[Music]
here is a story from our sages about an
old wrinkled man carefully planting a
septic when a young boy walks past and
is intrigued about what he sees and he
says old man aren’t you wasting your
time surely you’re not going to live
long enough to see the fruits of your
trees and the old man says indeed you
right but you see I was born into a
world with trees and fields with all the
produce a world teeming with life and
resources and I want to make sure that
it is I leave behind a world for my
grandchildren in the same way as I was
ladies and gentlemen I’m not going to
just talk about trees and fruits I’m
going to talk about food security food
and nutrition security and to follow on
what tracy has said that is a situation
when all war people at all time should
have physical social and economic access
to sufficient safe and nutritious food
to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy
life this is a high profile topic that
is discussed by government officials
ministers effect mr. Julius Malema
raised that yesterday clearly stating
about food security it’s discussed by
academics and the wider population and
this morning you and me it brings into
focus the inextricable link between food
health social and economic development
and this important issue has serious
ramifications and consequences for our
wider society so let me share some of
the background for this problem
and just again to build on what tracy
has said it is acknowledged that South
Africa is in the midst of a serious food
insecurity crisis poverty unemployment
and hunger and other socio-economic and
educational inequalities are widespread
in the greater Johannesburg Metropole of
which we are part millions of people men
women and children go to bed hungry have
insufficient food and/or eat the wrong
types of food in adults and youth lack
of diversified diets is linked to
detrimental health outcomes such as
obesity and diabetes which is all
placing a huge burden on our already
overstretched health system scarce funds
and restricted food choices forces us
own forces many to buying food highly
processed food high in sugar salt and
fat content all of which have a
detrimental impact on health and in
children again as Tracy mentioned our
future malnutrition is highly prevalent
especially micronutrient deficiency
which means a lack of vanilla minerals
and vitamins which is often referred to
as hidden hunger because we don’t
actually see that and this results in
physical and cognitive stunting in the
same way as a blemish made on the seed
results in a defective or an unhealthy
plant so – our children are like seeds
and we need to make sure that we don’t
blemish those children who are going to
be our future generation with poor
nutrition so taking into account these
foods health and socioeconomic concerns
as well as the environmental issues such
as soil water and air pollution we need
to reconsider interrogate and address
all aspects of food and nutrition secure
I believe we can make serious inroads in
decreasing the prevalence of food
security but this ambitious goal can
only be achieved if people and policies
government corporates and strategic
interventions all submit to positive
disruption and change such
transformation could result in healthier
profiles improve socio-economic
circumstances and simply a better world
in which to live in order to achieve
this worthy objective we need agree
ecological and health systems that allow
for the best mix of research real-life
grassroots projects but very importantly
which are supported by government and
corporates open dialogue with all
stakeholders an efficient and effective
implementation of to tackle the
complexities of the food energy and
water Nexus and so it requires us to
implement a process of transformation at
every single level I have undergone a
personal transformation from my roles as
a dentist a public health practitioner
and now an urban agriculturist or as
some people say from cavities and caries
to communities to cultivation in my many
years of working in the communities as a
health professional I witnessed extent
to which food security and nutrition
security can compromise people’s
immunity and their ability to function
to their full capacity and potential and
so this was a trigger for me to explore
the potential of urban food gardens as
one option of addressing the problem
thus in 2005 together with colleagues
from bit’s University and the community
we transformed the dump site into a
vegetable patch on a piece of land
located in the side note Park and we
named the project SIA corner which means
appropriately building one another or
each
this park by the way is only ten minutes
from where we are meeting this morning
in the inner city over the years we’ve
transformed the small the the small
vegetable patch and transformed it into
a small-scale form and very importantly
a platform and a launching site for
other food Gardens the project has
maintained a vigorous academic approach
and as applied broad multidisciplinary
and multifaceted research and teaching
which I referred to in in tackling the
wicked food health and socio-economic
issues our model has now evolved into a
social intrapreneurial enterprise and
the capacity building incubator which is
an alignment with the sustainable
development goals with food and
nutrition security being our main focus
and so it’s the Econo a process of
transformation is a play at many levels
an arrant an unproductive plot of land
has been transformed into a flourishing
oasis dry in fertile ground transformed
into nutrient-dense soil and waste cut
grass and wood chips transformed into
compost often called black gold because
of its value our educational programs
are transforming the ways people think
and behave resulting in them choosing to
eat less highly processed sugary and
fatty foods which you can see and opting
for more nutritionally diverse healthy
fresh organic produce replete with
micronutrients and immune boosting
properties this is what we harvested at
the Econo just last week we have been
involved in transforming an empty and
bare roof into a green and productive
site just up the road from where we are
today we have transformed unemployed and
unskilled jobseekers into urban
agriculturist
trainers and intrapreneurs inexperienced
