It’s rather impressive when you hear about a vegetable garden feeding an entire community, but it’s quite profound when that same garden is growing minds and the economy of communities throughout Cape Town.
This has been the mission of Neighbourhood Farm CEO and founder, Justin Bonello: to focus on the “broken food system” and to create a well-being economy through urban agriculture.
Neighbourhood Farm builds large market gardens in the middle of neighbourhoods on under-utilized grounds such as schools, parks, hospital and recreational grounds.
Read: ‘Neighbourhood Farm’ creates jobs and tackles food security
In this week’s episode of Food For Mzansi’s exclusive membership club, Farmer’s Inside Track, interviewers Dawn Noemdoe, Food For Mzansi’s editor, and co-founder Kobus Louwrens speaks with the renowned filmmaker and cook, popularly known as Mzansi’s braai master. Farmer’s Inside Track brings exclusive podcast and video content to farmers and agripreneurs across the country every Tuesday.
Bonello, who spent five years refining his business model, takes Noemdoe and Louwrens through his mission of saving food and neighbourhoods, dealing with “surprises” like theft, and how to survive as an urban agriculturalist.
Uncle Wiz is this week’s Farmer’s Inside Track video star
This week Farmer’s Inside Track’s weekly video features Edward Wisdom. This farmer, originally from the southeast of Nigeria, made waves in Mzansi’s Gauteng province, despite being faced with xenophobia. Since he came to South Africa in 1994, he has carved a niche for himself in business and agriculture, producing and selling produce that other African migrants and expats struggle to find in Mzansi.
Read: ‘Let us all grow big,’ says Jozi’s first Nigerian farmer
The Farmer’s Inside Track podcasts and videos are recorded in both Cape Town and Johannesburg and is available on different platforms, including a weekly e-mailer, a WhatsApp line and a bustling Facebook group.
To get free access to all the exclusive content on Farmer’s Inside Track, head to farmersinsidetrack.co.za and sign up. To join the WhatsApp line, either click here or send a WhatsApp with the message “Sign me up for Farmer’s Inside Track” to +27 81 889 9032, providing your name and surname, e-mail address and province.
- Farmer’s Inside Track is proudly brought to you by Food For Mzansi, Africa’s Best Digital News Start-up. Advertisers who wish to explore opportunities on any of the Farmer’s Inside Track channels can e-mail ivor@foodformzansi.co.za and kobus@foodformzansi.co.za.
