Community Gardening: A Path to Food Security in Indianapolis
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Author
Herrmann, Angela
Date
2006
Degree
Master of Arts in Earth Literacy
Abstract
Community gardens have been part of the fabric of life in
Indianapolis for many years. People participate in
community gardens for any number of reasons, including
supplementing their food budget or to provide more
nutritious offerings at food pantries. In the coming years,
however, because of an increasingly unsustainable food
system, people may look to urban community gardens as a way
to enhance community food security in central Indiana. This
paper provides both an overview of community gardening
activities beginning in the mid-1970s and an examination of
community gardening activities today. This research shows
that in the event the current food system is interrupted,
people of Indianapolis would not be able to feed themselves
from locally-produced food because they rely to heavily on
petroleum-based industrialized agriculture to make food
available. However, through collaborations with various
government and community entities, this paper shows how
community gardening could become an integral part of
creating a more secure food system in central Indiana.