1. There is a positive side to a long commute.
The farm I work at is in South Park, a neighborhood (predictably) south of the University District. Marra Farm is 11.7 miles away, which equals approximately 90 minutes of travel by bus (or 20 minutes by car, which I don’t have). I travel the city north to south and back again four times a week, and am more familiar with the city because of it. Although sometimes I think about the extra minutes of sleep I’d get if I was at a different placement, the long rides are a built-in opportunity to experience the city.
2. Experience enhances knowledge.
Reading about food justice and acknowledging disparities in access to fresh, organic produce is important, but actually harvesting that food and distributing it at food banks has been invaluable in contextualizing a complex and urgent issue in America. Lettuce Link deals with these issues partly by sending the produce from their plots on urban farms straight to food banks in the area. This experience so far has grounded the information I’ve read about in a way that makes the issue unignorable. Who grows your food? Who doesn’t have access to healthy food?