"Let's Plant Some Shit!"

I have become used to farmers markets and yuppie, organic, grass-fed, etc, etc selections the last few years. Ann Arbor is rife with the stuff, but I am well-aware that it's not like this everywhere. In some communities, finding fresh food isn't even an option, and people don't know enough about where their food comes from. I'm certainly no expert, but my senior thesis was on natural pest control in agriculture, and the whole ordeal just left me sketched out by modern farming practices. Did I mention that modern milking practices will give the men-folk testicular cancer? It's really no surprise that I know a million organic farming activists thirsty for the blood of Tyson and Monsanto executives (exempting the vegetarians, of course). I love The Atlantic, and this article brings up a few interesting points about the stigma against farming in communities of color and the difficulties minorities face in farming. Even better, there is an amazing TED Talk by Ron Finley of South Central L.A. about his work promoting gardening and food sovereignty in underprivileged neighborhoods. If you can only spare the time to watch one video, that one is the gem, but also take a look at Pam Warhurst's talk about growing and eating the landscape, like some kind of 3-D Pac Man.