Our vision is to bring to life the impact of urban farming and, in doing so, strengthen our understanding and respect for food and its origins. Underprivileged people living in Metro Manila, in particular, have been too segregated from nature. Urban farming is an ideological and physical reaction to this.
Urban farming encourages growing food at underutilized spaces in the cities of Manila. Urban farming/growing food reconnects urbanites to nature, conserves natural resources and cultivates a sense of community if we succeed to get poor families to join hands with us. The idea is to develop a system in which local government units (LGUs) provide underutilized spaces, in which families living in the streets and under bridges get involved in planting and harvesting vegetables and in which hotels and restaurants, schools and residences buy half the vegetables harvested daily. What happens to the other half of the vegetables? The families involved eat them, improve the nutrition and the children going to school under the Department of Social Welfare and Development conditional cash transfer system will improve their education results.
We started with this vision toward the end of last year; we found companies willing to make funds available for this exciting endeavour and identified LGUs willing to partner with us, understanding the value of the program and the need to help the poor, on a sustainable basis.
Our vision is also that these families without shelter in Metro Manila will be better off returning to the provinces, applying what they have learned in urban farming. In this context, let us recall that no country has escaped poverty without driving agriculture and substantially raising farm productivity. Food production is essential for a people to be healthy and productive. In terms of jobs and livelihood, agriculture is super important.
The key is also to convince the youth that there is a future in agriculture. Young people should get access to land, be provided extension services, be allowed to become agripreneurs, be encouraged to become part of the agri-food supply chain (as we try to develop in urban farming) and processing harvests/enter into food processing in the neighbourhood.
Agripreneurship—the most powerful and sustainable approach to spur job creation, “the capacity to turn dirt into gold”, agripreneurs take advantage of problems and make profits by offering solutions. Youth empowerment must focus on changing the young generation’s mindset and culture. Education and motivation matter—and when they result in a sufficient number of people becoming successful apripreneurs, those people can dramatically improve the employment situation in rural areas for everyone. Imagination, inspiration, creativity, passion and the pursuit of happiness matter. The government (especially the departments of Agriculture, Trade and Social Welfare and Development) must certainly do its part, but it is certainly wrong to only wait for the government to act. We must become agents for our own wellbeing—and the young generation must be taught accordingly.
Young people embody the future—something, we shouldn’t take for granted. Young people need good education (vocational being very much part of it) and decent jobs. They deserve good future prospects and must develop their self-esteem to assume responsibilities (and stay away from crime and drugs). If societies fail to give their youth opportunities, there will neither be sustainable economic growth nor a fair and equal society and political stability.
Join us in this vision—contact me at Schumacher@mca.ph.