Facing a national food crisis, Venezuela’s pumpkin-growing socialist president is exhorting compatriots to grow fruit and vegetables on balconies and roofs and in barracks across the country. His government’s “Great Agro-Venezuela Mission” is promoting city farming to offset shortages which have led to lootings and riots as the OPEC country undergoes a major economic crisis. “We need to plant to ensure food sovereignty,” President Nicolas Maduro said, recounting how he and his wife harvested pumpkins on their patio for a soup that tasted “like heaven.” “He who learns to cultivate in his city, his school, his university, his factory, in his communal space … cultivates another form of faith in life,” he added, urging people to grow products in schools, military bases and even jails. In the first data on the new push, Maduro’s government boasts that in the last three months, some 135,000 Venezuelans have produced 273 tonnes […]