#BeautifulNews: This 21-year-old ploughed her way to becoming a green pepper expert

Where does your food come from? Over half of South Africa’s population live in cities, with no direct access to farms. We scour grocery store shelves for the most attractive packaging, rather than the freshest produce. Justin Bonello felt this massive disconnect between what we consume and its origins. So the chef set out to track our daily bread from field to store to dinner table. “We’ve become so reliant on mass-produced, homogenised food that we no longer even know what real food is,” Bonello says. This realisation drove him to dig up his own Cape Town garden, a move that’s led to a city-wide farming initiative. Read Justin Bonello's full story...

Love stories often make for riveting tales. Mahlatse Matlakana’s journey of courage, sacrifice, and passion is one epic romance with an unexpected source of affection – green peppers. At the age of 15, Matlakana supported her family by working on farms in Arrie Village, Limpopo. What she didn’t know was that this act of survival would lead to her owning her own business before she turned 21. Read Mahlatse Matlakana's full story...

Roushanna Gray takes a bite of a delicate blossom. It’s not unusual to see her include buds, petals and leaves that she’s foraged in her meals. “In fynbos, there are so many different types of edible and medicinal species,” Gray says. South Africa’s biodiversity is as abundant as it is breathtaking. Centuries ago, local foliage served as people’s diets. Today, among artful food trends, indigenous blooms are returning to modern palates. Read Roushanna Gray's full story...

People can’t function when they’re hungry. But every day, children across South Africa are forced to attend classes without having something to eat. Benjamin Constable realised this while coaching basketball at a primary school in Durban. “This just struck me as the most obvious challenge South Africa faces,” he says. “How do you grow and develop if your stomach’s empty?” Trying to uplift kids with sport took a back seat. The children needed nourishment. Constable’s solution didn’t lie outside the box, but in one. For Benjamin Constable's full story,...

Nonhlanhla Joye was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. While chemotherapy challenged her strength, her immediate concern wasn’t her health. Too sick to return to work, Joye’s priority was finding a way to put food on the table for her family. So the daughter of a farmer turned to what she knew best and started planting vegetables outside her home in Cato Manor. But what Joye hoped would be a solution turned into a disaster. The chickens roaming around the township got to her garden, destroying her harvest. If Joye was to succeed, some creativity was needed. That’s how she started farming in a plastic packet. Read Nonhlanhla Joye's full story...