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| This garden shows that you don't need that much space to grow food |
Ok. This is maybe not
the time to complain about a lack of green. The
trees now deserve a good break to be able to carry fresh green leaves in the
next spring. But this doesn’t mean that we do not have to think about the near
future.
Milano is a green city. It has some big parks
in and around the centre and most streets are wide and have room for large
trees. The city also has many fruit and veggie sellers and regular markets.
We even have a bosco verticale It actually lacks only one thing.
Many cities are now searching for ways to
bring their citizens in contact with the origin of their food. Now the
countryside it getting empty while cities continue to grow it is more difficult
to feed them all. Who is there to grow our food, how to keep it fresh and what
about the factual costs as energy price and environmental impact?
As part of the Italian culinary tradition
many people in small and medium sized villages use parts of their gardens to
grow food. Some of these gardens are built out of necessity (economic, long
distance to fresh food) but most of them are there just for the fun. Because it
is enjoyable to grow your own food, it is healthy, tasteful and so on.
Opposing to this wealth of gardens around
Milano there is hardly any vegetable or food garden to see in the city. Why
not. Are the fashion designers, models, architects, and others afraid to get
their hands dirty?
I don’t know, but I think it is just a matter
of tradition. The city developed thanks to its industry. And in developed
cities is no time to work the soil. People work all day and at night they want
to be able to go out to a theatre or meet friends in a bar or a restaurant. In
the weekends one needs to visit friends or family or goes to take a look in the
nearby mountains. No time for any other obligations.
Now the development has stopped and maybe
even diminishes there is a great opportunity to change the tradition in a way
from which we all might profit. The unfortunate unemployed can spend parts of
their days working in a vegetable garden. Newly planted trees give fruits which
we can all enjoy. Fresh herbs can be picked from nearby mini gardens. The city
gets full of edible green pearls.
It is time we start to grow real kilometro zero food here. The coming weeks I will show you how!
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