Food may not be the most important element of Livability but its pretty high up on the list. Food produced by the current industrial system travels an average of 1,300 miles from farm to plate consuming 80 cents of every food dollar on storage, handling, transportation, and retail costs. As the cost of fuel goes up, and by now most of realize that cost hikes in oil based fuels are inevitable, so will the price of food. What can we do about it? Here is a radical and subversive idea; let's grow our own food right here.

In her book "Food Not Lawns - How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community", H. C. Flores lays out an approach that with a little customization, innovation, and organization could turn Broad Ripple into a major food producer. Imagine that - growing food in close proximity to where it will be eaten. This idea is too simple - it will never work you say? Green Broad Ripple intends to give this idea a try. It has brought together a number of Broad Ripple restaurants, volunteers, property owners, and consultants to establish a "Green Community Garden" with the intent to grow food for local consumption. In the next few articles I will introduce the players in this venture for, while industrialized food is produced by machines, Broad Ripple food will be grown by people. Following is a piece written by Bill Scott, a consultant to the effort. Bill is a chemist and perhaps the Greenest person I know. He definitely walks the talk.

I don't focus on "going green" but take hopeful actions that seem to work in that direction. Rather than thinking about reducing "global warming" or my "ecological footprint" I look at things I can do to add joy and quality to both my life and those around me, while helping me cope with things that are out of my control. They add up to going green "naturally".

Here are some examples: I buy a $55 monthly pass for unlimited travel on IndyGo and get around mostly by bus or walking. When on the bus I can read, watch people, day dream or, occasionally, doze off (I admit to having missed my stop a few times, but, hey, it's an opportunity to get in another little walk). I don't miss the tension I feel commuting in a car, dodging pot holes and aggressive drivers like me. Since my wife passed away I'm a bit companionship-deprived so I enjoy the smiles of recognition from bus passengers and drivers - most of whom are quite friendly and each unique. After I recently returned from two weeks in Poland I even had a driver say "welcome back"! The money I save (I used 4 tanks of gas for car travel all of last year) I prefer to spend on garden supplies, and beer and tips at the Brew Pub. The walking to and from bus stops for work, or when I skip the bus entirely and walk for errands and recreation, keeps me in shape and saves me the money I would otherwise use at a fitness club - which, of course, I would need after the beer.

I'll use the car when IndyGo doesn't go there, or I need to carry large items. I occasionally drive to the Brew Pub to haul away some of the leftover spent grains from their brewing process. In my compost heap I combine the grain with kitchen scraps, coffee grounds from Broad Ripple Hubbard and Craven, Starbucks and the Cathedral Soup Kitchen (diversity is what compost is all about!), shredded leaves I buy from students at St. Thomas in their fall fund raising, and a free bag or two from Mrs. Greenwade across the street. I save and reuse the leaf bags. Using my trash bag inventory as a measure, the fact that I never buy them yet always have more than I need tells me I'm a net importer of trash. Because I compost all my kitchen scraps (except meat), recycle all my paper, cardboard, bottles, cans and most of the plastic, I put a trash bag out only every two months.

Where's the joy and quality of life here? The bus rides, compost gathering and food growing all bring me into contact with good people and help me get out of my shell. The stages of the composting process remind me to trust and find comfort in the mysterious transforming nature and presence of God through all the cycles of life. The vegetable garden I feed with this compost yields an abundance of produce - potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, beans, lettuce, spinach, onions, garlic, beets, peppers, raspberries, strawberries, herbs, etc. I love seeing the neighborhood children rummage in my back yard for vegetables and fruits for their dinner. I give thanks when they reappear with a dish for me - say potato salad - the produce from my garden transformed by a thoughtful parent into a return gift. (I guess this makes me and my neighbors "extreme locavors").

Of course working in the soil is a joy, and a garden a continual reminder of how the good Lord will provide for us through nature if we just cooperate a bit, and, especially, don't actively mess it up. This is a good thing for me to remember, and a comfort when I realize there is so much out of my control, like gasoline, food prices, and the actions of others (myself included) that trap us in a cycle of dependence on things we really don't need or actively harm us. Some other time I'll worry about "going green". For now, I'll just enjoy going green naturally!

- Bill Scott, April 21, 2008

Now I can't help but believe that Bill's advice will serve the effort well and considerably increase its chance of success. Growing food locally will do wonders for Broad Ripple sustainability and growing it with personal love and caring will do wonders for our sense of community.

Bill Scott is a Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at IUPUI. His work includes teaching and leading an international program to discover potential drug leads for developing world diseases. An organic chemist, he is a long-term organic gardener.