Q: How do you get expensive fertiliser to slum dwellers so that they can produce their own vegetables?
A: You don’t. You find an alternative that’s readily available and produce a system that answers a heap of environmental problems along the way.
Bringing life back to some impoverished urban slums in Mexico City was the dream of Journey to Forever and their challenge had to meet four inflexible constraints;
1. Little or no land
2. Little or no investment in infrastructure
3. No purchase of chemical inputs, and
4. Be light weight for rooftop cultivation.
The idea that evolved after years of quasi-experimentation utilised the mass of car tyres that lay around as containers, used leaf litter as the medium for planting, and turned human urine and worm castings into an immediate source of fertiliser.
Another benefit from this project is that it allows families to grow enough for themselves but also produce an income from the excess.
If you want to read more about this great project read this…