David W. Swanson

Pastor and Author

Growing Home: Fresh Veggies for Everyone

Once again a sign of life has shown up in the form of food; delicious, locally grown food.  I first mentioned the folks at Growing Home last fall when Maggie and I visited their rural farm.  A “rural farm” may sound like an oxymoron, but Growing Home also has a couple of ingenious urban farms within Chicago’s city limits.  This report from WTTW about a recent visit by Illinois policy makers to one of the city farms is a good introduction to the potential of urban farming.

[Update 12/8: I couldn’t figure out how to keep the embedded video from automatically playing.  To view the video visit the WTTW website.]

On a related note, after watching Food Inc this week* I am more convinced than ever that the issues swirling around food production and consumption in America are absolutely ones of justice.  In a future post I’d like to suggest a few reasons why more Christians could begin working for ways of farming and eating that reflect our theology, specifically our beliefs about God’s creation and God’s justice.

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*Don’t watch this documentary while eating dinner.  Trust me.

David Swanson

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4 responses to “Growing Home: Fresh Veggies for Everyone”

  1. Linda Avatar
    Linda

    I’m so glad Chicago has this resource and it sounds like it is going to grow. May more cities catch this vision. Thank you for telling the story!

    Reply
  2. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    I couldn’t agree with you more re: how our food is produced being a justice issue. Books you may enjoy on the subject include: “The Omniovore’s Dillema” by Michael Pollan, and “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver is a fun one as well. My husband and I are trying to grow as much of what we eat as we can. It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding.

    Reply
  3. thejourneywithnoend Avatar
    thejourneywithnoend

    Funny–we just watch the Foodinc, video several weeks ago while eating dinner. I am studying for public health and emergency management and found fascinating. Interestingly, we also watched a German film and there labs were unbelievably sterile. (we got both from netflix)–I think it is called our daily bread—we also watched while eating–but if you are sensitive to your food being killed–this could be a tough one…

    Reply
    1. David Avatar
      David

      Thanks for the recommendation. Here’s the link to Our Daily Bread: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765849/

      Reply

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