Our food system is broken. ¼ of London’s schoolchildren face hunger during the summer holidays. 3.2 million adults in the UK reported not eating for a whole day because they couldn’t afford or access food. This is a crisis.
The costs of this crisis now are disastrous, the costs in the future are unthinkable. Industrial farming contributes to 1/3 of global CO2 emissions, a large proportion of which comes from carbon locked in soil being released into the atmosphere. The climate crisis makes our current system impossible to maintain. We need an alternative.
We are a group of local food growers who have been working for years to build this alternative in our corner of North-East London. This campaign represents a turning point in our work. And we need you to be a part of it!
After years of building a network of local food producers (with over 40 community food growing sites in the borough) what we need now is a local authority which supports this food movement and a plan to reach communities that need it most. This is what needs to happen for our local, ecological food system to become a credible alternative and have a chance of meeting the twin challenges of food poverty and climate breakdown.
What we are insisting on from the council is a process for community groups to access land, a commitment to the shelved food strategy and the creation of a food growing officer role to oversee a startup fund for new growing groups.
To make this happen we are organising hundreds of people to identify unloved council land, form hyperlocal growing groups and take collective action (i.e. protest!) to get the change we need. This is a strategy which both continues to build the movement we need from below and creates the conditions it needs to thrive from above.
We're not starting from scratch but to do this properly we need £25,000 to pay a small team of part-time organisers to kickstart it in the net 6 months. Your donation will help us go beyond relying on volunteers and do the deep, transformative work of connecting with and learning from people from working class and multiracial parts of the borough for whom the alternative food scene can be alienating.
Why food growing?
Food growing is a way to simultaneously meet the challenges of food poverty, climate instability, loneliness, mental health and biodiversity loss. Studies show for every £1 spent on community food growing saves the NHS £5. Food growing prevents flooding, captures carbon and creates vital habitat for wildlife. More than that, food growing connects us to land and one another. People learn to belong to their home via stewarding the land, laying the foundations of an ethic of care, solidarity and mutual aid.
Why now?
There are over a thousand people interested in growing food in our borough without access to land. There is enough private garden space alone to meet half of our population’s fruit and veg needs. And there is a vast network of food growers ready to share their skills and knowledge. Our area is simultaneously highly urbanised, featuring large areas of deprived and nature-starved places, as well as having a developed and well-connected local food movement: the perfect combination for a demonstrable alternative.
Why us?
We are a collection of people who love where we live and love growing food in it. Together we span roughly 20 different food-growing groups and spaces in this borough, and many of us are also experienced community organisers and campaigners. Mostly, we have a vision of how the world could be different and are committed to that world. We want to transform our local food system to transform the global food system: to steal a phrase from our friends in Hull ‘here now, then everywhere’.
Where will your money go?
Depending on exactly how much we can raise, roughly we'll spend 60% on paying a small team of organisers for their time, 25% on resources for new gardens (think coaching, compost and plants) and 15% on campaign materials like flyers, posters and things we need to run events.
www.wfrtg.co.uk