E-Booklet

WILD CACTUS KULNA Community Garden

KULNA Community Garden

Permaculture Community Garden

Zero Waste

Sustainable Compost used for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers

Kulna Story

“All of Us” at Zayed University

I Grow Seeds Campaign

Engaging the Society and Community

Food Security Issues What is wrong?

What percent of the food we eat is imported into the UAE? Turns out about 80%, so yeah, a lot!

While imported foods make the long journey from their home to ours, what is done to make them last longer and stay fresh? Are these processes healthy for us? Do they make food more expensive or even unaffordable to some? Why can we not grow food locally?

Why the Food Revolution for Social Change at Zayed University?

Long-term food security has been a key strategic goal for the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which ranks 21 on the Global Food Security Index (The Economist Group, 2019).

The country is vulnerable to food shortages, price volatility, and supply restrictions, producing very little of what is consumed by its population and wasting 197 kg of food each year. Its arid landscapes, water scarcity, and extreme temperatures represent an urgent need to create a resilient ecosystem that sustains local agricultural production in the long run. To alleviate this pressing issue, the government has devised a National Food Security Strategy to “develop a comprehensive national system based on enabling sustainable food production, enhancing local production, activating legislation and policies that contribute to improving nutrition and reducing waste.�

Project Drawdown, Led by Paul Hawken, details 100 ways we can take greenhouse gasses (as carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents) out of the atmosphere. The solutions have potential to either reduce emissions or sequester 1,052.04 gigatons (gigaton = 1 billion metric tons) of CO2 equivalents between 2020 and 2015. Drawdown is the point where globally we start to reduce atmospheric CO2.

The project groups 80 solutionss into 7 clusters, and the cluster that can generate the highest reduction – 31%, is food.

Between 2020 and 2050, food initiatives that are already underway can reduce CO2 by 321.9 gigatonnes.

Paul Hawken writes: If we change the preposition, and consider that global warming is happening for us – an atmospheric transformation that inspires us to change and reimagine everything we make and do – we begin to live in a different world. We take 100 percent responsibility and stop blaming others. We see global warming not as an inevitability but as an invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius. This is not a liberal agenda, nor is it a conservative one. This is a human agenda.

Permaculture Community Gar The KULNA Community Garden was first conceived at the Design Thinking Workshop during the ZU Innovation Week 2016, where students voiced a strong interest in sustainability and food education.

“the approach of the KULNA community was based on a collective, inclusive, “bottom-down meeting top-up” process called codesign (cooperative, collective, community-based).”

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KULNA means “All of Us” in Arabic.

About KULNA It was then launched under the CFRSC research cluster, with the goal of developing a small-scale local food system to instigate a “food revolution”. The food revolution was framed as a collective movement to bring awareness to the urgency of making food systemic changes in the ZU community and beyond. This is supported by the work of the ZU faculty on the ME=WE framework, which has engaged the ZU students in team-building and personal development projects to connect individuals within teams, and these teams with their surroundings, to spark long-lasting attitudinal and behavioral changes in the community as a whole. Hence, the approach of the KULNA community was based on a collective, inclusive, “bottom-down meeting top-up” process called codesign (cooperative, collective, community-based).

The cluster proposes a food system built on the framework of codesign, which includes a variety of actors in terms of experience, roles, and expertise, using sustainable practices to minimize waste in the system and maximize well-being of the community members. Via codesign, all actors in the community were encouraged to actively engage in the design process of the garden, which enabled them to envision a food system that was structured to meet their needs. The participants were encouraged to participate in their activities in the garden and in classes and invited to plan further actions to expand the capacity of the movement, through which they observed how their knowledge and skills evolved through their involvement in KULNA.

Applying Permaculture Principles for Sustainable Gardening Practices.

The garden demonstrates multiple conceptual technical solutions that are aligned with permaculture design principles centered around water and energy efficiency. These include water systems, companion planting, seed harvesting, wicking beds, vermicomposting, recycling, and reusing materials.

The garden has a variety of edible produce, including vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and small fruit and nut-bearing trees. All plants attract beneficial wildlife and creatures, nitrogen fixers which produce mulch by chop and drop are used to improve the soil, and the garden is provided with windbreaks, canopy and shades. Wicking beds, ground beds, raised beds, and vertical growing were incorporated, along with drip irrigation and capturing/storing rainwater runoff where possible in infiltration channels running alongside the road. Biomass accumulation, living soils, nutrient recycling, mulching, green manure and no-till techniques were applied. All garden waste is converted to compost, which is used as a soil amendment and fertilizer.

“All plants attract beneficial wildlife and creatures, nitrogen fixers which produce mulch by chop and drop are used to improve the soil, and the garden is provided with windbreaks, canopy and shades.�

Zero Waste

Sustainable compost used for growing.

The garden demonstrates multiple conceptual technical solutions that are aligned with permaculture design principles centered around water and energy efficiency. These include water systems, companion planting, seed harvesting, wicking beds, vermicomposting, recycling, and reusing materials. The garden has a variety of edible produce, including vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and small fruit and nut-bearing trees.

