Our Happiness and Wellness Initiative shares "Some Good News" from the SPH and our extended community. You can submit your own good news by email to: happyandwell@umd.edu.
Sacoby Wilson, an associate professor in the Maryland Institute of Applied Environmental Health, is transforming his academic knowledge and social justice work into his own backyard. Read more on what Sacoby has done to provide the food needs for his family and what he has planned to fully utilize the entire yard in ways that intersect with food justice; food, energy and water nexus; food and land as culture; food sovereignty and more.
Sacoby has 15 years of experience as an environmental health scientist in many important areas of exposure science, environmental justice, environmental health disparities, and community-engaged research. His work includes crowd science and community-based participatory research on water quality analysis, air pollution studies, built environment, industrial animal production, climate change, community resiliency and sustainability. He works closely with the community to study and address environmental justice and health issues and translating research to action. As you learn more about Socoby and his work, including his Community Engagement, Environmental Justice and Health (CEEJH) laboratory, which provides support to communities fighting against environmental injustice and environmental health disparities in the DMV region and across the nation, it is no surprise that he has applied his work into his own backyard and to benefit his family and community.
He has cultivated a substantial garden that meets many of the needs of his family. "My current garden is pretty good, but I still have a long way to go before I can provide all of our food needs." Most of Sacoby's food and nutrition needs are met along with a good portion for his wife, Natasha. "But it does not provide all of the foods that my little ones, Ava and Ariana, like - LOL."
For these and other reasons related to food justice, food as culture, land as culture and food sovereignty, Sacoby is in the process of transforming his entire yard into an edible landscape/food forest. He has dug up all of the grass on the front and side yards and is having a landscaper plant a number of berry bushes and fruit trees including apples, figs, gooseberries, blackberries, chokeberries, blueberries, pomegranates, and grapes. Their family is also xeriscaping--a style that incorporates water efficient plants, use of mulches, soil amendments (improving soil to provide a better environment for roots) and appropriate landscape maintenance that requires little to no irrigation.
Look to future months for a follow-up story that will showcase the Wilson family garden and their edible landscape/food forest and speak to the issues of culture, justice and land and sustainability that embody Sacoby's work and action.