Jake Meyers’ video followed an urban farmer in Nairobi, Kenya

UArizona Graduate Student Wins National Storytelling Competition

By Mikayla Mace
Arizona University Communications
April 9, 2020

Excerpt:

Meyers’ video, “Can urban farming feed the future?,” shares the story of Francis Wachira, a leading advocate for urban farming in Nairobi.

“Millions of people are migrating from rural to urban areas as large-scale farming, coupled with climate change, force small-scale farmers to abandon their livelihoods and pursue economic opportunity in urban areas,” Meyers said.

As food security concerns grow for the people of Nairobi, farmers like Wachira are transforming urban lots into highly productive green spaces to raise livestock, grow vegetables and fight climate change.

“Francis has an incredible urban farming system that features over 600 head of livestock and 150 species of plants on a quarter hectare of land in the heart of Nairobi,” Meyers said. “I wanted to elevate Francis and his innovative approach to urban farming through storytelling with the goal of inspiring change.”

Meyers hopes that his experience will help inspire others at the University of Arizona to seek out opportunities to incorporate storytelling into their own work and research.

Read the complete article here.