Friday, November 7, 2014

NEWS: South Africa's urban farming revolution

Cape Town is being overrun by farms. They're spilling out of parking lots, overtaking lawns, even growing out of old TV sets.

"You don't need something fancy to grow in. We have some people grow in toilets and make worm farms in old baths," says Louise Vaughan, the field area manager at Soil For Life, a non-profit that teaches gardening and nutrition to Capetonians.














The city is in the grips of a vegolution, and it's thanks to the efforts of local food activists, hoping to use these urban farms as a means of battling not just hunger, but poverty as well. Some of Soil For Life's students say the lessons have changed their lives for ever.

"I used to eat a lot of junk food. Now I've changed over. This morning, I had an omelet with things from the garden: spinach, Chinese cabbage, even the stinging nettle," says Abdul, who set up his own garden after completing Soil For Life's 12-week course.

Cavalleria Primary School, set in one of Cape Town's more disadvantaged neighborhoods, also saw positive changes the lives of their students once they introduced their own food garden.

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