intimate student interns these students
are from t UT doing their work
integrated learning at the Econo we’ve
transformed them into confident
communicative capable and very
importantly contented scholars but most
importantly we have transformed people’s
mindsets from attitudes of apathy
neglect and disempowerment into ones of
purpose inspiration and hope this
transformation has enabled individuals
and groups to take greater
responsibility and control of their
well-being and environments in which
they live and work SIA Khanna provides a
safe and a secure setting and an ethos
of thinking about humanity compassion
goodness and kindness and Ubuntu Audia
ideology and from Leslie I believe a
TEDx ideology and a proudly African
approach to life many have asked me how
and why SIA Connor has prevailed and
been sustained for almost 14 years it
required somebody with enthusiasm and
drive impassioned to manage the project
and so it was divine providence that I
was at the right place and the right
time and I willingly and
enthusiastically took on the challenge
to manage the people involved to utilize
their collective energies and to harness
multiple resources and sectors all of
which were necessary to establish this
dynamic sustainable project it’s been a
tough but a remarkably rewarding project
and it’s been a privilege to work with
so many wonderful and highly motivated
people I would like to acknowledge all
of them and although she Akana may be
perceived that being in the business of
plants we were actually in the business
of people partnerships and potential our
strength lies in networking lobbying and
collaborating with people in government
business and local communities
partnerships with corporates and NGOs
with global and national universities
and with schools and this proves the
importance of working together our
findings and teachings have yielded and
shared vital data which are informing
and influencing policy and strategic
interventions the returns of our focused
investments have had multiple benefits
and widespread consequences take mother
for example Mandler in 2006 volunteered
at SIA corner we saw his potential we
sent him on a two-week course in
permaculture and a basic many management
course at Wits University and then to an
eco village course in Germany Monday
returned as and became managers here
Connor and with his charisma with his
newly acquired skills and with his
ability to teaching he made an
invaluable contribution to our project
today
Mandla manages his own form he offers
causes to many groups and he teaches at
the indigenous knowledge system in
Northwest University in making mandalas
like several others too numerous to
mention
have been empowered and have acquired
practical and business business and
people are in tightest kills and have
been given a sense of dignity and
purpose but these are not isolated
success stories rather it is here karna
story of transforming historically
underserved individuals who are
capacitated and motivated to influence
people around him in terms of research
hannah Dawson was a young and the first
student at Wits University to undertake
a research project at SIA corner in
which she explored the contribution of
urban riether of urban agriculture to
sustainable livelihoods hannah Dawson is
now a final doctoral candidate at Oxford
University which is researching topics
related to her see a corner experience
see a corner was the platform from which
Hannah’s academic and research career
was launched and wasn’t but her research
was only a start at least 30 other
research studies and surveys have been
carried out by our team or by students
from local and unit and overseas
universities at SIA corner at other
sites and other settings so SIA Connors
become a change agent that is uprooting
old ideas and shifting the ways we think
learn and practice urban farming we
often offer and facilitate a wide range
of courses for hundreds of participants
from who range from grassroots to
tertiary education level and we have a
cascading influence on hundreds of other
people see a karna pays specific
attention to women youth and people with
disabilities offering tailored training
courses
accommodating at them at the garden
enabling them to become more
self-sufficient we strive to understand
the role of communities in which we work
by integrating local indigenous
knowledge and ideas into development and
growth of people we harness social
capital in order to shed light on how
food and nutrition can be better
understood and thereby better addressed
we tackle isolation and hardship with
compassion and caring and make every
effort to transform the problems of
community into the possibility and
potential in those communities SIA
corners impact and yields have produced
meaningful and multiple rewards in
agro-ecological practice research
training teaching advocacy and
partnerships and of course not
forgetting our wide range of quality
projects including vegetables fruits and
berries herbs and nuts however all
inclusive and vigorous transformation
can only rarely be achieved by scaling
up ours and other such programs the
transformation and growth of urban
agriculture will never this require
significant vestment
by government and corporates supported
by universities but we’ll need the full
participation and involvement with the
communities the purse persistence of
hunger and food nutrition reflects deep
inequalities in our country ensuring
that all South Africans have physical
social and economic access to sufficient
safe and nutritious food must be a
national priority I feel it’s
appropriate to conclude my talk by
referring to South Africa’s icon the
former president Nelson Mandela who my
family and I had the privilege of
meeting when Madiba was in Pollsmoor
Prison he grew a small pot allocated to
him he took responsibility for it and
was the custodian for his vegetable
patch ladies and gentlemen
so we so – we South Africans need to
demonstrate our responsibility and our
leadership by sowing and growing seeds
in our physical and spiritual gardens
cultivating care and concern for others
propagating potential and promoting
health in the communities in which we
live and work
only they can be reassured that we’ll be planting for the future
here is a story from our sages about an
