Food gardens
UN Food Gardens, New York
A first on international territory by Carol Posthumus
Photos courtesy UN Food Gardens and William Gates
Large organisations are increasingly launching great green programmes promoting environmental sustainability and activities such as urban food gardening and small-scale farming. A tad cynically, not a few of us wonder whether the VIPs in their suits espousing the campaigns actually have time to grow anything in their own backyards. |
Happily it seems the big organisations are also literally getting |
Small food production |
into the garden. Even the staff at the United Nations( UN) – one |
of the world’ s biggest organisations- are getting their hands into the soil in their own urban food gardens these days. The |
SABI magazine was recently in touch with the founder of the UN
Food Gardens, Arif Khan and the UN Food Gardens architect
|
UN headquarters complex in |
William |
Francis |
Gates, |
Manhattan, New York on the East River, with its iconic topaz sky scraper, housing huge numbers staffers doing very vital work, last year got its first food garden. The UN Food Gardens, in fact, made history by becoming the first food garden ever on international territory, and was opened on Nelson Mandela Day. The UN Food Gardens ares the independent initiative of UN staffers partnering with local volunteers, the NYC Green Thumb Program and Brooklyn Grange Farms.
I had a garden, which I looked after and when the tomatoes were ready, the warders would be very friendly and come and get some tomatoes from the garden- Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela recalling gardening on Robben Island. who generously shared the story of the garden plus an inspiring photographic record of the development of the idea, from the drawing board to construction and ongoing growth.
Notably, prior to the opening of the UN Food Gardens in July last year, there was not one edible plant located on the 17 acres of the UN Headquarters. However, within a few months staffers were harvesting tomatoes and other edible plants from around the world.
The UN has many great programmes for the environment and farming – the UN’ s Sustainability Development Goals, the Year of Family Farming( 2014) and in 2015 the International Year of Soils are recent high notes. 2016 is the UN Year of Pulses, headlining these healthy and affordable plant proteins.
“ By integrating small-scale food production into its own landscape, the UN translates global priorities related to increased biodiversity, good land stewardship, sustainable food systems and greener cities into action and leads by example,” the UN said in an Earth Day press release this year, celebrating their planting of an indigenous native American Dogwood tree in their food garden.
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SABI | JUNE / JULY 2016