can be repurposed and reused in these urban gardens. After reading this passage, I feel like if everyone puts there part into “urban farming” in Chicago hunger is going to be a thing in the past and nobody will struggle anymore for food and will be much more healthier other than eating fast food.

S3T

Community Resilience And Soil

As you should know, “more than 800 million people live everyday with hunger or food insecurity as their constant companion”. This lack of access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food has awoken vice president Angela Mason. She has taken in Chicago cavernous vacant building and turning it into an indoor farm and community center. “The plans are to promote and coordinate urban farming efforts, provide microgrants and training through partnerships with existing nonprofits, and prepare vacant land in Englewood neighborhood for farming”. This would also provide more job opportunity.

S4N