As part of the “Terra Madre” project, the Italian Slow Food Organization has plans to help locals grow 1,000 local gardens throughout Africa. The idea is to take back indigenous crops while also integrating more advanced and efficient growing techniques. This ambitious program will also help communities and individuals wrestle themselves from such industrial horrors as meat glue: the meat industry’s dirty secret.
The goal is to create sustainable garden projects in seventeen countries on the African continent, including Egypt. These will be grown in all kinds of settings including rural and urban communities, as well as in schools and villages. In addition to harvesting local crop varieties, these farms will be developed organically – without harmful chemicals.
Although Egypt has yet to begin the thirty gardens planned for its beleaguered country, which depends richly on wheat from Russia, for example, and has experienced the pinch of higher food prices over the last few years, the country’s Thousand Gardens project coordinator Senior School Coordinator at the Wadi Environmental Science Centre (WESC) Sara al-Sayyed explained to AlMasry AlYoum that they are in the process of compiling a manual that will define the agricultural standard to be implemented.
Meanwhile, a handful of communities throughout Egypt have taken up their own agricultural projects. Among them are the Sinai Olive Growers in a community called Tamra Henna, the Hopein Ecovillage in Alexandria that supports 50 disabled youth who grow mostly food for staples such as bread and pasta, and 335 citizens in Fayoum affiliated with the Egyptian Center for Organic Agriculture grow organic herbs and vegetables.
More on Food and Agriculture in the Middle East:
American Vertical Farming Concepts Good for the Middle East
Sygenta: Use GMOs to Boost Turkey’s Agricultural Sector
Farming Caviar in Abu Dhabi’s Desert
image via wikicommons
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
