Veg in the City: Five Things to Know
- Words by Peppermint
With an ever-changing climate and increasingly sprawling population, the worldβs farmland is under threat. But we all need to eat, right? With 580 community gardens around the country, the idea of growing food in cities is beginning to catch on β and the Urban Agriculture Forum is all about sharing knowledge to strengthen that movement. For its second-ever forum, the un-conference brought together government, educators, gardeners, health professionals, innovators and individuals to share ways to help shape sustainable, healthy and resilient food-growing cities around Australia β and here are the top five takeaways you can implement at home.
Protecting the peri-urban Β
Dr Lenore Newman, from the University of Fraser Valley in Canada, is a researcher and advocate for protecting the peri-urban farm β the farms that sit at the fringes of our city borders, but which keep getting chewed up by sprawl. βWeβre on a fight for the worldβs farmland,β she said. With only 14% of our total landβs surface being used to grow food (aside from the icy bits), she says βwe need to make room for foodβ. And the solution doesnβt lie with bulldozing more forests. It will be found in urban and suburban farmingβgrowing food within the city itβs meant to feed. So get digging! Even pot plants count.
Worms love avocado
While Australian city dwellers might be big fans of their smashed avocado come breakfast, it turns out itβs the favourite food of worms too! Home worm-farms are an easy way to ensure youβre keeping methane-releasing food scraps out of landfill and generating food (worm juice and compost) for your garden bed at the same time. Vermiculture researcher Liane Colwell from UTS shared that worm juice doesnβt work on native trees, so keep your castings for your veggie patch. And while we already know worms donβt like garlic, citrus or chilli, it turns out theyβre also opposed to mushroom, cherry and even green bean scraps β so take these off the menu at your worm cafe.
Waste wake-up call
Chinaβs ban on foreign waste imports has left Australia in a bit of a pickle, but Rob Pascoe from Closed Loop thinks itβs the perfect moment for change. βWe’re now facing this perfect storm. Why donβt we demand that we use our resources,β he said. Closed Loopβs Simply Cups coffee cup recycling program (as covered in Issue 35 of Peppermint) is forging ahead. And the company’s also recently started using a new world-first technology to transform any flexible plastic back into any plastic shape. A circular economy is within our midst! But the best action is still to not create the waste in the first place. βWeβve only become a throwaway society in the past 30 or 40 years.β
A bugβs life Β
Soil scientist Declan McDonald is on a mission to convince gardeners to βreplace optimism with scienceβ β swapping out the βsheβll be right, mateβ attitude for understanding the basic chemistry that makes our home gardens thrive β and that includes the creepy crawlies that live in soil. βIn any biological system itβs about maintaining the balance,β he said. And the vast array of micro and macro-organisms that live in our soils help keep that essential balance, creating the soilβs structure (and its pockets of water and oxygen) and regulating the nutrient supply. So instead of thinking about feeding plants, we need to think about feeding the soil and keeping its hardworking bug communities healthy and happy (and theyβll channel that love back up the plant pipeline). Β
No more ‘bush tucker’
βYou canβt eat our food if you canβt swallow our history,β said Bruce Pascoe. The Aboriginal author of Dark EmuΒ (who we interviewed in Issue 33 of Peppermint) would like us to stop using the term ‘bush tucker’. He says Aboriginal peoples didnβt just stumble upon food in the bush β instead, ‘bush tucker’ was their fruits and vegetables, and while they did forage and hunt, they also cultivated crops, just like farmers grow our potatoes and wheat today. Finally, their bread wasnβt ‘damper’, but risen loaves made from kangaroo grass, water lily seeds and nardoo seeds ground against a rock into flour.Β
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βYou don`t fight racism with racism. You fight racism with solidarity," said Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers. And solidarity is exactly what we need right now.β
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