Campaign for Allot More Allotments

Here's a useful resource for people seeking new land to grow food on: http://www.allotmoreallotments.org.uk/

Got a supermarket near you? then use the roof!

Now here is a wonderful initiative in London. http://foodfromthesky.org.uk/

Let's lobby supermarkets in Somerset to do the same. I have started with the Co-op!

Emerging Trends in Local Food Growing

Emerging Trends in Local Food Growing

In the last two years there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects aimed at tackling the demand for community gardening and food growing. This has been due to an upsurge in interest in 'growing your own', as well as an awareness of other issues such as health and well-being and climate change.

Existing provision of land, particularly allotments, has proved inadequate in the face of this demand, so groups and organisations at national, regional and local levels have begun creating a plethora of initiatives.

This has created a very vibrant, rapidly-moving situation with many potential opportunities for new and established community groups, but is also complex and difficult to keep up with. Local people or community groups looking to start up some sort of project in their area may find it hard to hard to fathom what best suits their needs, what suits their community and what suits any land they may have identified.

Read more here: http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/home/local-food-project/growing-trends

Growing Connections in South Somerset

To all people seeking land and all landowners, public and private, in South Somerset.

Somerset Community Food invites you to:

Growing Connections in South Somerset

 Exploring, enabling & supporting opportunities to increase access to land

for new and existing food growers

at

 Magdalen Community Farm, Winsham, Chard, TA20 4PA

Tuesday 10^th May 2011

 9.30am – 4.30pm 

£15 for individuals or £40 if attending in paid time

(includes a totally local organic lunch)

Who should attend?

·         All those in South Somerset looking for land for growing

·         Landowners (large and small, public and private) interested in supporting community growing ventures

·         Any intermediary organisations able to support this agenda

Bookings by 18^th April 2011 based on a 1^st come 1^st served basis.

The Conference will offer the chance for anyone involved in food growing locally to gain contacts, share knowledge and learn skills to enable them to start and keep growing.

To find out more and book a place visit our website www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk and click on our Conference link or download a program here http://bit.ly/SCFConferenceProgram and a booking form here http://bit.ly/SCFBookingform

Attendees will have the choice of several workshops and talks on issues such as the social, community and financial benefits to landowners of sharing land, where to start in looking for land as well as exploring what it’s possible to grow in small spaces (from a small plot to a smallholding).  

Participants can also hear from inspiring case studies from across South Somerset.

Somerset Community Food’s Spring Conference will highlight and celebrate community food growing in the towns and parishes of South Somerset. There are many new and existing inspiring projects happening across the district. However, with more than 250 people on allotment waiting lists in the district, there is high demand for new land to be brought into production near to where people live.

If you are seeking access to land – or you are a landowner willing to consider making land available for community growing - this is the event for you!

Our conference on 10^th May at Magdalen Farm, Winsham near Chard, will bring individuals, parish councils and community groups looking for land together with public and private sector landowners considering making land available where there is demand. Our research shows that the longest waiting lists are currently in Chard, Yeovil, Crewkerne and Wincanton but there is also need for land in some of the rural villages.

A range of specific workshops featuring key people with expertise and influence will seek to get the ball rolling on how to bring more land into production as community growing spaces in South Somerset. Hear from successful projects, meet landowners and talk to experts from national organisations. And last but not least take a tour of the wonderful Magdalen Project http://www.themagdalenproject.org.uk/ and enjoy a top notch lunch sourced with food footsteps rather than foodmiles! The programme is attached for your convenience.

We are trying hard to spread the word about this event both to people seeking land, and willing landowners, so if you can help by sending this invitation to on to any contacts you have with people looking for land, local allotment associations, including this in any publications, communications or on websites, we would be very grateful. The more people who can come together around this issue, the quicker people will get access to the land they are seeking.

Growing your own food meets a wide range of needs – from getting more active, to being more self reliant, saving money, improving your health, reducing foodmiles and packaging waste and, perhaps most importantly, introducing children to where their food comes from!

Somerset Land and Food can help you to solve the problem of access to land by tailored support and advice, information about funding streams, basic growing skills training and access to tools. Contact us for more information.

We expect high demand for this event. Bookings will be taken on a first come, first served basis with a strict deadline of April 18^th. Please book online at the link above or call us to request a hard copy.

