Backyard agriculture

Grow your own

When was the last time you pulled up something out of the ground — and ate it? I’ve got a row of herb plants on my kitchen windowsill that I regularly use to add flavour to my home cooking, but that’s about it. As I don’t have “green fingers”, they don’t even grow too well. So, I’m fortunate that I don’t have to grow my own food. But with food prices increasing at the rate they are, many people in poorer areas of the world are having to plant their own food. They’re joining the global trend for “backyard agriculture”.

In Mexico, for example, in the past six months alone, food prices have increased by 8 per cent. But what has Mexico got to do with business English? In our exercise, we look at how the Mexican government is working on a new project that promises a solution to the high cost of food. The vocabulary we focus on could be used to talk about any project that is trying to deal with the problem of rising prices. The story also made me appreciate just how lucky I am not to have to grow my own food — especially with my fingers.

Deborah Capras