Capital Growth: A Quick Look at London

(Photo credit: James Porter)

So London is on a tear--tearing up abandoned lots and front lawns and other unproductive spaces to embrace its recently-announced goal of 2,012 new food-growing spaces by the year 2012.

The program, called Capital Growth, aims to transform London into a green and productive city with thriving communities and delicious fresh food. According to the Capital Growth website:

In recent years there has been a tremendous upsurge of interest in food growing. This is in response to concerns about food prices, food miles and the environment. It is also because people want better access to good, healthy and affordable food, and to enjoy cultivating beautiful green spaces and meeting local people.

Four new food-growing spaces are already up and running: an apartment complex, a large personal garden being repurposed for community use, a prison, and a school. London residents have embraced these opportunities enthusiastically and are actively looking for developing, oh, 2,008 more.

I wrote to the contact person given at the Capital Gorwth website, someone named Seb, and asked why people in London embrace gardening so enthusiastically, if they ever encounter hesitation, and if so, how to overcome it. Here is the response I received:

Good question! If you're ever in London maybe we can sit down for a few hours to discuss the possibilities, as there could be many reasons!

I'm not sure I can put my finger on it myself - could be the Dig For Victory movement during WWII, could be the fact that we are an island, could be the fact that there are far fewer newspapers and media publications in the UK so it is easier to promote movements on a national scale, could be the massive interest we have in tv programmes that focus on gardening etc. etc. etc.

I haven't come across much hesitation myself. People tend to buy in to the fact that food growing is always a good idea; they just might need convincing that they have time in their lives to do it. My advice would be to start very small.

I run a project called Food Up Front (www.foodupfront.org) and we started with the idea that people could grow a box of salad to get started and this then acts as a stepping stone once they realise the benefits in growing something for themselves. If a person wants to run a marathon they wouldn't want to start with a 20 mile run so why should they be expected to start with a large piece of land when it comes to food growing? Starting with something like this could help with getting people out of their homes and in to a community garden.

Good advice, Seb. Epsecially since lettuce is my very favorite thing to grow. It's easy to grow, I can harvest it every single day or two (a leaf from each plant), growing it myself saves a ton (about $350 a season, I estimate), and it contains a life-force that disappears within a very short time of harvesting. If you have never had lettuce straight from the garden, you have never experienced this. It is almost impossible to go back to store-bought lettuce after growing your own.

And speaking of food security (yet again!), are you following the latest China import story? As of this week, the FDA is stopping all Chinese food imports that contain any form of milk (which include milk powder, with all its different names) because the melamine thing has spread throughout the entire Chinese food supply. Currently being stopped are: milk, yogurt, frozen desserts, biscuits, chocolates and cookies. The media is not communicating the brand names yet (but you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about Jennifer Anniston and Angelina Jolie on our country's headline news!) but I invite you to stay tuned on this story. It affects many, many products on our supermarket shelves right now. You may be surprised to find out how many food product ingredients come from China.

As for "the Dunwoody gardening opportunity," stay tuned for that as well. Things are brewing . . . perhaps something quite unique that you might not have even imagined.

And London, we'll be watching to see what great things develop as part of your Capital Growth!