Food is now in a state of crisis.
25% of children in London face hunger during the school holidays.
A total of 3.2 million adults in the UK reported not eating for a whole day because they couldn’t afford or access food.
70% of our wildlife has been obliterated in the last 50 years, 64% of our in insects in the last 20.
Crops contain 40% fewer nutrients than they did 100 years ago.
And 99% of London’s food comes from outside the city, while almost ⅓ of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, ⅕ being from transporting it alone.
Our movement seeks to address this across the uk
Waltham Forest Right to Grow is part of a UK-wide network of groups campaigning for access to our public land for community growing, enhancing biodiversity, and creating community hubs.
Our local context vary - with differing council relationships, local landscapes and resources. We share information, inspiration and lessons learned from our organising.
incredible edible and the nationwide campaign
The London Right to Grow - https://www.capitalgrowth.org/right-to-grow/
There is a London RTG WhatsApp group - join here
Hackney RTG - https://hackneyrighttogrow.uk/
Tower Hamlets RTG - https://rtgth.org.uk/
Islington RTG - https://islingtonnow.co.uk/public-gardens-feed-islingtons-community/
Lewisham RTG - https://www.growlewisham.com/new-page-1
Up and down the country public land is being left unloved, costing our local authorities money to care for, and giving nothing back to the community in return. Incredible Edible growers have shown that with a little TLC these parcels of land can be turned into oases for food and wildlife.
Red tape and complex leases often stop communities from making good use of public land, not to mention the fact that it can be incredibly hard to find out where exactly this unloved public land is.
It’s time we were afforded a Right to Grow; an opportunity to take up our seed packets, spades and watering cans, and nourish our communities, without all the hoop-jumping.
A Right to Grow would require local authorities to maintain a free, accessible map of all public land that is suitable for community cultivation or wildlife projects. They would also need to make it straight-forward for community groups to secure free leases to cultivate the land, and allow those groups to bid for the land should the authority decide to sell it.
The Right to Grow is gathering political traction and received broad support in a debate in the House of Lords. It is also gathering traction at local levels, with Hull passing a Right to Grow motion, and several other local authorities looking into how they could implement a Right to Grow.
For the latest news on our Right to Grow campaign, click here.