All plants attract beneficial wildlife and creatures, nitrogen fixers which produce mulch by chop and drop are used to improve the soil, and the garden is provided with windbreaks, canopy and shades. Wicking beds, ground beds, raised beds, and vertical growing were incorporated, along with drip irrigation and capturing/storing rainwater runoff where possible in infiltration channels running alongside the road. Biomass accumulation, living soils, nutrient recycling, mulching, green manure and no-till techniques were applied. All garden waste is converted to compost, which is used as a soil amendment and fertilizer.

We transform waste into sustainable compost used for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, and use sustainable water consumption practices to conserve water. We also use organic seeds and are experimenting with wicking bed technology to stimulate underground water sources. We feed our plants from both root and surface allowing the plants and food we grow, to retain nutrient rich medicinal properties.

“We transform waste into sustainable compost used for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, and use sustainable water consumption practices to conserve water. �

“The garden has a variety of edible produce, including vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and small fruit and nut-bearing trees. �

Research and Education Sustainability in the UAE The aim of the garden is to look into ways of achieving better food security and agricultural sustainability in the UAE, through being a successful sustainable research/teaching centre following permaculture ethics. The garden is designed to demonstrate sustainable practices and the potential they have as a powerful tool to generate social innovation and enterprise. Simultaneously building the resiliency of the land, along with its health, and the health of the creatures that live on it.

The KULNA garden is an active learning space for students to engage in hands-on, interactive skills-building. We offer educational activities to raise awareness about sustainable food systems and to promote healthier lifestyles. Workshops have included a wide range of topics such as composting and compost tea, sustainable urban farming, dry land farming and permaculture, seed-to-table food systems, healthy eating and food consumption.

Students from the biology course take soil samples to analyze for microorganisms, bacteria and fungi around the roots of legumes growing in the wicking beds.

“The KULNA garden is an active learning space for students to engage in hands-on, interactive skills-building.�

Seed Starter Kit Prototypes Kulna seeks to create an inviting and inspiring ‘Seed Starter Kit’ with seeds and soils produced in a small sanctuary, Kulna garden in Dubai campus. The garden has been growing since 2016 starting from innovation week bootcamp, ‘we are what we eat’ and now it has in total of 9 beds: wicking, raised and ground beds and 10 compost boxes. We had more than 20 activities to bring awareness and learn to co-design food system including lectures, workshops, communal lunches, and Thursday market.

There has been numerous course integration project working with various colleges at ZU to enhance students learning experience; compost making, seating design, pattern design, graffiti wall, campaign intervention, etc. Kulna is a community garden as part of the ZU Research Cluster project aiming to co-design sustainable food system at the campus. We work with a transdisciplinary team collaborating with students, staff, faculty and community members. We strive to promote inclusivity, zero waste and well being. Kulna team is super excited to work with creative design students from both packaging courses Fall 2019. We would like to invite you to take ownership of creating something bigger than a package design. This is a movement that we would like to co-create by creating a seed-starter package which will initiate small changes in community at ZU and beyond.

KULNA Story Who says good girls don’t get their hands dirty Written by Almanar Albastaki Edited by Vijaya Chikamane

A common stereotype many of our female students have had to overcome is that “girls don’t like to get their hands dirty, or work outdoors with the soil.” This story follows the experiences of Kulna’s student leader Almanar. Almanar’s journey has taken her from a rather quiet student who found a special place in the garden to a strong advocate for sustainable gardening practices, environmentalism, a graduate of an international permaculture design course, student club President and driver of social change.

When she first began working with Kulna Almanar recalls the reactions she would get from peers and staff, many who believed that outdoor gardening was not ‘girl’s work.’

But for Almanar, working with Kulna has been hard, authentic, collaborative and meaningful and filled with self-discovery and community building, you know, ‘girl’s work’.

“working with Kulna has been hard, authentic, collaborative and meaningful and filled with self-discovery and community building, you know, ‘girl’s work’.”

“Almanar’s journey has taken her from a rather quiet student who found a special place in the garden to a strong advocate for sustainable gardening practices�

I Grow Seeds Campaign “Student-led initiative” ‘I Grow Seeds Campaign’

is a student-led initiative of Food Revolution for Social Change research cluster at Zayed University in collaboration with Kulna Community connecting art, design, science, education, and sustainability by inviting our communities to pledge, plant, and grow seeds. The food system challenges can’t be solved by a few groups of people. It calls ‘All Of Us’! Our aim is to raise awareness of food issues, bringing positive and sustainable social change through collective actions.

It’s an interaction and exhibition, where graphic and interior design, multi media, visual art students will be presenting their projects encouraging the growing of seeds, and creating promises for a greener future promoting sustainability and social action.

“Our aim is to raise awareness of food issues, bringing positive and sustainable social change through collective actions.�

“ALL OF US” Through our journey we have engaged students, garden and farm enthusiasts, foodies, researchers and people from diverse walks of life. What’s shocking is how little people know about our food system, methods of production and distribution overall, but what’s endearing is how much we learn together. We have learned about compost, about wicking bed technology and some of us even touched soil with our hands and planted seeds for the very first time!

“some of us even touched soil with our hands and planted seeds for the very first time!