A miracle in Chicago

by Jon Rappoport

March 7, 2017

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It turns out that gang killings and drugs are not the only markers of life and death in Chicago. Far from it.

If you consult the Chicago Urban Agriculture Directory, you find a staggering list of city farms and gardens where clean nutritious food is grown:

Urban Farms and Gardens in Chicago and Nearby
• 62nd & Dorchester Community Garden
• Academy for Global Citizenship School Garden
• African Heritage Garden
• Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm
• Angelic Organics Learning Center Urban Initiative (Eat to Live Englewood Learning Garden, Urban Incubator Farm, etc)
• Bay Bay’s Peace Garden (Loud Grade Produce Squad)
• The Bayless Production Garden (Shores Garden Consulting)
• Benton House Backyard Botany
• Big Delicious Planet Kitchen Garden
• Bronzeville Community Garden
• Chicago Honey Co-Op
• Chicago Lights Urban Farm
• Chicago Patchwork Farms
• City Farm
• DePaul Urban Garden
• Dunne Technology Academy Mini Farm
• East Garfield Block Club Garden
• Eden Place Nature Center
• The Edible Gardens (Lincoln Park Zoo)
• El Paseo Community Garden
• Farmed Here
• Frankie Machine Community Garden (Wicker Park)
• Gardeneers School Gardens
• Gingko Organic Gardens
• Global Garden Refugee Training Farm
• GreenTown Waukegan
• Growing Power Chicago Farms
• Growing Home Farms
• KAM Isaiah Israel’s Farm and Gardens
• Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse and Community Garden
• Loyola University
• Metropolitan Farms
• The Millenium Neighborhood Garden
• Moah’s Ark
• The Mycelia Project
• Natalie G. Heineman Smart Love Preschool Garden
• Peterson Garden Project
• The Plant
• Pleasant Farms
• preSERVE garden
• Purple Leaf Farms
• Rainbow Beach Victory Garden
• Roots & Rays
• Roseland Community Peace Garden
• Rosemarie Rochetta Wessies Rooftoop Garden (Loyola)
• The Ruby Garden
• South Chicago Art Center’s Artists’ Garden
• The Talking Farm
• Third Unitarian Church Community Garden
• Timuel D. Black Edible Arts Garden
• Uncommon Ground Organic Roof Top Farm
• Urban Canopy
• Weiss Rooftop Farm (Loud Grade Produce Squad)
• Windy City Harvest (Chicago Botanic Garden)
• Xochiquetzal Peace Garden

And this is only a partial list. The Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project has a much larger count, which includes private/residential gardens. Their total, which is constantly updated? 888.

I have written several articles about the needed expansion of urban farms across America, particularly in poverty-stricken communities, and how, with that expansion, there is a critical-mass point at which the basis of all life in those areas would be transformed in a positive revolutionary way.

Of course, not only do citizens participate in growing their own clean nutritious food and eating it, but they can sell the excess to markets and launch profit-making enterprises. True value for value.

Such an expansion would do more for those cities and communities, from coast to coast, than all the federal programs of the past 50 years, since Lyndon Johnson announced the US government War on Poverty. Trillions of dollars have been spent, with no true accounting. Who knows how much has been diverted and stolen. But the upshot is, conditions are far worse now, in many areas, than they were 50 years ago.

But in Chicago (and other cities), people have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve launched farms and gardens and they’ve endured and grown.

I’m trying to remember the last time Chicago Mayor Emanuel gave a major extended speech about local urban farms, their vital value, and the need for their expansion. Oh, never. That’s right.

And when did Barack Hope & Change Obama, George W No Child Left Behind Bush, Bill I Feel your Pain Clinton, and the other George Kinder and Gentler Bush deliver such a speech?

But to repeat, in Chicago (and other cities), people have taken matters into their own hands. They’ve launched farms and gardens, and they’ve endured and grown.

They haven’t waited. They haven’t waited for the politicians to catch up. Smart move.

It’s absurd to consider how, with an infinitesimal fraction of the funds poured out in the War on Poverty, every city in America could, by now, be flourishing in so many ways—through urban farms. Greater vitality, greater health, greater participation, greater profits, a greater citizen-stake in safe neighborhoods…

And those federal seed monies could have come in the form of long-term loans—all of which would have been paid back by now.

If Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon want to take a few minutes out of their schedule, they might consider a new idea people have known about since the industrial revolution…since, in fact, there were cities: growing food in urban areas—and what it could do to make America great again.


Exit From the Matrix

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Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

This entry was posted in Farming.

11 comments on “A miracle in Chicago

  1. Catherine says:

    Growing food is independent. Can’t have that! Where is the control factor? Our Big Brother didn’t agree to that!

    I think it’s beautiful. It’s how we are supposed to live. It’s freedom at work.

    • Lesley Collins says:

      I agree that should be the goal but I know someone who lives in Chicago and they aren’t even allowed to grow foods in their front gardens. Not only that but you need planning permission for a greenhouse. Here in the UK we have allotments (council,owned land used for community gardening) and they are being grabbed back and turned into car parks or for building using exceptional circumstances, ( a loophole) and taken away from people who have had them years. As the NWO want no one to have ownership of anything I can’t see this being on their current agenda.

      • Bill in IL says:

        I live in Chicago and these stories are patently false. As soon as the planning commission finds out you are growing a garden, they come in, shut you down and start handing out paying paper.

  2. joanie says:

    I’m assuming each state has a group listing –

    in MN we have http://minnesotagrown.com

  3. Thanks, Jon, for encouraging personal, common-sense solutions to social problems.

  4. mangledman says:

    I grew up south of Chicago about 130 miles. Illinois still smells foul to me since I found a little freedom across the border in Indiana. Most of my relatives live there still. Call me a pessimist, but there still hundreds of thousands of fema caskets just across the border up there in Indiana. If famine hits, these people better be able to defend their food. Michigan is cracking down on small food producers, hard. Why would Chicago not be following suit, being the liberal bastion that it is. I thought miracles left Chicago years ago. Call me a skeptic and a pessimist, but they will measure your garden plot by drone to make sure you can’t profit much for it, or have new lines on your tax forms for the money you save with a garden. The epa fda and irs have those big ole swat teams that aren’t busy. Does anyone realize that the birth of the atf now the batfe gave feds permission to defy property rights,making trespass by them legal? Welcome to the matrix. When the fed or the state supposedly gives something it comes with a bullseye. I live in Indiana where Pence came from, to think Illinois or Ohio is going to give anything to the people, my pessimism kicks in.

    • elliottjab says:

      Most likely correct on counts U’ve mentioned.

      However – if ‘our’ world were to head in a sensible direction – what the growers in all the cities and urban areas are accomplishing – is grand & beyond good.

      Almost impossible to hold optimism close but please try to keep a protected bit of it – for your own sake & for those you care about.

  5. Aron says:

    Crisis (controllers), reaction, solution (individual). Problem solved. Next.

    Thank you Jon and others for inspiring.

  6. D3F1ANT says:

    A TRUE miracle in Chicago would be to somehow prevent the ghetto folks from killing each other.

  7. lilmissheidi says:

    that’s great news….but when do you think we can get the poison to stop raining down on them? =(

  8. Dawn Whitehead says:

    Amen to all of that!!

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