Slow Food's '10,000 Gardens in Africa Project’ in Uganda

by Cory Whitney

At the 2016 Terra Madre in Torino Italy Miguel Altieri tried to make the case for a Slow Food movement that provides ‘good clean and fair’ food for poor and vulnerable people. This is important since Slow Food is often seen as something that only wealthy connoisseurs have access to. However, the movement is already taking steps to make such access possible. Carlo Petrini’s ’10,000 Gardens in Africa Project’ is transforming food systems and promoting indigenous self-determination in development. Carlo’s dream of communal sanctuary gardens of traditional knowledge is now being realized by the indigenous Bakiga farmers in southwest Uganda 1-11.

Many long years of colonialism followed by guerilla fighting and civil war destroyed much of Uganda’s traditional food systems and food traditions. Despite recent political stability the people of Uganda still struggle in systems of corruption, poverty, severe food insecurity, and hunger. The loss of traditional homegardens with the commensurate loss of traditional crops, horticultural practices, and food systems has contributed to the severe food insecurity of the region.

The recently displaced indigenous Bakiga farmers, living on the edge of the rainforest in Uganda’s southwest, still maintain their traditional homegardens. These dynamic and complex traditional food systems help them to sustain their communities in the face of extreme vulnerability. But not all is well. The high rates of poverty, systemic corruption, disease and food insecurity lead to high rates of child mortality and lower life expectancy and quality. 

The traditional food systems of the region are based on families maintaining their own subsistence-based homegarden. These gardens are diverse with many types of bananas and other fruits and need to be maintained to meet all the family’s nutritional and medicinal needs. Any money that can be earned, e.g. from selling the odd sack of beans or bunch of bananas, is used to pay for the school-fees and perhaps to buy some salt or soap (not all that common in households).

Slow Food’s 10,000 Gardens in Africa Project was started as an answer to the problem of food insecurity in Africa. As Slow Food vice president Edie Mukiibi said, “Even though people say we are hungry we still need to eat ‘Good Clean, and Fair Food’” and Slow Food president Carlo Petrini said “I would like to ask the missionaries to stay home; I have a lot of confidence in Africans. Africans know how to do things for themselves.” The overarching idea is that local African farming communities can organize and engage in developing their own systems of food security and food sovereignty. The 10,000 Gardens in Africa Project is a mechanism to support this self-determination, it is neo-gastronomy as a method of empowerment.

What I have witnessed in the Bakiga community is an example of what the Greenhorn’s Severine von Tscharner Fleming aptly terms ‘tactical commoning’. By establishing this garden they have decided to preserve their traditional knowledge in communal land. The garden can serve as a sanctuary for traditional crops, traditional farming knowledge, and traditional horticulture practices. Slowly, the community garden is coming together with the enthusiasm and energy of the youth, and with the traditional knowledge of the elders as well as the financial support of the Slow Food convivia in Germany.

Orchestrating of the establishment of this project was complicated and slow by definition. The garden establishment began with a dialogue with local communities about the purpose of the garden and the overarching radical ideas behind the Slow Food movement. The garden, once it has been fully established, should serve the community needs while also stopping the loss of traditional knowledge and the loss of traditional crops and crop practices. These are all issues that the local community agrees are important for their culture and for the future of food in their region. 

We found that applying transdisciplinary methods in the establishment of the garden was extremely important. There is a danger that if the overlapping intentions of the Slow Food movement and the communities is not made clear then they may end up planting economic gardens for income only. Herein lies a danger for the Slow Food movement in implementing these gardens. Another danger is that the gardens will be lost over time without sustained activist solidarity and financial support from the Slow Food. If the gardens are to be sustainable the recognition and funding from the international convivia should be regular and sustained. Convivia abroad should agree to adopt Slow Food gardens and pay regular fees for their upkeep and for the further development.

Homegarden by John Craston from the article Whitney, C. 2017. Transformation: a call to action. in The New Farmer’s Almanac, Volume III: Commons of Sky, Knowledge, Land, Water (eds von Tscharner Fleming, S., Pick, N. & de Salis, R.) 134-136 (Greenhorns, Maine, US, 2017).

