Part of a periodical series reviewing technology and sustainable culture from this October’s Plain Green Conference.

Christine Zdorostov of SDSU Extension Services gave one of the most exciting and empowering workshops at Plain Green 2011. Her presentation detailed efforts in Sioux Falls to grow the Urban Agriculture Initiative. This workshop was especially exciting as Astronaut Studio does pro bono work for the Urban Ag Initiative, which we’re now rebranding and promoting as Ground Works (the logo will be released soon. I know, you guys are excited right? The only teaser I’ll give is that it’s looking very socialist in all the right ways.)

Of course, we’re all pretty excited about Ground Works/Urban Ag Initiative here at Astronaut. Outside of our personal connections, however, the bigger ideas behind urban agriculture are refreshing, hands-on ways to make good things happen in our lives and communities. We’re not building wind towers or smart cars here – it’s just planting a garden and cooperating with your neighbors. Let me frame up how exciting this Urban Ag workshop was: Andrew Brynjulson is our graphic designer at Astronaut. He works out of Minneapolis, so wasn’t able to make the conference, but he told me this: “Dude, I would wrestle, kill, and dismember a yack, all with my bare hands, if it meant I could make it to that Urban Ag workshop.” So yeah… it was pretty good.

[Wanna hear another good Brenny quote? “I’m not fancy but I’d like to tickle yours. Hmm… that sounded better in my head.” I work with funny people and love every second.]

Hilarity and exuberance aside, Zdorostov talked to us about some pretty important issues. You see, urban agriculture is all about “food security.” Imagine: Wal-Mart and Hyvee are closed tomorrow, Mexico stops sending us vegetables, and you can’t get food from restaurants or sealed in plastic wrap. How much could you still find to eat? Solving this food security issue is what urban ag is all about.

Along with security, urban agriculture is also motivated by obvious health concerns, both individually and communally. It’s no secret that Americans, kids especially, aren’t very healthy these days. We drive everywhere instead of biking or walking, we sit in chairs all day at work, eat a lot of our meals at restaurants, eat processed food if we ever do eat at home, and consume mountains of high fructose corn syrup (which is considered a poison on other continents) and hydrogenated oils (trans fats are taxed in Denmark just like cigarettes, booze, and gasoline). As such, creating organisations and activities that get kids outdoors, moving, and producing healthy, wholesome food is about as obvious as picking Aaron Rodgers for your fantasy league quarterback.

Create healthier individuals through better food, more time outdoors, eating less, and exercising more: pretty simple. But the kind of health created by the Ground Works’ urban agriculture initiative goes a lot deeper than people’s bodies, it also creates healthier communities. Ground Works has helped start community gardens across town, as well as helping start gardens at a couple elementary and middle-schools in Sioux Falls. These gardens, in turn, create connections and responsibility that mean everybody in the neighborhood benefits. Kids develop a work ethic by seeing fruits from their labor, neighbors get to know each other, and otherwise wasted space is turned into productive gardens.

The Pettigrew Heights neighborhood here in Sioux Falls is a familiar part of town, just west of Minnesota Ave. and south of 10th street – the area directly connected to the southwest part of downtown. This neighborhood has traditionally been plagued by juvenile crime and run-down property. However, Ground Works helped the students at Lowell Elementary (in the Pettigrew Heights neighborhood) plant a garden at their school.

After a couple of years of establishing the project, Pettigrew Heights now has one of the most outstanding community gardens in the city. These community gardens have actually helped lower crime in the neighborhood. After a couple incidents of vandalism, residents who took pride in their community gardens set up a neighborhood watch. In a part of town were hooligans used to run around with spray paint and baseball bats at night, people now take turns monitoring activity on the streets and give kids something to do that is productive, rather than destructive.

All this positive influence in local neighborhoods is enough reason to support Ground Works. When you realize that this is a simple way to make our lifestyles and communities more sustainable through the power of plants … Well, now it has become an obvious Astronaut Studio project. As we seek to promote sustainability throughout the Sioux Falls area, Ground Works is the kind of feel-good project we’re more than happy to help out with our cultural expertise and design skills. Stay tuned throughout this fall and winter as the brand develops and we get the website up. If everything goes according to plan, by the time the Gurney’s Seed catalogs show up in February you will have a new NPO to help you create a more leafy and friendly community.

Honestly, all this talk of gardening has already got me excited to play with some plants. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a couple Wandering Jew plants that need to be repotted right now. As such, I’ll give all you wonderful readers an offer: shoot me a message, and I’ll give you a start of my Wandering Jew. I will even pot it and mail it to you: no matter where in the world you are. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you might even get a pot with some custom design on it. Go ahead, call and ask to get some of my green thumb in your life (by the way, even though we call it a “green thumb”, I’ve always thought that it would be more of a “brown thumb” since that’s what color your fingers are after playing in the dirt). So yeah – message me and see how good my brown thumb can… um… nevermind.

Just shoot me a message.

Peace. Sim.