Plant a Community Garden to Harvest Lower Crime Rates
A growing body of research shows that community farm projects reduce violence and crime.
These statistics may have come from research projects in major urban areas…but the results make intuitive and rational sense no matter where you live.
We ourselves may live here out in the boonies, and exist at the edge of civilization but we still have plenty of crime, unemployment, drug & alcohol abuse and societal degradation.
Even the smallest of our rural communities have gangs, property vandalism and theft. Just a couple of weeks ago a small local business in Perth-Andover was broken into, vandalized and had something stolen that was worth about 15 dollars. What was the point?
Speaking from personal experience, coming into your business in the morning and finding it robbed and vandalized is a gut wrenching sensation I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
It seems particularly out of place in rural communities, as if this sort of behavior belongs in disaffected and disconnected big cities. Like we should all be kinder and gentler and more connected out here in the country.
But this sense of disconnection from community is found everywhere.
But amazingly, some of the most crime ridden, poverty stricken and devastated urban areas in the US have been reclaimed by and for the people by planting urban gardens.
Mother Theresa visited a housing project on Chicago’s West Side back in the 1980’s. What rattled her most was not the poverty of the pocketbook…she’d seen far, far worse in India. Rather, it was what she called “the Poverty of the Spirit.”
Here were people who’d lost all sense of connection to each other, their own humanity and the land.
But these days, one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods is home to Growing Home, one of the city’s largest urban farming projects.
It harvests 13,000 lbs of vegetables a year from a half acre site. Nearly all are sold to restaurants and at the Farmer’s Markets.
But Growing Home has altered the landscape in a much more important way…It employs local residents who could not find jobs before this and gives people a sense of mission and purpose they’ve never had before in their lives.
Let’s reclaim our communities and give everyone a sense of belonging and offer jobs and a life purpose by growing community supported garden projects.
Stephanie Kelley
