Indonesia's real-life Farmville
Rising food prices are galvanizing Jakarta's urban farming movement.
By Sara Schonhardt, Correspondent / April 22, 2011
Jakarta, Indonesia
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Jakarta’s urban gardening scene got started with a simple tweet: “Who wants to start urban farming?” After that first Twitter message in November 2010, the group known as Jakarta Berkebun secured a plot in the city’s north and harvested a crop of morning glories (a common ingredient in many dishes here).
Jakarta lacks green space, but unused land abounds. Jakarta Berkebun aims to transform empty lots that often fill with rubbish into training grounds for urban youths to learn about growing food. For Milly Ratudian, an architect who leads the group, urban farming is a a response to skyrocketing food prices despite the nation’s abundant fertile crop land.