References

1. Whitney, C. 2017. Transformation: a call to action. in The New Farmer’s Almanac, Volume III: Commons of Sky, Knowledge, Land, Water (eds von Tscharner Fleming, S., Pick, N. & de Salis, R.) 134-136 (Greenhorns, Maine, US, 2017).
2. Luedeling, Eike, Jan de Leeuw, Christine Lamanna, Todd Rosenstock, Cory W. Whitney, and Keith Shepherd. “Business Decision Analysis Principles in Research for Agricultural Development.” edited by E. Tielkes, 216–17. September, 16-18, 2015.
3. Mulumba, J. Letter to Cory W. Whitney. “Postharvest Losses in Uganda,” February 15, 2015.
4. Whitney, C. “Saving Biodiversity in Greater Bushenyi.” Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, 2014.
5. ———. “Transdisciplinary Research Aimed at PHL Reduction in East Africa,” 2015.
6. Whitney, Cory W., Joseph Bahati, and Jens Gebauer. “Value of Plants in Ugandan Homegardens; Results of Homegardens Inventories and Participatory Ethnobotany Investigations,” 1792. July 25-29: Botanical Society of America, 2015.
7. Whitney, Cory W., and J. Gebauer. “Species Diversity and Post-Harvest Practices on the Forest Edge Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” edited by Tielkes. E, 344. Sept. 17-19: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 2014.
8. Whitney, Cory W., J. Gebauer, Antonia Nyamukuru, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Food Security and Traditional Farming Systems; a Case Study of Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” edited by Tielkes. E, 245–46, 2015.
9. Whitney, Cory W., and Jens Gebauer. “Homegardens in Uganda: Diversity and Potential.” edited by G. Rahmann and U. Aksoy, Thuenen Report 20:1115–18. Oct. 13-15: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.
10. Whitney, Cory W., Jens Gebauer, Joseph Bahati, and Eike Luedeling. “Farming for Food Security; Probabilistic Simulations of Farm Contribution to Nutrition in Southwest Uganda.” edited by Tielkes. E, 235, 2015. http://www.tropentag.de/2015/abstracts/links/Whitney_7gnFOyxY.pdf.
11. Whitney, Cory W., A. Nyamukuru, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Local Knowledge for Food Security in Uganda; Postharvest Practices in Homegardens of the Ugandan Southwest,” 62–63. October 4-7: ADM Institute, 2015.

Further reading 

Whitney, C., and Eike Luedeling. “Agricultural Development Interventions on Household Nutrition in Kenya and Uganda.” In Agriculture, Nutrition, Health Scientific Symposium & Academy Week, 55. Kathmandu, Nepal: Agriculture, Nutrition, Health Academy (ANH), 2017.

Whitney, C., L. Mâis-Tomé, S. Nshutiyayesu, C. Kabuye, and R. Omondi. “Conservation Planning and Livelihoods Derived from Lake Victoria’s Native Floristic Diversity.” In African Great Lakes Conference 2017, 1. May, 2-5: African Great Lakes International Platform, 2017.

Whitney, Cory. “Proposing a Human Ecology Model for Homegarden Research,” 220. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Society for Applied Anthropology, 2017.

———. “Transformation: A Call to Action.” The New Farmer’s Almanac, Volume III: Commons of Sky, Knowledge, Land, Water. Greenhorns, 2017. Greenhorns.

Whitney, Cory, John R.S. Tabuti, Oliver Hensel, Ching-hua Yeh, Jens Gebauer, and Eike Luedeling. “Homegardens and the Future of Food and Nutrition Security in Southwest Uganda.” Agricultural Systems 154 (2017): 133–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2017.03.009.

Buena, Maria A., and Cory Whitney. “Entrepreneurial Culture And Capability of Organic Farmers’ Organizations in the Philippines.” In Innovative Research for Organic 3.0, Thuenen Report 54 - Volume 2, edited by G. Rahmann, C. Andres, A. K. Yadav, R. Ardakani, Victor Lowe, G. Soto, and Willer H, 750–53. Johann Heinrich von Thuenen-Institute, 2017.

