As we enter fall, we look ahead to an abundance of leafy greens and root veggies, squash in all its forms (pie, soup, and everything in between!) and a slower pace that allows the opportunity for reflection on the many successes, as well as areas for improvement, from our 2024 growing season.

The Food Literacy Project team has been gaining experience in urban farm management over the last 8 years first at Iroquois Urban Farm, then the Shawnee People’s Garden, and now our current farm which will become our “Forever Home”! We also have almost two decades of experience supporting the management of raised bed school and community gardens. We’ve learned so much from farmer partners over the years, most notably, Ivor Chodkowski of Field Day Family Farms. Field Day Family Farm (on the Oxmoor Farm property) was the home base of the Food Literacy Project for many years, and we also learned a lot just being in close proximity to an 8 acre urban vegetable farm, and through our close partnership with Ivor.

But farming is something that takes many years of study, hands on experience, relationship building (with the land, with neighbors, with other growers), observation of climate and seasonal patterns, and a dedicated passion in order to grow a depth of knowledge that allows for land to be sustainably and respectfully cultivated to its fullest potential. As FLP is currently farming on land that we are working to purchase, we are now positioned better than ever to hone in on our farm management skills as we get to know the land, the soil and our role in caring for it longterm.

This year, we’ve struggled some with pests – our squash and pumpkins were hit hard! Our team is highly motivated to take steps to understand and implement the best strategies for pest management, in addition to our current practice of crop rotation.

We’ve also begun deepening our understanding of how toxic pesticides became the norm in conventional agriculture. Following World War 2, the poisons that were used as agents of chemical warfare (specifically deadly nerve gasses) were also found to be lethal to insects and evolved into the pesticides we see on the market today. These large war companies became the base of the agrochemical industry, and later became the seed industry through genetic engineering (Shiva,34). The main objective of pest control by chemicals has been “to achieve the highest kill possible”. With this objective “combined with ignorance of and disregard for, non-target insects and mites, is guaranteed to be the quickest road to upset resurgences and the development of resistance to pesticides.” (Shiva, 33-34).

In contrast to this belief driven by corporate profits, we’re learning that the real path towards managing pests is biodiversity. Promoting biodiversity ensures that potential pests are managed naturally by their predators without requiring the use of harmful chemicals. Other strategies include intercropping with naturally pest deterring plants (such as the Neem tree, whose oil can be used as a spray as a management strategy), ongoing monitoring and maintenance (including removing dead crop plants that can serve as potential squash bug nesting sites from the field, for example), and planting a variety of crops (so that if one crop fails, something else is still growing successfully!). There are many viable and sustainable strategies for pest management that preserves the health of the land, the organisms that call the land home, and the people that care for it. We are eager to become increasingly intentional about applying these strategies to the land that we steward and to support home gardeners as they face pest issues, too!

 

 

Works Cited

Shiva, Vandana. Who Really Feeds the World? The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA. 2016.

Tomatoes are slowing down but we are enjoying them along the way!

Members of the Food Literacy Project Team visit home gardeners for a consultation, and work to build, and then plant, raised beds at the Shawnee Community Center where seniors and youth will grow veggies together!

Youth Community Agriculture Program participants hang their gloves after a work day at the farm.

Youth at the Food Literacy Project’s Field-to-Fork after-school clubs created a community mural to celebrate our “Pollinator Heroes!”

Youth Community Agriculture Program Crew members from Summer 2019 posing with sunflowers!