From green weddings to hydroponics, bike rides to instant gardens, The Eco Design Fair at The Waterhouse this weekend promises a hive of events and activities to inspire, engage, and entertain. A running theme of this, the sixth edition of the fair, will be urban farming.

Susan Evans, green-fingered fanatic and founder of GoodtoSH explains:

"We want to try to reconnect people with food – most people here don't really understand even how to grow a carrot. We're trying to create a paradigm shift around food so that people understand the value of it again: food is something we all want cheaper and cheaper, which is simply not sustainable. At some point there has to be a reevaluation.”




Inroads to Urban Farming

Cheaper food, as Evans points out, places immense pressure on traditional farming. Practices such as mono-cropping degrade soil, and over reliance on pesticides and fertilizer are all rendering traditional methods precariously unsustainable. What's more, so long as food production happens 'out of sight', it's invariably the marketers, advertisers and packagers who reap the rewards farmers sow.

Urban farming will not feed the masses, but it could, Evans believes, open people's eyes to responsible, sustainable means of eating. In conjunction with volunteer organization HandsOn Shanghai, Evans and her team will soon set to work on the city's first urban farm in Minhang district.

“We've found that a lot of people across Shanghai are interested in urban farming”, explains Evans. “Most, though, don't have the time, space or knowledge, so what we're trying to give is at least the space and the knowledge to be able to do it”.




But urban farming can be smaller scale still, as Evans and her band of enthusiastic volunteers seek to demonstrate at this Saturday's Eco Design Fair. Be it lettuces on a window ledge or beetroots on the balcony, GoodtoSH has come up with the all the products, ideas and know-how budding urban farmers need to get started.

A steal at 50rmb, a 100% biodegradable Pot of Black Gold is a handy -- and portable -- grow bag, complete with organic soil and seeds, suitable for both in- and outdoor sun traps. Looking for something more natural? Then consider the cylindrical bamboo pots which can be attractively clustered together and are the perfect size for, I don't know -- tomatoes.

For the gadget-minded gardener, there's workshops in hydroponics, a highly effective means of growing plants without soil and, according to Evans, easily achieved at home with just a few plastic bottles and pipes.




A Fashion Show, A Green Wedding, and “Up-cycled” Robots

Even if you're really not the green-fingered type, there's still plenty to inspire at the event, from how to start eco-business, a fashion show and even a green wedding.

Shanghai hackers Xin Che Jian will run a workshop in transforming unwanted toys into robots, or Up-cyling:

“It's recycling products, but not to the extent that they lose their qualities – plastic, for example, degrades each time it's recycled”, explains Evans. “Up-cylcing doesn't change the quality of the disused product; it's being used in the same format, or processing is kept to a minimum.”



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The festivities kick off at 9.15am at Xujiahui Park for a Critical Mass Bike Ride to The Waterhouse. Anyone and everyone can join in and the low-impact, clean air event, coincides with the beginning of Earth Week. Wherever your interest lies -- urban farming, fashion, or just fun -- the Eco Design Fair really does promise something for everyone. Not only will you leave with a gratifying, satisfying feeling of having engaged in something worthy, but who knows, you might come away with some new perspectives for making your environment a better place.

The Eco Design Fair is all day Saturday at The Waterhouse. Event details here.