Have you ever wondered how far food travels before it reaches your plate?
As the demand for fruit and vegetables rises, more and more supermarket aisles are being stocked with imported food. Many of the food products we use daily travel over 1500 miles before we can even think about buying it. However, with food miles becoming bigger than ever before, the impact they make on the UK is also growing.
A large scale of planes used for transportation produce a major contribution to the pollution in the air and requires a heavy dependence on resources such as oil to fuel it. Growing food miles also points towards a detrimental impact on the country’s economy since there is a chance of trade deficit (when the country imports are more than its exports resulting in a loss). There is another price to pay: imported food travels for several days before reaching our shelves and often becomes less fresh without good level of vitamin and mineral content.
These disturbing concerns led to the start of a gardening initiative in Orpington where people of all ages joined together to grow fruit and vegetables locally, creating a more self-sufficient community. The initiative allowed the community to explore the concept of gardening and learn about the way the food we eat grows. Furthermore, it allowed them to take a break from hectic and digital lifestyles by spending time in nature. A sense of teamwork and motivation was brought by each person’ spirit and they said that “even when we didn’t feel motivated ourselves, seeing the other gardeners in the allotments putting in hard work made us eager to continue".
Undoubtedly, the real pleasure of their experience was harvest time when they picked the fruits of their labour and ate the food grown in their bare hands. Over the last 6 months, starting from an empty allotment, the magic of nature and hard work had given a huge collection of fresh and local food. It was a rollercoaster of happiness and sadness; some crops produced good fruits while other crops were destroyed by the onslaught of blight and weeds.
Either way, the community gardening group were enthralled by the result of their work and promise of another year gardening makes them keen to grow more and maybe even compete for the next Plot of the Year award!
