Organic farming in Southeast Asia

Excerpt from Organic farming in Southeast Asia:

"Johor Green is a Malaysia-based social enterprise focused on a sustainable urban lifestyle. Chris Parry, founder of Johor Green, started the initiative as a side project, after observing the strange lifestyle of Malaysians who were “living” in malls.

Together with Medini Iskandar, a township developer, Parry developed and managed the Medini Green Parks comprising of a four-acre Edible Park and a seven-acre Heritage Forest. The edible park is a landscape and platform for cultivating a community around the current idea of sustainable food, whereas the forest is a wild landscape showcasing the local botanic heritage and re-establishing biodiversity and eco-services.

Parry wanted to merge the idea of local food and native plants with the local context.

“I’m interested in this concept of food sovereignty. I don’t think we have a food security problem here because we still have access to food and a lot of food is grown here. The problem is people are eating the wrong food. So that is food sovereignty, where someone comes in and affects your culture in such a way that you change your mind about what you are supposed to be eating,” he said.

Johor Green has “a program to suggest an alternative” from the unhealthy diet of Malaysians to a more plant-based diet. “Our farm sells organic produce, and our vendors are doing artisanal food, which fits the idea of ‘slow food’ movement, quite the opposite to fast-food,” Parry added.

Johor Green’s edible park is a “hub for organic produce, and we also have a platform for people to knowledge share, which I think is great for urban citizens,” Parry said. The farm also holds nature classes, social gatherings, talks and workshops and also a regular farmers’ market. At the farm, people also learn how to make artisanal and heritage food.

Johor Green’s farmers’ market is also a place where communities gather and share healthy food values with their children, meet up with friends for a meal and connect with others through food and education. Being centrally located in an urban environment is advantageous for a neighbourhood market."

PLACEMAKER WEEK ASEAN SERIES

Chris Parry is the founder of Johor Green, a platform focusing on cultivating green urban lifestyles. He also designed and operates Medini Green Parks, a pair of urban parks in Johor that include an Edible Park (5 acres), and a Heritage Forest (7 acres of urban forest).

We talk with Chris about his work in the Medini Green Parks. Chris is one of the speakers in the ongoing Placemaker Week ASEAN. Tickets are still available, for those keen to attend.

Why does Medini Green Parks include 5 acres of edible landscape, and how does it affect the community around it?

I knew edible landscapes to be a successful idea having lived in New York City, and seeing markets, cafes and food-growing spaces embedded in parks and botanical gardens with regular programming. I also knew that the edible landscapes of my youth — neighbourhood fruit trees and small plantations in Malaysia — were fast disappearing.

Edible Park now allows visitors a blend of those two things; direct encounters with our past like heirloom fruit trees and pepper vines, as well as new ideas like edible flowers and organic vegetables farmed in the city. It allows community engagement at our markets, socials and workshops; is a resource for sustainable ingredients; and a platform for chefs and artisanal food makers.

How did you plan for the landscaping of the Heritage Forest?

I’m influenced by Piet Oudolf‘s work which combines native plant choices and a ‘wild’ planting style to evoke natural landscapes and a site’s ecological history. It’s different from the design of our parks and gardens which are usually manicured beds and lawns.

The site itself suggested some ideas, with a hill slope for wildflowers and stream side planting. I laid out areas like a perfume forest and a healing forest that showcase local flora and the ethnobotanic connections our various communities have with these plants.

The design strategy was also to create content for tours and workshops, which we could use to engage the community.

How does the environment have an impact on mental health?

There is a lot of emerging science about the effects of exposure to nature, from simply de-stressing to reduction of early onset dementia. There is an ‘attention restoration theory’ that asserts that spending time in nature provides measurable benefits to cognitive function.

Providing a nature-based escape can help an urbanite deal with negative impacts of city life, which are both social and environmental, and include increased anxiety, risk of psychosis, sleep impairment, and depression. Exercising and learning in outdoor environments also yield better outcomes.

In your essay, Eat Your Landscape, you discuss the issue of food sovereignty over food security in our local context. Are we really losing touch with our food sovereignty? Is this a question of class divide in food consumption?

The cultural influence and corporate reach of globalisation has fundamentally changed supply and demand in our food systems. Our urban environments now reflect this with fast food and convenience stores filled with unhealthy snacks replacing our traditional food supply of sundry stores, wet markets and warungs.

Our health outcomes are proof of the huge problem this has become. Malaysians are increasingly overweight. Malaysian children are both obese and malnourished at the same time. The top ten reasons we die include factors related to lifestyle and food. The global phenomenon is that lower income classes are primary targets for fast food consumption. Food corporations utilise advertising; addictive combinations of fat, sugar, and salt; and property ownership in dense city centres to secure their custom.

Here in Malaysia, the working middle class are similarly trapped in urban environments that don’t provide the healthier options that our heritage foods once did.

Are there issues raised in conversations regarding the climate crisis that placemakers in Southeast Asia should keep in mind?

