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Gardening

Food gardening is an increasingly popular means of food security and healthy eating. Through individual and community gardens, farmer's markets, and school gardens, gardening increases food availability in all types of communities. It can also improve living conditions and income for women, particularly in low-income areas. Gardening is a positive answer to growing concerns about environmentalism and sustainability.

Urban Agriculture

Although flower gardening continues to be a popular pastime, food gardening in many forms has become increasingly appealing, partly due to interest in organic and sustainable living; concerns about pesticides and processed food; and a growing slow food movement and locavore (“local-eating”) culture. Information about gardening is popularly available through such magazines as Organic Gardening, Better Homes and Gardens, and Martha Stewart Living, which are largely marketed toward women.

Many cities feature community gardens, which may be large shared gardens or collections of small plots. Community gardens are an important part of urban agriculture, which also includes rooftop and balcony gardens, raised beds donated to low-income neighborhoods or senior centers, or crops grown for a local restaurant or donated to a food shelter. Garden sharing, which matches a gardener with a landowner, and small-scale urban and peri-urban farming are also popular. Both in the United States and around the world, women play an important role in urban agriculture.

Community-Supported Agriculture

Small-and mid-scale farmers, market gardeners, and community gardeners sell their produce through face-to-face interaction with local customers at nearly 5,000 farmers markets throughout the United States. The majority of farmers markets accept coupons distributed through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Farmers’ Market Nutritional Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, and the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Acceptance Program (SNAP).

Market gardeners are defined as people working a small amount of land as their business or primary income. Along with small-scale farmers, they may also sell their produce through community-supported agriculture (CSA). In this model, community “shareholders” subscribe in exchange for weekly delivery of just-picked, usually organic produce throughout the growing season.

Educational Gardening

Children also benefit from gardening. Through programs such as the Edible Schoolyard, created by chef Alice Waters for a Berkeley, California, middle school, students participate in all aspects of gardening in an on-site lot, through gardening and culinary classes, and through the garden's integration into the full curriculum. The garden's harvest may be eaten in cafeteria meals, donated to food banks, and/or sold at farmers markets to raise funds for the school. Children also eat fresh produce through farm-to-school programs, where schools connect with and receive seasonal produce directly from a nearby farm. These programs teach children about healthy eating and food production and promote school lunch reform.

Education was also central to Michelle Obama's White House garden, a plot planted by the First Lady and local students in March 2009. Besides providing produce for the White House and a local soup kitchen, the garden was also intended to encourage healthy eating, especially among children, and raise awareness about the importance of organic and sustainable food production.

Gardening, Women, and Poverty

With rising food prices and food insecurity, several organizations are encouraging and educating many of the world's poorest citizens, both urban and rural, to participate in individual and community gardening and urban agriculture; others are working to increase women's access to land and the microloans needed to start small farms. Raising food and animals allows families to feed their children and often gain a small income. Having direct access to nutritional food particularly benefits women and girls, who may receive smaller portions than wage-earning men and boys. A varied, healthy diet is also vitally important to small children and individuals who have illnesses such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

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