How would you take another dig for victory campaign?

[Digforvictories]

There are lots of worries involving the food industry these days-
•loss of biodiversity due to mono crops
•worries about climate change and how that could lead to famine
•loss of nutritional value in our food compared to 50 years ago
•fertiliser shortages (as we are seeing now)
•even fruit rotting due to lack of fruit pickers

How would you respond to posters and adverts, incentives or propaganda basically, asking you to dig a little veg patch, plant a fruit tree, harvest/ forrage berries or leaves? What about mushrooms?

I think myself I would feel a bit annoyed if the tories came out of their mansions and private jets asking me to dig for a victory against climate change. However if the green party put out a campaign I'd be all over it. (I would be happy but annoyed if the tories did it because it seems hypocritical, however I would still be pleased if they took any step toward not destroying the world)

This is purely hypothetical, I'm not some tory scout looking for young voters but I would be interested to know how people on here would take it and I'd also be interested to know what ot would take to make the average mumsnetter think about starting a garden or engaging in a community garden (I've lived in a flat and I know how pissed off I used to get at the eco warriors asking me to start a vegetable garden)

I know allotment holders aren't allowed to sell produce (annoying when it comes to gluts and you can't give enough away or freeze/ preserve/ eat) but would you consider buying fruit and vegetables from local allotments and community gardens? Would you pick fruit from a free orchard where you don't have to talk to anyone or pay? Would you set up a vegetable patch if you get get the resources (compost/ seeds/ pots/ information) freely and easily (and locally?)
Would you be interested in forraging for something more than blackberries if you knew what was safe and edible?

i always look in the eco groups and other groups on other websites and everyones tip posts just get bombarded with 'it's not that easy to grow your own' and I'm just interested in opinions on what would make it easier and how it would be taken if we were asked to dig for victory?
I imagine it would have been taken up less if there weren't rations to deal with back in ww2 and perhaps dig for victory was only as successful as it was because people were scared and hungry?

(can you tell I've been talking to my grandad?)

For anyone looking at gardening and foraging.
Instagram is a gold mine.
I am big fan of Blackforager. She is in us but loads applicable to uk as well.

Who said you have to do more? You're doing it already.
I don't think anyone can be completely self sufficient. That's why we live in groups and share the load.
it's really sad seeing people say 'love to but I work' what a waste of a life.

on a separate note, me and dh used to have to take the kids out to play dates, parties, pubs, days out to socialise and it was always a stress and cost us a fortune. now we spend maybe a fraction of that going to the allotment. We can stay there all day. We bring a bbq and sausages (hand reared the pig myself not ) and it costs us under £100 for the year. But we can easily spend that much on a meal for us and the kids plus drinks and travel. for a day.

And I don't weed at all. I can't be bothered. If it goes it goes. It's more about the fun of it for me. Besides, as someone said uptrend, the Charles dowding no dig method (you chuck a load of cardboard down and cover with compost. or if you can't afford that, save food waste and leaves/ grass clipping etc and spread that down first and then cover with cardboard over winter and by spring you have beautiful nutrients. It's black gold. so easy. I'm lazy I mostly just water and pick. we get loads.
this year was really bad but my freezer is still full and I still got a few pumpkins and hundreds of apples. my freezer is still full of almost nothing but tomatoes and fruits and stuff like that.

But it was exceptionally hot and everyone on our plot struggled with watering, everyone had a bad year because of it and it really brings home how much climate change will effect food production.

So what would help would be disabled friendly beds, informative leaflets, more allotment sites.

What about a community compost bin?
What about a tool library?
l could do with a wheelbarrow maybe once or twice a year, also a pair of ladders but I don't have space to store them.

I had a veg patch but got rid as I couldn’t grow enough to feed us from it, I’d say it’s often cheaper to buy the veg, and I was using lots of water.

Does everyone know its for everyone to take?
You should get something going to share what's there if its going to rot anyway. schools might be interested?

@VestaTilley I think it is wartime footing for agriculture.

I'm a farmer and our industry is nuts at the moment based mainly on the Ukraine situation. Our inputs are astronomical (ag inflation is sitting around 33%). That's before electric prices or Labour kick in.

