"Peace from Food" from the tables of ARI’s graduates Vol. 4

“Peace from Food” from the tables of ARI’s graduates Vol. 4

Return of the Forest

When Veny and Kengo’s time at ARI came to an end in 2012, they had no plans to make a food forest in the tropics of North Sumatra, Indonesia—Veny’s hometown. Both of them are ARI graduates (2005 and 2012), having met when Veny was a training assistant in 2012. Kengo, originally from Japan, had never been to Indonesia before, and the term ‘food forest’ was likewise new to both of them. At ARI, Kengo learned the basics of organic farming and was especially attracted to permaculture, with its principles of a keeping a healthy ecosystem, and farming without destroying nature. However, applying this knowledge in a new country and climate he was unfamiliar with posed a huge challenge. Kengo and Veny married in Japan, soon after ARI training, and then settled in Indonesia. It was there they began to learn more intensely about the concept of a food forest.

In 2015, Veny and Kengo bought their first bit of land, but they didn’t start the food forest at that time. Instead, they planned to grow coffee, in order to make a living. They used what they learned at ARI by planting nitrogen fixing trees to make their soil more hospitable. One year later, Kengo felt there was something wrong with his post-ARI plan. He looked out over his land and saw only coffee beans, nothing else. The image of having only one crop made him realize that he needed to expand the farm—this is where the story of their food forest truly begins.

What started as a personal project just to survive is now over halfway complete—Veny and Kengo are over 50% self-sufficient. They never buy their vegetables from the market. Instead, they harvest what they need from their forest and sell the rest. They grow all kinds of fruits too—guava, jackfruit, avocado, mulberry and many more. Even though the forest has been growing for 10 years, not everything has matured yet, and Veny and Kengo remind us that a project like this takes time and a tremendous amount of patience.

Now, after more than ten years of developing their food forest, they are proud to be able to show off their hard work to the community. Their neighbors grow their own rice and some vegetables, but their fields are not self-sustaining. They still need to go to the market for basic food staples. Veny and Kengo encourage others to become self-sustaining by giving tours of their own food forest. Last year, they received a grant from AFARI, allowing them to invite 50 local farmers in North Sumatra to visit their food forest and teach them how to begin their own projects. Now they are not the only ones in their community growing a food forest—many of these farmers have since embarked on their own journey of becoming self-sufficient.

The advice they give to others is simple but powerful: be patient. Results take time, and people may doubt you at first. But stay hopeful. When asked about their interpretation of the theme of Peace from Food, Kengo insisted that the peace reflected in this phrase begins with one’s own respect for earth’s resources, and that with a “peaceful relationship with nature, we can start to build a system for long-lasting abundance.” Veny was quick to add her own two cents, that this theme is personal to her. By harvesting fruits and vegetables that she grew herself, and then preparing them for the table, she finds a sense of care and connection rooted in nourishing others. She “finds something peaceful in [her] heart.”