World Food Day Celebration

In support of World Food Day and the GMO free Zone South Africa Campaign the Jolivet Food Garden KZN Community will host a World Food Day Event on Saturday, 20 October 2018. The event celebrates culture, diversity, food, seeds, craft and permaculture at the Inqanawe Social Service Centre.

Draft Programme

8:30am Community Gathering  9:00am – Get Dirty! (garden planting) 10:00am Disco Isobho (bring ingredients to share) 1pm EAT-IN (yummy good food)  2pm Seedy Business (seed library workshop + banner marking + seed stories + seed swaps +++) 3pm WrapUp

The event encourages the permaculture ethics of caring for the earth, caring for people and sharing our surplus abundance. Hosted by the Jolivet Food Garden KZN Community and supporting organisations: Greenpeace Local group-Durban, Durban Food Connect Campaign, Slow Food Youth KZN and the KZN Environmental Network.

RSVP greendelwyn@gmail.com by 12 October 2018

For more info contact Delwyn Pillay on 071 621 8305 or  email: greendelwyn@gmail.com

Grace Vaughan whatsapp: 072 316 8994

Footnotes

(1)World Food Day events are organized in over 150 countries across the world, making it one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar. These events promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure food security and nutritious diets for all.

(2)Slow Food’s African food gardens follow the philosophy of good, clean and fair.

But what does this mean in practice, and what makes them different from other food gardens?

Here are 10 essential ingredients for a Slow Food Garden

1. They are created by a community. The gardens bring together and value the capacities of all the community members uniting different generations and social groups (village or school associations, local administrators or non profit organizations). They recover the wisdom of older generations, make the most of the energy and creativity of younger people, and benefit from the skills of experts.

2. They are based on observation. Before planting a garden, it is necessary to learn to observe and to get to know the terrain, local varieties and water sources. The garden must be adapted to its surroundings, and local materials should be used to make fencing, compost bins and nurseries.

3. They do not need a large amount of space. By looking creatively at the space available, it is possible to find somewhere to put a food garden in the most unlikely places: on a roof, by the side of a footpath and so on.

4. They are places of biodiversity. Slow Food gardens are places for local biodiversity, which has adapted to the climate and terrain thanks to human selection. These nutritious and hardy varieties do not need chemical fertilizers and pesticides: vegetables, medicinal plants, culinary herbs and fruits trees (bananas, mangos, citrus).

5. They produce their own seeds. Seeds are selected and reproduced by the communities. This means that every year the plants become stronger and better suited to the local area, and money does not need to be spent on buying packets of seeds.

6. They are cultivated using sustainable methods. Natural remedies based on herbs, flowers or ash are used to combat harmful insects or diseases.

7. They save water. Once again, an approach based on observation and creativity is fundamental. Sometimes it only takes a gutter, tank or cistern to collect rainwater to resolve seemingly insurmountable problems and avoid more expensive solutions.

8. They are open-air classrooms. Food gardens offer an excellent opportunity for teaching adults and children alike about native plant varieties, promoting a healthy and varied diet, explaining how to avoid using chemicals and giving value to the craft of farmers.

9. They are useful, but also fun. Food gardens are a simple and inexpensive way of providing healthy and nutritious food.

But even in the most remote villages and the poorest schools, Slow Food gardens are also a place for games, celebrations and fun.

10. They are networked together. Neighboring gardens exchange seeds, while those further away exchange ideas and information. The coordinators meet, write to each other and collaborate.

A food garden is a drop in the ocean compared to the problems Africa faces every day. But if the number of gardens grows from a hundred to a thousand to ten thousand, and they dialog together and support each other, their impact grows. Together, they can transform into a single voice, speaking out against land grabbing, GMOs and intensive agriculture, and in favor of traditional knowledge, sustainability and food sovereignty. And they can represent a hope for thousands of young people.

(3)Disco Isobho aka DiscoSoup! DiscoSoup, the party where you cut veggies and make soup to give away, is a concept which you can use for a lot of food related issues. You can raise awareness for foodwaste, connect youth with famers or promote traditional and almost forgotten dishes.

(4) GMO Free Zone South Africa – Creating Zones where the farmers are protected from contamination, communities are aware and celebrate their presence, where the environment is protected and farmers knowledge, trust, seed and community care nurtured. Launching on world food day October 1. With a celebration and release of the heat map showing the precious green zones.

References

(1)http://www.who.int/life-course/news/events/world-food-day-2017/en/

(2)https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/what-we-do/10-000-gardens-in-africa-2/slow-food-gardens-at-a-glance/

(3)http://www.slowfoodyouthnetwork.org/blog/discosoup/#.Wzic4GAzbcu

(4) https://www.facebook.com/GMOFreeZoneSouthAfrica/

Webpage with more details: https://seedfreedom.info/partners/citizen-gardens-south-africa/