More Suburbanities Growing Their Own Food

The Corvallis Gazette-Times is reporting that many backyard farmers say they're growing food out of a fear that much of the commercially grown food found at the supermarket isn't safe. For example, Jules Dervaes and three of his four grown children work tilling their urban garden full-time. The garden produces about 6,000 pounds of food a year — enough to feed the Dervaes, their menagerie of ducks, chickens and bunnies and even some diners seeking organic meals at local restaurants.

"We're farming on just a 10th of an acre here," Dervaes said. They're at the forefront of a small but growing number of city dwellers who are ripping out lawns and replacing them with vegetable beds and fruit trees.

:: Corvallis Gazette-Times