Productive community space
Introduction
A community garden (also known as community garden[1]) is a community farming practice that takes place on a small area of land located in public spaces.[2] Community gardens are typically planted in public parks, schools, church yards, and on abandoned lots. These gardens are shared resources, which are managed without profit. What they have in common is that they are served by a community of people.
Community gardens are planted for many reasons. They increase public access to healthy and organic fruits, especially in areas where the population cannot afford to buy fresh and healthy foods. They teach young people where their food comes from. They allow ordinary people to develop organic farming skills. And they can turn an ordinary park or green space into a community center, where residents volunteer to care for and harvest trees. Community gardens are also a place of celebration. Many groups host harvest and bloom festivals, cider events, canning workshops, and much more.
History
During the 1950s, urban gardens reemerged in the large cities of the United States, again in a context of acute crisis. These are the years of the Vietnam War and the economic crisis, expressed in a process of deindustrialization "Deindustrialization (economy)") and the flight of people with resources from central neighborhoods, abandoned and full of lots, with strong cuts in social spending and high crime rates.[3].
The emergence of community gardens refers to the intersection between urban struggles for social justice, undertaken by community organizations in the 1990s, with the mobilizations and awareness-raising work of environmental and health movements about more sustainable lifestyles. Many of these experiences start with the occupation of abandoned lots and spaces converted into orchards that are used as a community support tool that relates environmental quality, social cohesion and education.[3].
Also in Europe, similar initiatives were developed in the seventies, in the Netherlands and Great Britain the reference would be the movement of Urban Farms and Community Gardens (City Farms and Community Gardens), which emerged in these years and which develops projects not only for gardens but also for raising farm animals and horses in urban environments.[3].
References
- [1] ↑ Rachel Surls; Chris Braswell; Laura Harris; Yvonne Savio. «Guía ára desarrollo de un Huerto/Jardín escolar». Consultado el 2 de diciembre de 2017.: http://uccemg.com/files/152730.pdf
- [2] ↑ «Huertos Comunitarios». PEI Association for Newcomers to Canada. Archivado desde el original el 23 de noviembre de 2017. Consultado el 2 de diciembre de 2017.: https://web.archive.org/web/20171123200708/http://www.peianc.com/content/lang/es/page/guide_food_gardens
- [3] ↑ a b c José Luis Fernández Casadevante (septiembre de 2011). «Huertos comunitarios». ecologistasenaccion.org. Consultado el 2 de diciembre de 2017.: https://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/article19648.html