In the UK, signs of a kitchen garden revival
Huge rise in home-grown vegetables amid increasing distaste for factory food
by John Vidal, published Monday April 9, 2007 in the Guardian
During the second world war the government famously urged every able man and woman in Britain to "dig for victory" - to grub up their flower beds and tear up their lawns to grow vegetables to avoid widespread hunger. Today, a new British land army of gardeners appears to be doing the same to avoid eating industrially-produced foods.
New figures from the Horticultural trades association show a 31% increase in the sales of vegetable seed to householders, and a corresponding 32% decline in the sale of flower seeds. We are also buying nearly twice as many seedlings and young edible plants like tomatoes and marrows, and are growing far more herbs than ever before.
Confirmation that the worm is turning away from flower growing to vegetables comes from the Royal Horticultural Society and seed companies, which say that vegetable seeds sales are now outstripping flower seeds for the first time since the second world war.
Suttons, which sells nearly a third of all household vegetable seeds in the UK, said this week that there had been a massive increase in vegetable growing in Britain. "We are seeing a big move away from flower seeds to vegetables. There has been a dramatic rise in things like sales of onions and potatoes. Spuds in particular are nearly 60% up on last year, which was 20%-30% up on the year before," a spokesman said. This year the company expects a 30% increase in its sales of UK vegetable seeds.
The proof that we are going back to our roots is seen in Britain's 330,000 allotments. Thirty years ago thousands of acres fell into disuse and were taken back by local authorities for development. Today, almost all allotments are full and it is nearly as hard to get one as to get a place in a good school.
"I've got people climbing all over me for allotments. Our waiting list is closed and there's no chance of even getting on to it. It's becoming a real bun fight," said Bruno Dore, site secretary of the Shepherds Hill allotments group in north London. The city is now believed to produce nearly 16,000 tonnes of vegetables a year. "There's definitely a big increase in the demand for allotments," said Geoff Stokes, secretary of the National Association of Allotment and Leisure gardeners. "Sites which were vacant for years are now full."
The reasons given for the shift to vegetable growing in the most urbanised country in Europe range from a political desire to not be beholden to large supermarkets, to a new awareness about healthy food and the environment, and deep dissatisfaction with industrially grown food.
"It's the fact that chefs are beginning to take up the idea of healthy foods and concern over chemicals," said Mr Stokes. "Fifty years ago people turned to vegetable gardening to save money. Now it's for fresh food and lifestyles."
"I find it the best way to relax, the nearest thing to personal and political freedom," said Joanne Nutley, 25, a Manchester allotment holder.
The seed sellers also detect a profound shift taking place, with people wanting to grow old varieties of vegetables that the industrial food system has left behind and legislation has made hard to grow.
A myriad of specialist seed clubs has been set up because it is technically illegal to sell seeds that are not on the government-approved national seed list, designed to provide large scale farmers.
Yesterday Prince Charles added his weight to the heritage vegetable seed movement, urging people to grow older varieties to maintain biodiversity. Speaking on the 60th anniversary of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time, he said it was "crucially important" to preserve genetic diversity.
"What could be crazier than to reduce ourselves to fewer and fewer varieties? [Or] to have the kind of EU legislation that makes it impossible to sell the seeds of all those varieties? Hundreds of varieties [of vegetables] that our forefathers took a lot of trouble to develop are being lost. The old varieties are not hugely productive, but they have disease resistance."
Garden Organic, Britain's leading organic research organisation, now has 10,000 members in its heritage seed "library". Members exchange and distribute over 800 old vegetable varieties.
"There is a big increase in interest in growing older varieties. Our courses are well over-subscribed," said Andy Strachan, an adviser with Garden Organic.
Seed sellers also say that vegetable growing is no longer for middle-aged men. "Now there a lot of young people getting interested," said Ben Gabel, a director of the rapidly expanding Real Seed catalogue, a specialist club based in Pembrokeshire, south Wales. "There are very definitely two classes now and a big age gap between them. There's the traditional allotment holder, but definitely a younger group, people around the age of 30 who are more adventurous in what they grow."
"Allotments are teeming with with upwardly mobile types and ecologically motivated people trying to break free from the grip of the supermarkets", said Frances Jones, a young Manchester allotment holder. The grow-it-yourself food movement is increasingly controlled by women, says the Horticultural Trades Association. They now account for 77% of the total spend on herbs, 59% on young edible plants and 47% on edible seeds. Moreover, around 80% of the total expenditure on grow-your-own vegetables gardening is from households without children.
But the grassroots grow your own movement goes far further than vegetables, with as many as 200,000 households keeping chickens, and 35,000 beekeepers.
"There are more bee keepers in London now than in years," said John Chapple, head of the London bee keepers association. "All the associations are growing, and where it used to be that it was all men of a certain age, it is now young professional women. There's been a big swing."
