For some years now an increasing number of people worldwide are finding the conventional system of how we produce food to be unsustainable and at crisis point.

People in their teens, 20s, and 30s today live under the shadow of climate change, forcing adaptation in the way things are done, especially when it comes to growing food.

There are tangible dangers surrounding the great quantities of pesticides and artificial fertilisers being used in agriculture. The wholesale damage this does to soil and ecosystems, so important for their contribution to a healthy balance in cultivated fields, cannot be ignored.

Unsustainable use of water, wastage of vegetable discards which are thrown away instead of being composted, and the vast amounts of unrecyclable plastic and foam packaging are all part of an unhealthy cycle adopted by industrial-style agriculture.

Slowly but surely we are entering a new era as people put their heads together to form a new food network based on communication and new ideas. The movement has been going from strength to strength.

Cross-fertilisation of like-minded groups in Malta has built up a network of people all keen to reconnect with nature. Among some of the prominent fore-runners of these groups are former party-animals who became jaded with their lifestyle and have searched for something more meaningful. They bring along their logistical skills honed on the party scene for organising events.

Operating out of a little shop in St Julian’s, the organisation named Why Not? describes itself as an eco-community based on conscious and sustainable living. One of the basic principles behind this lifestyle is year-round food production as part of a bid “to generate our own food and energy”.

Together with Get Up Stand Up, a group dedicated to a wider range of social issues, including the environment, Why Not? has produced a film on composting with help from European Youth in Action funding. It has also brought in the Permaculture Research Farm, which gave grounding to the project by sharing valuable lessons and experiences on how to make small changes for a better planet.

Every week, over 20 per cent of food in Malta is wasted and 60 per cent of what we throw away in the rubbish bin, destined for the Magħtab landfill, is compostable. The film, titled Garbage to Gardens, encourages viewers to make their own compost from leftover food and use it to grow their own food in pots, gardens or on rooftops.

A specialist catering outlet, The Grassy Hopper, uses takeaway cups and forks made of compostable corn starch to cut down on the amount of waste and avoid plastic containers or cutlery.

Sourcing healthy ingredients and preparing alternative food snacks, this enterprise first became popular with office workers when it started up as a mobile kiosk. As demand grew, the enterprise expanded to open cafés in Gżira and Valletta and has collaborated with the composting project. Products such as wheatgrass appear on their menu, grown at Baħrija using an environment friendly method known as permaculture.

Experimenting with composting at an Mġarr farm, fondly referred to as ‘The Creativity Vortex’, volunteers demonstrate different ways of ‘feeding the soil that feeds us’. The eco-village model encourages individuals and groups to get involved.

‘Woofing’ is the organic farmer’s answer to couch surfing and a good way for people from different countries to gain hands-on experience on the land. Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms is a loose network of national organisations co-ordinating placement of volunteers on organic farms.

The world’s preoccupation and obsession with industry and automation, standardisation and homogeneity, often leads us to eat food that does not taste as good as when we eat local products that have been cultivated with great care and love for the work done

A media team from Ireland visited Malta for a week’s WOOF experience at Vincent’s Farm. Visitors to the farm bring with them a vortex of ideas which put into practice their adopted slogan: ‘Be the change you want to see’, combined with the democratic principle of ‘May the best idea win’.

On the Mġarr farm, a hunter’s hut has been put to good use, and an abandoned World War II structure revamped with the principle of a ‘living roof’. Placing soil on the roof brings plants, insects and birds back to this space, returning the building’s footprint back to nature. This experiment serves as a model for urban food gardens.

A ‘chicken tractor’ built with help from volunteers is moved from day to day over a piece of land as chickens eat the weeds and the soil benefits from their manure. Many of the ideas being put into practice come out of permaculture, which is promoted by Baħrija Oasis, an early comer to the scene in Malta.

The Mġarr farm, and another at Mellieħa, supply some of the vegetables sold at Veg Box, an outlet tucked into the gatekeeper’s room at Villa Bologna. The villa’s owners have made the grounds available for food to be grown in a way that does least harm to the environment.

Growers who do all they can to produce a crop without chemicals and practise environment-friendly agriculture can still get stuck at the transition stage between cutting out agri-chemicals and certification. To go the full mile toward having certified organic produce is a tall order for casual farmers who feel swamped with endless form-filling and regular reporting obligations. Organic farming is labour intensive and leaves little spare time for the dedicated grower.

For consumers who want to help the environment and benefit from healthier food but are still a little uncertain, the best thing may be to strike up a friendly relationship with these small-scale producers of fruits and vegetables. A visit to the site where the actual crops destined for your stew pot are coming from, a look at the diversity of nature around the field and an inquisitive chat with the farmer will put anyone’s mind at rest.

Crop rotation is the order of the day. Rather than a whole field of cabbages (monoculture), diverse rows of different crops grow side by side in true organic style. This gives less of a chance for insects to take hold and provides more resistance for the crop.

There may have been a few snails munching on the leaves of your broccoli, resulting in a few holes. This should be taken as a good sign as it is merely nature’s way of labelling the produce as chemical-free. It is a virtual guarantee that pesticides are not welcome in this farmer’s field. You might see someone weeding by hand, back-breaking work that avoids the use of herbicides.

Produce does not have to be huge, brightly coloured or perfect in any other way, as much of the supermarket fare on offer. The key word is fresh from the earth, which has been cared for with a future in mind.

Slow Food is another splash of colour on the palette of NGOs active in Malta and working in this direction. Certain types of local grains, vegetables, fruit and particular breeds of animals are at risk of disappearing due to the prevalence of industrial food. Many have already been lost.

This organisation works to defend biodiversity and culinary art through a number of projects. These aim to sustain quality products at risk of extinction, protect unique regions and ecosystems, recover traditional processing methods and safeguard native breeds.

Principles of Slow Food decree first and foremost that food must taste good: “The world’s preoccupation and obsession with industry and automation, standardisation and homogeneity, often leads us to eat food that does not taste as good as when we eat local products that have been cultivated with great care and love for the work done.”

Offering a more sustainable alternative to the current system entails the nourishing of collaborations with others in the food industry who share the same values and are working towards a better future. It is truly heartening to see these synergies take root with diverse groups pulling one rope for a sustainable future.

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