COMING SOON...
The tour will bring together youth from different parts of Arusha to pay a visit to different farm locations in the Arusha region to learn and gain more experience in farming and livestock keeping. Don't miss it, contact [email protected] for more information.
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Growing food in cities became popular in Europe and North America during and after World War II. Urban farming provided citizens with food at a time when resources were gradually taken up for urban development. But recently, there has been a renewed interest in urban farming – albeit for a very different reason than before. As part of a recent research project investigating how urban farming in evolving across Europe, I found that in countries where growing food was embedded in the national culture, many people have started new food production projects. There was less uptake in countries such as Greece and Slovenia, where there was no tradition of urban farming. Yet a few community projects have recently been started in those places too. Today’s urban farmers don’t just grow food to eat; they also see urban agriculture as a way of increasing diversity of plants and animals in the city, bringing people from different backgrounds and age groups together, improving mental and physical health and regenerating derelict neighbourhoods. Source: INDEPENDENT UK Do you sound smarter when you don’t care about yourself and especially about the food you are eating? Yes or No? Don’t give me the answer. When a child is born everyone expects the child to grow-up healthy and happy while increasing its ability to ask and respond to questions. This is what makes families feel alive and honoured by nature. But what if families are not considering healthy and good food for the children (future)? a) Are they not living then? b) Are they too busy making money? c) What if they don’t consider what they consume and eat? d) Is the table always fool or full? e) What is food security then? With the fulfilment of all other basic needs, food security is crucial and not an optional security to train on. Food security is when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security can be attained only if communities will put in place other relating activities that will lead to sustainability incl. respecting the environment, time management in all aspects of operations, efficient use of fertilizers, water saving technologies, reducing food waste, gender equality and partnerships with individuals, institutes, organizations and companies that are willing to impact access to and availability of nutritious, sustainable food. When sufficient and nutritious food is accessible at all times: 1. Economic prosperity will be highly achieved as every individual in the community is mentally and physically fit as the result of what they eat, as well as the increase their capacity in trade flow. 2. A healthier lifestyle will spread across societies and nations when nutritious food will be the standard when it comes to feeding our bodies. 3. Rural development will encourage people to get involved in agri-food business, avoiding more people to flee to urban areas looking for opportunities. 4. Reduce over-eating and overweight, as there will be an assurance that food will be accessible whenever they want to eat, instead of eating like there will not be enough food for us to eat. Food for the future starts today!! So amplify your love for the life you are living and serve the future food! Jonas Ndunguru
By Julius Kiting'ati from team Mwanza. Kafiti and Julius in Mwanza
The population of Africa consists of 60% of young people. In 2050 Africa will experience a population of more young people than any other continent in the world; they will lead the change and develop initiatives to make the world a better place. As the population grows, this is an opportunity for me to feed the world. Agriculture consists of 40% of the GDP in Africa, and only 30% of the arable land is used...70% is still there. Mwanza is a city that is along the Lake Victoria, with this geographical position it has opened to me an opportunity to open and run a fish farm (aquaculture) project that will feed millions of people and also provide employment to the young people, as they also learn to start their own projects. I have been making a close follow up and realised that fish is white meat, that is healthier than red meat. We have the ability and skills to create more food for the people in Mwanza and eventually trade around Tanzania. Networking with vibrant youths has also developed my communication skills and created partnerships that will permit us to collaborate in combatting food security in Tanzania. Food for the Future is an opportunity for me, that makes me realize that I have a role to play as a young person in my community. Aligning with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, we act on ending hunger (zero hunger), ending poverty of all forms (zero poverty), ensuring that we create decent jobs and well being (decent jobs and economic growth), and I believe that this is how we can attain the goals for sustainability. With the capacity building, I have realized that by being a leader, I have to take action before it’s too late. I will feed the world by 2050. Mr. Emmanuel Sylvester gave us a highlight of the seven habits of highly effective people, as