Large corporations and malls drive the embedded values and outcomes of high consumption, and the waste and energy costs it generates in our cities. Placemakers must consider providing opportunities for alternative narratives and behaviours to impact the climate crisis. Hugely important is refrigerant management, and in South East Asia this means air-conditioning.

Outdoor activities, walkable cities, and green spaces become important solutions, as do alternatives based on experiences to replace lifestyles based on product consumerism.

Chris Parry is one of the speakers at the inaugural Placemaker Week ASEAN, 4–8 Nov 2019.

PLACEMAKER WEEK ASEAN SERIES: Chris Parry on environment, cultivation and consumption

Bingkisan Edible Park

Johor Green hosts annual garden party for enthusiasts

Johor Green founder Chris Parry (third from left) with guests from the Singapore Consul Office JB, admiring plants in the Tropical Cottage Garden. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Peggy Loh, May 29, 2015. 

Johor Green, a group of people in Johor Baru who aims to inform, inspire, influence, encourage and connect with the community towards a greener Johor, recently held their annual Garden Party. Guests at the party themed “It’s Time” exchanged views and ideas of garden design elements and precise plant choices.

Embracing the Garden Way of Sustainable Living - New Straits Times

The garden's enduring role as a source of food, medicine, sanctuary and inspiration was celebrated in Johor Green's annual garden party recently. Johor Green, a social enterprise with a concern for green issues, continues to inform, inspire, connect and encourage more people to take a social path to a greener Johor.

Johor Green Continues the Effort - The Iskandarian

From The Iskandarian Issue #22

Reliving Johor's Green heritage - New Straits Times

BOUNTIFUL NATURE: Students cultivate a relationship with the environment by getting to know local trees, plants, fruits and flowers by name

JOHORE BAHRU: JOHOR Green, a social enterprise with a concern for green issues in the state, recently engaged a group of 30 students from Sri Ara Private School  about our landscape.

Facilitator Chris Parry, who is Johor Green founder, said that our landscape defines our identity and challenged the students to think about Johor's green heritage.

Foreign students including Japanese, Australian, Indian, Pakistani and Malaysians gave interesting responses which are indicative of how urbanisation and modern consumerism has changed our perception of the landscape in our neighbourhood.

While the delicate rose is the pride of England, the Japanese treasure their cherry blossoms and even have festivals to celebrate them. When we think of the landscape in the Wild Wild West, thoughts of the desert, cactus and tumbleweed come to mind.

Cowboys are so inspired by their landscape that they composed songs about lonesome pines and the prairies.

Very often we are better acquainted with flora and fauna that we see in movies and hear from songs rather than those at our very doorstep.

In fact, many of our local plant species have been overshadowed by the more showy South American species like heliconias and bougainvillea.

Is it then not surprising to discover that our national flower, the hibiscus or bunga raya, is not native to Malaysia?

Parry, a former New York-based graphic artist, is a textile designer with a passion for botany and gardening.

Having lived abroad for many years, he has a special affinity for local flora and encouraged the students to cultivate a relationship with the environment by getting to know local trees, plants, fruits and flowers by name.

By illustrating that we respond more spontaneously to helping people we know by name rather than to strangers, he hoped that the students will get better acquainted with local botanical treasures and value our environment for future generations.

To create an awareness of the wealth of our green heritage, the students were introduced to a range of local plants, many of which are usually ignored on roadsides or uninvited into our gardens.

As Parry discussed with the students, a variety of twigs with leaves and flowers were passed around for the students to touch and smell.

He encouraged them to learn their common and scientific names, where they commonly grow, how they can be an inspiration for art and their cultural and heritage importance in our community.

A recent Johor Green initiative called Our Green Heritage is portrayed in original artworks that feature familiar Malaysian flora for sale as posters, notebooks and cards.

Some of these materials were used to interest the students in the local landscape and to show them how ordinary flora can inspire the composition and creation of stunning artwork.

"We plan to organise talks in local schools and promote the idea of knowing the names of our Malaysian flora, recognise the beauty and breath of our botanic diversity and also our rich history of local ethnobotanic traditions that use plants to make everything from food colouring to furniture," said Parry.

"We hope to spark an interest among the youth and let them be curious to find out more for themselves," he added.

When Parry demonstrated how blades of common lalang (Imperata cylindrica) can be turned into shooting arrows, the boys in particular, were fascinated at how this grass can also become a toy.

Lalang also provides important building material for birds like the Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) that weave the long blades to make their hanging homes while the Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectrinia jugularis) uses the white, long, fine hairs of the lalang fruits to line their nests.

The discussion on ethnobotany or the understanding of what people do with plants in the cultural and traditional context held their rapt attention as students discovered how plants, leaves and flowers are also used in local recipes.

For instance, the vivid deep blue colour of the Blue Pea Flower (Clitoria ternatea) is used as a food dye in popular Peranakan food like nyonya kueh and nasi kerabu in Kelantan Malay food.

They also found out that kaffir lime or limau purut leaves are just as essential an ingredient in tom yam soup as slices of torch ginger flower or bunga kantan are in assam laksa.

