 |
| Getting together to grow food |
·
Reduction
of dependence on imported food which has a high food miles and a high carbon
footprint tariff.
·
Mental
and physical health benefits from encouraging local people to be physically
active outdoors growing their own food.
 |
| A new project helps build new friendships |
·
Consumption
of more fresh and local food.
·
Use
of organic growing methods that help to increase local biodiversity.
·
Regeneration
of underused urban and rural spaces.
·
Increasing
community cohesion by bringing together diverse groups of people around a common
theme.
·
Educational
value through retaining traditional growing skills, learning new skills, and
the possibility of exploring modern methods of food growing.
 |
| Sharing the burden reduces the load |
·
New
opportunities for putting more money into the local economy rather than
International Supermarket companies. It is known that for every £1 spent
locally generates £2.50 of wealth locally. Campaign to protect Rural England
·
Potential
for creating and sustaining local jobs.
Two further advantages need a little more explanation.
Community farming ensures the highly efficient use of land
for food production. It has the added advantage of getting a large number of
people onto a small area of land
To compare our vegetable growing field with a local
allotment of an equal size (0.71 ha or
7100 m2) it would be possible to place 20-24 x 10 rod allotments (1
rod = 25 m2) in a similar area. It is interesting to observe that
individual allotment areas allocated by councils are now being reduced, some to
five or even two rods. So considerably
more people can be involved our community farm than an equal area given over to
traditional allotments. A further advantage of placing allotment size areas
under the cultivation of a team of stakeholder is that we ensure that all the
land is being cultivated all the time. Some stakeholders may be busy, or ill,
or on holiday and so unable to cultivate for a period, but other members of the
team will ensure that the crops are looked after and there are therefore no
periods of time or pieces of land that are not cultivated or appropriately
managed as is often found in allotment areas.
We feel that our community farm is of interest to
planners of new towns and villages who are looking for planning gain from new
and imaginative food growing projects into newer higher density housing
developments. For example, in Kettering a provision of 0.4 ha
(4000 m2) per 1000 people is established for allotments and community gardens. Kettering
requires developers to provide costs for 12 months of maintenance of these new
sites, after which maintenance is transferred to the Council.
 |
| Each plot is about 200-250 m2 |
Second, Community growing assures the health giving values of the food consumed. There have been increasing concerns in recent years over the safety of mass produced food available in the supermarkets. Initial the green revolution of the 50's and 60's significantly increasing the amount of calories produced per acre of agriculture. At the same time battery farming was introduced with scarcely a murmur of protest despite the fact that animals were being kept in crowded conditions and dosed with hormones and antibiotics. However the British public soon became concerned about the state of farming when they discovered that their eggs were infected with Salmonella, (despite Edwina Currie's assurances 1988), cattle were developing BSE from being fed the brains of infected animals (the BSE crisis of 1992) and foot and mouth disease was spreading from farm to farm (2001). So the public has become more aware of some of the less pleasant aspects of intensive agriculture which is bringing us cheap food.
 |
| Hand weeding avoids the use of herbicides |
Second, Community growing assures the health giving values of the food consumed. There have been increasing concerns in recent years over the safety of mass produced food available in the supermarkets. Initial the green revolution of the 50's and 60's significantly increasing the amount of calories produced per acre of agriculture. At the same time battery farming was introduced with scarcely a murmur of protest despite the fact that animals were being kept in crowded conditions and dosed with hormones and antibiotics. However the British public soon became concerned about the state of farming when they discovered that their eggs were infected with Salmonella, (despite Edwina Currie's assurances 1988), cattle were developing BSE from being fed the brains of infected animals (the BSE crisis of 1992) and foot and mouth disease was spreading from farm to farm (2001). So the public has become more aware of some of the less pleasant aspects of intensive agriculture which is bringing us cheap food.
 |
| We feed the soil, rather than add chemicals |
Successive Governments have taken little interest in farming and food
and in consequence supermarkets have been allowed to gradually take control of
the whole of the food supply chain. An example of this are the powerful
supermarket chains who have dictated the price for milk paid to the farmer and
this has caused many dairy farmers to go out of business. Then supermarkets
with their lower out of town costs, free parking and bulk selling which reduces
the price have outcompeted the local green grocer and driven them off the High
street. So now we have a situation in
the UK where many of the less competitive British farmers have gone into
bankruptcy and we are forced to eat food such as apples imported from around
the world from countries that can produce them more cheaply than our own
farmers, but at unknown costs to their workers, the soil and the food's nutritional value.
Carolyn Steel: Hungry city
Some have suggested that there are lower nutritional values of food grown intensively compared with food grown organically. Other people have expressed concerns over genetically modified foods entering the food chain. For others rising global prices of food and the concept of having to import food from all over the world when we can grow the same crops in our own county have all stimulated the growth of local food growing projects in recent years. defra
 |
| A community farm gives people the opportunity to get back to the soil |
Some have suggested that there are lower nutritional values of food grown intensively compared with food grown organically. Other people have expressed concerns over genetically modified foods entering the food chain. For others rising global prices of food and the concept of having to import food from all over the world when we can grow the same crops in our own county have all stimulated the growth of local food growing projects in recent years. defra
No comments:
Post a Comment