There is an increasingly urgent need for action on UK and global food resilience. Climate chaos is hitting crop production, whilst reliance of chemical inputs damages soil health. Food resilience should be a national security issue. We need to provide pathways for more people to get growing – improving their knowledge of and relationship with the seasons and the soil. But concerns about the security of allotments comes at a time of lengthening waiting lists.
A national strategy to increase food security should include food growing at all levels – in cities, in peri-urban and rural areas. Allotments can play a part, but it is time we looked beyond allotments at a raft of measures – landed community kitchens, farmstart projects and agro-ecological urbanism amongst others – placing food growing skills and community cohesion centre stage. This will require political commitment, funding and access to land: fertile ground for Corbyn and Polanski?