In recent years, mounting challenges have threatened not only the livelihoods of farmers but also the nation’s ability to control its own food supply.
As policies and industry practices increasingly sideline independent food production, farmers face a pivotal choice: continue operating within a system that undermines their independence, or take bold steps to reclaim control and rebuild the UK food chain from the ground up.
This article explores the urgent need for change, the systemic issues facing agriculture, and the powerful impact that farmers’ decisions will have on the future of food security, communities, and the environment.
Farmers’ Choice: Reclaiming Control of the UK Food Chain
Farmers in the UK face a critical decision: either take back control of the nation’s food chain now, or risk losing everything—including the freedom that comes from managing our own food supply.
Background
In the summer of 2023, I published The Glos Community Project, which later evolved into An Economy for the Common Good.
Originally written as a book, The Future is Local, this project explored localising the supply of essential goods and services when our current system collapses.
It offered a practical vision for local communities, emphasising business models that prioritise people, communities, and the environment over profit. The central idea was to shift away from money as the core value and put people first.
Food and food security have always been central themes since I wrote Levelling Level in 2022. Through examining food production within a localised, circular economy, I realised just how pivotal food is to our future.
Unfortunately, the UK food chain’s importance is being sidelined and overlooked today.
The State of UK Agricultural Academia
My focus on UK food security led me to postgraduate study at the Royal Agricultural University in late 2023, where my concerns about the establishment’s approach to agriculture were only amplified.
There are glaring contradictions in the current system – contradictions that academic institutions seem unwilling to address. This reluctance raises questions about the true purpose of agricultural academia if it won’t challenge the status quo.
However, this malaise isn’t unique to agriculture; it reflects a broader trend in UK higher education, which has shifted from providing world-class centres of learning to institutions focused primarily on turnover and getting every student they can through the door.
Challenges Facing Farmers
The experience at the RAU mirrors the state of UK farming today. There is widespread recognition that something is fundamentally wrong, yet calls for change are often muted and deferential to the establishment.
Many across the industry still believe that government, the public sector, and corporate players will prioritise the needs of small businesses and farmers. However, history shows that this is rarely the case.
While farmers, industry speakers, and advocacy groups continue to speak out, their efforts often amount to little more than noise. Many hope that politicians will eventually address the industry’s difficulties, or that a change in government will bring solutions.
But the reality is that UK food security is not being treated as a matter of common sense or urgency.
Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future
The Farm Inheritance Tax issue highlighted how every part of the UK food chain lacks the priorities that working family farmers and the public deserve.
The system is rigged against independent UK food production because the establishment resists any sector that could foster independence from the current system.
Sadly, instead of helping, advocacy organisations often reinforce the myth that government supports UK farming by prioritising the relationship they have with politicians and officials, even as policies make it increasingly difficult for independent producers to survive.
The reality is that no matter how they are presented, the changes are all designed to encourage the end independent food production in the UK.
Control over the food supply is power. Like other productive industries, UK farming has been systematically undermined under the guise of progress, innovation, and economic policy.
This process began with the adoption of the Neoliberal FIAT money system and the push for global business, and deliberately misled previous generations into believing that joining the Common Market and making increasing commitments to the EU methodologies would benefit everyone.
The Consequences of Inaction
For decades, we have been distracted by consumer culture and promises of continuous improvement, while key industries have been hollowed out.
This has allowed a small group of wealthy individuals and corporations to consolidate control over land, businesses, and resources, often through changes in rules and regulations that once existed to support people, communities and the environment.
While some may dismiss these concerns as conspiracy theories, the evidence is clear: the consequences of these actions have been real and damaging. Many still struggle to believe that such harm could be inflicted for the sake of control and profit.
The Reality Today
Food and our food supply are critically important, yet many fail to grasp this.
Some policymakers believe traditional farming is obsolete and that future food will be produced in factories, regardless of the health or freedom implications.
Reports on farming profitability are rarely taken seriously, as the industry’s problems are symptoms of long-term, deliberate changes.
Governments of all parties are invested in a collapsing system, unable or unwilling to enact meaningful change.
Their solution is now to tax everything in hopes of reviving that failing system, but this approach is unsustainable too.
