Prison grows organic food...will others follow the trend?

by Natalie Rotunda, Organic Food Examiner

November 3, 2008

It's probably not news to anyone that family farms are on the decline, tragically so in some parts of our country. Yet, the organic farm movement is alive and well...and turns out that inew advocates are showing up in surprising places!

When I flipped to page 8 of yesterday's newspaper, this AP story grabbed my attention: Prisons now recycle, grow food. The story told how inmates of Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Littlerock, Washington, had harvested 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year. Taking full advantage of tcomposing, he natural companion to growing their food, inmates compost the wastes, helping to put live organisms back into the soil, thereby producing more nutritiously-grown foods. The minimum-security prison not only grows organic food and composts, they also raise bees.

Total costs to house U.S. prisoners topped $49 billion last year. Because prisons all across our land are bursting at the walls with a population explosion, feeding inmates is a primary concern, and corrections staff must develop cost-effective means to help. What better way than to grow their own foods on unused land? Washington Department of Corrections secretary, Eldon Vail, puts it this way. "It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students." Bam! That adds up to a win-win solution for everyone involved! I applaud the Washington prison system's efforts to educate some of their 18,000 prisoners into helping solve their food needs, and provide them with knowledge that will leave with them at the end of their term of imprisonment.

Life in the world beyond prison walls means finding work, and being able to feed themselves and their families. Just maybe their experience at organic farming and beekeeping will lead them to happy, productive lives....and the steady growth in organic farming.

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