Youths beet economic woes by gardening

Nine-year-old Sebastian Porras grows spearmint leaves in a small garden at his home, reaping the benefits all winter long. Sam Moody, 14, says his homegrown tomatoes, herbs and other vegetables make his mom's meals fresh and tasty.

"If we get lost in nature, we'll know how to survive on plants, and know which ones we can eat," Porras said. He said that growing food helps people learn to eat new things, "and they're mostly really good."

The practical benefits, however, as the two young boys and their classmates in a city youth program are learning, come as economic savings for those who grow their own produce. Educational efforts, including visits to Wasatch Community Gardens and Utah State University Extension's Agriculture in the Classroom program, are teaching kids across the state not to take food for granted.

"It's an intricate process compared to other parts of the world," said Debra Spielmaker, director of the USU program. The extension office prepares lessons for teachers to use to understand the science behind agriculture.

"If you think all your food shows up in a grocery store, you have no idea the energy expended to get it there," she said. Teaching kids about the process allows them to make more informed decisions about nutrition and resources, ideas that are becoming vastly popular.

"I call it the big foodie movement," Spielmaker said. The energy crunch, financial crisis, rising food prices and a growing awareness of health issues, she said, are fueling record sales for seed companies this year, leading more people to plant their own gardens.

Others are utilizing the community gardens, which allow families to rent plots of land to grow whatever they choose, albeit organically.

"This year, there has been a huge interest in our gardens," said Krystal Rogers, a Wasatch Community Gardens youth and community educator. She said attendance at workshops that teach gardening practices has nearly quadrupled this year over previous years. "There's definitely an interest in becoming more self-reliant."

Several grade schools recently received federal grants to help them foster agricultural learning. The projects were sporadic and varied, until the USU Extension stepped in with ideas.

Students in Paula Marquez's sixth-grade class at Backman Elementary School in Salt Lake City spent the past year studying science, social studies, reading, math and healthful lifestyles, using USU's program, which ultimately resulted in Marquez being selected as one of five national winners of the Excellence in Teaching Agriculture in the Classroom Award for 2009.