The Choice for Farmers
Farmers now face a pivotal choice: continue operating within a system that works against them, or walk away from government and industry expectations.
By starting anew and rebuilding the UK food system from scratch, farmers can reclaim control and create a future that prioritizes people, communities, and the environment.
Key Points Summary
Urgency for Farmers: UK farmers must act now to reclaim control of the food chain, or risk losing their livelihoods and the nation’s food security.
Local, People-Focused Economy: We must shift from profit-driven business models to ones that prioritise people, communities, and the environment, as outlined in the newly published Local Economy & Governance System.
Systemic Issues in Agriculture: There are deep-rooted problems in UK agriculture and academia, with institutions reluctant to challenge the status quo, and a broader trend of prioritising financial gain over genuine learning and improvement.
Government and Industry Inaction: Despite widespread recognition of problems, calls for change are often muted. Many in the industry hope for government intervention, but history shows that politicians rarely prioritise farmers’ needs.
Control and Power: The UK food system is structured to prevent independent food production, consolidating control among a small group of powerful interests. Advocacy organisations often reinforce the myth of government support, even as policies undermine farmers.
Consequences of Policy: Decades of policy have hollowed out key industries, transferring land, resources, and businesses to wealthy corporations and individuals, leaving communities and the environment vulnerable.
Dismissal of Concerns: While some may dismiss these issues as conspiracy theories, most recognise that the negative impacts are real and significant.
Misguided Beliefs: Policymakers increasingly believe traditional farming is obsolete, favouring factory-produced food without considering health or freedom implications. Reports and studies on farming profitability and the problems the industry faces are rarely taken seriously.
System Collapse: The current system is unsustainable, and governments are unable or unwilling to enact meaningful change, resorting to increased taxation in a failing attempt to keep the system afloat.
A New Path Forward: Farmers are encouraged to reject the expectations of government and industry, and to rebuild the UK food system from scratch, prioritising independence, community, and sustainability.
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***
No food banks. No emergency loans. No skipped prescriptions or unpaid bills. Just a life that’s livable, sustainable, and free from poverty.
Watching the continuing bewilderment, frustration, fear and anger from so many across the UK farming community is not easy.
But the real difficulty for someone like me isn’t the wholly avoidable tragedies that are part of the much bigger engineered tragedy that is unfolding.
It is the reality that we cannot do a thing about what is happening, and why it is happening, until many more of us, and not least of all people from within farming and its related industries, begin to accept that what we are seeing, experiencing and increasingly becoming victims to, bears no relationship with our reasoned expectations of government and governance. But is instead being driven by a different set of truths that are very difficult to accept.
Whilst many within the farming industry may feel that you can only understand and relate to the turmoil that this one change in public policy has caused, if you are a farmer and have obvious skin in the game yourself, the action taken by the government and its failure to respond to months of concern, in any way which makes sense, is far from being isolated. Not least of all because the Tax that could be raised by the policy is in public spending terms trivial and was never what the change was really about.
Indeed, what appears to just be a nasty attack on ‘rich farmers’, was, is and will continue to be all about food and the independence that locally controlled food production gives us. It’s this that should be concerning us all more than anything.
It is vitally important for anyone who wants to address the real issues that UK food production faces to stop and look beyond the question of Farmers IHT itself.
To begin understanding how the bigger and deliberately complicated picture works, we all need to see how the IHT policy didn’t arrive in isolation. But was in fact just the next step in a long and calculated chain of policy changes and their implementation, which have been reforming, remodelling and slowly strangling, if not killing off all parts of UK food production for a period that now exceeds 50 years.
We should be under no illusion that the Farm Inheritance Tax Policy is part of a much bigger strategy and plan. One that places the end of independent farming and food production of all kinds across the UK at its very heart.
So those who wish to have control over everything – including people and how we are allowed to live and behave – want to secure complete control of the food chain. Simply because of the absolute control that it will shortly allow them to impose, if the status quo continues, unopposed.
The last thing an establishment already struggling to hide its totalitarian and authoritarian plans for the future wants, is for anyone or any business to exist that can provide any person or any community with the independence that could very quickly derail and wreck everything they aim to do.
