Charlotte Observer Logo

Hopeful signs of a greener, healthier future | Charlotte Observer

×
  • E-edition
  • Customer Service
  • Advertise
  • Newsletters

    • News
    • Local
    • Crime
    • Databases
    • Education
    • Election
    • Politics
    • Nation/World
    • Special Reports
    • North Carolina
    • South Carolina
    • Corrections
    • Columnists
    • Retro Charlotte
    • Your Schools
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Sports
    • Carolina Panthers
    • Charlotte Hornets
    • That's Racin'
    • High Schools
    • College Sports
    • Charlotte Knights/MLB
    • Other Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Inside the Panthers
    • Inside the NBA
    • Prep Insiders
    • Scott Fowler
    • Tom Sorensen
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The North Carolina Influencer Series
    • RNC 2020
    • Business
    • Banking
    • Stocks Center
    • Top Workplaces
    • National Business
    • What's in Store
    • Development
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Living
    • Religion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Family
    • Home & Garden
    • CLT Style
    • Travel
    • Living Here Guide
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • I'll Bite
    • Kathleen Purvis
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Arts/Culture
    • Events
    • Movie News & Reviews
    • Restaurants
    • Music/Nightlife
    • Television
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Rewards
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Kevin Siers
    • Letters
    • Submit an Op-ed
    • Submit a Letter
    • Viewpoint
    • All Blogs & Columns
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • O-Pinion
    • You Write The Caption
    • Taylor Batten
    • Peter St. Onge
  • Celebrations
  • Obituaries
  • TV Listings

  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Virtual Career Fair
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
  • Place an ad
  • Mobile & Apps

  • MomsCharlotte
  • Carolina Bride Magazine
  • South Park Magazine

University City

Hopeful signs of a greener, healthier future

By Don Boekelheide - Correspondent

    ORDER REPRINT →

November 13, 2011 12:00 AM

On Tuesday, new farmers at the Elma C. Lomax Farm Incubator in Concord - on the far eastern edge of University City - were out early in the day.

They filled their harvest baskets with red and green heirloom lettuce, varieties with names such as Frizzy Head/Drunken Woman, Tintin and Waldman.

The leaves sparkled in the morning sun like jeweled tiaras.

Joe Rowland, a young farmer with a second life as a rock musician, was excited about that sparkle. It might have been dew, but he was sure it was guttation, a process some plants use to move water and salts out onto leaf margins.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Charlotte Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

He took a picture to show his horticulture professor, Frankie Fanelli at Central Piedmont Community College's Cato Campus on Grier Road. She had just introduced the concept in a class Rowland is taking.

As Rowland and his fellow farmers washed their lettuce in the packing shed, Cabarrus County Extension Agent Carl Pless showed up with big, firm heads of broccoli and a cauliflower that could win a prize at any county fair.

"I've got more of that, too," Pless said in a rich accent echoing the seven generations of his family who have lived in this area.

An instructor and mentor to the farmers at this county-sponsored project, Pless told the group how he first grew cauliflower years ago on his own farm, and he talked a bit about how he produces broccoli.

The farmers soaked up every word.

Then another farmer and Lomax graduate, Jane Henderson, drove up. She brought a cornucopia of produce from her farm next door, including some of the orangest and sweetest carrots you've ever seen.

These crops are destined for area farmers' markets and buying organizations set up to support local growers. Everything at the Lomax farm is certified organic, grown without toxic industrial chemicals or commercial salt fertilizers.

That ties in with the farm's purpose, to be a good steward of the environment while helping train a new crop of farmers to grow local food for local markets.

Classical English poet Alexander Pope famously advised us to "Consult the genius of the place in all."

On this bright November morning, one of the geniuses of University City was clear: our capability to grow healthy and delicious food right here at home.

Our grandparents knew that, and a small band of farmers and urban gardeners is refusing to allow it to be forgotten.

Besides the Lomax project, the University City area also boasts active farms within two miles of the UNC Charlotte campus, a new community garden in the planning stages for Carolinas Medical Center-University, CPCC Cato's full program of horticulture classes, Nancy Newton's Newell Farmer's Market - the list goes on.

It's a hopeful sign of a greener, healthier and more sustainable future.

