Below is the full length version of the article written by Joan Bailey and published in JapanToday.com
Seven years ago, Jon Walsh watched as earthquakes shook his home country of New Zealand and then his current home in Japan. Like many, his mind turned to disaster-preparedness; however, his train of thought took a different track: food security. He planted a garden behind his house and found the 6 by 1-meter space producing more than his family could eat.
Inspired, Jon now teaches urban farming and sets up gardens around Tokyo. Japan Today talked with Jon to learn more about urban farming and what his vision is for the future of it in Tokyo and beyond.
How would you describe your work as an urban farmer? Most people think of that as someone who raises food for sale, but your work is a little bit different.
My overall objective is to make urban farming sexy – something that people don’t necessarily think they should do, but something they want to start because it is attractive and they understand the benefits of plugging into it. My underlying goal is to encourage the younger generation to get into urban farming because, let’s face it, they are the future.
In a nutshell, I focus on showing people how to grow healthy food – minus chemicals – in the city, and recycling where possible. I don’t just grow food; I provide urban farming training (Note: 20 lessons, specializing in balcony and vertical farming) for individuals, families, students, office staff and organization members, supported by consulting services and an expanding range of resources.
I back that up with a comprehensive sustainability outreach strategy involving lectures, workshops and seminars on urban farming and sustainability topics. Resources include articles (20 to date), how-to guides, lesson materials and self-learning packs I have created that help people learn and pass on key food growing skills.
My key strategy can be best summarized as ‘Go deep, go wide.’
‘Go deep’ means bringing about inter-generational change by equipping and exciting people to learn and pass on essential food growing skills to the next generation.
‘Go wide’ refers to teaching as many segments of society as possible: families, students, office staff, club members, and others.
What’s the hook? There are many, however, the main one is that learning how to grow urban food without chemicals can help people improve their health, maximize self-sufficiency, boost disaster preparedness, save money, help protect the environment and fight climate change – simultaneously.
That’s huge. Urban farming is a silver bullet.
Interestingly, while I have grown a huge amount of food, I have never sold any of it. I usually give away 25-50% of my harvest – It’s pretty amazing to be able to change from a consumer to a producer each year in a concrete metropolis like Tokyo.
There are a number of people who call themselves a sustainability consultant. Can you also tell me what that title means to you?
I consider myself one of a range of different types of sustainability consultants, specifically, one who is focused on utilizing urban farming and sustainability practices to help people live more sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyles. Everything I teach can be done at home relatively cheaply, which makes this particular brand of sustainability easy to launch and spread.
I am not preaching anything new; humans have been putting seeds in soil for millennia. Urban farming only seems new to many people – in particular the youngest two generations of expats in Tokyo – not because these food growing skills were ‘lost’ but because they largely were never taught them in the first place. This is a big deal because food means life, and taking control of our food supply allows us to take control of our health, which is generally worsening in many countries largely because so much of the food people now consume is produced in factories and laced with chemicals.
I see my specialist area – urban farming – as a highly crucial one in the overall picture of global sustainability in that, if done correctly (ie: with no chemicals) it only produces good: good food, strengthened, healthier communities, better personal and environmental health, and self-sufficiency.
And if there’s a large natural disaster, the food we grow at home could save our lives.
This is in contrast to, say, solar panels, for which there is a measurable carbon footprint involved in their production despite the overall benefits of building them.
What do you think is unique about doing this kind of work here versus another large metropolitan area?
I see few, if any differences between working in Tokyo and other large cities besides possibly language (for example if the other large metropolitan area was Paris.) That said, the key difference – and practical challenge – between farming in and outside cities is shade. The countryside typically doesn’t have major shade issues whereas in cities, walls, buildings and other structures can create significant shade-related challenges.
To the uninitiated, this may be a major problem, but it is also a challenge and presents fun opportunities, for example, “How can I turn this bare wall or rooftop into a farm?”
How are you preparing to expand your work overseas?
First of all, I am determining what works and is financially viable here in Tokyo. Up to now, I have found that to be teaching, consulting and installing gardens like the organic one my company recently installed at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo in March 2018 that has presented some new opportunities and tasty hotel-grown food for the chefs to work with. If I did decide to work or move overseas, I would aim to replicate what works in Tokyo and adapt it for the new city.
Where are you thinking of going?
I would love to run this type of business in my home city of Auckland. In many suburbs, almost every house has a lawn but not every house has a garden, which means every street, as well as offices, hotels, hospitals and shops with safe rooftops and surrounding spare space would be a massive opportunity to grow a business like this.
While my key objective in this scenario would be to teach people how to grow food for themselves, I would also – as I do here in Japan – encourage individuals, groups and businesses to grow food and donate a portion of it to food banks, charities and community support organizations.
