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Oregon-based Food Not Lawns questions the social, economic, and ecological impact of the monotonous green lawn and urges supporters to use land in ways that foster local self-reliance and greater community awareness. Viewing lawns as signs of the more negative aspects of privatization and suburbanization–processes that the founders feel alienated families from public life while leading to a misuse of resources–the group urges supporters to use part of their lawns to grow sustainable, organic produce. While directly freeing land from the overwatering and chemical use common in many lawns, the transition would lead to more interaction among neighbors as participants coordinate growing patterns and swap crops, and turn to parks and public green spaces for the leisure they once found on their tiny plots of ground.
The idea has a long heritage. After the advent of the lush private lawn, families converted their yards in vegetable gardens and turned over public spaces to food production several times during the twentieth century. The First and Second World Wars saw an explosion of local gardening as families worked to supplement rationing, provide food for community agencies like schools, and free resources for the war efforts. During the New Deal, the community development branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped create community gardening programs and built canning and processing centers, planting gardens on rooftops and in spare lots and encouraging neighborhoods to become more self-reliant. Food Not Lawns revives these practices–especially the community-minded vision of the WPA–as a response to impersonal consumer culture and as a tool for nurturing both wise use of resources and a greater spirit of local conviviality.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
Oregon-based Food Not Lawns questions the social, economic, and ecological impact of the monotonous green lawn and urges supporters to use land in ways that foster local self-reliance and greater community awareness. Viewing lawns as signs of the more negative aspects of privatization and suburbanization–processes that the founders feel alienated families from public life while leading to a misuse of resources–the group urges supporters to use part of their lawns to grow sustainable, organic produce. While directly freeing land from the overwatering and chemical use common in many lawns, the transition would lead to more interaction among neighbors as participants coordinate growing patterns and swap crops, and turn to parks and public green spaces for the leisure they once found on their tiny plots of ground.