It starts with a sad story of starving in the first month after I came to the U.S. I have to face up high tuition and no scholarship since the first year of my program......I suddenly became one of the vulnerable and comparative deprived groups. Even though the scale of deprivation is not as severe as my research object, to some extent, I can feel at their feet now. Oh yeah, and sigh~~At least I still have an intuition and habit as a scholar.
I started to grow some leftover garlic and onions in my balcony with used yogurt cans for fun and for a positive mood in the second month. Then followed all types of peppers, tomatoes, peas, potatoes in plastic cake boxes and any plastic boxes for vegetables used in grocery stores (What a wasteful packaging system in the U.S!) in my balcony and some space near the staircase outdoors. It is a kind of secret encroachment. My landlord, neighbors, and leasing office are kind to me. They sometimes praised my little "illegal" garden because they can also enjoy caterpillars, butterflies, and milkweed often, they even the red peppers as flowers. I sometimes give the ripen tomatoes and peppers to them as morning gifts too. Sharing economy rocks! And such type of informality is a good thing.
One year later, I found a local organization, Organic Food Initiative, which encouraged people in Gainesville to grow vegetables and fruits together in an environment-friendly way. The rent is pretty low, so I was so happy to join in and wished I could grow some food to sustain my life. I have grown peanuts, yams, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, taros, Chinese cabbages, carrots, radish, boi choi (白菜), kales, lettuces, a lot of unfamiliar greens, green onions, peppermint, and corns. Before I knew how to use the correct simple tools, I fought with fire ants and wild grass, reclaim the plot after the hot summer, make ladders, stir manures and leaves for fertilizers, plow, dig drainage ditch by two hands. Before I gained my plot, I even dreamed that I could grow some commercial crops like expensive flowers or set traps to catch some snakes and rabbits for meat. Finally, I realized that I was a dreamer. I need to collaborate with others. I sometimes invited friends to visit my garden to do volunteer work and made them feel it is a kind of agricultural tourism. Most of them are like me, growing up in metropolitan areas in China, the unfamiliar yet heavy work sounds like fun. ----Now I realize why agritainment is significant and popular.
Three years passed, I learned a lot of farming skills and made gardening friends ranging from 3 to 80 years old. They are from South Asia, Middle East, Mexico.... of course, China. They are students of diverse majors, visiting scholars, retired professors and doctors, and parents of international students. We share experience on how to grow food and exchange the surplus food in each one's small plot. We also need to work together to clean the garden, make organic fertilizer, fix tools and carts, and allocate seeds.
Due to the traditional agricultural mode (no chemical pesticide, no herbicide, small mower) under the hot and wet weather in Florida, in addition to cunning rodents, my crop and vegetables did not grow well and I barely made ends meet. But I deeply understand the value of land from the eyes of peasants and farmers and how important industrialization in agriculture for household and the whole economy.
Because I have to ride to the garden for 10 mins, I cannot have enough time and energy like my retired plot neighbors, who visit there every day for field management. I withdrew finally. Now I am focusing on my little garden downstairs.
There is an ongoing research of my peers at IFAS: establishing a sustainable food supply-demand system. Their plan shows two steps further than mine. They will establish collaborations between researchers, NGOs, food stations, local grocery stores, and low-income communities for growing, managing, purchasing, and selling the organic products grown in the backyard of each household in a small town in Florida. The food is cheaper and healthier than their counterparts at Walmart for low-income families.
It is a good idea. However, I still doubt if it is realistic in terms of yields and demands at a community level. If in the future, every city in the U.S. allows and organizes families to have backyard farming, food security, public health, and social equity issues might be alleviated. In addition, we might also see higher social integration and neighborhood cohesion, which is also significant for neighborhood safety. I hope I am not a dreamer, but an activist or at least, an experimenter.
When I look back, I need to say thank you to these periods as a student gardener. Living far away from my friends fighting for personal prosperity and pride in a market-oriented life in China, I get a chance to enjoy a simple life described by Henry David Thoreau in his Walden. I have my own "Lake Alice." It is in this silent and small college town in a southeast state in the U.S. in 2010s, it is in my mind and action with the respect of agriculture and nature. Personally, the tough time made me sober and critical, speak soft, practice more, and think far.
The most important lessons I learned about poverty are: 1) No one wants to be poor. 2) They have tried their best to escape poverty, but most of them are defeated by systematic failures. The systematic failures can be like a short slab of their capacities when they have good opportunities, a small missing part (like authority, identity, or just information missing) in a looks-good assisted system, or a small deviation from common choices, experiences, and behaviors; 3) informality can do good if its outcome is a target-to-person improvement in well beings.
Last but least, thank you, sunshine Florida and Floridians.