Whilst this malfeasant but cleverly legitimised strategy is being slowly but very surely implemented across every area of life today to restrict freedoms, including just about every rule that’s meant to create safety and switch to digital and online alternatives to ‘real life’ that there is, there are none that have quite the same level of potential impact on all of us as food and the supply of it.
Many of those farming smaller, ‘family sized farms’ or rather farm businesses that lie outside of corporate control, understandably perceive a specialised business landscape that cannot exist without subsidies, commercial contracts and the revival of the golden egg – which is a fair income from whatever they produce.
However, contrary to the accepted narrative that tells us ‘This is just how things work’ or this is where ‘progress’ has taken food production in the 21st century, the truth that we all have to wrestle with a very serious paradox indeed, namely:
The only business sector that can genuinely provide UK Food Security, and with it the freshest, most nutritious, healthiest, most cost-effective food supply, that every person’s body across the UK needs at least twice daily is unable to provide the producers with a viable, unsupported or independent income.
Truly, the idea that growing the food that we genuinely need is not possible, can only begin to make sense when we accept that the whole problem has been created for farmers (and consumers), so that specific interests can be advantaged above others and that this was the deliberate choice of whoever has and is now controlling the levers of government.
Far from being the anachronism that many of today’s two-faced politicians would like voters to believe, small independent family farms are the future of food as a part of a great future for us and for our communities.
The relatively easy to solve problem for farmers and consumers that really is a very big concern of the establishment, is the threat that we will rediscover the legitimacy of food independence, whilst realising that we don’t need centralised power structures and business models to thrive and have much better life experiences on our own.
It’s this that the establishment really doesn’t like and is quietly terrified of.
All the rules that have slowly choked small farmers out of business, following policy change after policy change, heralded by Trojan horses like the Common Agricultural Policy, and bureaucratic initiatives that have cascaded down into practical business operations in ways that have made support industries like abattoirs unviable, through health, environmental and quality rules, have all been created with long term outcomes in mind.
Policy after policy has been created, changed and implemented that have at best been intended to redirect and at worst destroy businesses that could have and still could adapt to the needs that people genuinely have for food. Needs that could otherwise already be being fully met by functioning and supported UK food producers, rather than what is left of UK food producing industries being the victims of engineered circumstances that tell everyone they are unnecessary and are therefore done.
Whilst even now, many reading this essay may well scoff at what I am sharing, I’m afraid that the evidence of all this is now beginning to shout very loudly as it emerges into public view at breakneck speed.
To be fair, it certainly defies the logic and expectations of so many of us, who have always believed that we could trust public representatives to actually do what’s best for us.
Dealing with this problem should be as simple as getting politicians to change their minds. Perhaps do a U-turn. Or even waiting until the next government comes in behind just the latest in a long line who everyone believes to be solely responsible for wrecking everything today.
But it’s not as simple as that in any kind of way.
Government and politics no longer work anything like we expect them to. Or in any way as they should.
With many of the politicians we can publicly identify being incapable of leading as they should and they themselves being wholly reliant upon the advice and direction of many other people and influencers who are both considered to be ‘experts’ (in what?!) and who we are unlikely to ever know of, we have to begin to understand that what and why the politicians we have are doing what they are doing may actually be for reasons that may be very different to what we expect.
Even then, if we knew what the politicians honestly believe, the genuine purpose or truth behind what they are being advised or directed to do may not even then be something that they themselves would easily believe.
Regrettably and rather worryingly, the establishment and any political party, group or movement that is aligned with the establishment, rather than the people and what remain of al independent businesses themselves, will not change the direction of travel of any of this, until they either succeed or their plans are stopped.
This means that to reshape and redirect UK food production, farmers, growers and fishers must themselves voluntarily step away from the reliance and expectation historically placed upon the establishment as well as those who wish to become part of it.
Food producers must take all steps necessary to develop a new, direct relationship with the public and therefore go it alone.
Regrettably, the alternative is to keep shouting whilst continuing to accept the status quo, whilst in effect sitting back and watching as UK food production and everything that still remains able to provide us with genuine freedom is destroyed, right up to the point that traditional, ‘natural’ farming and food growing practices no longer exist, and people will never be able to function independently and away from the control of the establishment ever again.
This blog was originally published on my Foods We Can Trust website on 13 June 2025
Writing and publishing the pages of Foods We Can Trust as I go, does mean that I have had the opportunity to reflect upon and even mention relevant topics from the news as I go.
