Reflection

LO1: My own strengths and skills that I can contribute to this service is the level of interest and experience I have in gardening and my ability to apply the sustainability compass to it. This year, I have developed a substantial amount of interest in agriculture and sustainability. Due to this, I believe that I can bring new aspects of urban gardening into the service such as permaculture, which is currently being heavily discussed.

Although I may not have the best communication skills, I will be signing up for the role for communication where I can post things on the Urban Gardening website to share what we do and how we contribute to the school and community. 

LO6: Over the decades, we have seen the consequences of agriculture and its impact on the environment. There are numerous evidence supporting that agriculture have contributed to global warming, deforestation, pollution, soil degradation and waste. Not only those, but individuals in society have lost their appreciation for food due to urbanisation (as they are unable to see the food being grown, harvested and processed, and understand the effort that goes into producing food) which has lead to massive amounts of food waste. 

This issue has been ongoing for a problematic amount of time, thus I feel that we urgently need to come up with solutions that address the unsustainable agricultural practices. One solution could be the use of permaculture (organic, not using fertilisers and pesticides) and installing small scaled food forests in every community. Although it may not sound realistic, it will help decrease carbon footprint as the harvested foods do not have to be carried far to reach the local market. It will also solve the issue of soil degradation and loss of habitats as the plants will not have to be fertilised like how many of the modern day agricultural practices do.

Permaculture will solve many of our environmental issues we hold today and I believe that in my service, Urban Gardening, I can do my part by raising awareness of how unsustainable many agricultural practices actually are, educating others on solutions and small things we can do such as buying locally sourced foods, as well as promoting self sufficiency by selling low maintenance foods such as herbs during school events.