Gardening is not limited to gardens,
While gardening in small boxes, I expected to learn how to plant seeds, what I did not expect was to gain deeper understanding of food system, repetitive care, importance of distance in planting seeds and environmental harm. During our initial gardening sessions, we used tools like rake, trowel, shovel and cultivators to prepare soil and plant seeds. Before initial gardening sessions, I believed gardening would simply involve putting seeds into the ground and wait for them to grow, but in reality gardening involves patience, observation, adaptation (weather conditions) and continuous care. For instance, after watering our garden bed, I believed soil had received enough water as the surface looked dark and moist. Later, when I used cultivator to loosen the soil, I discovered that soil underneath was still dry. Therefore, our group used cultivator multiple times along with watering garden bed until moisture reached deeper into soil.
Green criminology enables us to look beyond definition,
Simple experience of watering garden bed made me think about the idea discussed by Tourangeau and Fitzgerald, when they argue that green criminology enables us to look beyond appearances and legal definitions of crime. Similarly, many harmful practices in our food systems may appear normal or acceptable on the surface, but are either unethical, immoral, or causing harm to environment and animals.
Secondly, this experience helped me understand what steps are taken for making food available at local stores. As I used to give little or no attention on where my food is coming from, earlier I would drive past agricultural farms and only stop at Farmer’s market in summers. Gardening changed the perspective, as our group is growing a small number of plants in small garden beds, but we still require to make a watering schedule, attention to soil, sunlight and ongoing maintenance. This experience helped me to understand the concept of ecological justice, which encourages us to recognize the value of ecosystem beyond human consumption or exploitation of its resources. As humans are not separate from nature but depend on it everyday.
Time is the currency in gardening,
Every stage of gardening requires patience, like checking soil conditions, placing seeds in equal distance, and returning to care for the plants make an individual slow down and pay attention. Furthermore, I feel more connected to the nature and I consider planting flowers and indoor plants in my home.
Sometimes the most important lessons are hidden beneath the surface-Just like the dry soil in Garden box 18.
References: Tourangeau, W., & Fitzgerald, A. J. (2020). Food Crime and Green Criminology. White, R. (2008). Crimes against nature: Environmental criminology and ecological justice.
Hello Abhi,
Thank you for your blog post.
I appreciated how informative and honest your blog post was. When you had mentioned how your garden seemed moist from the top yet dry from the hidden bottom, I almost understood that as a metaphor for green crime and ecocide, as many of these types of crimes often appear non-damaging from the upper layer, but are slowly harming the world without human knowledge from the lower layer. I was able to relate to your reading of choice (Tourangeau and Fitzgerald), as I also found myself exploring how certain food practices and companies are adopting industrial farming, which is both unethical and destructive to Earth, yet still completely legal. From your blog, I gained a deeper understanding of ecological justice, as awareness of industrialized farming and profit-driven companies needs to be addressed more deeply by society. I also found myself addressing this topic, as more food companies are being brought to light for hiding environmental crimes in the food we all consume.