There has been so much in the news about food prices rising and shortages, it is getting people talking about food and hopefully about where their food comes from. This is great, but cheap food has never been cheap, we have been paying for it all along in other ways. Cheap food is not always the best food, underpaid laborers, dangerous working conditions, harmful farming practices and produce that is designed to travel well, store a long time & look good, but taste like cardboard, all exist to make food "cheaper" but not better. Good quality food is worth paying more for, if you join a CSA or shop at farmers markets, it will not cost any more that a grocery store chain. Grow some of your own, it is fun, cheap and a great way to meet people. Check out the links page on the From the Ground Up website for some places to start.
I have recently returned from a trip to Paris & Amsterdam to visit friends, but I also checked out some gardens while I was there. Thanks to some great leads on the American Community Garden Listserv, I found a couple of great community gardens in Paris. In Amsterdam most of the garden that I saw were on boats in the canals, nice. Here is a link to those photos, I will be uploading more soon: http://www.flickr.com/gp/12644420@N08/2wXJ60
