Excerpt From VWC ENVIRO FACTS
"Growing Vegetables"

http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/Envfacts/facts/vegetables.htm

STEP 1
Collect rubbish such as leftovers, vegetable leaves and peelings, paper, cardboard, weeds, wood ash, eggshells, dead plants and flowers, tea and coffee bags, bones, feathers, a few rusty tins, mielie stalks and cobs. Do not collect glass, plastic or nylon materials as these will not break down and enrich the soil.

STEP 2
Mark out a piece of ground the size of a door - 2m x 1m. This will become the bed in which the vegetables are grown. Make sure that you choose a position that will get plenty of sun.

STEP 3
Dig out the soil from this area to a depth of half a metre - about knee deep. Put the darker topsoil at one corner and the subsoil at the opposite corner.

STEP 4
Half fill this trench with the rubbish you have collected. Put the coarser rubbish at the bottom. Tear large pieces of cardboard and paper into small pieces and break bones and other materials into small pieces to speed up decomposition. Mix the rubbish well.

Excerpt From AGRI-OUTREACH
"Bi-Monthly Newsletter of PRAIS: Programme for Agricultural Information Services, Vol. 3, No 2"

http://www.uovs.ac.za/lib/agric/news14.asp

The Food Gardens Foundation offers excellent guidance on how
to start and keep a food garden...

Excerpt From THE EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD
"Making Food the Educational Priority" Remarks by Alice Waters for the AIWF Conference:
Children’s Education: Feeding our Future

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/feedingfuture/

The great thing about the Garden Project is that it incorporates everything that I think is important about food: digging in the ground, planting, husbanding, harvesting, cooking, preserving, putting it all out on the table, serving it up to your friends and family, and sharing it with them... From putting all these food-related activities together you get a sense of completion that is missing from programs that teach just one aspect of how to garden, or how to cook. The only way it all makes sense to me is when you put it all together. And this must be done with beauty, and with honesty and integrity. When you are feeding someone else, you should be thinking about their nourishment, not about manipulating them or selling them something. Food is not a commodity, it is the most important thing we can give to each other. Feeding one another is the most basic, fundamental part of healthy and moral living. Offering people things that help them to grow, physically and spiritually—that’s what parents and teachers should be offering our children. This should be the foundation of their moral education.

Excerpt From GENDER AND FOOD SECURITY AGRICULTURE
From the FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

http://www.fao.org/Gender/en/agri-e.htm

Both women and men play critical roles in agriculture throughout the world, producing, processing and providing the food we eat. Rural women in particular are responsible for half of the world's food production and produce between 60 and 80 percent of the food in most developing countries. Yet, despite their contribution to global food security, women farmers are frequently underestimated and overlooked in development strategies.

Rural women are the main producers of the world's staple crops - rice, wheat, maize - which provide up to 90 percent of the rural poor's food intake. Women sow, weed, apply fertilizer and pesticides, harvest and thresh the crops. Their contribution to secondary crop production, such as legumes and vegetables, is even greater. Grown mainly in home gardens, these crops provide essential nutrients and are often the only food available during the lean seasons or if the main harvest fails. Women's specialized knowledge about genetic resources for food and agriculture makes them essential custodians of agro-biodiversity. In the livestock sector, women feed and milk the larger animals, while raising poultry and small animals such as sheep, goats, rabbits and guinea pigs. Also, once the harvest is in, rural women provide most of the labour for post-harvest activities, taking responsibility for storage, handling, stocking, processing and marketing.

Excerpt From THE SUSTAINABLE FOOD CENTER - TEXAS

http://www.sustainablefoodcenter.org/

Cultivating Communities from the Ground Up - The Sustainable Food Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to local, healthy and affordable food for children and adults in Central Texas. Our community and youth gardens, Farmer's Market Initiative, neighborhood farm stands and cooking and nutrition education classes benefit an estimated 20,000 Central Texans annually.