Talk:Market gardening

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[edit] Social role of market gardening

I added this section with some, I think, reasonable text on the subject. It has since been deleted. As a non-regular user of Wikipedia I'm not sure what's going on. Can someone tell me if the text was completely out of line / off topic / whatever or some other reason to delete. Otherwise, could wiser heads insert it and make any edits necessary. Many thanks Denis [[[Special:Contributions/60.242.50.195|60.242.50.195]] (talk) 01:50, 25 January 2008 (UTC)]

Deleted text: "In some more affluent countries, including Australia and the United States market gardening is rated as a low social status occupation. It is typically taken up by recent immigrant groups for one or two generations, until they can accumulate capital, language and trade skills. The succession of dominant market gardening groups in Australia, for example, was - from the early 1800s Anglo-Celtic, people from German-speaking countries, Chinese [following the peak of the goldrushes in mid-late 1800s], then southern European migrants from Italy and Yugoslavia [prior to its disintegration], then Southeast Asian migrant and refugee communities following the Vietnam War, such as the Vietnamese and Cambodians. Currently Somali migrants are the main group taking up market gardening.

Involvement in market gardening provides immigrant groups who otherwise have few marketable skills, apart from their labour, with an opportunity to become actively involved in the market economy. Benefits are that it is not reliant upon education or language, it adapts well to providing work for extended family groups, and in large market growing regions even wider community support networks. Sharing of knowledge and experience within communities reduces risks, and supports a network of other trades such as carriers, market agents, and heavy machinery contractors. Market-gardening land is typically relatively cheap and allows immigrants to purchase land, often with an accompanying residence, far more readily than in urban settings. However, like all agriculture it risks crop failure, market collapse and competition from industrialised broad-acre farming and 'fresh-frozen' imported produce. Other risks are from hazards such as pesticide use, especially where the market gardeners are not trained in their use or able to read product information. Another consequence is marginalisation of the succeeding generation where they are relied upon as the fittest and strongest to succeed in continuing the farm rather than pursue other ambitions and opportunities."

Since no comments adverse or positive have been made on this I've reinstated the text.124.183.134.19 (talk) 00:36, 13 March 2008 (UTC)