Past University City land-use policies largely ignored farming and paid little more than lip service to open space. The results of this "growth uber alles" mindset is best symbolized by the lonely silo marked with a cross, still prominently visible from N.C. 49 and Interstate 485, which stands like a gravestone for local farming. It marks the former site of a dairy farm that I-485 sliced in two.

Some folks get richer as a result of this kind of sprawling growth, at least over the short term. Not just fat cats, but skinny ones, too, workers hungry for any kind of job they could find, spreading asphalt, handling wallboard, pushing Chinese knickknacks at the Target or Wal-Mart built in what was once productive farmland.

But we all end up poorer when we destroy the very things that give us a distinct sense of place and meaning. Eventually, of course, the natural balance returns. Every crack in the pavement harbors weeds and grass, and as soon as we neglect the herbicide, they relentlessly spread. Far from being evil, they are emissaries from that First Garden, renewing the process of healing the Earth.

Let's hope the new efforts to encourage local foods and agriculture have the persistence of those weeds.

Among his other roles, Aaron Newton, local food system project coordinator for Cabarrus County, serves as the Lomax Farm manager. Recently he met with Wes Jackson, the legendary environmentalist and crop geneticist.

Jackson's latest book, "Consulting the Genius of the Place," picks up on Pope's theme. In Jackson's view, the transformation to a sustainable society must begin with new agriculture: an agriculture rooted in ecology, a deep connection to the land and respect for traditional culture.

When planners, developers and policymakers see our farms and woods as nothing more than places to build more strip malls and parking lots, they advocate replacing the genius of complexity and balance with unsustainable stupidity.

The genius of a place isn't worth much if you give it a lobotomy.

  Comments  

Videos

Duke’s RJ Barrett talks triple-double against NC State

Best dunks in the NBA All-Star Dunk Contest

View More Video

Trending Stories

After multiple attempts, Charlotte council member Braxton Winston gets served

February 15, 2019 11:29 AM

The NBA All-Star Celebrity Game was looking weak. Then some strong basketball saved it.

February 16, 2019 02:26 AM

That trendy CBD product in your smoothie? Adding it is illegal, NC officials say

February 15, 2019 11:56 AM

The NFL reaches a settlement with Colin Kaepernick. And EVERYONE is talking about it

February 16, 2019 08:00 AM

Driver fatally shoots stranger who jumped on car hood, broke window in Charlotte

February 16, 2019 07:00 PM

things to do

Read Next

Holy bat house! Why does Cannon School’s Brainy Yaks build them better?

Lake Norman & Mooresville

Holy bat house! Why does Cannon School’s Brainy Yaks build them better?

By Jennifer Baxter

Correspondent

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 13, 2017 01:24 PM

The Brainy Yaks, a competitive robotics team for middle school students at the Cannon School in Concord, are tackling a different kind of problem with their latest project – saving the bat population.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Charlotte Observer

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE UNIVERSITY CITY

Eagle Scouts who earned rank in December 2016

South Charlotte

Eagle Scouts who earned rank in December 2016

January 23, 2017 07:41 AM
Adopt a pet, Jan. 16, 2017: Come see me, please, and take me home

Lake Norman & Mooresville

Adopt a pet, Jan. 16, 2017: Come see me, please, and take me home

January 16, 2017 04:08 PM
This season’s finest: Pine Lake Prep’s Caroline Coleman big scores help Pride’s perfect season going

Lake Norman & Mooresville

This season’s finest: Pine Lake Prep’s Caroline Coleman big scores help Pride’s perfect season going

January 10, 2017 09:49 AM
Adopt a pet: Come see me, please, and take me home Jan. 10, 2017

Lake Norman & Mooresville

Adopt a pet: Come see me, please, and take me home Jan. 10, 2017

January 10, 2017 10:03 AM
Adopt a pet, Dec. 13, 2016: Come see me, please, and take me home

South Charlotte

Adopt a pet, Dec. 13, 2016: Come see me, please, and take me home

December 13, 2016 08:49 AM
Religion news, Dec. 7-13, 2016: in Ballantyne, Cotswold, Pineville, Matthews and Mint Hill

South Charlotte

Religion news, Dec. 7-13, 2016: in Ballantyne, Cotswold, Pineville, Matthews and Mint Hill

December 06, 2016 10:21 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Charlotte Observer App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story