Most of us live in a way that removes us from our food – where it was grown, how it was grown, who grew it. There are many, many degrees of separation between the food on our plate and the ground that food was grown in – sometimes continents of separation. This separation has created a disconnect not only between ourselves and our food, but also between ourselves and our environment, our health, and our communities.

A movement is afoot to change this system from the bottom up, and active citizens from every walk of life are taking part – parents, teachers, policymakers, students, and countless others. Within this movement, there’s a critical group of people whose voices must be heard. They are the heart and soul of local food, and they are directly responsible for that potato or tomato on our plate.

Know Your Grower Atlanta is hoping to share the stories of this group of people so pivotal to the local food movement – the urban growers, farmers, and backyard gardeners – who are getting their hands dirty (literally) to change our food system.

This blog started as a project of the Community, Soil, Air, and Water program’s 2014 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Georgia State University. We are four undergraduates from around the country (Georgia, California, Alabama, and Colorado) studying urban agriculture in Atlanta as community geographers. Our goal is simple – to share the stories of growers from around the city, highlighting their experiences and knowledge using story mapping. In the process, we hope to better connect community members to their local growers, spurring new, deeper conversations at farmers markets, gardens, and dinner tables around Atlanta.

Like what we’re doing? See something that could be done differently? We welcome feedback and input! If you have ideas, comments, or a story you’d like to share, please contact Know Your Grower Atlanta at foodhub@gebsite.com We can’t wait to hear from you!

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ”
― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals