“Gardening is gangsta: Mother Nature is gangsta. Being educated, creative and self-sustaining is gangsta. That whole concept was about turning a negative into a positive. If you want to be gangsta about anything, make it about building your community, sharing knowledge.

Men are brought up being told that we’re supposed to be provider and protector. But, as far as I can see, a lot of our communities are basically designed to kill people, because you can’t find healthy or nutritious food in them. Why is it easier to get alcohol than an organic apple? Why, in certain communities here, is it easier to get a gun than it is to get an organic carrot? Cities are designed for commerce, not for people.

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A lot of guys spend time in prison because of trying to get that whole American dream. ‘I want my wife, my girlfriend, to have this or that that I saw on TV: diamonds and fancy cars.’ Gardening changes people’s lives – it shows the alchemy and the art of Mother Nature. It gives you a reverence and respect for soil, tiny seeds, water. As boys, we were all told ‘money don’t grow on trees – go get a job’. But somebody should have told us: ‘if you want some money – plant some trees’.

If we want to change this, all over the world, we have to make growing and producing food sexy. It’s where I find my solace, my joy. The soil seduces you. You do the soil’s bidding.

Male role models are so important. There wasn’t really a man in my life that I could sit down with and really get some knowledge. I’ve never been drunk, never been high, smoked cigarettes, none of that. I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. I don’t know what to attribute that to, but I know at times I wished I did have somebody to say ‘go this way, take that route’. I have three sons, and I was determined to be that for them.

I don’t really separate being a man and being a human being – being a conscious citizen of this planet. We all want healthy food, clean water, and to be loved. I don’t see holding back emotion or affection as being a man. I’ve cried on stage. All that ‘real men don’t cry’ bullshit? Yeah we do. Real people cry.

All that ‘real men don’t cry’ bullshit? Yeah we do. Real people cry

At a young age, I realised a lot of systems were designed to keep us in line. Why should I get in a box to drive to work for an hour each way, to sit in a box, to get back in my box and drive back to go and live in my box? I started thinking: who benefits from that?

I’m proud that I get to travel around the world, from Sweden to Sussex, and inspire people to change their lives. I’m proud that people are building and reconstructing their lives and their communities, and that I had a hand in that. It’s amazing.

And I’m proud that I have been able to raise three magnificent, amazing sons who are happy and doing what they want to do, not what someone else wants them to do.”

Images: Theo Jemison

Read our feature Rewriting the Man Code: the new masculinity

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Following years of community-led action and celebrity-driven campaigns, food growing and cookery could soon become a compulsory part of a child’s education when they are added to the national curriculum in 2014.

Arguments for the addition of food growing were first considered following the release of the report Food Growing in Schools, by the charity Garden Organic in conjunction with over 20 partners including schools, retailers, voluntary and community organisations and government departments.

The report, published in March 2012, presented evidence for the benefits of encouraging and aiding children in growing their own fruit and vegetables, including increased ability to achieve, increased wellbeing and physical health, and increased life skills and employability.

The final version of the national curriculum is due to be published in August 2013, and is set to be implemented in schools from September 2014.

A draft of the new design and technology curriculum specified that where possible, it would ensure that all pupils are taught practical knowledge and skills “to cultivate plants for practical purposes, such as for food or for decorative displays.”

In addition, the government included cooking in the draft curriculum, advising that pupils should: “understand food and nutrition and, where possible, have opportunities to learn to cook.”

However, during a period of consultation on the plans, which ended on 16 April, criticism by the inventor and businessman Sir James Dyson and the Confederation of British Industry led to the syllabus being reviewed. Writing in the Times, Sir James said: “This new curriculum will not inspire the invention and engineers Britain so desperately needs.”

Asked whether food growing would remain on the new curriculum, the Department for Education (DfE) said it could not give any further details while the curriculum is in review. “We have consulted on the curriculum and will respond in due course,” a DfE spokesperson said.

The original planned changes to the curriculum were part The Independent School Food Plan, which aims to put together a clear vision of good food in schools.

* This article was updated on 2 May to reflect the fact that the planned syllabus is now being reviewed

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An estimated 80 million cups of coffee are consumed in the UK every day and with the recent wave of fair trade products, coffee is starting to taste all the more sweet. But while we might be proud of our ethical statistics, how are we doing environmentally?

With every latte, cappuccino or mocha there comes a certain amount of waste and by the end of the week, cafes are left with sacks full of used coffee grounds. UK coffee chains produce 300 tonnes of this waste a week according to researchers Allegra Strategies. Home filter systems also accumulate a substantial amount of waste grounds, which are dumped straight in the bin.

However, it’s not all bitter. A growing number of independent and branded cafes have started to bag up and give away grounds to customers as part of a new recycling push.

As recent environmental research suggests, coffee needn’t be thrown on to landfill but instead can be put to good use in the garden. While coffee isn’t a British product and is very high in acid, there are many qualities that have proven quite helpful for British soil, if used in the right way.

Fungi Futures, a social enterprise in the South West, are collecting coffee grounds from local cafes and mixing them with shredded cardboard waste and mushroom spawn. This unique environment helps to produce delicious and nutritious homegrown oyster mushrooms, which are then sold to restaurants and farm shops in Plymouth and are also available online.

It’s not just mushrooms that have developed a thirst for coffee. Tomatoes have also proven susceptible. This is the perfect solution to resolving household waste, as they only need a few shots a week. So next time you empty the filter, keep the coffee in a pot until your tomatoes look hungry.

The acid present in coffee also acts as an excellent deterrent to pesky slugs and will leave your home-growns nibble free. Earthworms however, love the stuff; sprinkle your grounds onto your plot and let nature do the rest.

So, we now know that coffee helps the garden, but that takes time. What about coffee lovers looking for that instant fix? The answer is soap. It may come as a surprise to learn that coffee is actually a natural deodoriser.

Coffee is also creeping its way onto the clothes rail. Loved for its odour and UV resistant qualities, coffee is the secret agent to a growing number of manufacturers, such as Virus in California or Singtex in Taiwan. By recycling waste coffee grounds into yarn, it is then used to create sustainable fabrics often found in sports wear.

So, it would seem that as well as getting better ethically, coffee can be good environmentally and comes with new economic prospects too. Although we’re unlikely to see doctors start proclaiming it benefits to us physically, all in all we may have found ourselves the world’s best drink.

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