Sustainable Communities Act and local food

See below the government's response to proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act regarding food and allotments

With regard to food and allotments, the government will under the Act:

*         allow allotment holders to sell their surplus produce to local shops;

*         allow local authorities to offer discounts on business rates to shops that source their food locally;

*         publish an anaerobic digestion strategy that will contribute towards the government's objectives for sustainable food production

Ensuring access to land

Ingredients of Transition: Ensuring Land Access

http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ensuring-land-access/

Mark, who organises a very popular local comedy night in Dorchester, hands a cheque for over £1,000 to Jenny of Transition Town Dorchester in support of 'Under Lanche Community Farm', a TTD initiative on land leased from the Duchy of Cornwall.

 

Context

Access to land is vital to many of the practical initiatives that rebuilding your community's resilience requires.  Whether you are trying to initiate PRACTICAL MANIFESTATIONS (3.9) and LOCAL FOOD INITIATIVES (3.10), or whether you are thinking on a much greater scale in terms of STRATEGIC LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE (5.5) and enabling opportunities for SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP (5.2), this is an important ingredient.

(We are collecting and discussing these Transition ingredients on Transition Network's website to keep all comments in one place. Please leave feedback and comments, suggestions for alternative pictures, anecdotes, stories and projects for this ingredient here<http://www.transitionnetwork.org/patterns/ongoing-deepening/ensuring-...>).

The Challenge

Promoting the idea of local food production and the rollout of urban agriculture, whether in the form of market gardens, allotments or back gardening, will clearly struggle if no land is made available to make it possible.  Many settlements, even if they are built to a high density, will have both land within them that could be used, and also land around them.  Ensuring secure access to this land will be vital.

Core Text

The localisation of the production of food, fibre, fuel and so on will, by necessity, require obtaining access to land.  Our towns and cities could be a network of intensive market gardens, productive fruit and nut-bearing trees, of fish and vegetable-producing hydroponics systems set up on areas of hard standing, of productive ponds and new allotments.  Such a tapestry of land uses would greatly increase the biodiversity and food security of the community, but of course none of it is possible if no-one has access to any of the land needed to make it a reality.

A look at an aerial photograph of any town or city shows plenty of unused pockets of land in or around it, but there are a number of reasons why that land may prove problematic to gain access to.  It may be that the owner is holding onto it in the hope of getting planning permission for development at some point in the future, it may be that its ownership is contested, that it is owned by the local authority to have no use for it, it may even be that nobody actually knows whose it is!  Before we look at the stories of how different initiatives have secured access to land, let's first cover the basic principles.  In order to be able to own or lease land or property, your Transition initiative will need a constitution, and will need to be a legally recognised entity. 

There are only 4 organisational models (in the UK at least) that can do this:

 *   A Company Limited by Guarantee
 *   Industrial and Provident Societies
 *   Community Interest Companies
 *   Charitable Incorporated Associations

If your Transition initiative is an unincorporated association or a Trust, legally speaking it is not able to exist as a legal person separate from the people who run it, and therefore it cannot hold or rent land in its own name.  However, this can be overcome by one person in the group doing so on behalf of the organisation, although it should be noted that in that example, that person would be taking on the legal liabilities for the purchase/lease[1]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...>.

So, how have different Transition initiatives managed to access land in their area for projects?  Here are some stories from across the Transition Network.  For Rachel Roddam in Transition Derwent, one of the keys to accessing land was active engagement in the community in a range of groups, which has proved a great way of embedding Transition, and also taking any perceived fear out of making land available to Transition groups.  She is a member of her local Hall and Recreation Ground committees, which had previously ignored engagement with the Transition initiative on particular projects, but now, with a re-energised committee, gives them a much fairer hearing.   This active engagement has opened the door to a number of potential local food projects.

Environmental Change Makers, the precursor to Transition Los Angeles and many of the local initiatives now springing up across the city, began by working with a local church in 2008, who were keen for them to dig up their lawn and make a food garden.  The garden is extended each season, and is maintained by a mixture of local neighbours and Transitioners, who also use the garden for running their reskilling courses.  Much of the produce is distributed by the church.

The success of this project led to the group being asked to support and advise other similar projects.  Joanne Poyourow from the group offers these tips gleaned from their work so far:

