An agrihood is a community with a central farm or garden. Established intentionally or spontaneously, it offers easy access to healthy produce.
When enough human beings dropped their hunter-gatherer ways and formed agricultural communities some 10,000 years ago, it marked the beginning of civilization.
Since then, agricultural communities have taken different forms — tribal villages, feudal fiefdoms and farming cooperatives. Each accepted the prevailing social, political and economic characteristics of the time and region. The underlying purpose has always been the same: To grow enough food for everyone to survive.
In the modern post-industrial era, growers face unique challenges in feeding the world. Suburban sprawl has overtaken lots of what used to be the most fertile ground. Available soil is often over-farmed, requiring frequent fertilization. And water is in increasingly short supply.
Choosing to live in an agrihood is a healthy response to what threatens to become a critical survival issue: food poverty. An agrihood is an oasis in a world in which food is often factory-farmed and processed.
