Fifty years ago we turned to growing our own food to minimise a war-time vulnerability. The ships that brought the necessities we'd outsourced were targeted by German U-boats, warships and aircraft. Now our food supply is threatened by new enemies - peak oil and the profits before people and the environment approach that is the badge of agribusiness.
The facts are there - our long-distance centralised food production and distribution systems account for more energy consumption than any other aspect of our society. That's what makes the following report so encouraging:
During the second world war the government famously urged every able man and woman in Britain to "dig for victory" - to grub up their flower beds and tear up their lawns to grow vegetables to avoid widespread hunger. Today, a new British land army of gardeners appears to be doing the same to avoid eating industrially-produced foods.The uprising is multi-faceted. Food quality concerns are only part of the picture, and are augmented by political and environmental ideologies - desires to reduce the distance between soil and plate, to reduce the inequalities brought about by the global free-trade system, and to resist the corporate takeover of our agricultural heritage - our seeds.
... The proof that we are going back to our roots is seen in Britain's 330,000 allotments. Thirty years ago thousands of acres fell into disuse and were taken back by local authorities for development. Today, almost all allotments are full and it is nearly as hard to get one as to get a place in a good school.
"I've got people climbing all over me for allotments. Our waiting list is closed and there's no chance of even getting on to it. It's becoming a real bun fight," said Bruno Dore, site secretary of the Shepherds Hill allotments group in north London. The city is now believed to produce nearly 16,000 tonnes of vegetables a year....
The reasons given for the shift to vegetable growing in the most urbanised country in Europe range from a political desire to not be beholden to large supermarkets, to a new awareness about healthy food and the environment, and deep dissatisfaction with industrially grown food.
"It's the fact that chefs are beginning to take up the idea of healthy foods and concern over chemicals," said Mr Stokes. "Fifty years ago people turned to vegetable gardening to save money. Now it's for fresh food and lifestyles."
"I find it the best way to relax, the nearest thing to personal and political freedom," said Joanne Nutley, 25, a Manchester allotment holder. - Guardian
The seed sellers also detect a profound shift taking place, with people wanting to grow old varieties of vegetables that the industrial food system has left behind and legislation has made hard to grow.A myriad of specialist seed clubs has been set up because it is technically illegal to sell seeds that are not on the government-approved national seed list, designed to provide large scale farmers.
Yesterday Prince Charles added his weight to the heritage vegetable seed movement, urging people to grow older varieties to maintain biodiversity. Speaking on the 60th anniversary of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, he said it was "crucially important" to preserve genetic diversity. - Guardian
Allotments are in demand in London |
The increasingly widespread Colony Collapse Disorder afflicting bees would likely stabilise if movements such as this could take root universally.
But the grassroots grow your own movement goes far further than vegetables, with as many as 200,000 households keeping chickens, and 35,000 beekeepers.This is the kind of uprising that is not to be feared, but fostered."There are more bee keepers in London now than in years," said John Chapple, head of the London bee keepers association. - Guardian
