{"id":13029,"date":"2015-03-30t05:33:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-30t05:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/feeding-the-people-with-weeds\/"},"modified":"2023-02-28t18:46:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28t18:46:21","slug":"feeding-the-people-with-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/feeding-the-people-with-weeds\/","title":{"rendered":"feeding the people with&#8230; weeds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>feeling hungry on your run? stop and pick some oxalis, the pretty yellow flowers with green clover-shaped leaves, growing along the sidewalk for a quick energy boost.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>skipped breakfast before your first morning class? pick some yew berries (but be careful to spit out the seeds).<\/p>\n<div style=\"width:600px; float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 15px; background-color: #e1efc6;\">\n<h2>what can i eat, and where?<\/h2>\n<p>check out the project&#8217;s map of edible weeds in the berkeley area:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"600\" seamless=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/beta.mappr.io\/play\/player-308\" width=\"570\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>urban agriculture and urban foraging are increasingly good opportunities to feed students and city dwellers, from those seeking to live more off the land to those unable to afford healthy organic produce from the grocery store. they\u2019re completely sustainable ways of getting food, which feature low-input food production, soil carbon sequestration, and food production centers close to food consumption. they\u2019re also a solution to making produce affordable and available in <a href=\"http:\/\/americannutritionassociation.org\/newsletter\/usda-defines-food-deserts\">food deserts<\/a>. like the chickweed or sourgrass poking up through the crack in the sidewalk, urban foraging and edible weeds can be resilient food systems solutions; it\u2019s time to discover them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>there are three big avenues for thinking about urban agriculture:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>school and community gardens<\/li>\n<li>rooftop gardens<\/li>\n<li>edible weeds<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>picturing a city landscape, plants and food production are not the first images that come to mind, but they represent a simple way to feed a growing urban global population. in 2009, the global urban population <a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/development\/desa\/population\/publications\/urbanization\/urban-rural.shtml\">surpassed the rural population<\/a> for the first time in history\u2014we\u2019ll have plenty of people to feed in the cities. can urban agriculture feed such large population centers?<\/p>\n<h2>eating weeds<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"medium.jpg\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/kai square medium.jpg\" \/>will people even consent to eating weeds and other \u201cfound\u201d plants? is there demand for such food production? the answer, at least from the younger generation, seems to be an enthusiastic \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>as a teacher in a boston public middle school, i led my students on an \u201cedible campus\u201d tour of my alma mater, tufts university, in fall 2013. we sampled various herbs and plants growing unnoticed on campus. my students were typical urban teenagers\u2014accustomed to eating chips for breakfast and a soda for lunch, unable to identify one salad green or herb from another, and skeptical of \u201ceating grass and stuff with dirt on it,\u201d as one student put it.<\/p>\n<p>we went out on a temperate fall day in medford, scavenging for edible \u201cweeds\u201d and tasting sourgrass, chickweed, and yew berries. the students were filled with excitement and surprise\u2014\u201cthis actually tastes pretty good!\u201d one student offered, breaking down the peer pressure barriers to sampling the weeds. a boston globe food writer even came along to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/lifestyle\/food-dining\/2013\/12\/03\/these-edible-weeds-are-growing-field-near-you\/4slh99lcsginc40kfykhon\/story.html\">report on the scavenger hunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>scaling up?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"plum1.jpg\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/plum1.jpg\" \/>assuming you can convince people to eat these plants (and assuming they are safe, free of city pollutants, and easily accessible), you still have to ask yourself\u2014can urban foraging scale up to feed our cities? to answer this question, i moved to berkeley and plugged into the urban gardening and foraging scene in a year-round growing climate.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">so far, i\u2019ve see foraging opportunities everywhere. i have been impressed by the amount of backyard lemon and persimmon trees, school gardens, and community <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiralgardens.org\" style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">food security projects<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">. i have been especially impressed by the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ucanr.edu\/sites\/urbanag\/laws_zoning_and_regulations\/the_urban_agriculture_incentive_zones_act_ab551\/\" style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">urban agriculture incentive legislation<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\"> passed by the state legislature, the first law of it\u2019s kind promoting urban <\/span>ag<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">. here at my own school, two <\/span>uc<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\"> berkeley researchers, thomas carlson and philip stark, have made <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/civileats.com\/2014\/12\/05\/foragers-delight-can-wild-foods-make-city-dwellers-healthier\/\" style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">headlines<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\"> with their tours of the east bay sampling local wild fennel and other weeds, as well as their research mapping \u201cweed\u201d prevalence in low-income neighborhoods.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>when it comes to scaling up, the existing numbers on urban agriculture and foraging to provide food, from boston to the bay, are encouraging:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/forage.berkeley.edu\">86 varieties<\/a> of edible weeds growing in the east bay, from wild fennel and dandelion greens to chickweed and wild onions<\/li>\n<li>55,000 sq ft rooftop gardens in boston, like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.highergroundrooftopfarm.com\/what-is-a-roof-farm.html\">higher ground farms<\/a>, who demonstrate potential for energy savings and leed accreditation points<\/li>\n<li>8 cities nation-wide <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/lifestyle\/food-dining\/2013\/04\/30\/coming-rooftop-near-you\/9pmeeoqpcirwbcwbcqamhk\/story.html\">leading a rooftop farming movement<\/a>, including san francisco<\/li>\n<li>84 public school gardens in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.educationoutside.org\/about-us\">san francisco<\/a> alone<\/li>\n<li>67 recipes for cooking up edible weeds on one <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ediblewildfood.com\/wild-food-recipes.aspx\">site<\/a> alone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and, of course, there\u2019s the cost of making a salad out of edible weeds: $0.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>alana siegner is a master\u2019s student with the berkeley energy and resources group.&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><sup><em>photos courtesy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inaturalist.org\/projects\/berkeley-open-source-food\">philip b. stark and the berkeley open source food project<\/a><\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>feeling hungry on your run? stop and pick some oxalis, the pretty yellow flowers with green clover-shaped leaves, growing along the sidewalk for a quick energy boost.&nbsp; skipped breakfast before your first morning class? pick some yew berries (but be careful to spit out the seeds). what can i eat, and where? check out the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4896,4900],"tags":[492,3404,3405],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-13029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-green-living","tag-foraging","tag-urban-farming","tag-weeds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>feeding the people with... weeds? - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/feeding-the-people-with-weeds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"feeding the people with... weeds? 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