I lifted the lid on the cardboard box containing my to take a peek.

The young woman behind the desk at Nourish, the health shop at Dean Street Arcade, joined me, and we silently stood looking at the array of avocado pear, caramelised onion, mushroom, sprouts and what looked like cream, but I had been assured was actually cashew nut cheese.

She pointed to my son and whispered 'Is he going to eat this?'. I shrugged. I couldn't get my four-year old to eat a normal pizza, nevermind this affair. I assured her, my mouth already watering at the prospect of tasting what was infront of me, that I hadn't sampled the fare yet either. 'I'm just helping out' she smiled, 'and I hadn't seen one of them before'...

You can't get high on industrial hemp, but you can create clothing, housing, food, fuel, natural plastics and other locally useful and globally marketable consumer products out of it. And oh yes, did we mention jobs, and lots of them. Hemp is already a multi $ billion a year industry and growing.

The new HEMP NOW website is live, and they're petitioning the government of SA to join those countries already growing hemp.

There are many reasons why we should be growing hemp in SA:

• hemp is grown organically
• it is naturally resistant to most pests, so doesn't need pesticides or herbicides (cotton does)
• an acre field of hemp can yield up to 8 dry tons of fibre (3 times more than cotton)
• the same crop will give 4 times more paper than an acre forest of trees...

Every school week a box of vegetables is dropped off at my son's school with my name on it. It sits, in amongst similar boxes, awaiting pick-up. It must be said that I often forget and my box finds its way into the school fridge until I remember the following day to collect it.

My pack is always brimming over with a variety of fresh vegetables, picked on the morning of delivery. This might sound pretty obvious, but I have used other box delivery schemes in Cape Town where, because of logistics and through no fault of their own, you only receive your vegetables a couple of days after picking. This can make a huge difference to the state of your vegetables (Harvest of Hope's are firm, crisp and FRESH – gorgeous!).

learning the permaculture way with SEEDSeed embodies what permaculture is all about. The Seed permaculture courses teach you how to design and grow your garden in a way that mimics the diverse biological systems in nature. The garden works as a whole system, providing ecological sustainability, whilst at the same time meeting human needs. Looking at a permaculture garden you may be forgiven for thinking that this is organised chaos! Yet as in nature, there is method in madness.

Plants are planted in a manner that conserves space and allows them to benefit each other. Seeds Saturday courses teach you the principles behind permaculture and how to go about adding permaculture to your own garden. The courses take place at

Second Edition Cape Town Green MapWe've been working on a project with the City of Cape Town's Environmental Resource Management Dept and A & C Maps for the last eighteen months and today we're launching the second print edition of the Cape Town Green Map, ahead of World Environment Day tomorrow. The online map was launched a year ago, and Open Green Map, the global green map system we are affiliated with, is also turning one tomorrow.

This weekend the Good Food and Wine festival is happening at the CTICC. I went along to discover how much sway the local and organic movement has over food in our country at festivals such as this one.

South Africa has many hidden food gems that are scattered throughout the country and you sometimes have to be in the know and other times you may just stumble across some great produce. Now let’s face it, festivals such as this one are aimed at the well heeled and if you can tear yourself away from the celebrity chefs, there are several stalls featuring organic or eco-friendly foodstuffs.

Green Home, which happens to be supplying the BBC Lifestyle

Lulama Jim of the Masicendani garden picks carrots for Harvest of HopeIf you are of a certain background, you are probably used to buying your vegetables cleaned, washed and chopped, pre-packaged and beautiful from Pick n’ Pay and Woolworths. Many of us want this kind of convenience. However this recent shift in consumer culture means that as a race, we have become lazier, especially in terms of our food production. This kind of production process is what is threatening our global food security. According to Abalimi Bezekhaya project facilitator Rob Small, the answer lies in community micro farming. Small believes that South Africa produces less than 25% of its food needs. He also said that “50% of the so called homelands are now vacant, as people are drawn to the cities and we have less and less people producing.”

Free range eggs by wikimediacommons

Towards the middle of last year it emerged that Woolworth's, who appeared to be committed to free range eggs in its stores, was using battery farmed eggs in many of its products.

Activist! ran a campaign for Woolworths customers to spell out to their favourite retailer, just what they felt about having the feathers pulled over their eyes.

Activist have now provided a feedback page so we can ensure Woolworth's live up to their commitment.

Meeting and commitment
At a meeting held on the 26th of October last year, Julien Novak Head of Woolworth Foods, was handed a petition and he apologised for

Slow Food Mother CityMy experience is that there is a growing disconnect between people and the food they consume (I use the word consume because I think eating has connotations which often don't apply). I have many friends who cannot cook, many more who struggle to determine the difference between healthy and unhealthy options and most people I know don't have a clue where their food comes from, how it got to them or how it was processed (I could use the word made instead of processed, but again it suggests human intervention which is seldom the case).

This trend is concerning to me, and I am not alone. Slow Food is represented in over 130 countries and has more than 100 000 members. The movement started about 20 years ago in Italy.

If you're in Cape Town and interested in all things green and organic, then I can guess where you'll be heading this weekend. Now, as a reader of urban sprout, you'll get to visit for free - click here for your complementary ticket that allows you access to both the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition and Womens Show.

This year's show at the CTICC (Fri 19 - Sun 21 Feb) promises to be bustling, judging by the turnout at the Joburg show last year and the growth in consumer interest, so get there early!

Cape Town's Natural & Organic usually draws more visitors with 15 000 attending in October 2008, but this was eclipsed in Joburg last June when 26 000 people visited the show. This was a 370% increase over the last Joburg show and at a time of recession!

Clearly the organic & green movement is shifting