A few days ago, at the end of May, it was pleasing to see The Times report that former President of the National Farmers Union Minette Batters (Who has taken the step of working for the government, now that she is in the Lords) suggested that future housing developments should include Allotments.
Sadly, comments that followed on social media branded this as ‘Everythingism’; a term that like many others that is now being used to dismiss anything with deeper meaning or a point that runs contrary to common or ‘accepted’ thought.
Allotments, or rather the Allotments that are available for people to rent today are popular. This point was proven well when I did a search as I have been writing and found that the Local District Level Authority where I live, Cheltenham Borough Council has a waiting list for the Allotments under its control that can extend from a matter of weeks to a couple of years.
Contrary to what some might immediately think, I am not criticizing CBC or any Local Authority in any way for not having Allotments immediately available today – as it’s great that they are there and can be available. Popularity does of course vary and the last thing that many people think about today when it comes to Food, is Growing Your Own.
The need for us to contribute to Food Security
If you’ve read the page ‘What is Food Security’, you will now have a better idea of what it means to be ‘Food Secure’ and why we really aren’t Food Secure, anywhere in the UK today.
Unfortunately, finding a way to help enough people understand that we are all taking a massive risk by trusting that the Food we eat everyday will always be available and that as if by magic, the Food Chain will keep on doing what it does today, isn’t easy.
Especially as everything that the Government is currently doing is reinforcing the message that the UK doesn’t need Farms and that the Food of the Future will be manufactured in warehouses and factories – sadly without any regard for what that will really mean for us all in terms of not being able to eat Foods We Can Trust.
If we continue to wait until there is a real problem with the UK Food Supply, before we begin taking steps to ensure that we always have enough Food available and ready to Feed everyone across the UK, we are all likely to experience Food Shortages quickly. And as time goes by, following the arrival of a serious Food Supply Shortage, more and more of us may even be forced to go without.
Food Shortages are not a problem that any of us should be taking lightly. But neither should any of us – and particularly our politicians – be taking it for granted that enough Food of any kind will always be available for everyone – as is clearly the case, right now.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding the risk to UK Food Security and then considering the steps that need to be taken to ensure that we will always have enough Food, is this:
The UK Food Chain is currently unable to Feed the UK Population without considerable supplies being imported from Overseas.
If that’s difficult enough to accept, the next point we need to understand is this:
If Overseas Food Imports were stopped, UK Farms and Food Producers would be able to provide significantly less than the 54-58% of ‘self-produced’ or ‘UK-Produced’ Food that UK People would immediately need. Because the Food Supply and Logistics Chain isn’t set up to prioritise British Consumers today, and very few of the Farms the UK has would be able to supply Food that is ready to be prepared to eat, direct.
To add some further perspective, we must then accept that:
The Farms across the UK that are geared up and have the systems in place to provide Food to us direct are likely to already being doing so. They are what we already know and use as our Local Farm Shops and Food Businesses that are selling us the Food that we already know to be coming from Local Farms, Harbours and Fisheries before being turned into Dairy Products, Breads or any of the Foods that are available to us through recognizable Local Suppliers or direct delivery services.
The question of the Food We Eat, is now Food for Thought.
In real terms, that means that if the Border around the UK (That’s transport by Air, Sea or the Channel Tunnel) closed for any prolonged period, there would only be the equivalent of enough Food available for 1 in 9 People – in relative terms.
Whilst I will always champion UK Farmers as some of the most entrepreneurial and creative People I have the pleasure to know, the time it would take to transform and restructure the UK Food Chain so that it works as it arguably always should – in our best interests and for us all, following a crisis or breakdown in the Food Supply – would probably be a period of months, before everyone was being supplied with at least some Foods that we should all have available to us, rightnow.
We will not have the luxury of time for the Food Chain to change, if we wait for Food Shortages before we begin
Whilst it would be beneficial for the majority of Our Farmers to begin restructuring their businesses to work towards Local Food Chains and UK Food Security through self-sufficiency today – for themselves as well as the UK Population, many remain tied to the way that the Food Chain in the UK has been evolved by the Global Model (Most strikingly, through the UK relationship with the EU).
