A Change In Habits

What a great semester! I learned so much—from essential gardening techniques, to deep philosophical ideas concerning environmental change. What has stuck with me most though, is the power of community efforts and the meaning that they hold. This semester, we have found a lot of community-run organizations that are dedicated to improving the environment, and hearing about them was very inspirational. Small, grassroots efforts are the basis of change and with out them, many of the successes we’ve achieved today would no longer exist.

Learning the behind-the scenes of industrial agriculture has encouraged me to change my own eating habits, and I feel that it is doing the same for many other concerned Americans. As habits change from individual to individual, they will begin to gain recognition and hopefully reach a nationwide transformation. While driving down James Island the other day, I noticed a couple of little local produce shops. Besides being compelled to stop, I felt warmth with these stands and feel that they will play a critical role as the food movement continues.

I will be doing Semester at Sea in the fall and am taking a class on sustainable urban development. It will be very interesting seeing the other development methods implemented around the world. I find it paradoxical that a major component of urban development is urban gardening, which in fact is retrogressing to our past. I find that the environmental movement will call for a lot of that, where development is often turning back to our roots and retrieving simplicity.

Our garden was a great success and I’m excited to see the college along with the city of Charleston progress to a local agriculture supported system. Like Jen mentioned in an earlier post, the green patches around the city would be great as mini vegetable gardens—which would also add aesthetics to the city! With the new gardening methods I have learned in this course along with ethical ideas concerning food, I am excited to spread awareness and begin my garden in DC this summer. Good luck with your vegetables!