Donating healthy food can be an impacting activity for a family or club, and a great marketing strategy for a business. Here in Tokyo, I have launched a food-focused initiative called ‘Grow For Good’. This is essentially about putting food on plates for people who need it, and has so far led to donations of fresh food and money to Second Harvest Japan food bank.
Sure, a small donation of food from one family isn’t going to go far, but it’s important to think big: such as if thousands of households, schools and businesses were growing and donating fresh, urban food that was being funneled to people in need.
How quickly could this eliminate food shortages in major cities? With a big enough buy-in to a strategy like Grow For Good, I estimate two growing seasons – that’s 12 months.
After the earthquakes struck in New Zealand and Japan, you were motivated by what you saw as a serious gap in disaster preparedness. How did you make the transition from disaster readiness to sustainability and climate change? Some people might see that as a pretty big leap.
It was easy and very natural as these three areas are intricately connected.
After the earthquakes, I was thinking about food and disaster preparedness. Not a single earthquake kit I checked contained or recommended including seeds. Considering that and in contrast to canned and packaged food which for many would be gone in a week, seeds can provide food for weeks, if not months. I found this a glaring omission.
So including seeds (and of course food growing equipment) as part of an earthquake kit was a natural fit. Seeds support sustainability, and if they are used to grow food locally without chemicals, they will also help fight pollution and climate change, largely by reducing carbon emissions.
Like so many things about gardening, it’s simple and very positive.
You are also in the process of growing your own business. You’ve been doing this for a little over seven years now. What advice would you offer entrepreneurs starting out?
Before attempting to teach, learn how to grow food, ideally in a range of different locations, containers and environments. This is critical.
Learn about gardening in your area – what food will grow, about insects and how to deal with them, local weather patterns and temperatures, etc.
Grow food where you are – Doing so will give you a clearer idea of what will and won’t work, and what will and won’t grow. It will give you extra credibility if you can then explain to clients that you will be able to grow vegetable X at their site because you’ve grown it at your site in the same city.
Get ready to make mistakes – Initially, growing food involves a lot of trial and error. You will quickly learn what methods do and don’t work, and where ideal places are to grow plants. Focus on repeating what works and tweaking what doesn’t.
Start – One of the keys to starting any new venture is simply to take the first step. If you have never grown anything before, just do it – sow some seeds or transplant a seedling.
Start small – with just one pot or planter box – and expand onward and upward from there.
You will make mistakes and have seeds not sprout and plants not grow but don’t let failure stop you from trying. With practice comes experience and with experience comes confidence. Take these events in your stride and aim to come back stronger and more confident next season.
3 Ps – Be Polite, Professional and Prompt with all clients.
To get exposure, I have found three effective ways:
1/ Consistently post information, tips and articles about urban farming and food in general on social media
2/ Host urban farming workshops, seminars and lectures – this is a great way for people to see that you know what you are talking about, and if you incorporate hands-on workshop elements you will underline your skills even further.
3/ Build – Get involved with others or launch your own garden building projects. There’s nothing like a new garden in town to catch the attention of people who may well be willing to help you out or to build more. This rooftop garden I helped build on the LOWP building in Ichigaya, Tokyo in 2017 has been reflective of this.
Beyond the above, I think the key to creating a fulfilling business in this field is to identify the areas that you enjoy working in and that earn money. For me, I have found that to be teaching (schools, clubs, businesses) and private consulting where I visit clients, show them what they can grow where, and provide requested training.
What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far in the process?
You don’t need a garden to grow food. You just need a sunlit space, a container, soil and seeds.
Growing food is about so much more than simply sowing seeds – it also benefits people’s health while having far wider ranging benefits beyond the home and workplace, including helping keep our food growing environment – and our planet – sustainable for all, which is absolutely critical if we are going to have a future.
It’s all good – I have never come across any other activity that is as positive as growing healthy food.
What effect do you think your work will or could have on farming as a livelihood in the city? That seems to me to be another possible outcome of your work.
I strongly hope my work inspires more people to consider and start growing their own urban food in ways that are profitable so that it is a viable livelihood. Space is of course a key factor here as it determines yield. I am hoping that, particularly here in Japan, the falling population will gradually free up more land in towns and cities that could be turned into community gardens, and coupled with some of the stunningly creative ideas for vertical and indoor farming out there, enable towns and cities to become more self-sustaining.
I think an ‘open source’ model would work, ie: where anyone can contribute to and learn about the food growing process, however, unlike the computing version, everyone would go home with free food.