Many UK Farmers still believe that a change of government or the politicians themselves, will be all it will take for them to get paid more or to be subsidized further for what they do, so that they receive a higher, or more appropriate income than they do now.
However, Farmers and existing Food Growing Businesses are not going to survive, if they do not adapt their businesses to operate independently as part of Local Food Chains.
Because the economic system we have today doesn’t value independence in the Food Chain and is already actively working to remove it.
At some point, probably sooner rather than later, UK Farms will be called upon to make this necessary change.
Sadly, as things stand today, this is likely to be when the UK is already in crisis – as it will only be when we are in the middle of a Food Crisis, where everyone is experiencing the problem themselves, that the real meaning and need for genuine UK Food Security is going to make sense.
However, that doesn’t mean that we cannot do something to help, right now, if we can see that hope and waiting for tomorrow is very unlikely to save the day.
Growing Your Own is the most trustworthy way to source Food
Whilst talking about the role we all have to play in the UKs future Food Security might feel like a deviation from the direction of Foods We Can Trust, it is important enough for us to be aware of and to understand the real benefits from having and developing access to home grown, community grown and Food that comes direct from Local Farms and Growers, today.
Just having Food to Eat is important. But prioritising Food Chains that supply the Foods We can Trust is essential.
There is no better way to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust than if we Grow Our Own Food. Whether it be at home, within community allotments or gardens or other shared spaces, where we can be sure of everything used to Grow Our Food, as well as the continuation and availability of the supply.
Grow Your Own Foods We Can Trust
As we have discussed above, there are two very good reasons to Grow Your Own:
Growing Our Own Food will at least increase the Food we have available, and
Growing Our Own Food is the surest way to know we are eating Foods We Can Trust
There are other advantages to Growing Your Own Food too, such as producing Food that we can all share with others, or exchange for different types of Food or other essentials that we might need in a crisis.
However, one of the biggest, and probably best reasons to Grow Your Own (beyond having a supply of our own Food to Eat) is that the process of growing, harvesting, cultivating and handling Home Grown Food can be very good for our mental health or sense of wellbeing, as well as the activity required to do so contributing positively to our physical health.
Foods We Can Grow Ourselves
Understanding and being open to the idea of DIY Food Growing is where the whole idea of Grow Your Own can become even more interesting and exciting, as the list of the different Foods We Can Grow Ourselves is extensive!
In fact, what We Can Grow Ourselves may only be limited by the space and resources that we have available we have.
To illustrate just how broad the list of Foods We Can Grow Ourselves and the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food really is, we will now share lists of the different Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs and Animals that we can grow ourselves, along with suggestions of the different ways that we can grow them.
The following list IS NOT exhaustive and there may be many more!
Please note that links to organisations, businesses and groups that are added anywhere on these Pages about Grow Your Own are for information sharing purposes only. They are not recommendations and certainly not endorsements of any other organisation, product or the advice and suggestions that they provide.
Vegetables that can be Grown at Home
Growing Vegetables at home probably feels like the most obvious type of Food to grow when it comes to Growing Your Own.
However, did you know just how many types of different Vegetables there are that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK?
List of Grow Your Own Vegetables in the UK:
Aubergines
Asparagus
Beans
Beetroot
Broad Beans
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbages
Carrots
Cauliflower
Calabrese
Celeriac
Celery
Chard
Chicory
Chilli Peppers
Chinese Broccoli
Chinese Cabbage
Courgettes
Cucumbers
Endive
Florence Fennel
French Beans
Garlic
Globe Artichokes
Jerusalem Artichokes
Kale
Kohl Rabi
Leeks
Lettuce
Marrows
Mizuna & Mibuna
Okra
Onions
Pak Choi
Parsnips
Peas
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Radishes
Rhubarb
Rocket
Runner Beans
Salad Leaves
Salad Onions
Salsify
Shallots
Soya Beans
Spinach
Squash
Swedes
Sweetcorn
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Turnips
Please note that I will cover the different methods that can be used to Grow Your Own, depending upon the resources and space that you have available once I have finished listing what you can grow.
There are lots of Vegetables that we can Grow Ourselves. But the list doesn’t stop there, as we can also Grow Herbs – which will of course help to add flavour to the other Foods that we Grow Ourselves when we have them available.
