homeland security was a walking tour of very local food production in an 8 square block area of North Park. It was part of the weekend-long "There Goes the Neighborhood" art project. homeland security mapped intentional and inadvertent local food production – local deviations from our industrialized food system and challenges to the aesthetic status quo of most neighborhood landscapes. Changing our homeland-scapes from monocultures of lawns into polycultures of food requires a re-imagined aesthetics that allows for improvisational strategies, opportunistic acts, and a little chaos in the garden. There are political as well as social and environmental implications to the simple planting of a tomato or peach tree, since if the average carrot travels 1500 miles from farm to table (and it does), and the average San Diego-grown orange is eaten in China (and it is), and the average turf front lawn uses up to 4 times more water than an equivalent square feet of vegetables (and it does), then there are repercussions for our community food security if there are disruptions in transportation or communications networks, and the oil that fuels our economy is harder to get and more expensive, and the water that nourishes our bodies and landscapes is rationed.

Project Information

Project Address: 

between Herman and Utah, University and Upas, in North Park

Project Owner/ Developer: 

many

Owner Contact Name/ Email: 

info@nearfoodproject.org

Project Architect/ Designer: 

Leslie Ryan

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