Impressions, daydreams and ramblings on art, food, life and other obsessions.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Futurefarmers and Edible Landscapes

Upon returning to cold and dark Alaska last month from a vacation in sunny and warm Mexico, I felt a little uplifted as I was able to attend an inspiring lecture by Amy Franceschini at the Blue Loon in Fairbanks, sponsored by Alaska Design Forum. Amy is an artist working with notions of community, sustainable environments and a perceived conflict between humans and nature. She founded Futurefarmers in 1995 and continues to maintain a balance between art and design. In 2005 she co-founded Free Soil, an international collective of artists, activists, researchers, and gardeners. Amy is also the creative mind behind the first edible Victory Garden at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza since World War II. (Photo above is by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)

A few months ago an architect with similar interests,
Fritz Haeg, spoke as part of the Design Forum lecture series as well. His main focus was to explain "Edible Landscapes", an ongoing agricultural project that replaces suburban lawns in the United States and England with highly productive domestic edible landscapes. I do find the website to be bit frustrating to navigate but it is worth looking through it to see the extenisive number of photos of the projects he has initiated. Haeg challenges dwellers to rethink their idea of what a front yard should be. I just wonder, if only everyone who had the space or property to do so tried to grow some of there own food in this country, what an amazing difference that would make! Even only one tomato plant, or a small bed of lettuce can produce a lot of food.

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