old wrinkled man carefully planting a
septic when a young boy walks past and
is intrigued about what he sees and he
says old man aren’t you wasting your
time surely you’re not going to live
long enough to see the fruits of your
trees and the old man says indeed you
right but you see I was born into a
world with trees and fields with all the
produce a world teeming with life and
resources and I want to make sure that
it is I leave behind a world for my
grandchildren in the same way as I was
ladies and gentlemen I’m not going to
just talk about trees and fruits I’m
going to talk about food security food
and nutrition security and to follow on
what tracy has said that is a situation
when all war people at all time should
have physical social and economic access
to sufficient safe and nutritious food
to meet their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy
life this is a high profile topic that
is discussed by government officials
ministers effect mr. Julius Malema
raised that yesterday clearly stating
about food security it’s discussed by
academics and the wider population and
this morning you and me it brings into
focus the inextricable link between food
health social and economic development
and this important issue has serious
ramifications and consequences for our
wider society so let me share some of
the background for this problem
and just again to build on what tracy
has said it is acknowledged that South
Africa is in the midst of a serious food
insecurity crisis poverty unemployment
and hunger and other socio-economic and
educational inequalities are widespread
in the greater Johannesburg Metropole of
which we are part millions of people men
women and children go to bed hungry have
insufficient food and/or eat the wrong
types of food in adults and youth lack
of diversified diets is linked to
detrimental health outcomes such as
obesity and diabetes which is all
placing a huge burden on our already
overstretched health system scarce funds
and restricted food choices forces us
own forces many to buying food highly
processed food high in sugar salt and
fat content all of which have a
detrimental impact on health and in
children again as Tracy mentioned our
future malnutrition is highly prevalent
especially micronutrient deficiency
which means a lack of vanilla minerals
and vitamins which is often referred to
as hidden hunger because we don’t
actually see that and this results in
physical and cognitive stunting in the
same way as a blemish made on the seed
results in a defective or an unhealthy
plant so – our children are like seeds
and we need to make sure that we don’t
blemish those children who are going to
be our future generation with poor
nutrition so taking into account these
foods health and socioeconomic concerns
as well as the environmental issues such
as soil water and air pollution we need
to reconsider interrogate and address
all aspects of food and nutrition secure
I believe we can make serious inroads in
decreasing the prevalence of food
security but this ambitious goal can
only be achieved if people and policies
government corporates and strategic
interventions all submit to positive
disruption and change such
transformation could result in healthier
profiles improve socio-economic
circumstances and simply a better world
in which to live in order to achieve
this worthy objective we need agree
ecological and health systems that allow
for the best mix of research real-life
grassroots projects but very importantly
which are supported by government and
corporates open dialogue with all
stakeholders an efficient and effective
implementation of to tackle the
complexities of the food energy and
water Nexus and so it requires us to
implement a process of transformation at
every single level I have undergone a
personal transformation from my roles as
a dentist a public health practitioner
and now an urban agriculturist or as
some people say from cavities and caries
to communities to cultivation in my many
years of working in the communities as a
health professional I witnessed extent
to which food security and nutrition
security can compromise people’s
immunity and their ability to function
to their full capacity and potential and
so this was a trigger for me to explore
the potential of urban food gardens as
one option of addressing the problem
thus in 2005 together with colleagues
from bit’s University and the community
we transformed the dump site into a
vegetable patch on a piece of land
located in the side note Park and we
named the project SIA corner which means
appropriately building one another or
each
this park by the way is only ten minutes
from where we are meeting this morning
in the inner city over the years we’ve
transformed the small the the small
vegetable patch and transformed it into
a small-scale form and very importantly
a platform and a launching site for
other food Gardens the project has
maintained a vigorous academic approach
and as applied broad multidisciplinary
and multifaceted research and teaching
which I referred to in in tackling the
wicked food health and socio-economic
issues our model has now evolved into a
social intrapreneurial enterprise and
the capacity building incubator which is
an alignment with the sustainable
development goals with food and
nutrition security being our main focus
and so it’s the Econo a process of
transformation is a play at many levels
an arrant an unproductive plot of land
has been transformed into a flourishing
oasis dry in fertile ground transformed
into nutrient-dense soil and waste cut
grass and wood chips transformed into
compost often called black gold because
of its value our educational programs
are transforming the ways people think
and behave resulting in them choosing to
eat less highly processed sugary and
fatty foods which you can see and opting
for more nutritionally diverse healthy
fresh organic produce replete with
micronutrients and immune boosting
properties this is what we harvested at
the Econo just last week we have been
involved in transforming an empty and
bare roof into a green and productive
site just up the road from where we are
today we have transformed unemployed and
unskilled jobseekers into urban
agriculturist
trainers and intrapreneurs inexperienced
