This is my space to talk about growing food as a political act. Taking control of even a small portion of your food production is a radical action that can echo into your connection to culture, local community and mental health.

For me growing food is an inherently political issue. We need food to survive and right now we have a food system that is catastrophic to the climate and damaging for many of the people growing it. Generations of laws taking land away from the common people means that gardening is now seen as a middle class hobby rather than a means of challenging global corporate dominance. If working class people have had generations of families without land then why would there be a strong connection to nature and what comes from it. What we grow in our environments gives us a cultural link to produce and from that dishes and recipes which helps create a shared sense of community.

“If it is not available to the poor it is neither radical nor revolutionary”

For many people growing your own food is not an option, or it definitely doesn’t feel like one. The challenges of growing in a small yard, with a job and a baby in the middle of an city is the reality facing most people. I want to find ways of growing that are cheap and provide my family and neighbourhood with food, and then I want to share how I’m doing it. Although the lack of space is hard, one of the advantages to being in a city is how much easier it is to link with people and communities trying to achieve the same thing. Through exploring and sharing inner city food production I want to contribute to making growing food radical and revolutionary.

Connecting with our own back yard and what grows there gives us a greater appreciation of the value of food and links us to nature. It helps us understand that we’re part of the environment, not separate from it.

In this online space I’ll also be exploring food soverignty, agroecology and permaculture.

LOVE AND RAGE