Vegetables and Herbs are likely to be the easiest and, in many cases, the quickest Foods that we can Grow at home.
However, if you have access to the space and resources necessary, there is a surprisingly long list of Fruits that we can Grow Ourselves in the UK too!
Some will be surprised to learn that it is possible to keep some kinds of animals for Food at home.
In fact, historically, it was quite normal to keep some animals as a source of Food for domestic consumption.
Perhaps the most obvious animals to keep at Home for Food would be Chickens. Not necessarily as a source of fresh meat. But as a source of fresh eggs. Which anyone who has had home grown eggs or eggs straight from a local Farm will know often taste much better than those we buy in supermarkets or online!
Other types of poultry, rabbits and fish are different animals that can more easily be kept as a source of Food at home.
However, it is important to be aware that these and other animals that are sometimes kept at home for Food such as pigs, goats and anything else that you might have space for, may need to be registered or cared for under licenses that it may be difficult for a normal home to hold.
As such, it may be better left to a local farm or community small holding to keep them.
Like pets, any animals kept for Food require time, commitment and unavoidable expense which may mean that keeping them is simply impractical.
Methods for Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs Ourselves
Learning to Grow Your Own doesn’t have to be boring and certainly doesn’t have to follow any kind of rigid model or set plan.
In fact, like all of our homes, the resources we have and the time we have available will be different. So, Growing Our Own Food doesn’t need to be the same as what anyone else does, even if we are growing the same Foods!
Yes, having some ground available in a garden, allotment or open space is of course a fantastic place to begin. But we don’t need a garden to Grow Our Own Food and there are ways that we can grow all sorts of different things simply by making better use of the space that we have already got.
Here are the different ways that we can Grow Our Own Food, either alone or in collaboration with neighbours or members of our local communities:
Grow Bags
Perhaps the simplest, quickest and most cost-friendly way to get started with Growing Your Own Food will be to use Grow Bags.
Garden Centres, Farm Shops, Country Stores and at certain times of the year, even supermarkets will have Grow Bags available to buy.
Grow Bags can be a fun, efficient and low-cost way to learn about growing Food, without making significant commitments with resources, money and time.
The range of Vegetables and Herbs that can be grown using Grow Bags may not be as extensive as it would be with other spaces and resources to use. But there is still plenty that you can try!
Space for growing any type of Food at home can be a challenge, and I’m certainly not taking it for granted that you have a garden or space available inside.
If you don’t have space outside or inside near a patio window or perhaps a conservatory area, growing Food using a Window Box may be another way to get started:
By this point it may be becoming clearer that Growing Your Own Food can be much easier to begin than we might have assumed!
Now that we’ve covered Grow Bags and Window Boxes, it might also be helpful to consider that Food can grow very well in containers of all sorts of descriptions.
This includes old buckets, watering cans and even dustbins (that have been cleaned out!).
If you have limited space where there is access to daylight in your Home and you enjoy a little DIY with technology, perhaps you could give Hydroponics a try.
Hydroponics – or what is known by some as Aquaculture, is the process of growing Food using water-based systems that provide nutrients and whatever the plant-based Foods you are growing through the water itself, which can be circulated around even a very small system that might even be small and compact enough to sit on a shelf.
Hydroponics supplies are now widely available, and it would be well worth doing an online search for them if you are interested in giving this form of Grow Your Own a try!
Some of us may already have Greenhouses or have space where one could easily be erected.
Greenhouses or glass boxes of any size or kind aren’t a small or low-value purchase – so please be prepared for this if you are going to research further after reading this section.
Greenhouses of any size are a great way to Grow Your Own, because they can be used to provide an environment that can be managed to be consistently the same for longer periods throughout the year.
List of Grow Your Own Foods for a Greenhouse:
Asparagus
Aubergines
Bean Sprouts
Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Cherries
Chillies
Cucumbers
Garlic
Grapes
Herbs
Kale
Lemons
Lettuce
Onions
Peppers
Radishes
Raspberries
Spinach
Squash
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Turnips
Like each of the sections covering ways to Grow Your Own, researching Greenhouses further will be a great idea before ruling the idea in or out – not least of all because of the wider range of Grow Your Own options and what could be year-round ability they offer to Grow different Foods.
