The tarp shade snaps and flutters in the breeze above the harvest volunteers. The CSA is bountiful this spring — crunchy lettuce, sweet strawberries, and even some cherries from the new windbreak. Stores around here sell produce this tasty, organic, and local for a fortune, but our volunteers feed families on it for just an hour of work a week and some dirty fingernails. The model is spreading. Vacant lots and brownfield sites all over the city have started sprouting biodigesters and sunflower fields, compost vessels and prairie plantings, communities of care: the phytoremediating foot soldiers of food sovereignty in recovery.
"I was inspired by the Chicago-area Green Era Campus," Betsy said, which is "turning brownfields into productive organics-recycling hubs, teaching gardens, and productive fields."
The Green Era Campus is just one example of how community leaders are taking remediation efforts into their own hands, investing in returning land to beneficial uses and testing strategies for dealing with some of the toughest soil contaminants.
As far as the campus goes, phase one is now officially complete. The site is clean, and the digester is built and operating, creating compost and capturing gas that is already being sent to the grid as energy. "I'm in the process of raising the funds to build the rest of the campus," Allen said, which will include a vertical farm, a community education center, a plant nursery and produce store, and a stormwater mitigation area.
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