Gebauer, J, Cory Whitney, and John R. S. Tabuti. “African Baobab Trees (Adansonia Digitata L.) Recorded in Uganda.” In Society for Economic Botany Annual Meeting 2017, edited by Ana Maria Carvalho, Manuel Pardo de Santayana, and Rainer Bussmann, 131. Bragança, Portugal: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Centro de Investigação de Montanha & Society for Economic Botany, 2017.

Gebauer, Jens, Cory Whitney, and John R. S. Tabuti. “First Record of Baobab (Adansonia Digitata L.) in Uganda.” Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 63, no. 5 (2016): 755–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-016-0387-y.

Issoufou, Liman, Cory Whitney, James Kungu, and Eike Luedeling. “Modelling Risk and Uncertainty in Flood-Based Farming Systems in East Africa.” In Tropentag Bonn: Future Agriculture: Socio-Ecological Transitions and Bio-Cultural Shifts, edited by E. Tielkes, 289. Bonn, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.

Lanzanova, Denis, Cory Whitney, and Eike Luedeling. “Enabling Decision-Making for Agricultural Interventions.” Agroforestry World, 2017.

Luedeling, E, and C Whitney. “Simulating the Cost Effectiveness of Controlled Burning with the DecisionSupport R Package.” R programming language, 2017. Cran.r-project.org/web/packages/decisionSupport. cran.r-project.org/.

Luedeling, Eike, and Cory Whitney. “Controlled Burns in Conifer Forests.” R Pubs, 2017. 10.13140/RG.2.2.34064.30727. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.34064.30727.

Luedeling, Eike, Cory Whitney, Todd Rosenstock, and Keith Shepherd. “Modelling Agricultural Realities to Support Development Decisions.” In Tropentag Bonn: Future Agriculture: Socio-Ecological Transitions and Bio-Cultural Shifts, edited by E. Tielkes, 248. Bonn, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.

Marocco, Irene, Edward Mukiibi, John Wanyu, and Cory Whitney. “Uganda from Earth to Table; Traditional Products and Dishes.” Slow Food International, 2016. Slow Food International.

Tu Tuyet, Nhung, and Cory Whitney. “Changes in Organic Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in Northern Vietnam.” In 5th ISOFAR Scientific Conference “Innovative Research for Organic 3.0”  at the 19th Organic World Congress, edited by G. Rahmann, C. Andres, A.K. Yadav, R. Ardakani, H.B. Babalad, N. Devakumar, S.L. Goel, et al., 784–86. New Delhi, India: Johann Heinrich von Thuenen-Institute, Braunschweig, Germany, 2017.

Whitney, C., Derrick Kisegu, David Kahaga, and J R S Tabuti. “The Contribution of Small-Holder Farmers to Increasing Tree Cover in Kaliro District.” In International Conference on Ecosystem Resilience and Agricultural Productivity. Kampala, Uganda: Makerere University, 2017.

Whitney, C., D. Lanzanova, and Eike Luedeling. “Bayesian Networks for Impact Modeling of Development Interventions.” In Living in a Global World: Ethnobotany, Local Knowledge and Sustainability. 58th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany. Book of Abstracts, edited by Ana Maria Carvalho, Manuel Pardo de Santayana, and Rainer Bussmann, 131. June 2: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Centro de Investigação de Montanha & Society for Economic Botany, 2017.

Whitney, C., D. Lanzanova, Keith Shepherd, and Eike Luedeling. “Nutritional Impacts of Transitioning from Homegardens to Industrial Farms in Uganda.” In Tropentag 2017: Future Agriculture: Socio-Ecological Transitions and Bio-Cultural Shifts, edited by E. Tielkes, 275. Bonn, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2017.

Whitney, C., Eike Luedeling, J. Gebauer, Antonia Nyamukuru A, John R. S. Tabuti, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Cluster Assignment Indicates Four Distinct Homegarden Types in Southwest Uganda.” In Society for Economic Botany Annual Meeting 2016, 50. Pine Mountain, Kentucky, USA: Society for Economic Botany, 2016.