Here are a few links to help, but please do take time for a wider online search if you can!
If you have access to a Garden or an Allotment, there is a large variety of Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs that can be grown – subject to seasonality and the amount of space you have available.
Like all of the different ways to Grow Your Own, researching the best options for you will be a great place to start and it may also be useful to search online to see what other people are growing on their Vegetable Patches, Allotments and in their Gardens in the area you live in – bearing in mind that the climate across the UK can vary!
List of Grow Your Own Foods for Allotments and Gardens:
Citizen Farmers – Working together with other members of Your Community to Grow Your Own
Whilst these pages on Grow Your Own are primarily intended to raise awareness for People who may be open to growing their own Food at home – whatever space and resources they might have available, there is a different, more community-orientated approach to Growing Your Own Food that is available to many of us too.
Where there are enough People ready to work together as a community or on behalf of the community they live in to grow and supply Food, there are different approaches that can be used to develop and manage the cultivation, growing and harvesting of all sorts of different Foods locally, working collaboratively, together with like-minded People, who live close by.
Whilst it may conjure up all sorts of different ideas and responses, putting the ideologies, agendas a bias that get in the way of us all having unfettered access to Food We Can Trust aside could easily lead to the age of the Citizen Farmer. Where everyone, young and old contributes to and plays a vital role in Local Food Production – recognising that even with U.K. Farming and Food Production infrastructure realigned, meeting our nutritional needs year-round and with Food being prioritised in the way that it should be, is likely to mean everyone playing their part.
People and Groups are already growing Food together, but an undercurrent in thinking still exists where whatever the stated aims and agendas might be, a big issue with ‘us vs them’ remains.
However, times are changing and changing quickly. The role of Citizen Farmer, whether it’s through Grow Your Own and then sharing, exchanging or bartering anything they don’t need, whole communities helping to grow fruit, vegetables and animals on shared farms or helping farmers to get their crops in, will be what True Citizen Farming is all about.
The options for Collaborative Food Growing that already exist include:
Community Gardens
Share Farming and/or Cooperative Farming
Community Gardens
Earlier in this topic, I mentioned what Minette Batters said about the inclusion of Allotments in future Housing Developments.
As you will probably guess, I agree with Minette and believe that this is a valuable suggestion. Not least of all because there are good and growing reasons to believe that whilst Growing Your Own may only be considered a hobby by many today, it could easily become a need for many of us, in no time at all.
Green spaces, green lungs and park areas are of course required to be considered in appropriately sized Developments already. And a time of emergency or prolonged Food Shortages, it would not be unreasonable to consider using some of these spaces – where appropriate – to begin growing Food.
Green spaces and parks, like homes and business premises have their own Planning Restrictions too, so at any other time, thinking about creating a community space or area for growing Food may need to consider areas of land that may not be immediately obvious, or perhaps even renting a field or some land from a local farmer that can be used in this way.
If you should find yourself amongst a group of local people or a community that has agreed that there is a need for such a space and there are enough people committed to the idea to make it work either through self-funding or by seeking some funding support, it will be worth getting in touch with your local Parish/Town and/or Borough/District Council to ask for their help and guidance.
In my experience of working with Council Officers of all kinds, it has always been far more productive to ask for that help and guidance before beginning. And it’s advantageous as it’s the quickest way to find out what you can and cannot do!
The big upside of speaking to the local Council(s) is that you may also be guided in the direction of other people and organisations that can help – and perhaps even be signposted to sources of funding and help for groups of people working together that you may not have thought of along the way.
At the very least, knowing what steps to avoid locally is good for everyone. It will save time, good will and perhaps even money too – and that has to be something that’s good for everyone!
Whilst the key aim of these pages on Grow Your Own are really about encouraging us as individuals to think about the opportunity to Grow Foods We Can Trust in our own homes or using the resources that we already have available, it will also be useful to think about and be open to the idea of working with other People in our communities to provide Foods We Can Trust, for everyone in the community.
Surprisingly, this isn’t just an idea for a rainy day (or when there are real problems with the Food Supply) and People, Groups and Communities are already working together to produce, share and sell a wide range of Foods to benefit their Groups and the Communities in which they operate.
