Dubai resident vows to eat only local for next 365 days

Dubai resident vows to eat only local for next 365 days

Years ago, landscape architect Phil Dunn was involved in the design and construction of The Sustainable City in Dubai. Even back then, the Canadian expat intended for the landscape to have productive, not just aesthetic, value. Now, he's putting it all to the test with a vow to sustain himself exclusively on food produced by his local community for the next 365 days.

The Sustainable Human Project — conceived during the lockdown when food security issues were at the fore of public conversation — will see Phil growing his own fruits and vegetables in community garden plots. “Currently, I've got eggplants, moringa, sweet potato leaves, garlic, lettuce, and chillies,” says Phil. “It's going to be a mainly vegetarian diet, but once a week, I'll do a little fishing in the aquaponic tank we have here for some fish too.”

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Eggs from free-range chickens will provide him with additional protein intake, while the rest of what's missing from his food basket will be obtained by bartering with fellow residents: grains, rice, proteins and oil in exchange for urban farming tools that Phil will repurpose from construction scrap wood. It's a circular