Digging up and digging in, Fabio Diu

Our food system is in crisis. Food prices are soaring, health concerns are mounting, and the environment is suffering under the intensive strain we have put it under for so long, seriously questioning the sustainability of industrial food production. After the fiasco that was the UN food crisis summit in Rome last July and the government’s consistent failure to effectively address the issues at stake, it may well be time to start taking things back into our own hands, or as some would have it, into our own back gardens. Gardens, especially in London, may seem an unlikely place from which to challenge a city’s globalised food system. Yet private gardens account for 15%-25% of the land area in Britain’s towns and cities, representing unexploited space that could otherwise be put to food production. And it’s not just gardens which can be seen to be un-tapped resources. At a time when London allotments have over a year’s waiting list, people are starting to look at all spaces around us and using a bit of ingenuity and creativity to transform so called ‘dead’ areas into green, flourishing, food-producing havens. Such places might include derelict or contaminated wasteland, spare council owned property, London parks, rooftops, even walls. Some local boroughs are also looking to plant fruit and nut trees in parks and along roads. Once you start looking, you realise how much potential there really is. It may all sound a bit farfetched and limited in the face of the current food crisis the UN is calling a “silent tsunami”, yet in countries such as Cuba, China and Argentina urban gardens are a working reality, in Cuba they provide more than 60% of a family’s weekly food consumption. Now, in London, there are a growing number of individuals, groups and organisations already proving that it is possible to grow enough food from within a city to feed yourself, your family and your community. Rosie Boycott, the chair of the Mayor’s London Food Strategy, spoke at the Real Food Festival’s launch at the House of Lords and is heading a campaign called Capital Growth that aims to have 2012 growing spaces in London by the Olympics (www.capitalgrowth.org ). So within the grey inner-city streets of London, next time you pass the green splash of a flower bed, do not be surprised if upon closer observation it is not the leaves of ornamental plants and flowers you see, but the fruit and vegetables grown by an urban gardener. These urban gardeners could be seen to be part of a wider movement that recognises that our current food and farming system, whose infinitely long and complicated food chain hides the true cost of ‘cheap’ food, set against the threat of Peak Oil and climate change, is unsustainable and that the environmental as well as health implications of industrial, oil-dependent production are making the need to grow more food locally all the more pressing. This simple but potentially revolutionary revision of our spaces in London could help enhance, rather than destroy, the environment. When most children are unable to recognise and name different fruits or vegetables, and certainly don’t eat enough of them, there is also a significant educational and health value to be gained, for adults as well as children. Being so removed from nature, as we are in cities like London, the outdoor activity of tending your own garden and growing food helps reconnect people with nature and must surely improve physical and mental health as well as encouraging a more healthy diet. Within the current economic climate, the financial incentive is just one more reason that makes growing your own food an even more attractive proposition. Of course, in many respects urban gardens are nothing new. After all, they helped to sustain city dwellers through the turbulent times of World War II. Now, once again, under a different sort of looming threat, vegetable gardens are starting to sprout up all over London. At the Real Food Festival in May, Garden Organic (www.gardenorganic.org.uk) will be creating a display garden and education zone together with the Soil Association, offering help and advice on ways in which you can get your hands dirty growing food in a city. Rocket Garden (www.rocketgardens.co.uk) will be at the show too, with their great selection of herbs, vegetables and fruit ready to be potted for an instant kitchen garden. And we, at the Real Food Festival, hope to sponsor a garden for the Capital Growth scheme on the roof-top of the iconic Earls Court Exhibition Hall, providing fresh fruit and veg for the local diner... watch this roof-space!