 *   land access that depends on a single decisionmaker (church priest, school principal) is MUCH easier to move forward.
 *   it doesn't matter if the groups align perfectly on why they want a garden.  For instance, the church members aren't fully on-board our peak oil concerns, but they have other reasons for wanting a garden in that space.  if you can structure a "win/win" situation, you have the potential for a great partnership.
 *   land access that is tied up in large-scale politics is very challenging to obtain.  Despite high visibility, it is probably not the best place to start because it takes so long to show results.  It might be wiser to allow these laggards to follow at a later stage in the Transition timeline.
 *   when you can get a shovel in the dirt early, even in a small way, it invigorates the whole team.  Enthusiasm builds, everyone gets a taste of the possibilities, and things get moving a whole lot faster.
 *   using resources (community connections, know-how, materials sources, etc) from one small project to build another small project helps spread impact quickly and very visually.  Environmental Change-Makers brought the community connections we had made via the church garden to bear on the middle school garden and that helped the groundbreaking happen much sooner.
 *   Capitalizing on an existing trend - like the Alice Waters movement for school gardens - really helps move things along quickly.
 *   Projects don't have to be big to be very successful, and to get lots of publicity and attention.  The church garden isn't a lot of square footage, but it sure gains media attention, has built community familiarity, and has won neighbourhood affection.
 *   Starting small allows you to take care of and maintain the land well. There is a huge learning curve - how to take care of the land, how to build the soil back to fertility, how to achieve/maintain high levels of productivity.  Our society doesn't have this know-how, we have been through "the dark ages" and now need to rediscover the knowledge base.  You don't need criticism for under-maintained or abandoned-looking land to add to your burden while you're getting geared up.
 *   Design things so that the garden is highly visually attractive.  This point - to bring art into it - is emphasized in other aspects of Transition, but it is worth saying about land access.  Our first garden was built on a front lawn in an area where (we later learned) the homeowners association prohibited front-yard vegetables.  Yet those same people featured our garden on the neighborhood Garden Tour in spring 2009!  If you make it aesthetically beautiful, it wins people over.

 

Land access of a less conventional nature has been secured by the 'Food From The Sky' initiative[2]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> in Crouch End in London, an offshoot of Transition Belsize.  They have been working with their local Budgens supermarket to increase its stocking of local produce (it now stocks 1,500 products from within 100 miles of the shop), and have now started a food garden on the roof of the shop.  Getting access to the roof proved complex from a legal/insurance perspective, but now the garden is providing produce for the shop and for local people, and is attracting many volunteers, including pupils from the local school.

Planting the Scilly orchard, March 2010.

On the Isles of Scilly, Transition Scilly wanted to create a community orchard, and approached the Duchy of Cornwall, who own most of the land on the islands, to ask for a suitable plot.  The Duchy weren't keen on letting land to Transition Scilly as an unincorporated organisation, being much happier with leasing land either to individuals or businesses, so one of the members who is already a farmer on the islands, leasing land from the Duchy, added to site to the portfolio of the land he rents.  The two-thirds of an acre was identified by a sympathetic and supportive land steward, and the orchard was planted at a community tree planting day (see left) in March 2010 and is now growing nicely[3]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...>.

 

The old saying "if you don't ask you don't get" is well illustrated in the story of the North Queensferry Transition Initiative in Scotland and their quest for a site for a community forest garden.  They began discussions with Fife Council, who invited them to look at the maps of land they own and to identify any sites they were interested in.  Fortuitously, the site they identified is owned by a part of the Council that has a very supportive allotments officer, who is taking their designs[4]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> to the planning department.  Turns out he is big on actively encouraging models of community gardens as opposed to traditional allotments because it simplifies things for the Council, who only need one contract with one organisation, rather than multiple leases to individuals.

The idea that a Council might actively encourage local community groups to take on land it owns is something that you might find a lot more interest in as government cuts mean that Councils are actively needing to find other ways of managing their assets.  Transition Newton Abbot found that very shortly after their formation, they were approached by their local Council who offered them use of a site in the town that had been unused for 20 years and had become a bit of a jungle.  Their advice for other initiatives is to find out what pockets of land the Council owns and have struggled to find a use for, those sites will be a good place to start.

Often though, the reasons for land not being available are more complex and are outside anything that a Transition initiative can influence.  Almost by definition, land in or on the edge of a settlement is subject to great pressures in terms of possible future development.  

Darren Woodiwiss of Transition Town Market Harborough[5]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> told me that "we must be one of the most in-filled settlements in the country with every pocket of land having been built upon of speculatively purchased by Architects or builders apart from two plots".  One site is owned by the local Council who have it earmarked for affordable housing, and the other by a family who don't want it built on, but also don't want it used by anyone else.  The group has decided to wait until the Local Development Framework is published in the hope that then some sites will be excluded from development.  This earmarking of land for possible future development and its resultant mothballing is one of the greatest barriers to innovative land use.

