I invited the three groups of farmers to the Lab as these three have explored and “pushed the envelope” on how we can construct an urban agricultural enterprise. An urban agricultural enterprise is more than just a food production unit. We know enough – but this could improve – to be able to produce food in sufficient quantities on small pieces of land, but it is the interface of this food production unit with the social patterns in the economy that would create a viable urban agricultural enterprise.
Greg Mkhize’s farm is located on schoolgrounds, and this creates a very peculiar dynamic around the community. The social resources that could make the enterprise functional and viable emanate from the school. Hence, we see Greg engaging extensively with the learners, their parents and the teachers. The school facilities are also available to him, and he has become a custodiam, as well as a user of these facilities.
These kinds of interaction need to be fostered and enhanced to enable the enterprise to become more and more viable. Teaching learners the benefits of local food production is the beginning. Should we foresee that we could build cities and towns that can feed themselves to some extent, the engagement with learners becomes a point of interest. In a universe where cities feed themselves, engagement on the farm with learners should be a future focussed activity. This point of engagement is the place where a new food system, and the flows of resources, could be engineered. It is at this point of enlightenment and education where we could innovate and renew the way we produce food and how this links to the flows and cycles of resources in society. Hence, an engagement process would have to aim to create a full circle ecological – or “agro-ecological” system of food production that draws on society for its key resources.
It is in engaging with others that we can establish the new relationships needed for a sustainable urban food system. Not only would all food waste and biological materials be re-processed (either in a farm or in an ecosystem) to become a part of the soil, this furthermore needs to be embedded in knowledge and narratives on why this is the preferred way to do things.
Hence the stories we tell about our future, and how we imagine how it looks like is important. We would first of all have to create the vision of a future urban food system in our heads and then experiment and try it out in the real world. Hence, the farmers who are pushing this envelope are all creating a very different commercial reality, and it is in upholding this very different reality that a sustainable food system will emerge. We need to go beyond the idea that food must be “green” as this is not sufficient. There are more processes at work than merely in the ecology, and we need to streamline the social relationships and processes so they enhance the flows of materials in the ecosystem. This narrative needs to be supported by these actual flows of resources, so that the act of producing food is enhanced by greater flows of resources.
Tim Abaa has been active in Orange Farm for close to a decade. It is very telling that he presented not himself to the audience but very many young farmers who have all constructed enterprises in the local area. Some traded in seeds through seed libraries. Others operate a tool library, and all of them are farming. They receive training at Arekopaneng Centre in Orange Farm from Tim and they have at least two tunnels there as well. Together they have built an agro-retail system that could be the proto-system we all need for sustainable urban food production.
The effect this could have on the local area should not be underestimated. Although there is always a lot to do in our cities – they are really characterised by this one peculiarity: the inability to reach out to all – there seems to be hope that a community-wide realisation of the opportunity to be self-sufficient in food is possible. This would only be realisable by a group of farmers as those Tim has organised, and it is the group and its interface with the community where self-sufficient food production is possible.
In a subsequent visit, Tim showed me how they transformed rubbish dumps into food gardens that are open to the community. In the background is a missing state that cannot even complete the most basic task of urban living – rubbish removal… It is clear that the ability to communicate widely would be the most important activity in building a local and sustainable food system. I wonder to myself what I can do to overcome this one key stumbling block….
What we saw in the Farmers’ Lab was a very small glimpse of the future. We are all struggling to create a new world, and we don’t always know that we build this world as we live. We often reproduce the world as we found it, and it is this ability to imagine a new world that we need to treasure. Once we have crated this imaginary, it is the command of resources that matter: those who can develop a different system will create a new world. It would be possible for cities to feed themselves. 30% of the urban land would need to be set aside to make this possible (please see these articles that established this baseline: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/6/064025; https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac4730). From there, the arrangements and patterns can be created to make this 30% of the urban area work for the people. This would include a waste processing system, a water harvesting system, a technology system that will deliver the right intermediate technologies, a urban food retail and rewards system to also harvest food waste, and a culture that celebrates local production and the thrifty use of local resources. We also need to develop enterprise models and systems to make this possible and a system of social deliberation so we can indeed communicate with everyone at the same time about the merits and benefits of producing food like this. We also need this land to be set aside, although they will be fragmented and scattered across the urban system. This would also decentralise ownership and allow differential benefits to be created. This will be a very different food system than the one we have at present.
We were fortunate to host Greg Mkhize and Tim Abaa and others at the iZindaba Zokudla Farmers’ Lab.
In 2023 we envisage hosting the lab again, but we will enhance the assembly by presenting the Nxazonke course as an open access course on building a circular enterprise. I will start the year next year buy presenting the programme to the assembly, making modifications, and then implementing it. We trailed the Nxazonke course on the internet as the Virtual Lab during 2022 and now is the time to build it into a open access course that could enable better enterprises to be built amongst emergent entrepreneurs in the local townships or anywhere else. The course will be accessible and the lessons appropriate to both small and large business. I look forward to presenting it and will be grateful for your support.
Thank you all for 2022.
Please note, we will not host any Labs this year, and on the 3rd of December we will join Tim Abaa and his farmers at Arekopaneng Centre for an end of year festival. Please look out for the invitation to that in the next few days!