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On a Sunday in early April, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced via Twitter that she would be adopting a Rooftop Community Garden in Washington, DC.
"Is there a green thumb with wise advice?" the progressive New York asked its 4 million people follow. Of the thousands of responses were word games of an Israeli rabbi and advice from the leader of the British Labor Party Jeremy Corbyn.
The new 29-year-old lawmaker described her new gardening hobby as a way to practice "self-care" and "mindfulness", an escape from her demanding life as a congressman.
"I have the impression that plants are an excellent partner in liability because they literally die if you do not take the time to look after yourself and their lives," she said. she said in an article posted on Instagram in April.
Ocasio-Cortez has a habit of using his celebrity social media to blend politics with everyday life in order to target a Generation Y and Millennium audience. She brought her legions of fans into her kitchen to live " Cook + Q & A"and in his living room to drink wine and assemble IKEA furniture, while answering questions and expressing his opinion on the problems of the day.
Perhaps by playing on the gardening influence community of Instagram, Ocasio-Cortez now mixes political, food and environmental activism.
"The food that comes out of the earth – it's magical," she says of her green cabbage and spinach.
The project also aimed to draw attention to the Ocasio-Cortez Green New Deal resolution, an ambitious and ambitious plan to tackle climate change, stimulate the economy and expand the net. social security.
Ocasio-Cortez has received numerous criticisms regarding a series of FAQs published by his office – and promptly retracted – suggesting that the resolution calls for the eventual elimination of cow and aircraft movements and providing a living wage for those "who do not wish to work. " The congresswoman said she was facing strong pressure from advocates of agriculture.
"When we rolled out the Green New Deal, one of the first attacks was:" Well, what does she know about agriculture? "," Said Ocasio-Cortez in an article on Instagram, describing why she had embarked on the rooftop gardening project.
Read more: "The life of our children is at stake": Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounces Joe Biden for his approach "halfway" the fight against climate change
Viraj Puri, CEO of Gotham Greens, a New York urban agriculture startup, said urban gardening was a good way to educate communities about the links between environmental issues and agriculture.
"Community gardening is – no pun intended – a fruit at hand.This is an easy starting point for raising awareness about agricultural issues, health and wellbeing," said Viraj Puri to INSIDER. "[It] really overlaps with many different themes – from climate change to health and obesity, urban greening, quality of life. "
Ocasio-Cortez's approach to urban gardening differs from that of other Democrats, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, who promoted her vegetable garden to the White House as a means of combating obesity in children rather than as an environmental initiative.
The congressman also had to face opposition to adopt a social justice project approach. During a recent trip to the Glover Street Community Garden in the Bronx – documented on Instagram, of course – she pleaded for the cultivation of plants that are "culturally familiar to the community". She argued that many community development projects failed because they involved outsiders dictating how things went, rather than letting the community run.
"It's an essential part of the Green New Deal, that all these projects make sense in a cultural context," she said. "When someone says it's too difficult to create a green space that cultivates yuca instead of, I do not know, cauliflower, what you do, is that you take a colonial approach to environmentalism. "
She added, "If I went to a predominantly white community and said, 'Okay, you're going to grow plantains and yuca and all those things you do not know how to cook and your pal gets used to, "It's going to be cute for a bit. But it's not easy. "
Read more: Fox News floods its airwaves with discussions about Green's Green Green Deal of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the conservative support granted to this plan has collapsed
These concepts are well established among advocates of food justice.
"Many people of color are actually closer to the generations of the earth than white hipsters – for want of anything better – and yet, they are white, educated and white middle-class people who think they need to get into communities of color to educate them, "said INSIDER Luz Calvo, professor of ethnic studies at Cal State East Bay, who wrote a book titled" Decolonize Your Diet ".
Right-wing critics soon tried to ridicule the argument, claiming that Ocasio-Cortez had decried cauliflower as racist.
"In addition, the cauliflower is delicious and the yuca tastes bad," said right-wing provocateur Ben Shapiro in a YouTube video. "Maybe it's just my different cultural sensitivity that speaks to me here, but also I do not care if you grow yuca."
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