In Narberth, 10 years of trying to get the local Councils to provide new land for allotments had been unproductive and left many in the community to associate the word 'allotment' with feelings of intense frustration.  In 2008 a new approach was taken, and a new group approached a co-operative landowner who was keen to support their efforts.  The 3 acre site was leased on a 10 year lease at a reasonable rent, ploughed and divided into plots.  The allotments have been well subscribed and there are now plans for a community orchard on the site.  The group found input from local Transition groups and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens very helpful.  If your pursuit for land gets 'stuck', it may be worth adopting the lesson from Narberth of taking a fresh approach to the challenge.

One big success story in terms of opening up land for community food growing comes from the Isle of Man.  Three years ago the Permaculture Association launched a campaign called "I want an allotment", where the public were told how to lobby their local authorities, while at the same time, the local authorities were alerted that this was going to happen.  Three hectic years later there are now 7 new allotment sites, most of which can be linked to the campaign.  An all-island planning guidance manual is now being prepared and landowners are being encouraged to see allotments as a form of diversification.
[cid:image003....@01CB7C4A.7DCC3470]

The site design plan for Transition Town Dorchester's Community Farm.

All of this need not take ages either.  The Transition Town Dorchester group, inspired by Transition Network's 'Local Food' book, decided they wanted to start a community farm.  The used GoogleEarth to identify odd bits of land in the area, and identified five.  With the help of the local Town Council they looked into who owned the sites, and found that four were owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.  They called the Duchy office, expecting to be put on the long finger, but had a very productive conversation with an intrigued official who told them "put together a proposal, send it to me and I'll see what we can do".  The group duly created their proposal, described as "all very official and professional" and sent it in.

They met with the Duchy official, found that the site they had initially preferred wasn't available, but that three other sites were.  They negotiated a 5 years tenancy (£200 per year for a 2 acre site), as part of which the Duchy paid for fencing the site, installing paths and also provided top soil.   The site was designed as a mixture of vegetables, a polytunnel, orchard, poultry and a wild area (see right).  The project now has a name, 'Under Lanche Community Farm'[6]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...>, and membership is open to anyone.  When the agreement was signed, a public meeting was held, and now the project is well underway, a local comedy night donating over £1,000 towards the project.  Timing from initial idea to securing the lease of the site?  8 months.

The Solution

Access to land can be secured in a range of imaginative ways.  Work with landowners, seek land that is currently unused and which can be used for free (such as through a 'Garden Share' scheme), fundraise to buy some land into community ownership, or invite landowners to see opening up access as being in both their and the local community's interest.

Connections to Other Patterns

Obtaining access to land will require drawing in many other patterns.  Working with other organisations and persuading them to engage in making land available will require STANDING UP TO SPEAK (1.8), BUILDING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS (2.12), and possibly ENGAGING THE COUNCIL (4.4) and ENGAGING LOCAL LANDOWNERS (4.8).  In order to be a body that can legally lease or own land, you will need to consider BECOMING A FORMAL ORGANISATION (2.1) and also formulating some innovative approaches to FINANCING YOUR WORK (3.3).  Once you have gained access, THINKING LIKE A DESIGNER (1.4) will be hugely helpful in planning the site, and knowing how to manage and inspire VOLUNTEERS (3.2) will also be important.  You will also need to think about COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP OF ASSETS (5.8) and possibly COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE/FARMS/BAKERIES (5.9) as one model of using the site.

________________________________
[1]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> For advice on the legal aspects of buying or leasing land, the Community Council of Devon (2010) have produced an excellent short guide, Finding Land to Grow Food: Community Groups' Guide to Legal Issues: Key issues to consider before you buy, lease, or otherwise gain access to land. Available here<http://www.devonrcc.org.uk/downloads/Legal%20Toolkit,%2013%20Oct%20fo...>.

[2]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> http://www.foodfromthesky.org.uk, and here is a short piece about the project from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10424392.

[3]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> You can keep up to date with the Transition Scilly orchard on their blog<http://transitionscilly.blogspot.com/2010/06/community-orchard-photos...>.

[4]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> http://sites.google.com/site/northqueensferrytransition/groups/food-g...

[5]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> http://www.transitionharborough.spruz.com/

[6]<http://transitionculture.org/2010/11/04/ingredients-of-transition-ens...> The farm has its own blog<http://www.underlanche.blogspot.com/>.

Landfill Communities Fund - for new allotments?

Money raised from dumping rubbish could help people to grow their own food.

Council leaders are calling on the Government to make available some of the money raised through landfill tax for people to set up allotments on disused land.

At the moment the Landfill Communities Fund, which allocates some of the funds collected through landfill taxes, is unable to give grants to help restore or set up new allotments.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents over 350 councils in England and Wales, wants allotments to be eligible for grants from the fund. Councils could then use this money to develop places for local people to grow fruit and vegetables. This would help to alleviate the chronic shortage of plots and spiralling allotment waiting lists.

