Grow your own groceries

There’s an economic argument that gardeners could make better use of their time by growing unusual or expensive crops in plots. Unless the garden is large, the opinion goes, it’s more efficient to leave mainstream food produce to the mass producers. Grow something of greater monetary value - asparagus, say, rather than potatoes or carrots. 

I think of this every time we dig up our household’s first-early potato crops. Seeing them emerge like jewels in the freshly dug soil this summer, my wife and I both had trepidation and excitement, as though we’d never witnessed this before! The spuds are there, they look good, but are they diseased? What’s the yield? This year’s crop were nigh perfect. The pleasure far exceeds the financial value but, that said, I see the point in not growing your own wheat for bread or oats for porridge or muesli, though some people do. And my discovery of the year was the joy of growing cima di rapa, that fast-growing green crop for the hungry gap. 

Since my Just in Case report for the National Preparedness Commission was published,¹ I have attended many events with diverse attendees. Gardening comes up regularly. So do stories of shelf-conflicts during the pandemic (and other occasions). Only yesterday, as I write, an industry executive spoke of witnessing fierce fighting in a local supermarket. The same day, I saw a distressed drug addict openly stealing from a supermarket. Food theft is on the rise.² 

UK consumers are used to food from anywhere, available everywhere, until it ins't. The mass psychology of consumer expectations is today very different from pre-World War ll culture. We need research into how people might behave in crises. I sometimes muse: would the public be calmer in crises if it had gardens that grow food not plastic lawns?

In theory, urban and rural dwellers have access to land to grow food but, as towns grow, provision doesn’t keep up. In theory, there are allotments for households to produce much of their food - but there’s no standard size for these.³ More food could be grown in towns: that we know.^4-6 But horticulture as a whole takes up only 2% of UK agricultural land. Gardening in this sense is horticulture pressed into a corner. A resilient society would have it everywhere. Diversity is strength.

Whether talking with growers, big farmers, industry or even fishing interests, there’s increasing producer awareness of food system fragility, not least the escalation of costs of conventional production.⁷ This becomes food price inflation, troubling consumers.⁸

My report backs a slowly emerging lead from the Welsh Government that small-scale growing – your tiny garden through to quite large community garden social enterprises – is worth extending.⁹ England is the laggard. Past generations did this out of necessity, pre-supermarket abundance. Just in Case says today’s era of food poly-crises requires it again.

Far from potatoes being a mass crop, the years 2021-24 reminded us how vulnerable they are to drought, floods and disease. UK production of potatoes dropped to 70%.¹⁰ Pathetic? Post-Brexit border checks have dented Scotland’s seed potato industry; production costs have risen; and the Ukraine war exposed reliance on (Russian) gas-based artificial fertilisers.¹¹ 

Slowly ideas are emerging for a different framework for UK land use, and the role of gardening in feeding people normally not just in crises. There’s no official policy framework yet. There’s a new Food Strategy Advisory Board,¹² but critics are nervous it’s industry dominated. There’s also a ‘citizens’ process underway, though no one yet is clear if this is as influential as the industry dominated FSAG. One thing is clear; gardening and the role of practical food-growing skills don’t yet feature. 

I don’t see gardening as feeding the nation in crises, but it can help. We do know current farming and food systems are failing to meet public health needs. We need more mixed farming and rotational cropping, to produce mountains of health-enhancing foods. Gardening can contribute to that goal – feeding people well in good times and bad. But this requires infrastructure, and more storage - a different mix from what was introduced over the last half century for just-in-time logistics, which got rid of storage. Above all, we need strong voices for the public good.

If gardening doesn’t feed the nation, is it a sop to encourage people to grow their own fruit and veg? Not at all. It builds food consciousness and dents the complacency that food is simply ‘there’, brought to a supermarket giant near you. And then there’s the fun and taste!