subscribesubscriber servicescontact usabout ussite mapBuy a Classified
Sun, Jul 05 2009 

Resources

print this story   Print this story
  Post to del.icio.us

Photos


Roger Doiron helps students at Pleasant Hill Elementary School in Scarborough, Maine, with their garden. Dorion started the Web site Kitchen Gardeners International, which promotes taking control of the food you eat and reducing the distance it travels by growing food in your backyard. The first-grade students are, from left, Ellie Patten, 7, John Wittmer, 7, Aidan Cohen, 7, Eric Huber, 6, and Carly Randall, 6.
Associated Press /


Published May 22, 2007 09:21 pm - During World War II, the government urged Americans to plant “victory gardens,” backyard plots of fruits and vegetables that were supposed to ease reliance on the war-strained public food supply. Today, Roger Doiron is repeating that call.


Growing your own food: Roger Doiron brings victory gardens back to suburbia


Associated Press

SCARBOROUGH, Maine During World War II, the government urged Americans to plant “victory gardens,” backyard plots of fruits and vegetables that were supposed to ease reliance on the war-strained public food supply.

Today, Roger Doiron is repeating that call, this time to ease the strain of industrial agriculture on the environment and help people take control of what they eat.

“In a way, I’d say I’m trying to reinvent the suburbs and put food back on the suburban landscape,” says Doiron, a freelance writer and consultant who grows vegetables, blueberries, strawberries, apples, cranberries and herbs on his third-of-an-acre lot.

Around the country, people from Maine to California are spreading the word about the benefits of gardens in what some are calling a “grass-roots gardening movement.”

Doiron’s Web site, Kitchen Gardeners International, extols the virtues of taking control of your food while reducing the distance it travels from the farm to the fork, which some estimates put at an average of 1,500 miles.

Once common to backyards, kitchen gardens have become a why-bother sort of thing for most Americans.

But now some say the pendulum may be swinging back. Between E. coli scares, global warming, the “buy local” movement, aging baby boomers with more time to spare and a desire to enjoy the freshest of fresh, a new wave of grow-your-own has begun.

Heather Flores started a “Food Not Lawns” campaign in Oregon several years ago, and last year authored a book by the same name. There now are about 10 “Food Not Lawns” chapters in the U.S. and Canada.

Flores, who lives in Coburg, Ore., hears from people all over who have been inspired to plant their own gardens, with reasons ranging from environmental concerns to simply wanting to get their hands dirty.

“There’s something about self-healing and self-worth that people feel with getting out in the home garden,” she says.

In Pasadena, Calif., Jules Dervaes five years ago turned his tiny house lot into an urban farm nestled between two expressways. He now harvests 3 tons of produce a year, gives tours and has a Web site to encourage others to follow his lead.

Dervaes says people tell him his story has inspired them to use their backyards for something other than manicured lawns.

“They’d forgotten what it was for,” he says. “What’s old is new again.”

It’s difficult to measure the interest in backyard gardening. Experts say it is strong, though the National Gardening Association says the number of homes with gardens in the U.S. has ranged around a quarter during the past decade.

Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center, a center for sustainable agriculture at Iowa State University, says food scares _ think E. coli or mad cow disease _ and natural disasters are arousing interest in where food comes from.



print this story    email this story    comment on this story   

Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.




Zillow
monster
autoconx
Premier Guide
Find a business

Walking Fingers
Maps, Menus, Store hours, Coupons, and more...
Premier Guide
Premier Guide
Premium Jobs

Is your company hiring?
Reach more people here. Call today to place your employment ad. The News Courier, 256-232-2720....>MORE


GREAT TEAMS BEGIN WITH YOU!
Come to our hiring day on Tuesday, July 7th from 9am-11 and 2pm-4 for an on the spot in
...>MORE

See all ads

Premium Autos

Need to sell your car?
Contact The News-Courier classified department Monday-Friday at (256) 232-2720 or email angie@athensnews-courier.com...>MORE

Sell It Yourself
See At SELL IT YOURSELF 22223 Hwy 72, Athens Next to Medical East: 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan, 83K miles, $8800; 2005 Chry...>MORE

See all ads

Premium Homes/Rentals

Selling your house?
Contact The News Courier classified department Monday-Friday at (256) 232-2720 or Fax (256) 233-7753 or email Angie@athe...>MORE

See all ads


 

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.CNHI Classified Advertising NetworkCNHI News Service
Associated Press content © 2009. All rights reserved. AP content may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Our site is powered by Zope and our Internet Yellow Pages site is powered by PremierGuide.
Some parts of our site may require you to download the Flash Player Plugin.
View our Privacy Policy
Advertiser index