Whitney, C., E. Mukiibi, Carolyne Nakaketo, J. Gebauer, A. M. Rietveld, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Addressing Post-Harvest Losses During Traditional Banana Fermentation for Increased Food Security in Southwest Uganda.” In Tropentag 2016: Solidarity in a Competing World - Fair Use of Resources, edited by E. Tielkes, 10. Vienna, Austria: Cuvillier Verlag, 2016.

Whitney, Cory. “Adventures in Botany.” Plants & People, 2016. Plants & People.

———. “Adventures in Botany Part 2: Adansonia Digitata Absent from the North and West of Uganda.” Plants & People, 2016. Plants & People.

———. “Decision Modeling for Trees, Nutrition, and Livelihoods.” Commission on Environmental Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) Members Newsletter, 2016. iucn.org.

———. “Review: Trees for Gardens, Orchards, and Permaculture. Crawford, Martin.” Economic Botany, 2016. Economic Botany.

Whitney, Cory, Sin Min Vang, Giang Le Hong, Vu Van Can, Keith Barber, and Tran Thi Lanh. “Learning with Elders; Human Ecology and Ethnobotany Explorations in Northern and Central Vietnam.” Human Organization 75, no. 1 (2016): 71–86. https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259-75.1.71.

Christinck, A., M. Diarra Doka, G. Horneber, G. Kagoro Rugunda, G. Palé, and Cory Whitney. From Breeding To Nutrition: Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotatoes in Farming And Food Systems of Uganda, Kenya and Burkina Faso. Minneapolis, MN: The McKnight Foundation, 2016.

Han, E., Cory Whitney, W. Niether, W. Nelson, and T. Baars. “Effects of Biodynamic Preparation 500 (P500) Cow Horn Manure on Early Growth of Barley, Pea, Quinoa, and Tomato under Saline Stress Conditions.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by E. Tielkes, 17. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Luedeling, Eike, Jan de Leeuw, Christine Lamanna, Todd Rosenstock, Cory Whitney, and Keith Shepherd. “Business Decision Analysis Principles in Research for Agricultural Development.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by E. Tielkes, 216–17. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Shepherd, Keith, Douglas Hubbard, Norman Fenton, Karl Claxton, Eike Luedeling, and Jan de Leeuw. “Development Goals Should Enable Decision-Making.” Nature 523, no. 7559 (2015): 152–54.

Whitney, C., J. Gebauer, Antonia Nyamukuru, and K. Kehlenbeck. “Food Security and Traditional Farming Systems; a Case Study of Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by Tielkes. E, 245–46. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Whitney, C., Jens Gebauer, Joseph Bahati, and Eike Luedeling. “Farming for Food Security; Probabilistic Simulations of Farm Contribution to Nutrition in Southwest Uganda.” In Tropentag 2015: Management of Land Use Systems for Enhanced Food Security: Conflicts, Controversies and Resolutions, edited by Eric Tielkes, 235. Berlin, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag, 2015.

Whitney, Cory. “Transdisciplinary Research Aimed at PHL Reduction in East Africa.” ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss, 2015. ADM Institute.

Whitney, Cory, Joseph Bahati, and Jens Gebauer. “Value of Plants in Ugandan Homegardens; Results of Homegardens Inventories and Participatory Ethnobotany Investigations.” In Botany 2015: Science and Plants for People, 1792. July 25-29: Botanical Society of America, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, and J. Gebauer. “Species Diversity and Post-Harvest Practices on the Forest Edge Homegardens in Southwestern Uganda.” In Tropentag 2014: Czech Republic “Bridging the Gap between Increasing Knowledge and Decreasing Resources,” edited by Tielkes. E, 344. Prague, Czech Republic: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, and Jens Gebauer. “Homegardens in Uganda: Diversity and Potential.” In Building Organic Bridges. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference at the Organic World Congress 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey, edited by G Rahmann and U Aksoy, Thuenen Report 20:1115–18. Istanbul, Turkey: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, Jens Gebauer, and Molly Anderson. “Wild Collection and Cultivation of Native Species in Iceland.” In Building Organic Bridges. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference at the Organic World Congress 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey, edited by G. Rahmann and U. Aksoy, Thuenen Report 20:607–10. Oct. 13-15: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, A. Nyamukuru, Joseph Bahati, and J. Gebauer. “Local Knowledge for Food Security in Uganda; Postharvest Practices in Homegardens of the Ugandan Southwest.” In The First International Congress on Postharvest Loss Prevention, Rome, October 2015, 62–63. October 4-7: ADM Institute, 2015.

