Explicit knowledge about food gardening

Knowledge about food gardening is often tacit and experiential, learned through observing others. However, as described in this section, explicit knowledge about food gardening can also be learned through formal educational processes. Meetings and workshops appeared to be the way that explicit knowledge about food gardening was shared in Bushula’s J.S.S. It is very difficult to formally teach a person how to do gardening but the garden committee members gained a lot of useful knowledge through workshops.

During an observation I had with the garden committee members, the committee was having a meeting about the extension of the school food garden. The committee wanted to extend the garden because the number of learners had increased, which meant they required more produce. During the meeting, one of the garden committee members shared with the rest of the School Nutrition Programme members that “crop rotation is a benefit to the soil and it also improves production”. This can be referred to as explicit knowledge because it was shared in a formal situation during a meeting.

The garden committee shared a lot of information amongst themselves about crop rotation and what to use to kill garden pests (Obs.03.01.15 and Obs.04.01.11&12). For

73

example, when one of the garden committee members proposed extending the school food garden, a parent added that “this will also help us practice crop rotation for the benefit of the soil and high production” (Obs.04. 01.11). The food garden at my school was also endangered by insects and the garden committee needed to come up with solutions to the problem, as the plants were dying. One of the garden committee members suggested that they must request the school principal to purchase an insecticide; others suggested a pesticide by the name Blue Death Insect Killer Powder but another educator suggested that they must look for an insecticide which would not be harmful to plants and the soil (Int. 04.01.16). Using insecticides and pesticides on plants could have both negative and positive consequences. The positive being that the insects would be prevented from eating the plants and causing them to rot. The negative being that some insecticides are not good for the environment because of harmful chemicals they contain. This happens when pesticides suspended in the air as particles are carried by the wind to other areas, which can also pose a threat to wildlife. Pesticide exposure is associated with long term health problems such as respiratory problems, memory disorders and depression.

The school manager emphasised that the learners needed to go home and share “what” they were taught at school. He even added that he himself had never had a garden of his own, but after the implementation of the programme he started his own garden (Int.02.03.08 and Int.02.03.16). Many community members also decided that they should start their own vegetable gardens after observing what changes the vegetable gardens at school were bringing about (Int.01.02.02).

The food garden at my school is vulnerable to insects and the garden committee needed to come up with solutions to the problem as the plants were dying. One of the garden committee members suggested that they must request the school principal to purchase an insecticide; some suggested Blue Death Insect Killer Powder but an educator suggested that they must look for an insecticide which will not be harmful to plants and the soil (Int. 04.01.16). In another observation, one of the parents who volunteers in the garden noticed a cut-worm which damages cabbage seedlings. One of the members suggested the use of the insecticide called ‘Blue Death Insect Killer Powder but an educator motivated instead for “a very strong insecticide which is called ‘Karate’. They all agreed

74

to use Karate as it would not be harmful to plants and would not be expensive (Obs.04.01.11).

Although this incident is an example of the sharing of explicit knowledge about food gardening, it also reflects its limitations; the parents and teachers were knowledgeable about the availability of products and their effectiveness, but they seemed not to have more in-depth, scientific knowledge of the socio-ecological risks associated with these chemical compounds. Links between the use of agricultural pesticides and negative environmental and human health effects has been widely researched and documented. For instance, Heeren, Tyler and Mandeya (2003), reported that in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, “women exposed to chemicals such as pesticides, ‘Blue Death’, and organophosphate were more than six times as likely to have babies born with birth defects as were those exposed to no chemicals”. Quinn et al (2011) summarised various South African scientific studies to report that, “pesticides have been detected in wild bird species as well as in indigenous fish species, indicating pesticide contamination within various habitats. This is a particular concern due to the health risks associated with many pesticides”. Similar to ‘Blue Death’, the insecticide ‘Karate’ (a parathyroid insecticide), is also associated with human and ecological risks. ‘Karate’ is toxic to fish, other aquatic organisms and wildlife. It is highly toxic to bees, which play a vital role as pollinators of food crops and other plant species. Oti and Nwani (2007) concluded their study on the effects of ‘karate’ on young freshwater fish by advising users “to be cautious on the use … of this insecticide as its misuse may affect the hydrodynamics and stability of ambient water quality and the aquatic life therein”. The apparent lack of access to this kind of knowledge about pesticide use is of relevance to the third area of explicit knowledge which I review in this section: explicit knowledge about social-ecological relationships.