Attitudes to Food Gardening from a Generational Perspective

Abstract

The paper sheds light on why older gardeners want to grow their own food and younger people do not. Only since the coming of democracy in 1994 has the potential of food gardens attracted the attention of South African development practitioners and policy makers. Sustainable food garden projects build on a culture of gardening that has its roots in rural subsistence farming. While food gardens were commonly regarded as a tool for rural development, rapid migration to the cities has introduced urban cultivation as a strategy to provide food and income security for the urban poor. This case study reports in-depth discussions with twenty active older gardeners in a small town in the predominantly rural Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The highly motivated gardeners cited reasons for growing food that went beyond basic needs for food security and livelihoods and included aesthetics, morality, and health and well-being. However, they attributed mainly negative attitudes to the younger generation that aspires to a modern lifestyle which excludes food gardening. Follow-up group interviews with young people confirmed these attributions. The discussion focuses on intergenerational transmission of values and its implications for sustainable community development.