Our Daily Bread - Pt. 2: Growing your own food is the best way to nourish the self

I find it alarming to watch the workers walk up to the village shop at lunch time.  Often working for as little as R100 a day, they seem to see nothing wrong with spending some of that money on a two-litre bottle of some fizzy soft-drink and a loaf of cheaply made 'air' bread.  This is a daily occurence and one that you will see anywhere in the country.  The question is, if you are working for so little, why spend what little you do get on really unhealthy foods that do not sustain you?  The answer: because it is cheap, it is instant, easy and requires no preparation, it can be shared among a group, and it hits the spot, even if for a short while.  Also, in a world where we are bombarded with advertising that directly sells emotions such as 'happiness' and being 'cool' as soft drinks and ready-to-go packaged foods, why would anyone bother with water or fresh fruit, when buying something sweet and colourful is a whole lot more fun and 'tastes' so much better?

But malnutrition ('mal' from the French word for 'bad') is by no means a problem for people on the lower financial rungs of society.  The more affluent nations of the world are battling with very poor diets and unhealthy 'lifestyles' that in many cases far outshadow the ways of life of the poorer nations.  And the human body is really beginning to show signs of this poor health and nutrition: cancers, heart disease and diabetes are only a few on an exhausting list of disorders and diseases that are directly caused by malnutrition.  In an age of information and advanced science it may be a puzzle as to why we are on a nutritional backslide, but not if you take into account the effect that mass advertising and branding have on the way we feed our bodies in this fast-paced survive-or-die world.  Because it is not exactly food that is being sold to us, but the idea that the food we eat reflects exactly the type of person we are, another one of those elements of consensual reality that is measured by the amount of money we earn or the type of job we have (readers might remember the cultural anomaly I evoked in last week's blog about a family's fear of failing to provide at least one meat dish a day for the table being wrapped up with issues of self-worth, especially that dictated by finances).

If any of you have ever encountered Naomi Klein's chilling book NO LOGO you will be familiar with the advent of the Brand as taking over from the Product in the mind of the consumer over the last 20 or 30 odd years, and how this manifests in people buying what they are told by the media to buy, rather than perhaps being educated about how to properly feed themselves, all in the name of profit and the globalised pursuit of the 'American Dream'.  It's a book that exposes corporate greed and mind manipulation of the masses through branding and shock advertising, and shows the bleak, slave-race reality of the world of manufacturing and trade.  In short, not a book for the faint-hearted.  It outlines the relative speed with which humans have left the reliance on and constant battle with nature for our food for a reality where, so long as we can keep down a solid income with a 'real job', we never have to worry about where our food comes from, a world where all we really need to concern ourselves with is looking good and making sure we own all the essential goods that make us a 'someone' in life, namely clothes with designer labels, a car, a house and a large television screen.  All preferably made by the big brand names.

So the challenge to feed our bodies with the kinds of foods we really need to be healthy, active, thinking members of society becomes ever more important within the context of a 'developing' nation, where perhaps the need for reassurance of self-worth may be even greater than in a nation where 'wealth' is a given.  In a society that is still struggling for the basic needs of life it is a fact that there is often a lack of decent quality education among the members of that society, and therefore the effects of mass media on the identity constructs of these people is very heavy.  The link between a brand name and a feeling of self-worth can be so strong that it may even eclipse the older value systems of a community, sometimes even replacing them.  Naomi Klein gives the example of how in the 'ghettos' of New York City's Bronx district there has been a total revolution of style and music that revolves entirely around poverty, lack of education and breakdown of social systems, in the form of the rap and hip-hop culture where the only way to get 'noticed' or accepted was if you owned a $400 pair of Nike Air's and an expensive gold chain - items that far out-price a week's worth of family meals! 

 
The need for acceptance among members of one's own community is a strong instinctual urge that goes back as far as human evolution first began, so one can understand the modern day struggle for acceptance in terms of being seen to be wearing the right words on your clothes.  But how is this affecting what we eat?  In the very same way!  If a person aspires to transcend his upbringing and background by wearing expensive brands or buying a nice television or car, what are the chances that he would be inclined to grow a family food garden, or be a farmer, something that perhaps his family in the rural areas have always done, indeed the very thing that he is maybe trying to transcend in order to attain a measure of wealth prescribed by 'Western' culture?  Similarly, if the new trends of organic and 'green living' are only now taking hold as bona fide lifestyle alternatives in the minds and lives of the more affluent nations, how long will this take to filter down into lands where people are still struggling to make ends meet on a daily basis?

By the same token I would safely say that in many South African villages the art of food-growing has not at all been 'lost', merely sidelined, perhaps, for 'bigger better' jobs that generate a more immediate and more tangible income.  On many levels I believe that efforts to stay 'close to the land' in our country supercede those of the more affluent nations, who are almost having to be turned back 180 degrees from consumerism to the old values of self-sufficiency.  But one thing is clear: all signs point to a Grow Your Own philosophy as a time-honoured method for nourishing not only the body but the soul too.

  
That is why we are excited about Thuba Bamboo Weaving Co-operative & Nursery, a Friends of Chintsa initiative to bring back food gardens to the community in a move to creating a platform for re-thinking self-empowerment, self-employment and self-sufficiency.  At Thuba Nursery the growers love their soil and try to stick to the Permaculture method as closely as possible.  They grow their own seedlings in a shadehouse and then plant directly into the beds.  They sell trees and plants for the more ornamental garden, and they also sell seedlings to the Chintsa East Primary School which, by the efforts of Nokuphumla Pakamile (see our 22 June post) has two of its own food gardens (these two food gardens have been designed to grow produce which feeds the children at the school, and until these gardens are running at full force the school relies on the Friends of Chintsa Feeding Scheme - see our 5 July post, as well as our webpage describing the Feeding Scheme).  And now they have started marketing their fresh produce, with a market day planned for each Tuesday.

May...

...July!

Thuba Bamboo Weaving Co-operative & Nursery is growing in leaps and bounds!  Located on the Chintsa East main road right next to the Chintsa East Cultural Village, the gardens are easily accessible and give a lovely, encouraging sight to road-tired eyes upon arrival in Chintsa East, what with their busy and happening gardens growing green and lush.  They started out small but have since grown into a large fresh-produce garden and now there is a second garden being started right behind, next to the Ntuthukweni Creche, another Friends of Chintsa project.  The biggest challenge so far is logistics, but the Co-operative is putting in the finishing touches right now with a sign on the road advertising opening hours and produce available for the day, as well as proper fencing to keep out the marauding village goats and pigs...  Friends of Chintsa has begun advertising to all the local restaurants and we hope that soon we will set up a permanent supply system, so that you will almost be guaranteed to be eating the gardens' organic produce from any table at any restaurant in our village - how fantastic!  And very soon Thuba will start a weekly market so that residents can get their fix of good, healthy, body-nourishing produce.





Come down to Thuba!  Come and take a look some of the 'real jobs' our community is creating, and the positive change we are making, all just by working with the soil.











Thanks for reading!