we were being taught on how to become the best of ourselves and also make a change in the community. Julius Kiting'ati Comment on Godwin's post: It’s true what my experienced colleague Mr. Godwin - or as I like to call him Craftsman - expressed about the 1st workshop’s two days experience. Personally, after the first day I realised how much I fed myself. I thought I was learning to the fullest, but after this weekend I felt like I was more hungry than I could imagine. Amazing how some pessimistic views turned to optimistic opportunities, and how facing the community could be easy with a common goal. We explored so much and found out so many new things, like Godwin says. The workshop was beautiful and resourceful, we have enriched ourselves with the capacity that we as youth, as the new generation, we can't stop here. But we can think big and do big. To The Future We Go With The Priority To live With An Excellent Supply for Food. Dreams can be fulfilled once we start doing. During the second weekend the group reflected on what happened after the 1st weekend, and shared their ideas about ensuring a sustainable food supply. Interaction was better as the participants got to know each other deeply and also shared views, new things and ideas for the future of our food. The participants were identified with tags (so the neighbourhoods residents could identify us), which means that it’s not what you wear, but about the responsibility you put onto your shoulders, about the world and its future in general. So the second week began with going to the Tanesco Community and try to invite the society, get them involved. To share the information and findings we collected from what we researched last week. We focused on design thinking, which was introduced to us bit by bitsince the start. We co-created concepts, and for the second week we imagined how we would see ourselves in the future solving global food challenges by acting in a local context. As I like to say: accomplishment starts with an idea, the desire and the need to reach your objective.
We were divided into three groups, with the task to generate ideas. We learned that every idea is valuable and important and key for group integration and support. On Sunday, we further co-created in teams and with the community. We ended up improving our ideas and the invitees were also able to get something out of it. Just as the saying ‘give and take’ goes. The teams decided to work on three final topics:farming knowledge, a farmer’s market and food waste & loss. We finalised the weekend by making a schedule, a planning with the different tasks in order to be able to implement our idea. There’s only two weeks left… Allen Alex Ishabakaki ...and so finally the awaited date for the food for future workshop had arrived. It took place in the calm environments of the Institute of Accountancy Arusha in one of the class halls. The workshop provided a platform for more than 25 youngsters across the region to sit together and discuss different challenges, dreams and opportunities in securing food security for the future.
Meeting new people with great ideas was a great thing about the workshop, people got introduced to one another so as they could work as a team. Excitement came in a way that nobody would have expected. The workshop was interactive and everybody who attended was given an equal opportunity to express his/her ideas. It was more than a mind exposure as it is often said that “great minds think alike” The first day of the workshop it was a great idea to involve the nearby local community of Tanesco. The main idea was to go around the neighbourhood and explore about the beauties and resources, and thereafter to draw a map and plot those beauties and resources. The participants of the workshop were formed small groups. Each group was asked to explore different beauties and resources found in the Tanesco community. The second day of the workshop we were asked to plot the beauties and resources on the map. Also another task of the day was to go across the neighbourhood and interact with people so as to get great ideas from them on how the beauties and resources found in the community could be used so as to add value to people's life in the community. We also tried to find out the collective ideas about what people dream of as to provide an abundant supply of food in the community. Right after the community interaction a lot of ideas arose. We ended up knowing about the opportunities the local people see, and the challenges that they are facing in securing food security. To mark the end of the second day of the workshop everybody was left with one question, what should be done so as to fulfill the people's collective dream? How to overcome the challenges the local people spotted, and how to use the opportunities they see so as to secure food security? Looking forward to meet next weekend to turn the ideas into reality. We’re facing many challenges as a global society, one of them is urbanization. It’s projected we’ll be +9 billion people in 2050 and 70 percent of those people will live in cities. This is the case for Tanzania. Our capital Dar Es Salaam is growing so fast that the city cannot keep up. The fact that there are master plans for the cities of Arusha, Mwanza and Dar Es Salaam means that more and more people foresee this will become a problem if we keep acting status quo.