intimate student interns these students
are from t UT doing their work
integrated learning at the Econo we’ve
transformed them into confident
communicative capable and very
importantly contented scholars but most
importantly we have transformed people’s
mindsets from attitudes of apathy
neglect and disempowerment into ones of
purpose inspiration and hope this
transformation has enabled individuals
and groups to take greater
responsibility and control of their
well-being and environments in which
they live and work SIA Khanna provides a
safe and a secure setting and an ethos
of thinking about humanity compassion
goodness and kindness and Ubuntu Audia
ideology and from Leslie I believe a
TEDx ideology and a proudly African
approach to life many have asked me how
and why SIA Connor has prevailed and
been sustained for almost 14 years it
required somebody with enthusiasm and
drive impassioned to manage the project
and so it was divine providence that I
was at the right place and the right
time and I willingly and
enthusiastically took on the challenge
to manage the people involved to utilize
their collective energies and to harness
multiple resources and sectors all of
which were necessary to establish this
dynamic sustainable project it’s been a
tough but a remarkably rewarding project
and it’s been a privilege to work with
so many wonderful and highly motivated
people I would like to acknowledge all
of them and although she Akana may be
perceived that being in the business of
plants we were actually in the business
of people partnerships and potential our
strength lies in networking lobbying and
collaborating with people in government
business and local communities
partnerships with corporates and NGOs
with global and national universities
and with schools and this proves the
importance of working together our
findings and teachings have yielded and
shared vital data which are informing
and influencing policy and strategic
interventions the returns of our focused
investments have had multiple benefits
and widespread consequences take mother
for example Mandler in 2006 volunteered
at SIA corner we saw his potential we
sent him on a two-week course in
permaculture and a basic many management
course at Wits University and then to an
eco village course in Germany Monday
returned as and became managers here
Connor and with his charisma with his
newly acquired skills and with his
ability to teaching he made an
invaluable contribution to our project
today
Mandla manages his own form he offers
causes to many groups and he teaches at
the indigenous knowledge system in
Northwest University in making mandalas
like several others too numerous to
mention
have been empowered and have acquired
practical and business business and
people are in tightest kills and have
been given a sense of dignity and
purpose but these are not isolated
success stories rather it is here karna
story of transforming historically
underserved individuals who are
capacitated and motivated to influence
people around him in terms of research
hannah Dawson was a young and the first
student at Wits University to undertake
a research project at SIA corner in
which she explored the contribution of
urban riether of urban agriculture to
sustainable livelihoods hannah Dawson is
now a final doctoral candidate at Oxford
University which is researching topics
related to her see a corner experience
see a corner was the platform from which
Hannah’s academic and research career
was launched and wasn’t but her research
was only a start at least 30 other
research studies and surveys have been
carried out by our team or by students
from local and unit and overseas
universities at SIA corner at other
sites and other settings so SIA Connors
become a change agent that is uprooting
old ideas and shifting the ways we think
learn and practice urban farming we
often offer and facilitate a wide range
of courses for hundreds of participants
from who range from grassroots to
tertiary education level and we have a
cascading influence on hundreds of other
people see a karna pays specific
attention to women youth and people with
disabilities offering tailored training
courses
accommodating at them at the garden
enabling them to become more
self-sufficient we strive to understand
the role of communities in which we work
by integrating local indigenous
knowledge and ideas into development and
growth of people we harness social
capital in order to shed light on how
food and nutrition can be better
understood and thereby better addressed
we tackle isolation and hardship with
compassion and caring and make every
effort to transform the problems of
community into the possibility and
potential in those communities SIA
corners impact and yields have produced
meaningful and multiple rewards in
agro-ecological practice research
training teaching advocacy and
partnerships and of course not
forgetting our wide range of quality
projects including vegetables fruits and
berries herbs and nuts however all
inclusive and vigorous transformation
can only rarely be achieved by scaling
up ours and other such programs the
transformation and growth of urban
agriculture will never this require
significant vestment
by government and corporates supported
by universities but we’ll need the full
participation and involvement with the
communities the purse persistence of
hunger and food nutrition reflects deep
inequalities in our country ensuring
that all South Africans have physical
social and economic access to sufficient
safe and nutritious food must be a
national priority I feel it’s
appropriate to conclude my talk by
referring to South Africa’s icon the
former president Nelson Mandela who my
family and I had the privilege of
meeting when Madiba was in Pollsmoor
Prison he grew a small pot allocated to
him he took responsibility for it and
was the custodian for his vegetable
patch ladies and gentlemen
so we so – we South Africans need to
demonstrate our responsibility and our
leadership by sowing and growing seeds
in our physical and spiritual gardens
cultivating care and concern for others
propagating potential and promoting
health in the communities in which we
live and work
only they can be reassured that we’ll be planting for the future
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