We all need space to breathe. Close to a city with a population of more than nine million, outdoor space is valuable, in much more than monetary terms. This project is about photographing and exploring the possibilities of allotments: for growing food, for building relationships and for providing a back-up plan to help as climate changes. The project spans four years – enough time to observe and to understand.
With so many mouths to feed and economies of scale, agriculture systems in the developed world have inched more and more towards becoming giant agro-businesses. Small-scale farms are failing to compete with massive conglomerates and the impact has been a decrease in wildlife on our farms. Hedges and border areas disappear as fields get larger, dealing with industrial scale machinery; pesticides and herbicides are widely used, decreasing biodiversity and natural pest control methods and spilling off our farms and into our waterways. While moves have been made to protect wildlife and subsidies available to support biodiversity on farms have made a difference, we believe that there is still a space for small scale, sustainable agriculture.
I found my family ate less meat as we had so many fresh and tasty vegetables, but were also aware that eating less meat makes a difference to the world too – 30% of global fresh water goes towards animal food production, and as climate change accelerates, water may well become a much more precious commodity. On the allotment site, it was noticeable that abandoned, or less well-kept, plots became havens for wildlife. Edible plants were growing there without intervention, providing homes and food for wildlife.
The allotment holder gets a unique opportunity to observe first-hand the effects of climate change. In the years that we had our allotment at Callowland we observed extreme winds, storms and dry summers. Connecting with the land and beginning to depend on it for food, you feel some sort of responsibility for caring for it. You wonder how seriously the agro-corporations are taking their stewardship of the environment in which they harvest…
Today’s world is increasingly reliant on massive global distribution networks, exploiting both nature and people. We have become consumers, endlessly buying and discarding. It is estimated that UK households throw away between £250 and £400 of potentially edible food every year. My wife and I wanted to grow as much of our food as we could. While we were never completely food self-sufficient, and did buy some food, we found that we were quite able to produce a lot of the fruit, vegetables and herbs that we needed. This is at odds with the economic model that today’s world is based on. I feel that radical policy reforms are needed to promote small scale, small environmental footprint, sustainable agricultural practices that bring us more into harmony with the earth.
Many councils are choosing to close allotment sites and hand them over to developers. In November 2016 Watford Council won a long legal battle to close Farm Terrace, their oldest allotment site, in order to develop a car-park and new housing. It has been cleared and development has begun. Other allotment sites are being nibbled away bit by bit, including Callowland. The 1925 Act states that councils can only build on allotment sites in exceptional circumstances, and with explicit permission from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, yet in the four years to 2014 this consent was granted no less than 68 times.
As I finish this project, I am leaving Watford for good. Through the time of this project I have observed society taking more interest in the environment. With our global internet coverage, the explosion of social media and twenty-four hour news, we are more aware than ever of the challenges we face going into the future. I am filled with hope by this increased awareness and by the interest that people are taking in better quality food grown locally, in slowing down and taking stock of what is around us. This project has been a great experience for me as both a photographer and a gardener. It allowed me to gain a broader perspective of the importance of acting locally to benefit the community and the environment. I found that space to breathe, my little bit of Eden, and I hope that many others will find that too.
Marcin Forys and M.S. Brammer