Also, in reflection of the fact I offer urban farming training and services, I hope my work inspires creation of urban farming education centers based around city gardens where people can rent space to farm for themselves or visit and take part in urban farming lessons and take home resource packs that will enable them to grow food wherever they are.
Another potential effect I hope my work has is to inspire creation of “flash garden” teams, where in a similar way to how flash mobs create entertainment out of nowhere, “flash garden” teams comprised of 5-10-20 experienced urban farmers would be booked, turn up at an office, factory or house, and then – bam – a few hours later they would walk away after installing a fully functioning garden and training customers how to grow their own food sustainably and without chemicals.
Teams would leave behind gardening/urban farming information packs backed by a comprehensive online database of gardening ideas, food growing strategies and how-to guides.
Key objectives of this strategy would be to boost urban food production, reduce food transportation-related pollution, slash use of chemical fertilizers, and make every community, town and city as close to completely self-sufficient as possible in terms of vegetables, before similar strategies are implemented for other food sources.
You laid out some very big goals for 2018 in the Making a Difference article. Can you talk about those a little bit and how they are going?
From the outset, I envisaged my business would grow like my plants – organically. That is exactly what is happening. It is now self-fueling, which is hugely exciting. People are now telling others about and recommending me to others, I am attracting a growing following on social media, and being asked to run more seminars and workshops. I am very confident that by continuing on the same trajectory, my goals will be accomplished.
Which of your current projects are you most excited about or do you feel have the greatest potential for the future?
Hotel and office gardens. Landing the Grand Hyatt Tokyo organic garden project was a huge milestone, and thanks to a lot of preparation and attention to detail, has gone very smoothly so far.
As a first garden installation project, this has been a significant confidence booster for my business partner Grant Munro and I, and has triggered a lot of interest and more projects, including one in April where I set up a terrace garden at an international kindergarten in Tokyo.
Office gardens have a different dynamic and present a unique challenge. On large office buildings, my plan this year is to encourage and show office staff in the building how to set up garden plots on the rooftop. Over time, each interested company in the building would have their own corporate garden in a different area on the roof where their staff would visit during lunch breaks and after work and tend and grow food.
Friday nights would never be the same as what was originally a vacant space would have been transformed into a fragrant, colorful rooftop garden where staff from different offices would swap gardening tips and tools, share food and build bonds while taking in the sunset.
Throw in a live band and the garden manager could probably sell tickets, and at the end of the evening, workers would go home with food they themselves had grown, solid evidence of the success of a true urban farming project.
What is the biggest challenge you face in your work as a farmer and sustainability consultant?
I haven’t identified any competitors in the English-speaking market in the Tokyo area, or even within Japan, so competition certainly doesn’t appear to be a challenge.
Everything is on a roll at the moment – there’s new projects, requests and opportunities sprouting up almost every week. I think my biggest challenge in the short-term, especially in terms of expansion, is simply keeping up and finding people who want to do what I do and either work with me or plant businesses elsewhere. The ideal type of person would be an experienced urban farmer/hobby gardener who has time and a real passion to use seeds to change the world.
What is your vision for the future? What big picture are you trying to paint or what change are you hoping to start with this work?
As mentioned earlier, my objective is to make urban farming sexy. That may sound simplistic, but everything will fall into place when that occurs
I want to see fresh, free, healthy food growing on every street that anyone walking by can pick, schools teaching comprehensive food growing programs, and companies receiving subsidies and tax deductions if they run their staff through urban farming programs.
The bottom line is our food should be nurturing, strengthening and healing us, not causing sickness, disease and death – as it now often does. There is obviously something very wrong with the modern food production system, however, luckily the solution can be started right at home, and the answer is right in front of us – and has been since humankind began growing food: eat real food.
Don’t have time? Once a home or apartment garden is set up, maintaining it will take a surprisingly small amount of time.
Don’t have space? Find someone who does and work with them.
I would like more people to realize that growing our own food is one of the most positive and impacting things we can do to improve our world, and it starts with the food we decide to put on our plates.
We need to go back to basics. Nature doesn’t make things in factories. In terms of growing healthy food and desiring optimum health, neither should we.
Every step in the process of sharing the importance of producing and sharing real food is important, because small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Making Every City Sustainable – A vision of how to create more sustainable families, communities and cities.
Jon Walsh Bio:
Jon Walsh has 7 years’ experience as a Tokyo-based urban farming/sustainability consultant and instructor. He has taught key food production skills to over 500 people, lectures, runs workshops, builds hotel and urban gardens, manages a community garden plot in Tokyo, and teaches urban farming privately and at schools and Tokyo American Club (info).
Contact Jon:
E-mail: info@businessgrow.net
URL: www.businessgrow.net
Sustainability In The City 