It is estimated that 200,000 allotments have been lost in the last thirty years, totalling over eleven square miles, an area 15 times the size of Hyde Park.

However, the last few years has seen a rise in demand, with allotments proving particularly popular with environmentally-aware young professionals keen to grow their own organic food. This has led to waiting lists of up to 10 years in some parts of the country.

 

Cllr Gary Porter, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said: "There has been a huge upsurge in recent years in the number of people wanting an allotment. Young families across the country are rolling up their sleeves, pulling on their wellington boots and picking up a shovel.

"Allotments are a fantastic way of understanding where food comes from and of having a go at growing your own. Nowadays allotments are the preserve of Jamie Oliver as much as Arthur Fowler.

"Urgent action must be taken to meet this growing demand and allowing councils to use money raised from landfill tax to bring derelict land and empty spaces back into use would help meet this demand as well as improving the appearance of local areas.

"There is a whole range of benefits from allotments, from getting out in the fresh air and getting some exercise to growing you own organic food and saving on the shopping bills. At a time when childhood obesity is on the up, organic products are becoming ever more popular and the price of food is rising, making it easier for people to get hold of an allotment makes perfect sense."

National Allotment Waiting Lists Survey 2010

http://www.transitiontownwestkirby.org.uk/files/ttwk_nsalg_survey_2010.pdf

Summary 2010

This survey of the allotment waiting lists held by the English principal local authorities is an

update of a similar survey carried out 12 months ago.

All 323 English principal authorities were surveyed. The main findings were

■

321 (99.4%) authorities gave a complete response to the survey questions

■

222 (69%) of these held waiting list data

■

this data was for a total of 3,791 allotment sites (averaging 17 sites per council)

■

these allotment sites contained 158,796 plots (averaging 42 plots per site)

■

the waiting lists for these plots totaled 94,124 people

■

Compared to the similar survey 12 months ago

this is an average of 59 people waiting for every 100 plots.

■

increase)

the average waiting list has increased from 49 to 59 people waiting per 100 plots (a 20%

■

there is no sign that the increase in demand for allotments is slowing down

■

the total waiting lists for sites where data was available increased from 76,330 to 94,124

■

There are some considerable uncertainties around the total figures, but the increase in

waiting list numbers is probably a fairly accurate estimate because the methodologies of the

two surveys are similar.

In conclusion, waiting lists for allotments are long and getting longer. Even at a time of

budgetary restraint, a strong argument can be made for a large increase in allotment

provision because:

only 483 plots in new allotment sites were brought into use by local authorities.

■

new greener low-carbon economy

food grown on allotments means fewer food miles, and could be an important part of the

■

allotment sites often provide a focus for a community, and improve community cohesion

■

growing one’s own food is an important part of a healthy-eating programme

■

allotments offer a productive activity for the unemployed

■

some time

local and national government reports have been promoting the benefits of allotments for■ local authorities have a statutory duty to provide sufficient allotments

Ministry of Food - book review

http://transitionculture.org/2010/05/27/book-review-the-ministry-of-food-by-jane-fearnley-whittingstall/

Book Review: 'The Ministry of Food' by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall

The Ministry of Food: thrifty wartime ways to feed your family today. Jane Fearnley Whittingstall.  (2010) Hodder & Stoughton and the Imperial War Museum.

I hadn't heard of this until a couple of weeks ago, when a group of folks visiting from the US dropped by, en route from London, where they had visited an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum called 'The Ministry of Food'<http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/conEvent.3167> (which runs until January 3rd 2011), gave me their copy of this book.  

Having read this book, I will definitely make a point of going to see the exhibition next time I am in London.  The book is the exhibition catalogue, but it is also a superb stand-alone publication, offering many useful insights on how the British people managed during the war, how the Ministry of Food successfully promoted the Dig for Victory/Kitchen Front campaigns which kept the country from starvation, and, ironically, led to the healthiest population in the country's recent history.

Fearnley-Whittingstall was granted unprecedented access to the Imperial War Museum while preparing this book, and it is packed with posters, booklets and other memorabilia from the time.  Prior to World War Two, the UK was at its lowest level of food self-sufficiency at any point during the 20th century, and it had to try and rebuild food self reliance in a very short period of time.  It needed to get people growing food on any spare patch of ground, it needed to revolutionise output from the nation's farms, and it needed to ensure that people were still able to cook healthy meals in spite of rationing and the unavailability of some key foods.  One of the keys to this was the Ministry of Food, and the book offers numerous insights into what it looks like when government creatively attempts to promote thrift, and what a Great Reskilling might look like in practice.