There was also a question and answer session and finally, the students gave their views about what they learnt. It was interesting that the students could name at least one thing each because this shows that Johor Green has planted a seed of interest that would be nurtured in the youths as they begin to relate to the local landscape.

Johor Green aims to inform, inspire, connect and encourage people to take a social path to a greener Johor.

For more details on Johor Green and future events, visit www.johorgreen.com.

By Peggy Loh, in the New Straits Times: Reliving Johor's green heritage

Garden Party by Johor Green - The Iskandarian

Johor Green's Garden Party has a mention in this month's The Iskandarian

Towards a Greener Johor - New Straits Times

SHARING IDEAS: Johor Green aims to inform, inspire and encourage more people to join them in creating sustainable gardens

  THEY may have different interests and come from various backgrounds but a group of individuals in Johor Baru share a common concern for green issues.

    Aware that rampant consumerism is leading to unhealthy lifestyles that compromise our planet, they want to do something about it.  At a garden party organised by Johor Green, they learnt  about reviving the lost art of gardening, self-provisioning and techniques to create a sustainable garden.

  Johor Green is a group which feels strongly that there are many in the state who share their concern and aims to inform, inspire, connect with and encourage more like-minded people to join them on this path to a greener Johor.

  Last Saturday afternoon they hosted a garden party to celebrate the garden's enduring role as a source of food, medicines, sanctuary and inspiration.

  Guests enjoyed refreshments, not just in the garden but from the garden, learnt new technologies and were reminded of proven ideas that were respectful of the environment.

  In the garden aesthetics segment, Chris Parry discussed garden design, colour palette ideas, xeriscaping and therapeutic landscapes that are created with indigenous plants.

  A graphic artist and textile designer with a passion for gardening, Parry writes a gardening blog called The Occasional Gardener.  He presented various gardening ideas, including a vertical dark garden (with a dark colour scheme) created with  branches from a fallen tree and a range of native plants, creepers and lichens.

  He  introduced the art of xeriscaping through a gravel garden that was created mainly with succulents or drought-tolerant plants like cacti.

  Xeriscaping, which  is of particular relevance to arid regions, is a form of landscaping that suits  our changing weather patterns because it reduces the need for supplemental  water from irrigation.  He said many of our hardy tropical and exotic plants are suitable for the creation of pretty Mediterranean gardens.

  "I learnt many things, especially about creating the Mediterranean garden," said Cheong Nai Cheong of CNC Architect, one of the guests at the party.

  Renowned for embracing Nature in his eco-friendly and sensible tropical designs, he agreed that more people now relish living closer  to Nature.  He is glad that Johor Green is creating more interest in sustainability and reducing energy costs through tropical garden designs.

  Alex Kee discussed composting  techniques  and the finer points of organic gardening and commented with a laugh: "Composting is not rocket science!"

  He assured guests that it was easy and taught them basics such as  ingredients and quantities and what materials we should or should not compost and recycle for use in the garden.

  Those who did not have  space for composting found the recycled chemical drum fitted with a tubular contraption that Kee designed to turn and aerate the materials regularly,  useful and quizzed him about acquiring one of their own.

  "I bought it off him," exclaimed Suzie Yap, who has a similar drum at home and only needed this contraption to help start her own compost pile.

  "My mother-in-law loves gardening," she added, as she introduced her mother-in-law and a helper.

  She quickly explained to her helper about how they should start putting small quantities of organic materials such as  food scraps and garden trimmings into the drum to make compost.

 Belinda and her husband, Ronnie Lim, who were also paying rapt attention to Kee, said they had picked up   useful tips and were  determined to apply what they had learnt.

  Kee, inventor of  the award-winning solar kettle-thermos flask  and solar vacuum tube oven, also demonstrated how his inventions could provide safe, solar-pasteurised drinking water in a sustainable and renewable way, and cooked fresh cencaru fish coated with sambal to serve  with the refreshments.

  He said the oven could double up as a tandoor oven for baking naan and pizza because it could maintain a constant temperature of 220oC.

  Refreshments from the garden included  ingredients that can  be sustainably grown in our  gardens.  There was a delicious luo han guo drink with aloe vera bits, prepared by Koh Jit Huat, that tasted refreshing with a dash of roselle syrup and ice-cubes.

  Freshly baked ciabatta bread and cookies by Lisa Shedd were spread with Nyonya kaya made of three types of eggs -- chicken, duck and goose -- by Stephanie Fam and local calamansi lime and kaffir lime marmalade prepared by Flora John.

  Guests also enjoyed crunching into celery sticks and chips dipped in a tasty hummus dip made by Sue Amy.  Two more delicious dips by Shedd were made with eggplant and papaya from her own garden.

  Local cakes like bingka ubi (tapioca cake) and steamed pumpkin cake, snacks of deep-fried spinach and pegaga leaves and green bean rempeyek completed the menu of interesting quality homemade food from small cottage enterprises.

  For details on Johor Green and future events, visit www.JohorGreen.com.

By Peggy Loh from the New Straits Times: Towards a greener Johor