Most shared farming or community farming projects that exist today are relatively small. They service or supplement the Food Needs of what we would probably agree are a small number of People who are usually members of a charity, cooperative or social enterprise that has been set up as a way to manage a project that benefits all those involved, mutually.
However, projects like this one are already learning invaluable lessons. They are helping to create the models for re-learning the practical skills, knowledge and understanding that are needed for a much more hands-on approach to Food Production that itself has the ability to create, contribute to and provide Food Security, built around Local Food Chains.
For those of you thinking more carefully about shared farming and community farming, it might be helpful to consider that the model of Farming most likely to work best for everyone will sit somewhere between groups of what we recognise as typical small commercial or family farms today and the community farming models that we can already see in action like this one in Stroud today.
When you consider all the different Foods and the quantities that can be produced across a range of farms, and then add local processing and retail (like abattoirs, butchery, milling, bakery, dairies, fishmongers, greengrocers) – which will quickly make a lot more sense in a time of Food Shortages, it is much easier to visualise how Local Food Chains can not only work, but will begin to restore Food and Food Production to being a central part of our communities and life.
Food: The heart of Communities of the Future
These pages on Grow Your Own have turned out to be much more extensive than I had expected when I began writing over the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend.
I hope that by reaching this point and having had the opportunity to consider all of the options and aspects there are to Home Growing and Growing Food with the Community, you may have begun to see how Food and Food Production can bring People together, as well as Growing Our Own being a very important part of creating access for us all to Foods We Can Trust.
Whether we Grow Our Own at Home, or contribute to a Community effort in whatever form that might be, there is good reason to believe that even if not all of our Food is grown and brought to us this way, a significant amount of it will be, IF we really want to be sure that we are eating Foods We Can Trust, whilst also having an economic system that not only includes everyone, but is also balanced, fair and just for all.
If you would like to read more of my work on this important area of new thinking, please visit and take a look at my previous works which you will find on my Blog.
Cost
I am very mindful of the additional cost or ‘start-up’ costs for anyone who would like to Grow Food at Home with limited resources.
Like most things today, prices of any of the equipment required will always vary and it is always advisable to shop around.
However, the links of suppliers and organisations that are listed as we have covered the different methods to Grow Your Own and the Foods that you can grow too will certainly help with online searches for better prices – if the prices that some of them offer aren’t as competitive as they could be themselves.
I’m not kidding when I say that some of the people who could benefit most from Growing Their Own Food today are also those who simply don’t have the spare cash to invest in any of the things that they would need to continue alone.
For anyone experiencing that kind of difficulty, or for those who would prefer to work with others and perhaps get the social benefits of doing so, there is good reason to believe that looking for local gardening clubs or similar organisations could easily open up opportunities to collaborate, work together and pool existing resources, so that the initial outlay and costs associated with getting Your Home Growing started can be shared in different ways.
Online searches that use the name and location of the place that you live will always be a good place to begin. For example, search ‘gardening clubs in (place I live)’, or ‘gardening clubs near to where I live’.
Sharing Your Knowledge on Home Growing
With it being likely that many of us will need to embrace Growing Our Own Food, I am keen to link and collaborate with people, groups and organisations who are open to sharing their knowledge, experience, tips and stories that can help anyone who wants to consider Growing their Own Food using whatever resources they have or may be able to secure.
If you can share information, downloads or would perhaps like to record a tutorial or interview, please get in touch.
Thoughts on Grow Your Own
Writing this section of Foods We Can Trust has so far taken the longest time to complete.
Grow Your Own offers an opportunity for us all to reconnect with sustainable living and demonstrates that the opportunities to return to DIY living or to make an active contribution to ways of providing the things that are essential for us all to live are not something that can only happen out of sight, out of mind or behind the screen of some digital box.
Honestly, I was amazed by how much information, resources and advice is available for anyone thinking about Grow Your Own.
The list and variety of the Foods that we can grow at home, whether it’s in a container, grow bag, window box, greenhouse, garden, allotment or using hydroponics is simply staggering.
Yes, there are some very good reasons for as many of us as possible taking up Growing Our Own Food, but the benefits are much bigger than just adding a source of Food alone.
I hope that after reading through these pages, you will feel the same!
Adam Tugwell 