‘You can use the land you have to grow the food you need’. This is one of the slogans from a WWII victory poster that was plastered across the U.K. and the U.S.A. encouraging people to utilise their suburban backyards to increase local food security and independence.
Fast-forward a generation of two and people value lawn over food production ten-to-one. However I take enormous pleasure and gain a deep satisfaction in converting lawn into food.
I’ve just moved into a new rental property. My backyard, currently a blank slate pictured above, will not sit idle (and neither will our front yard if our landlord concedes). Instead it will contribute to making our suburbs and cities a more edible, healthy and vibrant place to live. It will be a conversation starter between my new neighbours and I, a reference point for my friends and family and a daily joy for my husband and I. Growing food makes us happy and healthy, inside and out. It also helps us stay connected to the largely invisible (for city folk at least) Australian farmers who feed our country and portions of the world.
After my recent travels overseas I have a renewed appreciation for how awesome Australia truly is. We really are a lucky country in terms of access to resources and infrastructure to allow us to grow food anywhere…. And I do mean anywhere, from paddocks to urban spaces to apartment balconies and rooftop gardens. Anything is possible.
Long ago I decided to not take a back seat in watching our society disconnect from where our food comes from. No sir, not in my backyard will I allow complacency, convenience and laziness to grow… only carrots, lettuces, radishes, potatoes, pumpkins, corn and tomatoes.
While traveling through Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda and various remote tropical islands in the Banda Sea around Indonesia I’ve been looking, listening and learning about people’s farming techniques.
And despite these different countries being worlds away in terms of culture and geography there’s some strong silimilarities between Indonesia and Africa… The biggest one being that (by Australia standards) the farms feeding these countries are mostly all small.
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In Africa the women’s place is in the kitchen and in the fields and in the school, and as a mother and homekeeper and money earner. You get the idea. In Africa (and it has been said globally) women carry the large portion of the workload while men (largely) sit by.
Straight away I want to give a disclaimer. I do not believe men are inherently lazy and women are superior; my husband is outraged I’ve even implied that some are. However through my experiences and observations I do believe there is sometimes a gender imbalance where women carry the workload as a result of cultural and social norms.
Two weeks ago I visited farmers in Katakwi, a remote village in eastern Uganda, Africa and had the privilege of meeting some of the participants involved in what’s called the “Reflect Circle Project”.
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I arrive on the back of a ute to Polly’s place where we’re welcomed by around twenty women farmers singing and dancing.
Africa is completely overwhelming – in the best kind of way.
Polly's house in Katakwi, eastern Uganda.
Polly lives in Katakwi, eastern Uganda in a small cluster of close-knit villages and stretches of farmland. Katakwi is around eight hours drive from Kampala with NO stopping. On the horizon of her fields of groundnuts (peanuts), cassava and maize are the mountains that border Kenya.
I’ve travelled to the other side of the world with ActionAid to visit Polly and her small-hold farm to develop a better understanding of her world and specifically her role in increasing food security for her family and community.
Who is Polly? Polly is one of the most welcoming and warm people I’ve come across. She has a big smile, sparkly eyes, is tall and is always immaculately dressed, putting us shabby, dusty ‘westerners’ to shame.
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Around the world some of our most productive farmland is being snatched up by big businesses, creating food deserts that threaten our very ability to feed ourselves.
Currently food is grown on 11 percent of the earth’s surface, of which only 3 percent is actually considered fertile.
So why are governments and big businesses selling large tracts of farmland to foreign inventors or businesses and paving the way to a food insecure future for surrounding communities?
Before delving into this, let’s first be clear on what being food secure really means. The World Health Organisation defines food security as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.
In Africa they call this practice of government and business buying up farmland ‘land grabbing’. I saw an example of this myself earlier this week.
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For three generations, Mwinyikambi’s family have farmed the same four acres of land in rural Tanzania. But despite reduced rainfall and yields they continue to farm as they always have.
It was a privilege to be a guest in the village of Zinga over the past two days. Zinga is a village in the region of Bagamoyo, 50 kilometres north of Dar es Salaam. As outsiders our group was welcomed into the home of a local elected government official, Mwinyikambi. He is a leader in the community, a solver of local problems, a mediator in local disputes, a husband to two wives, father of six and an incredibly hospitable host.
After serving us lunch, we take a thirty minute walk to Mwinyikambi’s farm. One of our group quietly described what we saw as chaos cropping – a random planting of cashew trees, cassava, coconut palms and rice. There are signs of soil degradation, over cropping and top soil erosion.
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So, as a city farmer, why do I think it’s worthwhile dedicating my life to creating sustainable food systems in cities for city folk?
I’m 5th generation Australian and before that I’m pretty much pure Irish. But it’s the Cuban in me that inspires me to have a bit of foresight.
Faced with being seriously cut out of the international community at the demise of the Soviet Union and U.S relations; Cuba found itself stranded in a resource desert in the early 1990’s. Basically this meant they could no longer trade with the international community to get the basics. No food, no fertilisers, no animal feed, no spare parts for machinery and no oil to run society.
The most vulnerable and hardest hit where the 2 million plus people who lived in the capital, Havana. Yet instead of being terminally devastated something amazing happened.
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Polly sat awkwardly on my soft and comfy sofa but dealt so confidently with the stream of media that passed through my home. It was an unusual situation even for me…I am not accustomed to radio and newspaper journalists lining up at my door!
Ocola Apio Polly is a Ugandan farmer. She describes to the journalist her home.
My homestead is just grass thatched houses…and around it I have animals…..I have 10 acres of land….
What she doesn’t mention is that the land belongs to her husband but he does not tend it, or that she must walk 20 minutes each morning and afternoon to her farm.
“Polly, what do you hope to achieve through your visit to Australia?” the journalist asks.
Wow. What a big question! ActionAid have brought Polly to Australia is to highlight the role of woman farmers in developing countries and build connections between them and our rural community.
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I find myself in a new role as a blogger… usually my hands are in the earth, not on the keyboard.
Clean fingernails are a novelty for me.
I’ve found my way to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa; the other side of the world and my first time out of Australia.
Up to now I’ve been an active ‘anti-international traveller’ – why? To avoid using exorbitant amounts of energy… and, because I believe re-localising our lives is one of the most effective actions we can take for a more sustainable world.
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Why is a 44 year old wrinkly female farmer from Australia sitting in the middle of this swarm? What’s my “buzz”? Where do I fit in here?
The other swarmers…..an inspiring group of young activists from around the globe….places as exotic and captivating as their names…..Afrin from Bangladesh; Anjana from Nepal; Emilia from Brazil; Kodili from Uganda; Collins from Kenya…are all here with a cause! Not just any cause but a cause so close it makes their hearts throb and their eyes glisten when they talk about it – women’s rights, land rights, political systems, the inalienable right to food.
And, as is indicative of swarm behaviour, I look for my place to settle in this milling mass….for there is a place for me here!
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