Jordan: A Jordanian Collective Works Toward Food Sovereignty Through Urban Farming
By connecting small-scale local farmers directly with bakeries and restaurants, Al Barakeh is transforming the city’s economic model.
By Shefa’a Qudah
Next City
Oct 11, 2022
Excerpt:
A collective of urban families in the Jordanian capital, Amman, are reclaiming their food sovereignty by cultivating native wheat varieties in empty urban plots.
At a time when the world is suffering from a food crisis caused by climate change and exacerbated by the Russian-Ukrainian war, this initiative aims to reduce Jordan’s import dependency for 97% of its food grains.
Founded in 2019 by Jordanians Lama Khatieb and Rabee Zureikat, the collective Zikra for Popular Learning and its Al Barakeh Wheat Project, have been working to put wheat back in the foreground of the local economy by rebuilding a sustainable relationship between land and society.
“A friend of mine once said, ‘For us as communities, if we stop growing grains, we will disintegrate,’” Khatieb says. The project, she explains, “aspires to bring local wheat to the fore, as food & economy, and restoring the ‘bakareh’” – Arabic for ‘blessing’ – “as a compass for thinking, building and working, to liberate food and rebuild the relationship with the land and society.”
The project allows veteran wheat growers to share their knowledge with local families, teaching them how to plant, harvest and make their own bread, reviving a rich tradition of communal farming. Since its launch, membership has grown to 165 families and 3 schools, cultivating over 70 dunams (17.3 acres) around the capital.
