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The Allotment - The City Dwellers bit of Country

This article is courtesy of Stephen Watts aka Maxsalad. He grows in Sheffield, England and is into organic growing, sustainable living and even writes poetry.

Everyone has a right to work a bit of land to grow their own food. Although one allotment won’t produce even close to enough food for personal self sufficiency it is surprising how much it can produce, and due to the quality of the produce they are capable of producing, they hold a huge health value for those people living in the city.

Grow Your Own Food

There are so many reasons why I think people should grow some of their own food. Here are just a few:

There’s the immediate benefit of fresh produce full of wonderful flavour. Apart from the pleasure of eating such food, organic food has more life in it (higher vitamin and mineral levels) as well as being free from toxic sprays and additives, and hence nourishes more. This usually shows its self through increased energy levels and less illness. This frees up time which might otherwise be spent resting or recovering from illness to be creative or whatever.

There are immeasurable psychological benefits, through being surrounded by plants and a natural living environment, working seasonally with natural rhythms and cycles, connecting to the earth and beautiful surroundings (an ancient need –just think of all the people who go for walks in the country).

Fresher air (think of the increase in breath related problems over the last few decades),

Physical exercise (which again has had whole books praising the subject) which can be approached on what ever level you are capable of (beds can be created on allotments for wheelchair access),

Ecological benefits (a huge subject, especially nowadays….) stemming from fewer “food miles” (small looped systems), less packaging, less reliance on medicine and the health service in general, healthier soils (provided you follow basic organic compost methods…) which in turn means more living organisms in the soil and general life in the environment.

I believe that food growing is an ancient Art Form which can be used to explore consciousness in just the same way that say, music, sculpture or dancing can be used.

I believe that, as humans living on planet earth, close access to a place where local organic food is grown gives people a sense of security and communal identity, in the recognition of a shared need.

We project our thoughts into our environment. All destruction of the environment comes from perceiving ourselves as separate from our environment