Chart #13 income to Age

I expected to find that food-growing in my sample group is a response to financial need. While that may the impetus for many to start growing now that the economy is in a tailspin, it may not be the case for existing growers. Overall income distribution, Chart #12, is weighted towards the 30k and under brackets. 58 of the 68 households surveyed responded to the income question, 64% of them, 37 households, fall into that category.

Of the 128 adults resident in the surveyed households, it is clear from Chart #13 that the majority of the under 30k category is made up of 18 to 35 year olds. 85 of the resident adults live in households with 30k or under income. The largest income group of any age is the 18 to 25 year olds, of which there are 20, in households earning 10k or less.

Chart #14 shows that the poorest grow the least. Of the four types of food-growing queried: herbs, leafy vegetables, root crops, fruit and berries, most of the households in the under 10k bracket grow none, only a few even grow 1 type. The most impressive income groups for growing are the 11- 20k, 41-50k, and 71kor higher, all of which have the highest proportion of those growing the most types of food. Question 26 answer #2 was, “I grow because I need to save money on my food bills.” Only 5 out of 68 checked this box and 4 of them were in the 11-20k bracket. Financial need is not the primary motivator to grow food for the majority of this cohort.