UAE Community Farming Option

Ben Daniels and Shiva Daniels Mouhedi joined me in studio for a conversation about sustainable organic community farming in the UAE.

What a great idea!

Here is the brief.


Sustainable Community Farming.
Mission: Reconnect our society with their food supply chain. A Green Centre for sustainability to encourage active engagement from the community, creating an engaging relationship between the community and nature.
Goal: Create a matrix ecosystem of sustainability both horizontally between organisms and vertically between human social entities.
Vision. A sustainable food supply chain in harmony with nature and in line with human progress and replicable business models.


Concept:

• Based on layered ecosystems. Foundation of the community overlayed by the commercial sector feeding back into key CSR messaging to the community around understanding sustainability, impact to the environment and personal responsibility and ultimately the understanding of their relationship to the environment. Therefore the majority of the infrastructure costs will be donated by companies that have profited greatly from the economy and now have an opportunity to give back.
• Each school will use the allotment for educational purposes reconnecting the students with their food supply chain. Central to the project is for schools to include the allotment as a elective subject with one to two hours per week dedicated.
• 230 Schools in Dubai.
• 50% for schools and 50% for residents.
• 200 m2 per residential plot. 200m2 = .02 hectares. Total 5 hectares.
• 400 m2 per school plot. 400m2 = .04 hectares. Total 10 Hectares.
• Allocate 15 hectares to a walled Community Farming Centre. Ideally it needs to be located close to the population, not out in the sticks. Close to the population and the security fence a massive billboard illustrating Dubai’s focus on sustainability.
• Sub-divide the land to plots, similar to the UK allotment system.
• Members of the community then can secure an allotment for a small fee. The fee would be used toward building/maintaining the facilities/running costs.
• The members can plant any form of vegetables they like and sell them in the community market.
• Local Organic Market.
• Proceeds can be donated to eco projects to build up eco dollars.
• Excess of local market sold through partners such as the Organic Food Café.
• Carbon Trading Scheme on DFC including partnership program for sustainability. E.g. enterprises participating in brotherhood sustainability programs can trade carbon credits.
• All produce would be organic using the bio dynamic approach.
• Engagement from Local Universities for experimentation, knowledge transfer, local schools, UAE Environmental Agencies, sustainability groups etc..
• Create a model for sustainable farming in the Middle East that can be replicated through the region and reduce the carbon footprint of ME countries.
• By reconnecting the community with their food supply chain, we create the consumers of organic and sustainable produce, creating the customers of the organic farmers, hence not competing with them.
• By engaging school children early, we create awareness that negates the causes of the current diabetes epidemic.
• Tap social media to create a vibrant online community fostering discussion, knowledge sharing, competition between schools and community members for the most green contributions/eco dollars etc..
• Create facebook “farmville” like application to foster competition and engagement but with the farms being the real allotments.