Need land to grow more food?

When I was doing the research for my thesis on home based food growing n Sheffield UK, I came across many creative solutions to the problem of a shortage of land to grow on in the urban setting. I saw guerilla gardening, where small public plots are taken over and planted with food crops. I worked with the abundance project to harvest neglected fruit trees all over the city and distribute the fruit to those in need. I met a fellow who, through perseverance and against much resistance, got a community gardening project going on his housing estate for the residents. I heard of a couple who, in exchange for some produce, kept the veggie garden of an elderly neighbor ticking over when he took ill. I saw people in all economic levels working with their neighbors to support each others efforts to grow food. I myself was given a composter and gave in return a water butt. Here in Bermuda I've met a fellow who works for an edible landscaping company that encourages homeowners to plant food in their gardens and runs agriculture camps for the youth in the summer.

I've just read about a wonderful idea in Maryland whereby folks sign up to share space in their backyards to a type of community supported agriculture, a kind of a distributed grid of food. The article by Greg Plotkin is over on Sustainable Food,

"The Murray Hill Row-by-Row Project has no farm; instead, it uses the member’s yards as the farming space, hence the term "lawnshare." Each member grows one or two crops in their yard, and what grows is shared with all the members. I organize who grows what, grow the seedlings, help members prepare their garden plot, help the members plant the seeds or seedlings, look over the crops and organize the harvest, which includes picking, dividing and distributing.

The members themselves give up lawn space and commit to daily watering and keeping an eye on the plants. Members find it a lot easier to grow a lot of one crop, rather than have a full kitchen garden of their own. From the relative ease of growing one crop and the small weekly fee, members enjoy a full variety of vegetables and a more developed sense of community."