Get kids out in the garden

Jenna Kern-Rugile lives in East Northport.

Last Friday, nearly 600 people began their Earth Day celebration a week early by flocking to the SUNY Old Westbury campus for the inaugural Small Farm Summit, a project of the Long Island Small Farm Initiative. The day was filled with workshops on everything from farm policy issues and crop management to organic gardening and beekeeping for novices.

The audience members -- not just farmers, educators and environmentalists, but also a cross-section of "everyday" Long Islanders of all types -- are part of a burgeoning movement. Despite the prevalence of the industrial farming complex, Americans are again returning to our country's roots by supporting sustainable local agriculture and working for the preservation of precious farmland, which is still a cornerstone of Long Island's economy and culture.

True, most of us are not about to toss our work garb for overalls and join the ranks of full-time farmers anytime soon. Suburban dwellers are lucky to have a quarter or half acre of land to call their own, and luckier still if that patch of dirt gets a decent dose of southern exposure.

For those without the space or time to grow a garden, there are still plenty of ways to support local farms: buying at farmers' markets, many of which start up in late April (find one at localharvest.org); joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group; or pressuring markets to carry local produce and other products.

Still, there's nothing like having a garden of your own, or pitching in at a local community garden or school garden, to develop a keen appreciation of the natural world.

That connection to nature is more important than ever for our children, who are far more likely to spend their playtime staring at the blue glare of a screen than basking in the warm glow of the sun.

In the subtitle of his 2005 book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder," Richard Louv coined a term that, sadly, has become part of the lexicon. "For a new generation," he writes, "nature is more abstraction than reality. Increasingly, nature is something to watch, to consume, to wear -- to ignore."

The impact of nature deficit disorder -- simply put, the lack of time spent in the outdoors -- is widespread, affecting children's physical, emotional and spiritual health. Studies indicate that it contributes to obesity, depression, stress, attention problems and anxiety in our youth.

Although every generation has its "when I was a kid things were so much better" speech (much to the annoyance of our children), most of us on the north side of 40 have vivid memories of spending our free time outdoors, even if only in our own backyards. At my house, our small yard was largely given over to a garden. I spent hours digging in the dirt, helping my mother plant tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and more. The memory of picking a ripe cherry tomato off a vine -- one that I had planted myself -- and popping it in my mouth is one of the sweetest of my childhood.

Where do most kids today think their tomatoes or green beans or peas come from? Yep, the produce aisle -- or worse, the canned vegetable section -- of their local supermarkets.

The lessons that children learn from working in a garden go beyond an awareness of how we grow our food. They learn about good nutrition, and they're far more likely to want to eat fruits and veggies that they've helped grow. They learn about the importance of clean air, water and soil, and their role in protecting the environment. They learn about teamwork, responsibility and patience. They learn science and math concepts, not by sitting in a classroom but by getting dirt underneath their fingernails.

Those are lessons that stick -- not just on Earth Day, but throughout their lives.