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Chappaqua Community Garden Grows More Than Food

Dr. Susan Rubin, a doctor of holistic medicine and food educator, helped launch the Chappaqua Community Garden this spring with Susan Novak. Only two available plots remain at a cost of $50 each ($25 holds your plot for next year). The garden is part of the Intergenerate Project, a nonprofit organization which promotes environmental and social sustainability in Northern Westchester.

Novak, a former teacher, took a course with Rubin on master composting and began the community garden as an initiative to educate people young and old about the importance of growing your own food locally with the soaring prices of fuel and harm to the environment.

“Many people don’t realize this but climate change impacts food,” Rubin said. “Most food travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate. It takes ten calories of oil for every one calorie of food. Couple that with raising oil prices and we’re headed for a state of collapse.”

Rubin mentioned that globally the United States is reaching its peak oil consumption, with India and China consuming more barrels than ever before. The United States itself consumes 20 million barrels of gas a day. With gas prices and consumption increasing exponentially, Rubin predicts that the price of food will escalate too.

For those who prefer to remain oblivious about the increasing price of food, Rubin said that “in two to three years, it will become apparent that sustainability is important.”

“The best food for our bodies and our planets grows close to home,” Rubin said. “That’s why I teach people how to grow food.”

You can contact Dr. Susin Rubin on her website, or on Twitter @DrSuRu.

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