According to the 2000 Census, which the article quotes, 80 percent of Americans now live in cities or suburbs, where fruits and vegetables can spend two weeks in transit until arriving. But if the soil between the sidewalk and the curb tests low enough in lead, why not try to coax something out of it? City Slicker in California grew 6,500 pounds of produce on less than one acre of land last year, and the Added Value farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn grows masses of veg in a foot of soil taken from the Bronx Zoo that lies over an old, asphalt baseball diamond. It’s almost as if toxins make the tomatoes grow. 

The lack of space in cities has made the wannabe gardeners creative: Boston’s Food Project grows farm-raised flowerbeds on the roof of Boston Medical Center’s parking garage; Philadelphia has its Neighborhood Gardens Association, a community land trust that holds land reclaimed by gardeners to avoid development; and Oakland’s City Slicker has built 50 backyard gardens, 40 percent of which are growing half or more of their households’ produce. They hope to build another 50 next year.

But urban gardens aren’t just about growing food. “We’re not growing farmers,” said Caroline Loomis of Added Value. “We’re trying to grow young people who are inspired by the world around them and who care and see themselves as empowered to take action in fixing things.”