Rio's Urban Gardens Produce Healthy Food For The Poor
Phoenix666 writes:
Gun-toting youths watch over a street in a Rio de Janeiro slum hit hard by drug trafficking, but walk a bit further and this rough area also boasts the largest urban vegetable garden in Latin America.
This success story is unfolding in a favela called Manguinhos in the north of Rio, and thrives as the rest of the country frets over rampant inflation and worries over Russian fertilizer, a major concern for Brazil's powerful agriculture sector.
[...] These days the garden feeds some 800 families a month with produce that is pesticide free and affordable, two features that do not always go hand in hand.
[...] This particular garden is the size of four football fields and every month it produces 2.5 tons of yuca, carrots, onions, cabbage and other vegetables.
[...] The Rio city government has announced plans to expand a garden in the Parque de Madureira area of the city to make it almost four times the size of Manguinhos. Officials said that would make it the world's largest urban garden.
Community gardens are not new, but could play a more important role amid the proliferation of "urban food deserts."
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