Our government need to be sorting out improving our self sufficiency on energy and food now. Inflation in food isn't going away. The price rises you are seeing in the shops are not reflective of the price rises on farms.

I think the whole idea of grow your own is a beautiful idyll but it takes too much sacrifice for the majority of the population. Too many people have raspberries in December, fast food for tea because it's easy. A sustainable, local diet is boring, plain, expensive and time consuming for most.

I like to eat locally and sustainably but it's having root veg soup and homemade bread for lunch. Porridge for breakfast. Love meat, veg and potatoes for tea in the winter. Summer salads and fish. But I have the time and money to be able to shop and Make those things. It's far easier to have bran flakes for breakfast, a supermarket sandwich or sushi for Lunch followed by a pizza for tea.

What consumers say they want is quite often quite a long way from what they put their hands on in the supermarkets. The organic sector of our product has died the fastest death you've ever seen due to cost of living. Lots of people can't afford to put their values above their hunger.

And by Labour I meant farm Labour not political Labour!

You don't. It's more extras and bit instead of shopping, but small veg patch will not make people self sufficient.

It's a lot about the flavour and quality. I grow certain veg simply because the one in shop is shite. It does usually sustain me for at least 7 months on that particular item.
I like aubergines and one season of aubergines did certainly save me money😂

Cynically...
If this policy would be announced, it would be similar to lockdown where you couldn't get compost, anything garden related shot up in price.

@SuspiciousHedgehog yeah I think you are right.
oh well
gotta dream

They should know. Usually someone puts a note up on the store to say a particular fruit is ready for picking and to help yourselves. Maybe I'll suggest something next year. Even if we just picked them and put them in a big basket by the gate with a sign saying Free - Help Yourself, I'm sure they'd all get taken by passers-by.

I think if you contacted local food pantries or food banks they might be interested. or perhaps (living in a dream world here) t
a local school could be invited to help harvest. Plums and apples have a different season, might make the kids interested

To mention the elephant in the room, the answer to all the issues in your op is becoming vegan, or at least vegetarian if vegan isn't manageable.

Crops take a lot less land than livestock, and allows more sustainable farming techniques due to more available land, and land to be rewilded. It would reduce food imports to the UK as well, due to increased productivity.

It's quite a lot of land used for animal farming in UK not arrable? I am sure I read it somewhere a while ago

I got rid of my veg patch too, because to grow enough root veg - carrots, potatoes etc takes space, time and water. I found I could produce much more by sticking to salads/tomatoes/french beans/peppers and growing them in plastic pots. I've even got fig trees in pots. Much easier to look after.

Carrots, potatoes and onions are less expensive, so leave those to the professionals and then buy them, but grow the higher priced summer products.

Fruit is worth growing. Also beans, broad, runner or French. Some brassicas are easy and kales can be grown as pick-and-come-again for the whole season. I’m not very successful with roots either, but they do taste better grown. Water is - as we all know, groan - quite plentiful in most parts of the U.K. and can be stored for use on plants, on allotments at least.

I’m not too sure that veganism is the answer to all troubles as sheep farming for instance easily converts low quality grassland to protein. We can’t grow all of the biggest and best protein-yield plants in the U.K. and good land for cereals is limited. Kew is on it, but Kew is in the south. Overpopulation is a big problem here.

Some, but an awful lot is suitable. What is not suitable could be rewilded, helping with climate change and biodiversity. As crops take a tiny fraction of the space required for livestock, we could be self sufficient as an island if we became vegan.

I think DH and I are beyond an allotment now (late 60s, early 70s) but we do have 4 small raised beds. OK we are nowhere near self sufficient but this year we grew carrots, runner beans, peas, garlic, sweetcorn and onions. Apart from the peas we had enough to give some to friends as well. All planted straight into the ground and took about 10 minutes to water and we only had to do that daily when it was very hot. Nothing like popping outside and coming back with a few veg for dinner.

Raised beds so easy to look after as well. No bending right over and at the end of the growing season all I did was pull up a few weeds, ran my fingers through the compost and that was it. Took about 30 minutes. All ready now for next spring.

Oh and we also grew a tumbler tomato in a hanging basket and it was covered in small sweet tomatoes for weeks.