Food Costs are Still Sky High. Communal Gardening Could Help
With food inflation outpacing inflation overall and grocery bills squeezing shoppers, some are finding relief in an unexpected place: their local communal garden.
By Arese Sylvester
Modern Farmer
Aug 09, 2023
Excerpt:
When Mark Joseph began noticing reports about food prices climbing due to inflation and other economic factors, he started looking into options on how to cut food costs. Joseph, a small-time farmer and parenting coach, quickly zeroed in on communal gardening. “Growing my food seemed like a cost-effective way to feed my family rather than buying expensive produce at the grocery store,” he says.
Communal gardening is the practice of growing food in a collectively shared space. Communal gardens can take many forms, from plots of land rented out to individuals to urban farms where groups of people work together to grow food. But they all share resources and farm production costs, as well as a sense of community and purpose.
As the world’s population continues to grow, putting pressure on our food systems, food inflation has become an increasingly pressing issue. The steady rise in the cost of food makes it difficult for people—especially those in low-income households—to access the food they need to stay healthy.
Food prices in the US generally increased about 2 percent annually over the last decade. From 2021 to 2022, they jumped about 11 percent, in the largest annual increase since the 1980s. Global disruptions to the food supply chain, along with inflation, contributed to the increase. And while the increase in food prices has slowed, food inflation is still outpacing inflation overall, and grocery bills remain higher than last year.