 

The author is also careful not just to write a historical piece, but to also draw lessons out for today.  That same ethic, she argues, of not wasting food, eating seasonally, and growing some of your own food, is just as relevant today.  She writes "today, instead of fighting Hitler, we are combatting economic recession.  But unlike our forebears, we are fighting on several fronts - against waste, junk food and the depletion of fossil fuels.  In hard times the battle for survival can be exhilarating, and it does bring rewards: the satisfaction that comes from self-sufficiency; pride in seeing children grow up strong and healthy; and the friendships that develop through co-operation with neighbours".

 

The book is divided into three section.  Section 1, 'Dig for Victory' focuses on the revolution in food production that took place, both on the nation's farms, and in the backgardens and allotments. Between 1939 and 1945, food imports to the UK were halved and there was an 80% increase in the amount of land in cultivation.  As well as writing an informed and fascinating history of the times, illustrated with quotes from diaries of the time, she also includes recipes and some great gardening guides.  For people with no gardening experience, the booklets clearly explained how to dig, how to set out an allotment and so on.  There are also some of the wonderful posters created by the Ministry of Food, and the rather odd one I am still trying to figure out which says "The Radio Doctor says 'an ounce of cabbage is worth an inch of lipstick'"!

 

Although some advertising at the time was pretty rudimentary, with none of the pyschological tricks we are so accustomed to in advertising today (there is a Marmite advert which simply says "Marmite definitely does you good and you'll enjoy it too"...), it was very powerful.  There is a story about how in 1942, the Ministry introduced 'the National Loaf', similar to today's wholemeal bread, because scarcity of wheat and the push for national self-sufficiency in wheat, meant that every part had to be used, and the National Loaf was more nutritious and less wasteful than the white bread most peopel favoured.  Some saw the National Loaf as the source of every ailment, calling it "this nasty, dirty, dark, coarse, indigestible bread".  The Minister of Food, Lord Woolton, started a rumour that it was an aphrodisiac, which seemed to help with its acceptance, and by the end of the War, 20% more bread was being eaten than in 1939. Just imagine the banning of white bread and other similar processed foods today, and the resultant health benefits (and the potential political suicide of the government that introduced it!)

 

The second section of the book is called 'The Kitchen Front' and looks at how people made their food rations go as far as possible, what shopping was like at the time, and how people coped with celebrations (birthday cakes, Christmas and so on).  This section, again, offers a fascinating history of the times, and an insight into a culture with a different attitude towards food.  Looking back from a culture today that wastes 30% of our food, Lord Woolton's approach to overcoming wastefulness in the population is fascinating, stating "above all - whether you are shopping, cooking or eating - remember "Food is a Munition of War". Don't waste it".  That culture of not wasting any food at all lasted into the early 1960s, and many people I talk to who grew up during the War still hold it strongly. The culture we inhabit today is as far from that as possible, but as Fearnley-Whittingstall notes, with the resurgence in interest in food growing, allotments and so on, perhaps we are starting to see its return.

 

The final section 'Turning Over a New Leaf', focuses on the practical gardening advice given to people at the time, and offers a month-by-month guide to food growing. It is an excellent and clear guide, offering useful insights into how gardening can be communicated in such a way that people could pick it up quite quickly.  Not one for the no dig gardening fraternity, but again, fascinating insights into how such things can be communicated (although how many of you reading this can honestly say that after every time you work in the garden you clean your tools afterwards?).

 

The exhibition behind this book is also accompanied by an excellent blog<http://food.iwm.org.uk/>, with some of the information films from the time, and other useful stuff too.  As someone who is fascinating by the period 1939-1945 as the most recent example we have of a national government-led, intentional 'Powerdown', (something discussed in 'The Transition Handbook'), this book is one of the best histories of the time, but it also draws out lessons and comparisons to today.  In full colour, packed with images from the time, this is much more than just a cookbook of wartime recipes, it is a historic case study showing how thrift, adaptability and self-reliance are key aspects of resilience, and that frugality had many benefits.  

Above all, it shows what it looks like when government promotes those values, rather than the ones that dominated from the 1960s onwards, of consumerism at all costs.  'The Ministry of Food' is a superb book, rich in insights and learning, yet also one only too aware of its relevance to today.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rob Hopkins

Food growing around social housing

As the competion for land use hots up, many local authorities are saying that social housing must take precedence over allotment provision. But with postage stamp gardens and car parking spaces, what will the residents of social housing do about a patch of ground to grow food on?

