Triscuit and Urban Farming are encouraging the widespread interest in local and homegrown food by helping people start 50 community-based “home farms” around the country.

Article by Katherine Gustafson and image by OakleyOriginals via Flickr. First published March 2010 at Tonic.com.

Triscuit, the Nabisco brand of crackers, is teaming up with the Detroit-based nonprofit Urban Farming to capitalize on widespread interest in local and homegrown food by supporting home farming. Triscuit’s campaign is, in fact, called “Home Farming Movement,” as if grassroots can be planted by a corporate foodwashing campaign.

While a true movement it is not, a laudable attempt at moving the country toward healthy, local food it certainly is.

The campaign aims to create 50 community-based “home farms” across the country this year. To help them, Nabisco will enclose packs of basil and fill seeds in four million packages of Triscuit crackers.

The interactive website tells you everything you need to know, including how to grow vegetables at home, a guide to crops and expert advice from Paul James, the “Gardener Guy.” The first step, though, is to enter your zip code at the “start your home farm” page, which will help you figure out what you need to know.

Taja Sevelle, founder of Urban Farming and a former pop star who once wrote songs with Prince, recently told me that gardening is about something much deeper than simply being able to supply the tomatoes for the dinner salad.

“Gardening is a fairly addictive and therapeutic activity,” she said. “There’s something about getting your hands in the soil and planting and seeing things grow that touches a human chord within everybody.”

Editor’s note: Article by Katherine Gustafson and image by OakleyOriginals via Flickr. Originally published by our friends at Tonic.com. Tonic is a digital media company and news source dedicated to promoting the good that happens each day around the world. Tonic tells the stories of people and organizations who are working to make a difference, by inspiring good in themselves and others. Be sure to visit them and say hi, and follow Tonic on Twitter, too!

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