If I were in a missionary/active religious order I'd have the working part of it be urban farming in places like this.
I thought at first it was Detroit. But Kansas City? Holy moly!
Our entire modern experiment in urban life has gone off the rails and the people at the bottom of the social heap are living worse than animals. "Men beat each over who gets first run at the garbage dumpster." Good Lord! They're being literally dehumanised by the post-civilisation they were born into.
The urban farming movement can save us, in the material sense. But what about the eternal, supernatural sense? All it needs is some praying people, a daily Mass offered early in the morning before work starts. Imagine this with habited nuns doing the work. Imagine all this turned into an opportunity to show people the love of God, the love of Christ, directly and explicitly. Offering catechism and confirmation classes to the kids who wanted it. Stopping work at lunchtime with a bell and the Angelus, dedicating an urban farm to Our Lady and St. Isidore.
~
I have seen only one example of urban 'farming' which was a block-garden in New York City. The garden itself was beautiful. Bursting with veggies and flowers...the only drawback was the 10' high chain link fence and huge chain and padlock on the gate. Could gardens like this civilize those around so they would not steal the stuff? Or would they have to be civilized first?
ReplyDeleteGee, I sound cynical. I guess we have to start somewhere.
they'd just find an excuse to outlaw it. the veggies attracts rodents. the soil is too contaminated. etc
ReplyDeleteI do a sort of urban farming style garden in my front yard for my family's needs though it's not even close in size to what's in that video. It *CAN* be done though. May I suggest that if someone is thinking of doing urban agriculture professionally, they should read The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier as well as The Urban Farmer by Curtis Stone. Both authors go into how to organize your market garden/farm for efficiency and profitability giving hard numbers about how much can be earned with small amounts of land. Stone has a YouTube channel with a tremendous amount of additional information over and above what's in his book.
ReplyDelete