Project Overview

Short Term 2010

01.04.10

Diaspora & Urban Horticulture

Executive Summary
The purpose of this internship is to learn to design to build a hydroponic window
farm for the Black Cultural Center and to provide a manual outlining how urban
gardening techniques can be used to combat economic disparity. The window farm
will be used to teach students indoor gardening techniques needed to grow indoor
edibles in cramped urban settings. The structure will also be used to supplement
discussions about economic disparities in the health and nutritonal resources made
available to minorities in low income urban areas.

Project Goals
Because window farming is an emerging practice, current installations and designs
provided by Windowfarms.org will be used as a model to build a window farming
installation on campus, and to create a manual that will outline the impact of
teaching indoor horticultural methods to low income African Americans to create
access to healthier food. This Guide to Indoor Urban Horticulture will also be used
to purpose of this project will outline the importance of educating low income
minorities about how being able to grow healthy and affordable food can impact
each household's ability to be more self sufficient, reduce health risks, create
economic development opportunities and end many of these socio-economic and
cultural disparities associated with conventionally grown and distributed food.
The window farm will also be used to illustrate strategies that can be used to close
the dietary gap, reduce health risks and create economic development
opportunities for these areas by reducing their dependence upon outdated and
conventional methods food production through the current distribution system. This
will be done by designing and erecting a window installation of hydroponically
grown edible plants and creating a DIY manual of how to design a hydroponic drip
system out of reusable materials and the growing practices to ensure healthy
yields.
By investigating these food justice issues and implementing practical applications to
create solutions, this project can be used to illustrate how to individual actions can
be made to better educate and serve the community. Currently many minorities
are unaware of how the importance of urban agriculture and sustainable
technologies to revitalize economically distressed communities. The goal is that
this experiment will provide access to this knowledge and teach low income
students how these techniques can be used to save money, reduce energy
consumption and reduce dependency upon economic systems that may be
hindering their ability to sustain individual and community health.

Deliverables
The electronic journal will be kept in a blog format, complete with researched
diagrams, documents, and user generated video to document the process of
learning to design a hydroponic drip system and apply the methods in a community
context. The presentation will be given in the Black Cultural Center to Jose Bey and
the Black Student union during the close of the term.
A manual outlining the Dietary Diaspora of African American culture, hydroponic
techniques and the social implications of indoor urban horticulture on nutritional
and community health will be the primary project used to supplement the
horticulture project. This document will include information such as the cultural
origins of the African American diet. The manual will address the social and health
implications of eating certain foods central to mainstream African American culture,
particularly chemically processed and preservative foods and factory farmed and
distributed meat. And the manual will also address how adopting sustainable
practices , educating, and reskilling community members to be self sufficient, in this
case through urban horticulture, African Americans can learn tools to enable them
to build their own economic independence similar to efforts made by Cuba during
their "green revolution". The final document will be uploaded to scribd for free
viewing and distribution online through the blog journal.

Background
Currently I am pursuing a degree in Applied Math and Science here at Berea
College. I plan on continuing my education to complete my degree in
environmental engineering and sustainable development and have considered
completing my Masters in a field related to Environmental Policy or Sustainable
design. My current studies have shown that without a strategic model of that
illustrates how sustainability efforts have been used to "liberate" or transform
cultural norms or consumption trends in economically challenged communities, that
teaching others about adopting sustainable lifestyle practices can be hindered in
those efforts. My goals for the internship are to get hands on experience learning
indoor horticulture techniques and how to teach others to apply those skills to meet
a culturally relevant socio economic needs. This will be a great tool that will give
me experience learning how to teach. The experience will aslo give me the
opportunity to teach other minorities about the importance of critically
investigating the origins of unhealthy aspects associated with the mainstream
norms of low income African Americans, such as diet and the aversion to jobs in
sustainability and agriculture. I would like to use this experience to investigate how
cultural norms can be reshaped and disemminated to teach lessons to African
Americans about sustainability, affordable nutrition, and practical applications used
to alleviate the strain of economic disparity by teaching my peers how hydroponic
farming can be used to meet this basic and essential need. As the only black
vegan, or even vegetarian on campus who spends less time in the black cultural
center due to my rigorous courseload, I feel a responsibility to give back and
educate others on the health and economic benefits I have experienced through the
adoption of more sustainable lifestyle practices. I realize because there are very
few American minorities in my SENS, math and science courses that unless I am
willing to provide my peers with the understanding why this knowledge is culturally
relevant, that I will be enabling the lack of environmental and social illiteracy within
the economic sector of the black community that could benefit from this information
the most.