Follow the link for another great resource from the Women's Environmental Network & Sustain:

http://www.sustainweb.org/pdf/food_growing_&_social_housing.pdf

Calling all existing and budding community food projects in Somerset

Somerset Land & Food is a 3 year Local Food Fund project hosted by Somerset Community Food. http://www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk

The project is now nearly half way through and our thoughts are turning to reviewing our progress to date and planning our exit strategy.

Following consultation with Transition groups and other groups in Somerset, the project was designed to support people seeking land to grow food on – new allotments, community and market gardens, CSA projects etc.

To this end we have established a base line by mapping the location of existing allotments and waiting lists in 10 market towns in Somerset with the highest indices of deprivation. See our digital record of this at http://www.foodmapper.org.uk/map.php You can also map all your own local food resources on this map.

Demand hotspots for land in Somerset include the following settlements. Numbers indicate length of waiting list:

·        Taunton – 400+ (unofficial estimate)

·        Frome – 90+

·        Wellington - 77

·        Chard- 58

·        Bridgwater - 50

·        Yeovil – 70+ including residents outside borough boundary

·        Highbridge and Burnham - 34

·        Crewkerrne - 30

·        Shepton Mallet – 28

·        Minehead - 14

We now need your help to contact groups actively cultivating land and/or seeking land in your community. We would like to survey them to discover exactly what support would make the most difference to projects over the next 18 months.

Please help us to help you strengthen our community food movement in Somerset by forwarding this message to anyone you know who needs the skills, access to land, tools and other support to get growing or keep growing in our county.

Please also forward to any landowners who might be willing to make land available for community growing.

Thanks in advance!

Food and Public Space in a Global City

Summer Colloquium: Food and Public Space in a Global City
Saturday 21st May 2011  10am - 5pm
Room 101 Clore Management Centre, Birkbeck College 


This colloquium will be focused on one particular city - London - and will bring together the themes of food growing, 'public' space and the city to explore  thought-provoking questions around food equity, access to public and semi-private space, and the ability of different socio-economic groups to establish their own interests in city planning and construction processes that have consequences for private and community-based food production and distribution (e.g. the provision and retention of community food growing spaces, the creation of productive and educative school grounds, the provision of housing with growing and food preparation spaces). 

More information: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/news/food


Speakers:
Carolyn Steel<http://www.hungrycitybook.co.uk/>  -  author of 'Hungry City'

Paul Smyth<http://www.somethingandson.com/> -  Something & Son

Professor Martin Caraher<http://www.city.ac.uk/communityandhealth/phpcfp/foodpolicy/about/mart...> - Professor of Food and Health Policy, City University

Ben Reynolds  -  Network Director, Sustain<http://www.sustainweb.org/>
 

Lunch will be provided and will be catered by Sarah Moore Caterers<http://www.sarahmoore.co.uk/> a catering firm that specialises in local, seasonal and sustainable food and includes ingredients sourced from within London. 


Numbers will be limited, so please register early at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/news/food
Cost: including lunch

Standard<https://www2.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/activities/> -  £25

Other Student/unwaged<https://www2.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/activities/> -  £10

Birkbeck staff/students<https://www2.bbk.ac.uk/bisr/activities/bbk> -  £10

Land Partnerships & LandShare

If you are looking for land to start a new food enterprise, you might be interested in the following:



Land Partnerships - update 


We're writing to update you on our plans following last month's Land Partnerships Seminar, at Dartington Hall.

We think the ideas raised during and after the seminar form a clear 'Agenda for Action', and we have summarised this in the attached document. 


Our most immediate plans are to:

 *   Produce a 'Land Partnerships Handbook'
 *   Lobby for a set of regulatory reforms, to smooth the way for Land Partnerships
 *   Meet again, later this year, in Oxford. 


Please do get in touch if you have any thoughts on this, or if there are ways in which you can help.


An Agenda for Action 

Land Partnerships are mechanisms which allow landowners and new farm entrepreneurs to club together to create new land enterprises. We take an approach to diversification where landowners progressively parcel out land for new, independent, land based businesses, with the aim of building up a cluster of complementary enterprises. Land Partnerships build on a heritage of land tenure arrangements, from modern joint ventures and Farm Business Tenancies, back to medieval commons and usufruct rights. But, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and industrial symbiosis, they provide fresh opportunities to unlock new types of innovation in the way the work with land. 


