Sharing good news – growing food in harmony with nature

It’s time for my annual round-up of good news, and this time I’m focusing on food-related projects from around the globe that support self-sufficiency and food security within local communities.

Projects like the charity Ripple Effect’s (formerly known as Send A Cow) work with local communities in the Pakwach district of Uganda. Traditionally the families fed themselves by fishing in the Nile river. But overfishing and a prolonged drought means that they had to find alternative means of feeding themselves. Initially they crossed the river to poach bushmeat, but this is pretty risky, given that many of the wild animals are large and dangerous. Sometimes endangered wildlife would be snared in their traps, impacting on the success of wildlife conservation efforts. With Ripple Effect’s support, the Pakwach communities have been trained to farm sustainably, planting crops that can mature within one rainy season and using solar powered mini-irrigation systems. Ripple Effect also helped by establishing apprenticeships in other trades to provide diverse opportunities for making a living. Food security has improved, the local wildlife is benefitting from reduced incidents of poaching and local people now have improved opportunities for generating income to support their families.

It's comforting to know that there are plenty of projects across the world that are helping to turn deserts into flourishing ecosystems. ‘Greening the Desert’ is one such project in Jordan in the Middle East, an arid area with little rainfall. It uses the principles of permaculture that aim to develop natural, sustainable and self-sufficient ecosystems working with, rather than against, nature. It’s all about restoring energy and nourishment to the environment in a natural way. In Jordan, the project’s participants work with nature by building large artificial banks of earth to capture the small amount of rain that falls. The earthworks prevent the water running off haphazardly, instead directing it towards areas containing soil. The participants also create shallow depressions in the soil, known as swales, that help to retain the water as well as provide shade for plants. Mulching the soil with leaves, straw or compost helps to stop the water evaporating and provides much-needed nutrients for the plants as it decomposes. It’s this ingenious combination of earthworks, swales and mulching that has helped to make the land more productive for growing food and supporting livestock.

But you don’t have to go to hot regions like Africa or the Middle East to find examples of communities working with nature to provide sustainable food and self-sufficient communities. In the USA, it’s estimated that over 40 million Americans live in ‘food deserts’, where access to fresh, healthy food is limited, leading to obesity and poor health generally. The good news is, there are plenty of projects like ‘Keep Growing Detroit’ that aim to encourage local people to grow food in their own neighbourhood. The project aims to maximise community and economic development, and it achieves this by providing practical advice and resources to individuals, communities, schools and market gardeners in the area. Fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs are grown by local members in healthy soil without harmful chemicals, so everything is natural and nutrient-rich. The organisation even helps to sell ‘Grown in Detroit’ produce. Residents can buy the locally-grown food online or in person and 100% of the revenue goes back to the growers. That means every dollar spent helps to contribute to the local economy. A true example of ‘keeping it local’.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation. As well as saving lives in emergencies, it also assists the affected communities with food programmes to help restore stability. It has projects throughout the world, and often the theme is tapping into traditional methods of producing food. Like the projects in areas of Guatemala in Latin America. Over the millennia, indigenous populations learned how to work with the land to grow food sustainably, harnessing the natural resources without exploiting them. That knowledge was passed down the generations. All too often, though, the adoption of modern farming techniques in recent years, using fertiliser and other agrochemicals, has left the soil depleted and less productive. The WFP is working with local communities to help them rediscover and implement their traditional practices, like sowing maize, beans and squash together to increase crop yield, or limiting the number of trees a family can cut down to one every five years. It seems in this case the old ways are indeed the best.

Here in the UK there’s a brilliant organisation called ‘Sustain’. It’s a collaboration between numerous organisations working towards a better system of food, farming and fishing. They have many worthwhile projects, and one that caught my eye is called ‘Bridging the Gap’. It aims to highlight ways that people on low incomes can access climate and nature friendly foods. When the pennies are tight, it’s inevitable that some families will need to turn to cheaper, often ‘junk’, food. The project aims to tackle the supply and affordability of organic food to make it more accessible to those on low incomes. An example of this in action is The Planet Card, a pilot programme about to be launched in Cardiff. The card has a value of up to £11 a week and cardholders will be able to use it to buy organic fruit and veg at Farmers Markets in the Cardiff area. Not only will participants have access to healthier food, they will also be buying direct from growers, so they can buy the exact quantity they need and pick up great recipe and storage tips from the growers themselves. If the pilot is successful, the scheme will be rolled out to others on low incomes in the Cardiff area.

All of these examples demonstrate how innovative projects are helping to make the world a fairer place by improving food security at the community level.