Food for the Future is a great innovative initiative that is here to equip youth, entrepreneurs and visionary leaders with social entrepreneurship skills, leadership skills and creativity skills in order to be able to empower themselves and others to change and mitigate the challenges of food insecurities. It is an instrument of socioeconomic, environmental and cultural awareness to the local Tanzania youth, women, girls and communities. Food for the Future will build youth, entrepreneurs and visionary leaders to become the innovative workforce of future generations. That is why I’m working on this. Tanzanian youth is facing other challenges that make it hard for them to accomplish change or undertake something. I believe that having a business plan that could identify new opportunities within a particular social problem, develop innovations that lead to promising new approaches, demonstrate accountability by regularly measuring performance and impact, and then secure predictable revenues sources that achieve financial sustainability is inevitable to mitigate the challenges of food systems in Arusha. Focussing on soft skills and ‘learning by doing’ is a good way to counterweight the harsh organizational and legal framework to start a business. Creating a system to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing would help youth to gain confidence and knowledge in a sector that systematically discourages them. Youth face issues of perception when trying to secure loans and funding to establish themselves. Supporting youth with logistical matters and overcoming perceptions and obstacles would increase youth engagement and success. Monday morning 5 am, already leaving my apartment in Brussels for Arusha. I’m about to stay in Tanzania for approximately one month, meeting people in Arusha and Mwanza. As Food for the Future, we’re looking to build a global story on food innovation. Tanzania is first, with the prospect of doing the same in Indonesia, Peru and Belgium. Before leaving, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people who are familiar with the CEAL methodology. It’s a process model for social innovation, building on collaboration between youth, communities and companies and resolves around shared aspirations. The plan is meeting as many people as possible, and trying to set up a (adapted) CEAL program. Practically, I’m looking for students, co-facilitators, a location, collaboration of local companies, a community that is willing to collaborate…
In light of Food for the Future, this initiative of local and social entrepreneurship fits into the vision of our future food system. We’re trying to stimulate and experiment with innovations for local challenges, while constantly taking into account a balance between ecological, economic and social dimensions of the innovation. Through this more holistic and systemic approach, we’re constructing an exemplary (global) story of food innovation with specific examples of challenges (and hopefully solutions) in different contexts. Why you say? I believe that responsible and sustainable local choices are truly made from a global mind set and connection. The result of this CEAL program should be a social innovation which is exemplary for our future food system, and inspires others. Global citizenship is a very important aspect within this discourse, inevitably tied to sustainable innovation and social entrepreneurship. Knowing we’re part of an immensely diverse, complex and interconnected ecosystem and community, and realising that participating in it comes with rights, but also -now more than ever- responsibilities and duties. Thinking and especially acting on the long term is something that is in the interest of everyone (and we should not be afraid to point fingers sometimes). Not at the least when it concerns our food, and the possibility of growing and processing it in a healthy and natural way, which benefits the one who eats it. And that’s everyone indeed. Our inherently extractive (mainstream) model of conducting business presumes indefinite growth. Although we agree that the Earth is round and therefore finite, making indefinite growth physically impossible. Not my words, but thank you Kenneth Boulding for already pointing that out in 1966. While I’m drifting away from the subject at hand, the insight that our human system needs to fit itself to the ecological system is unavoidable. Returning to global citizenship, it resolves not only around a way of doing agriculture, it’s the way we package, distribute, process, consume, give back and make choices based on social and ecological, and not only economic, parameters. We need to be aware of this. I’m not saying we can do this overnight. Nonetheless, the time is now, tomorrow cannot wait. Let’s start experimenting, exploring what works and what doesn’t, investigating new opportunities, researching challenges and inspiring people even more. Always thinking hard about who we're making it for, and who we're changing it with. Talk only is cheap! |