Happy Earth Day!

This year I got to attend one of the best celebrations for Earth Day events in the country, Earth Fair at Balboa Park in San Diego. In a town known for its right wing politics, the event is surprisingly large and draws a wide audience.

I was disappointed the event only had two big tanks of water for those that brought their own bottles to avoid buying plastic ones. I stopped by the Food and Water Watch table, where someone told the organizers of Earth Fair did not respond well to implementing the Take Back the Tap message at the event. As a volunteer who runs a Facebook group for TBTT, I decided to contact San Diego Earthworks myself. Carolyn, who’s been managing the thing for years, said, “She’s very open to implementing the campaign.” Trouble is the city may not be. They weren’t able to provide water directly from the park itself, she explains, and had to finnagle bringing two big tanks from outside.

The real draw for me was the new Fair Food section, made up of several local non-profit organizations all working for better food access, and empowering people to grow their own food. “We used to be all spread out here throughout the park,” I was told by a volunteer. I thought bringing all these organizations together and drawing attention to sustainable agriculture was something all cities should do for Earth Day.

It took the crew from San Diego Roots only an hour to put together the sample veggie garden and compost bin in the center of it all. Mel, a down-to-earth guy who started Roots says, “Better than talking about food – thought not better than eating it – is demonstrating how easy it is to grow food in San Diego. Some of our programs like Victory Gardens are designed to encourage and assist people to do just that.”

I chatted with Mel and volunteers for a while about food issues in San Diego. “We’re going to be experiencing a huge water crisis.” Those mansions in Rancho Santa Fe may have to fight harder to water big lawns, when growing food on them is so much more efficient. Mel also reminded me that when I’m not buying veggies from my farmer’s market, my recession-earned dollars are going towards transportation and marketing costs above all else. They could be going directly to support the farmer who grew them.  It’s ironic that eating local produce should cost me more than at Trader Joe’s, it shows how much we’ve taken oil for granted as a nation. Hopefully Obama will turn that around; it’s a lofty goal but one we need desperately when Industrial agriculture is not sustainable.

Surrounding the garden were members of Slow Food Urban Diego, Food Not Lawns, the Victory Gardens project, and nearby were the folks responsible for the City College farm. The farm’s only been around since June but has very dedicated volunteers and its own farmers’ market on Tuesday, right there at the community college. The site eoffers recipes from the produce they’re growing; I got to see some of the giant fava beans they’ve harvested right there. As far as helping, Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays seem to be the main mornings and no fancy process is necessary. The folks running it just say “show up and we’ll put you to work.” Sounds good to me.

Look for all these organizations at the upcoming conference right at City College on May 1 and 2.