A private company with three owners has been launched in Guadalajara with the goal of manufacturing and selling large plastic containers, soil to fill them and the know-how to grow vegetables in them.
The company, EarthBox Mexico, is patterned after and licensed by U.S. organizations with ties to the United Nations. EarthBox is a U.S.-manufactured brand related to Growing Connection, one of thousands of projects of the U.N.’s agricultural arm, the Food and Agriculture Organization. And Bob Patterson, one of EarthBox Mexico’s three founders, was a senior official in FAO who worked for years with the EarthBox growing system around the world. He now lives in the Guadalajara area.
“Here, it’s a Mexicanized project,” said Margarita Alvarez, another of the company’s founders, underlining some of the differences between the U.S. and Mexican efforts. Alvarez is a former American School of Guadalajara student who went on to get involved in international relations and social projects.
“For the growing substrate, we don’t import peat moss. We use jal (local, light, pea-sized volcanic rock), coconut fiber and humus made by worms.” She added that plans are in motion to manufacture the boxes locally using recycled plastic, although boxes in the kits now on sale locally for 335 pesos have been imported from the United States.
It is a bargain price, according to Lydia Chapa, a gardener who lives not far from EarthBox Mexico’s demonstration space in Colonia Seattle in the northern section of the metropolitan area.
“I bought one recently and I was eating lettuce a month after planting,” Chapa said. “They use minimal water. Things grow well and don’t dry up.”
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