By Beth Buczynski, Care2, January 8, 2012
Millions of people go to bed hungry in
the United States every day. Even though America is one of the richest
countries in the world, a large percentage of its citizens don’t have the means
to secure high quality, healthy foods for their families.
Meanwhile,
thousands of miles of land sit vacant or unused. Some of these vacant
parcels have market potential, writes Michael A.
Pagano, but many won’t rebound soon, if ever. What if instead of allowing
these lots to collect weeds and litter, cities helped residents to transform
them using edible landscaping?
The City of Irvine
decided to try just such an experiment. In 2008, the city was looking for a way
to develop a 7-acre vacant lot that cost taxpayers over $4,000 a year to
maintain (i.e. control the weeds). By collaborating with Southern
California Edison and the Second Harvest Food Bank, among others, the City
created the Incredible Edible park. Just over three years later, produce
harvested from the park helps the food bank feed 200,000 hungry people every month. The site now also includes a bike
trail that connects to the Irvine trail system and the City has plans to add
additional acres in the future.
Watch the video
below to take a tour of the park with John from Growing Your
Greens, and ask yourself
why there isn’t a park like this in every city.
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