The latest data from a Map the Meal Gap study shows that more than are food insecure, which accounts for over 15% of the population. As hunger rises and food access shrinks, some Ohioans have taken matters into their own hands鈥攁nd yards.
Taite and Ben Kyle of Huber Heights in southwest Ohio had gardened for years, but two years ago they decided to take things a step further.
鈥淲e have the aspects of wanting to do our part in making the world a better place and using what's left over from the consumerist society that we're in and also with the aspects of providing our family the solution to a broken food chain,鈥� Taite Kyle said.
So, they filled their front yard with rows of 40-foot-long raised garden beds, which they built with recycled wood. The array is crowned by a garden archway near the entrance to their ranch-style, suburban home.
Taite鈥檚 youngest daughter hugged her mother鈥檚 hip as she walked us through the mulched pathways between each box鈥攆ull of raspberries, lettuce, tomatoes and pollinator plants. A spiral garden at the corner of their property rippled down a raised section of earth, framed by a coil of stacked bricks, and offers a variety of microclimates in a small space for diverse plant growth.
The Kyles are urban homesteaders, which means they grow their own food on their own land in an effort to rely less on industrial food systems. They are one of many who have started the practice in recent years.
A growing trend
Lauren Craig is a homesteading consultant in southwestern Ohio. She has offered detailed guidance and garden designs to over 300 urban homesteaders nationwide since she started her business, Humble Hive Consulting.
鈥淥nce I started my business, you know, three and a half, four years ago, it was just kind of off to the races,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople really came out of the woodwork desiring to homestead and to garden, but not really having the resources and skills and experiences to back that up.鈥�
Her goal is to build a more attainable, resilient way to access nutritious food in the face of climate change.
鈥淎ll of my designs, they come with step-by-step installation instructions and shopping lists for materials and vegetation just to make it as easy as possible for the average busy human to be able to become more self-sufficient,鈥� Craig said.
Craig says when fewer families rely on the fluctuating food system in the US, our climate stands to benefit. She pointed to the recent impact of rising egg prices due to avian flu and farm fallout from Ohio鈥檚 drought in the previous year.
鈥淚f your food is as local as your front yard, there is no petroleum being utilized in transporting that to you as a human,鈥� she said.
Margaret Rivera is the Agriculture and Natural Resource Educator for Summit County. In August of 2020, she co-hosted an educational series through OSU Extension that addressed the motivations and key obstacles in urban homesteading during the pandemic.
While they have not offered any similar classes in recent years, Rivera said she plans to reach back out to class attendees as new motivations for self-sufficiency arise.
鈥淲ith the tariff uncertainty and talk of store shelves being empty and now with global conflicts that are going on, I can see that same anxiety returning,鈥� she said.
Barriers to entry
Rivera said a few barriers crop up again and again for would-be homesteaders: a lack of land and a lack of time.
鈥淔or the most part, most farm families work and farm, right,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o at least one person in the household has an off-farm income, and sometimes it's both of the heads of household that have an off-farm income.鈥�
That鈥檚 true for families like the Kyles: Taite homeschools their children and Ben works as a warehouse manager. But despite those challenges, homesteading continues to grow in popularity. People like Christine Irby partially attribute that to concerns over the quality of food available in stores.
鈥淲e have no clue what they're using in the cornfield, period,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat's going in our air? What's in our water? What's going through the soil? We just don't know.鈥�
Irby owns Irby鈥檚 Old School Farm in Montgomery County and is part of the Black Indigenous People of Color Food and Farming Network, or BFFN. She said she hopes to encourage others to become more self-sufficient as our climate, food systems and access continue to change.
鈥淚t is not a luxury anymore, it's a necessity,鈥� she said.
For urban homesteaders like the Kyles, widening their reach is essential to making a difference.
鈥淥ur individual action can do so much, but really the big impact lies in community support,鈥� Taite Kyle said. 鈥淲e need to join together and make things change because nobody's gonna do it if we don't.鈥�
