The Edible Forest

Food production of the future: reforesting the amazon rain forest while providing healthy vegan food in a self-sustainable system.

The Problem

The Edible Forest is to be seen as a whole package. It does not only deal with one single problem, but covers a huge range of different problems respective to different areas. The following list shows an overview of how huge the range is.

Environmental issues:

Climate change (the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are continuously increasing)
Destruction of the tropical rain forest (88.000 hectares are being destroyed every single day)
The increase of mono culture crops (mono cultures destroy biodiversity, contribute to the increase of plagues and viruses and leave infertile soils behind)

Social injustice issues:

The low wages for producers (small farmers in Peru have no chance against big companies to whom they sell their produce)
The chasm between rich and poor (almost everything growing in Peru is exported to the western world)

Health issues:

A trend of the Peruvian diet towards the western diet (western diets are high in sugar and saturated fats)
The fact that healthy foods are often not available or too expensive (fast food and junk food become more frequent in Peru)

Of course, our project cannot solve all problems mentioned above at once, but it does contribute to the solution of every single one and addresses even other topics as for example animal welfare.

The Solution

The Edible Forest is a combination of reforestation and food production. Our organization owns 30 hectares of farm land in the amazon region of Peru. On this land we are creating a permaculture garden that provides us with the crops we need to produce healthy, vegan food.

To bring the forest into being we need to plant long living trees. This contributes to the decrease of the negative outcome of climate change and restores parts of the rain forest. The plant species are carefully chosen therefore interconnected and support each other by exchanging nutrients. This is opposite to mono culture practices.

With The Edible Forest we establish an example for local farmers to learn from. A permaculture forest offers the advantage of being self-supportive. Small farmers who adapt to our concept do no longer fear losing their existence if they do not sell their crops, because the forest provides them with a variety of foods meaning they have at least enough food to take care for themselves. If they contribute to our food production or create their own products they could even receive a greater income.

Our production opens a market of cheap and healthy vegan food. This is a counter movement to the increasing consumption of animal products in Peru. Due to the fact that we ourselves grow most of the raw materials needed for the production, we can sell the products for fair prices, so that people from every social status can afford them.