“São Paulo, the capital city of the state of São Paulo (Brazil) and its metropolitan region are home to the world’s third largest urban population, with 19,385,332 inhabitants, only trailing behind Tokyo and Mexico City.”

“The area where our project holds a regularized, 100,000-square-meter (10 sq. ha.) arable plot – technically fit for the production of vegetables, greens, grains, fruit and medicinal herbs – is delimited by the districts of Terceira Divisão, Bandeirantes, Jardim Laranjeiras, Recanto and Pernambuco, whose population is formed mostly of migrants from Brazil’s poorer northeastern states in search of job opportunity and better living conditions.”

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Dr. Thilak T. Ranasinghe, Director of Agriculture (Western Province), Colombo, Sri Lanka, has written a 4000 word paper on Family Business Gardens.

“In Sri Lanka, according to the resent studies, it is stated that the urban population will increase from 4,430,000 in 2000 to 9,090,000 by the year 2025. The increasing trends in greater urbanization, an ageing population and increasing female workforce in developing countries pave the way for new forms of demand structures in ready-to-eat foods, functional foods (less fat, less cholesterol, less energy and vitamins added), organic products and time saving products in housekeeping. In other words, increasing urbanization accelerates the process of switching from commodity to diverse banded consumption patterns. Thus, sustainable and economically viable resource utilization will become key aspects in promoting entrepreneurship skills in the urban agricultural production process.”

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Maria Keating, Bug Lady at City Farmer, has created two comix-style flyers from photos of insects at the our Demonstration Garden in Vancouver BC. Maria teaches kids and adults about the almost invisible life that takes place in every backyard garden.

See the full-sized document here.