GROWING CITIES Louise Gray enters the wonderful world of allotments
Louise Gray enters a wonderful world of giant pumpkins, monster marrows and mutant carrots to find that allotments could be a vital part in the future of our food system
At New Year many of us start to think about ways to improve ourselves and the world around us by growing our own organic fruit and vegetables. For the lucky ones this might mean a renewed effort to make good on the garden, or for city dwellers like me it means hunting out some green space on an allotment or community garden.
Last year I decided to try my hand at growing by taking on a small part of a plot on Inverleith Allotments in Edinburgh. I thought it would be a good way to learn how difficult it really is to produce your own food, while I attempt to write a book about fruit and vegetables. I cannot pretend that I had huge success (though I did grow a prize-winning cucumber), but I can say that I learned a little bit about spadework and patience, and a lot about slugs.
There are believed to be 300,000 allotments in Britain, with around 10,000 in Scotland. The plots were first established at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to give the new urban poor somewhere to grow food. But allotments only really took off after the First World War, when it became apparent how important it was to grow our own food when fresh produce was cut off by submarines. Inverleith Allotments, which celebrates its centenary this year, is one of the many Scottish allotments established post-WW1. During the Second World War the Government actively encouraged this self-sufficiency with the Dig for Victory campaign. The number of allotments in Britain rose to an all-time-high of 1.5 million in 1943. In 1947, 11% of our fruit and veg was homegrown. Now it is just 3%.
Despite various acts of Parliament making
Inverleith Allotments Centenary Book;
WWII Dig For Victory poster. it mandatory to provide land for allotments, local authorities started to plough up allotments in the 1950s to make way for housing developments. The rise of the supermarket and our busy lifestyles meant there was little resistance from the public.
In the 21st century we can get any fruit or vegetable we want at any time of year for a relatively cheap price from the supermarket: asparagus from Peru in December, strawberries from Egypt in January. Why would anyone bother trying to grow British fruits and vegetables? It is hard work and unlikely to save you any money.
Yet we are seeing a massive rise in interest in grow-your-own. There may not be a major war on the horizon but other factors such as climate change and political instability have made people anxious to return to self-sufficiency. Concern around the use of pesticides, abuse of cheap labour in other countries,
food miles and frustration with the sheer amount of plastic in supermarkets mean consumers want to take back control of their own food. Demand has begun to rise for allotments for the first time since the 1970s, when popular sitcom The Good Life inspired interest – the trouble is that now there are not enough plots. In the UK as a whole it is estimated that there are up to 100,000 people on waiting lists for allotments.
In Scotland’s four major cities alone, there are 4,600 people on waiting lists, with the situation in Edinburgh being particularly bad. Inverleith Allotments has 800 people on the waiting list for just 172 plots, meaning at the current rate of turnover you could be waiting for a century. I only managed to take on a share of a plot while its owner was undergoing an operation. For my own plot in Edinburgh I face a wait of at least ten years, just like everybody else.
In 2015 the Community Empowerment Act required Scottish councils to increase provision for allotments or other sites to grow food as long as the community can prove demand. It led to models such as Leith Community Crofts in Edinburgh and Urban Roots on the Southside of Glasgow, that offer space for individuals or families to grow on shared green space. But so far the Act has been slow to make a difference to the amount of growing space available, largely because of the failure of local authorities to publicise or use the new powers.
The lack of allotments has led to real frustration in the environmental movement. Charities like Friends of the Earth Scotland and Nourish point out that food grown in or near the city not only has less food miles but is likely to be grown using fewer chemicals and provides green space in cities for wildlife.
The University of Sheffield is currently carrying out the first study since the Second World War to find out what proportion of our fresh food, allotments and other growing spaces within towns and cities could provide. My Harvest measured allotment harvests around the country, including Edinburgh ( www.myharvest.org.uk), to find out what future contribution to our food security allotments could provide.
No one is suggesting that allotments will provide all the food we need in the future, but growing fresh fruits and vegetables in and around cities is gaining traction beyond Scotland as people seek to supplement their diets while also providing answers to some of our 21st century environmental problems.
In Detroit, abandoned lots left by the demise of the car industry are being used to grow food for deprived communities. In Singapore, vertical gardens are producing fresh fruits and vegetables on an island dangerously reliant on imports.
But a better food system is not the only reason we should be growing our own food in cities. NHS studies have shown that gardening can bolster our mental and physical health. Places like the community gardens at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, which helps people to recover from mental health issues, and Bridgend Growing Communities, which teaches skills to the unemployed, show what urban gardens can do for society.
After a year at Inverleith Allotments I would agree that it is about more than home-grown strawberries in July, as delicious as they undoubtedly are. At the annual Inverleith Allotments Show, I go along with my giant marrow and enter the vegetable monster competition only to be pipped at the post by a 14-year old. On a long trestle table covered in a white cloth is a greater variety of fruit and vegetables than you will find in any supermarket: crisp purple apples, juicy blackberries, purple carrots and perfect sticks of pink rhubarb. It shows the diversity of food that can be grown in the centre of the city. But it does not show the real reason I have enjoyed my year on the allotment.
I am here for the afternoons spent admiring the wild flowers in Cathy’s allotment or the gladiolus on Stuart’s plot. For reading the paper on Shan’s bench and gossiping about everyone else’s plots. For how good home-grown potatoes or fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse or long-lost heritage variety apples taste. For evenings spent watching the resident fox or heron or even the rabbits. For all the friends I have made.
Maggie Ferguson, one of my new friends who has only had a plot for a year, says it is about the empowerment that growing your own gives you as well as freedom from the supermarket. More than that, it is about reconnecting with the soil by realising what bounty can be grown in the Scottish climate. ‘After a year on the allotment I feel healthier, more vital and strong,’ she says. ‘It makes you appreciate the seasons, how precious food is and how lucky we all are.’
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No one is suggesting that allotments will provide all the food we need in the future