The promise of Land Partnerships lies in the benefits it brings to all parties. They provide the landowner with a mechanism for diversifying their landholding, whilst at the same time avoiding many of the risks and liabilities associated with establishing a clutch of new businesses in-house. For new entrants into land enterprise, partnership arrangements can provide a way around the high costs and intransigence of land markets. From a wider
perspective, a well-planned cluster of land enterprises has the potential to manage natural resources more efficiently, and has the complexity required to penetrate local markets with a wider range of products. This could result in the sort of resilience, flexibility, and increased emphasis on localisation that our communities will need if they are to cope with future challenges and uncertainty in the food system. 


In December 2011, Dartington and LandShare convened a national seminar on land Partnerships, which drew together expertise and experience from around the country, and charted an exciting path forward. This covered the need to bring together existing know-how and experience; push for adjustments to regulatory frameworks, and perhaps most importantly, provide landowners and land entrepreneurs with the information and confidence they need to take action. 


What we plan to do now 

Our seminar at Dartington set a clear plan of action. We will now: 


1.    Establish a Strategy Group of key organisations to guide, support, and endorse our work. This will include organisations involved in the Land Partnerships seminar, plus a small number of other invitees. (winter 2011) 


2.    Produce a 'Land Partnerships Handbook'. This will be a short how-to guide, to set out the basics for landowners and their potential land partners. It will summarise practical know-how, legal and tax technicalities, and will present working examples. To make this happen we will seek endorsement and financial backing from organisations represented on our Strategy Group, and other influential bodies. Preparation, launch, and dissemination of the report will by co-ordinated by LandShare and Dartington. (spring/summer 2011) 


3.    Pursue a Lobbying Agenda. Our seminar identified two key policy areas that might help smooth the way for new land partnerships. These were: (1) opportunities through CAP to support the establishment of land partnerships - a 'Social Stewardship Scheme'; and (2) adjustments to inheritance tax regulations, to prevent them creating disincentives for landowners to allocate land to partner enterprises. Our Strategy Group will develop and refine these agendas, and we propose to enlist support through policy contacts, and through promotion opportunities such as the launch of the Land Partnerships Handbook. (spring 2011 onwards) 


4.    Create Opportunities for Partnership. An inherent part of the Partnerships approach is to cross the usual boundaries between sectors, and bring people together to work in coalition. Our first seminar was part of this, and we plan to re-convene for another Land Partnerships event in Oxford late in 2011. We expect one theme for this to be the creation of a new platform or mechanism forlandowners and land entrepreneurs to make contact. (autumn 2011).

Free Cooking and Growing Courses in Bridgwater and Taunton

A few places are still available on our popular Get Set Grow courses. Don't miss out in March, book now! 

These courses the basics of what you need to know to get growing and cooking healthy, delicious food. They are FREE. Courses still with places include:

+ Get Set Grow - Wednesday afternoons 1.00 - 3.15 in Priorswood, Taunton with Jane Sweetman 

+ Get Set Cook - Wednesday mornings 10.00 to 12.20 in Priorswood 

+ Get Set Cook - Thursday mornings 10.00 to 12.20 in Victoria, Bridgwater with Kristine Hermansen 

More detailson the Somerset Community Food website 'Growing and Cooking' page. www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk

 
Contact Jane by email at communityfood@tiscali.co.uk

Or text or phone 07734753788 to book a place, and please tell others about these opportunities. 

Conference for School Farms happening in Somerset

A School Farms Network Conference is happening in Somerset in July. For more information please see www.farmgarden.org.uk

Local food newsletter in Bristol featuring Foodmapper

A March/April local food newsletter is now available that gives a glimpse into the extraordinarily rich diversity of food related activity in and around Bristol. To download please visit:

www.bristollocalfood.co.uk

Our Food Mapper is also featured! www.foodmapper.org.uk

Stuffed!

Great website that sets out debates about the future of food,  to explore the issues surrounding how our food is produced and what impact this is having on our environment, society and animal welfare. Each debate has resources - relevant articles, weblinks and information - that will confirm or challenge your understanding about the impact of our current food production and consumption.

http://www.stuffedonline.org/

Sustainable Design for Food and Drink Businesses

The role of sustainable design in creating profit for food & drink businesses is being explored at a conference in Taunton happening in March. 


Read more here: http://www.sustainable-design-uk.com/

Land available in Bristol

A group of people working out of Nigel Howe's Wood Mill business at Chelve are offering a large plot of land and pollytunnel to food growers. 

They are seeking someone who would like to grow food with them, is knowledgeable about growing [they are not] and would have the produce in return. They are not looking for any payment for use of the land. 

If you are interested or know anyone who may be please contact:

Alan at Cleeve Nursery http://www.cleevenursery.co.uk>