Food Sovereignty

I spent this Saturday at the Permaculture Association's AGM and went along to a workshop on food sovereignty. There were some great discussions that came out of it including ideas on foraging, crop sharing, guerilla gardening and many more.
To summarise what food sovereignty is, in my own words, it is best explained as local access to sustainable food sources. We have heard in past few years governments talk of food security for growing populations but with economic decline and gaps between rich and poor becoming wider food sovereignty becomes paramount. What is also important in food sovereignty is that whilst governments see the answer to food security is to increase mass production of food which has a negative effect on animal welfare and the environment, food sovereignty encompasses local ecologically minded strategies. Permaculture is a key strategy in developing food sovereignty, but from a poor vegan's cookbook perspective here are my top tips:-

1. Plant more native fruit trees and bushes. Or alternatively map out and find where you can access local fruit trees and bushes. Ive heard of some innovative uses of google maps for this and you may well suprise yourself with what you find.

2. Take advantage of the seasons and include more foraged food in your diet. I admit winter can become a problem but by learning and resurrecting preserving and bottling techniques you can include them in your winter larder.

3.Develop community and share and swop food items, food seeds and plants. The biggest problem I found this year was getting hold of stuff to grow without spending money. I got a little help from a Seed Stewards project in the midlands who kindly sent me some vietnamese mustard seeds and from scavenging a few items but I would have been ahead of the game if there were local exchange programmes.

4. Access to land is a priority, perhaps an elderly neighbour will let you have some space to grow in return for sharing the crop or maintaining the land. In an urban setting more space can be utilised by growing upward, choose beans and other climbing veg and utilise hanging pots. Contact local companies or your council to see if there are any land that you could use on a temporary basis or obtain an allotment. With the economic downturn there are a lot of development sites that are on hold that could be accessed to sow temporary crops.

5. Although I feel I've mentioned it before in many ways, above all share. Share meals, recipes, ideas, inspiration, land and labour.

My final tip or be it thought is to plan. Plan for the future! Get yourself a diary or make a list of date to take positive steps towards food sovereignty be it a day of guerilla gardening, a date to share a meal or a plan to contact your local council about that bit of derelict land.

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