Whitney, Cory, and N. Tu Tuyet. “Building Food Communities: Farm Management Schemes within Organic PGS; Survey and Analysis in Soc Son, Hanoi, Vietnam.” In The OWC Pre-Conference Building Food Communities Is Bringing Together Community- Supported Agriculture (CSA) and Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS), 1–2. Istanbul, Turkey: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, Min (Meej Vaj) Vang Sin, Giang Le Hong, Can Vu Van, Keith Barber, and Lanh Tran Thi. “Conservation and Ethnobotanical Knowledge of a Hmong Community in Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” Ethnobotany Research and Applications 12 (2014): 643–58. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.12.0.643-658.

———. “Hmong Conservation: Lessons in Ethnobotany from the Elders of Long Lan, Luang Prabang, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.” In 38th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology “The Many Faces of Ethnobiology,” 70–71. May 6-9: Society of Ethnobiology, 2015.

———. “Learning with Elders of the Dao, Hmong, Lu, Ma Lieng, Sach, Tai, Tay, and Xinh Mun Ethnic Communities of Northern Vietnam.” In 38th Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology “The Many Faces of Ethnobiology,” 70. May 6-9: Society of Ethnobiology, 2015.

Lee, Jeung Hyoung, Hyun Sun DiMatteo Jo, Susanne Padel, Robert Anderson, Marco Schlüter, Francis Blake, Katsushige Murayama, et al. “Government Policies for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture with a Focus on the Asian Pacific Region.” In Special Workshop; Government Policies for the Promotion of Organic Agriculture with a Focus on the Asian Pacific Region, 17th IFOAM OWC, South Korea, edited by Cory Whitney, 97. Seoul, South Korea: Ministry of Food Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, Republic of Korea, 2011.

Whitney, Cory. “A Survey of Wild Collection and Cultivation of Indigenous Species in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.” MSc, University of Kassel, 2011. Kobra (University of Kassel’s Repository und Archive).

———. “Conservation Ethnobotany in the North Atlantic.” Non-Wood News; NWFP Digest, 2011. Food and Agriculture Organization.

———. “Nordic Ethnobotany and Conservation.” NWFP News: Non-Wood Forest Products, 2012. Food and Agriculture Organization.

———. “Saving Biodiversity in Greater Bushenyi.” Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, 2014. Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity.

———. “Small Is Beautiful; How Local Organic Can Steer Us Away From Catastrophe.” Ecology & Farming, 2008. Ecology & Farming.

Whitney, Cory, K. den Braber, N. Tu Tuyet, and S. Thorndal Jørgensen. “Farm Management Schemes within Organic PGS; Survey and Analysis in Soc Son, Hanoi, Vietnam.” In Building Organic Bridges. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference at the Organic World Congress 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey, edited by G. Rahmann and U. Aksoy, Thuenen Report 20:1187–90. Istanbul, Turkey: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, K den Braber, N Từ Tuyết, and S Thorndal Jørgensen. “Measurable Impacts of the ‘Principles of Organic Agriculture’; Survey of A Vietnamese Organic PGS.” In Building Organic Bridges. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference at the Organic World Congress 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey, edited by G Rahmann and U Aksoy, Thuenen Report 20:1191–94. Istanbul, Turkey: Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, 2014.

Whitney, Cory, J. Gebauer, and M. Anderson. “A Survey of Wild Collection and Cultivation of Indigenous Species in Iceland.” Human Ecology 40, no. 5 (2012): 781–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-012-9517-0.

Whitney, Cory, Min Meej Vaj Vang Sin, Giang Lê Hồng, Can Vu Van, Keith Barber, and Lanh Tran Thi. Ethnobotany Research; An Approach to Biological Human Ecology Theory. Hanoi, Vietnam: Knowledge Publishing, 2013.

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