Climate crisis solutions: art, allotments form grassroots movement for community food

If you're one of the many concerned about global mass food production and the degradation of local produce, this four-minute video about an art/allotments initiative in Britain packs a wealth of transferable information. An allotment is a piece of land roughly the size of a doubles tennis court which is rented out to local people for the growing of food and vegetables. With climate and over-consumption issues, including mass production of meat and dairy products, top of mind, environmental organisation Greenpeace has partnered with artist Dr JC Niala to highlight the rights people have to allotments. Campaigners argue that the numbers of applications for allotments demonstrate a huge desire from people to be part of the solution to the multiple crises we are facing related to the cost of living, climate, nature and health. The initiative involved exhibiting a 30-metre-long piece of living artwork - containing varied seeds - outside Parliament, and then planting it on land owned by one of the UK's major supermarket chains, Tesco. Against a backdrop of soaring food prices, the growing number of food banks and more families falling into poverty each week, the campaign points to the potential: "One allotment is designed to feed a family of four so if each allotment request on today’s lists was granted, they could collectively feed cities the size of Nottingham and Leicester combined." JC Niala says: “With the acceleration of climate change and the persistence of structural inequality within the UK and globally, food has become both an emblem and an embodiment of the troubles around us. Allotments quite literally provide a lifeline for some. They bring good local food back to people and take away the bad taste of the global industrial food system. They improve people’s mental health and wellbeing by creating a sense of purpose and increasing opportunities to connect with others as well as spend time in nature."What do you think of the practical yet artistic approach?

Keywords: Greenpeace UK allotments, JC Niala, environment, allotments Britain, community food, local food produce, climate crisis solutions