We at Transition Guildford have decided to focus most of our energies over the coming year on local food production. This is largely because our members are so keen on growing their own fruit and veg, with many keen gardeners and allotmenteers between us. Growing your own is also a great way to cut your food miles and enables you to eat organically. This is important because food and catering account for around 13% of the UK carbon footprint (Carbon Trust, 2006). A recent Scottish study found that a healthy, organic, local, vegetarian diet could reduct the Scottish food footprint by 40% (Frey & Barrett, 2006), so it really could make a difference, aside from the fact that fresh, home-grown food tastes great, and the act of growing is great for our well-being.
So we’re aiming to help enable, encourage, and teach people to grow their own, and we’re currently doing this by:
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Finding land for people to grow on if they don’t have their own garden through a landshare-style scheme… finding landowners who have spare land, getting the land up and running, and finding suitable people to grow on it;
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Teaching people how to grow by organising visits to local allotment plots and gardens to see how others are doing it. We will also be creating demonstration plots on some of the land we look after;
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Cutting the cost of growing through trade discount schemes with Suttons Seeds (who supply seeds, plants, bulbs, trees) and LBS Horticulture (who sell horticulatural supplies). We also buy Seed Potatoes in bulk for our members;
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Offering free salad seeds as well as annual meadow seeds to encourage biodiversity (kindly donated by the BBC). Please email Emma at transitionguildford@googlemail.com if you live in Guildford and would like some seeds;
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Working with the Guildford Environmental Forum (GEF), who regularly give talks and show films related to food production and biodiversity;
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Offering advice and support to those who want to grow their own food, including help with digging through the LETS Scheme.
If you’re interested in growing your own food and gardening, then please get in touch with Transition Guildford at the following email address:
