My research is in full swing with oral interviews and history, I have been doing interviews roughly once a week. The process of getting in touch with different gardens has been a bit difficult as there is a lot of turnover. I have learned more from the interviews than anticipated in terms of environmental science concerns within the community. For example, I did not realize brownfields were such a large issue in SLC but I am learning this is a large problem in urban areas across the country and although SLC is a smaller city, it is facing similar issues to Detroit or New York City. As I consider graduate school for environmental science or planetary science, I am finding that soil plays a large role in the efficiency of these gardens and I am curious to learn more about the conditions of degraded soil.
I have finished reading my literature and now am in the process of finding the overlapping themes in the texts and mapping the structures of my essay. The largest themes have been: public health benefits, food deserts, food apartheid, lenient environmental policies for industries, and a lack of proper cleanup for contaminated sites (water, soil, etc). I have found there is more archival racial state history in Utah than anticipated. According to the 2020 census, Utah is 76.7% white and with histories of the LDS Church, Utah is often overlooked in terms of racial violence and the histories of Black people. However, my research has confirmed links between the overlooking of Utah and many of the systemic issues facing Black and Brown communities, especially in South Salt Lake City.
Overall, my research continues smoothly and every interview brings new perspectives and issues to expand on in my final research paper. The information the last month have brought have shown many people’s strong desire for new ways of relating to Earth. This shared view that the Earth and its resources are not to be infinitely stripped and damaged; these community gardens are doing incredible work to combat issues the government is not improving nor finding imminent.