Macon neighborhoods could get assist in urban agriculture

P.J. Carswell has spent more than 20 years perfecting the art of growing fruit, vegetables, flowers and trees in Middle Georgia.

On a cloudy morning last week on his property in Bolingbroke, dew trickled from large collard green leaves as he picked them from one of his organic gardens. For the past two decades, he has been hoping other people would join his effort to provide healthy food to the community.

Finally, in the past couple of months, he began discussions with a local organization with the same goal. Carswell plans to work with the Macon-Bibb County Shalom Zones initiative. The zones are designated areas where revitalization efforts are led by churches, community leaders, businesses and local government.

Carswell has a goal of getting more people involved with his gardens in Bolingbroke not far from the Bibb County line and in Macon. With more than 40 acres in Monroe County, Carswell has designated about two acres for his garden that include plants still producing yellow squash, eggplant, cayenne peppers and other vegetables. In Macon, Carswell's hideaway half-acre garden near Montpelier Avenue grows everything from pear, peach, pecan and fig trees to turnip and collard greens.

He enjoys pointing out the soil's richness with a pH level of 7 that creates a "happy medium."

"When I started, I just experimented to see what will grow here," Carswell said.

For Carswell, the potential of working with the local Shalom Zones is promising. He's also open to others interested in aiding his efforts.

"If I just had a nucleus of people to help, we could feed a lot of people in this area," he said.

Frank Austin, Macon-Bibb's Shalom Zones coordinator, said the group welcomes people like Carswell, who can offer advice and resources about how agriculture can fit into improving neighborhoods.

"(Carswell) understands the importance of sharing the knowledge in the community and helping others achieve goals of healthy eating and growing their own food," Austin said.

Shalom Zones also is looking to increase its community garden efforts by building an agribusiness that supports people economically through producing and selling healthy food. Austin recently met with the founder of Milwaukee-based Growing Power, who Austin says has proven strategies to bring healthy and affordable food to under-served neighborhoods.

Since 1993, Growing Power has trained people throughout the U.S. and other nations such as Haiti to form communities where people produce their own food and benefit economically by creating jobs that pay living wages. Growing Power has become the largest indoor grower of food in Wisconsin, CEO and founder Will Allen said.

After recently visiting Macon twice, Allen said he sees potential here.

"When I looked around the community, I saw great possibility to resurrect neighborhoods with the help of a lot of people sitting at the table," said Allen, a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. "You have to get enough funds to get it started and move along the continuum. You can't build this out for one year. You have to train people to keep the infrastructure up."

Some studies show people living in the poorest neighborhoods in various U.S. cities have a 20-year shorter life expectancy than those living in more affluent communities, Allen said.

There tends to be more environmental issues in deprived neighborhoods, but another issue is the lack of access to healthy food, Allen said.

"Foodism" that leads to problems like diabetes, Allen said, is a more common issue than alcoholism and drug addition in many places.

Austin said that when he looked into the Growing Power Plan, it fit the need of the area Shalom Zones communities and brings services to make changes.

Some of the numerous blighted houses in Bibb County can be replaced with community gardens after the homes are torn down, Austin said.

"We look at (blighted houses) as assets and ask how can we use vacant land to beautify the community and create jobs," he said.

More funding is a need for many of the Shalom Zones' initiatives. In September, the organization got some help with a $15,000 donation from WellCare of Georgia for community gardens and improved health services in neighborhoods within Lynmore Estates, south Macon, Bellevue, Hillcrest, Unionville and east Macon.

To contact writer Stanley Dunlap, call 744-4623 or find him on Twitter@stan_telegraph.

This story was originally published November 8, 2015 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Macon neighborhoods could get assist in urban agriculture ."