(An email to York Councillors?)

Dear Councillors,

I hope some of you read my previous email about York planning for more market gardens because there are food shortages ahead.

I have just found this article The UK’s vulnerable nutrition security, which makes a similar case.

Hope you read this too and encourage those making the new local plan to incorporate a provision for more market gardens.

Best wishes

Geoff Beacon

Original email …

Dear Councillor

Climate change and geopolitical events mean that many people of the world will go hungry. Events in York may have little effect on the overall picture. However, by doing our little bit we may point the way for others to follow. Slim chance but that’s better than no chance at all.

Here is a new section to A new plan for York that makes some suggestions:

More market gardens

It is likely that climate change will cause a fall in food supply. Many peoples in the world will go hungry – or worse. This must be taken into account in York’s Local Plan. But how?

To counteract world food shortages we should all move towards plant based diets. We should also boost local food production by planning measures.

High yield market gardens

The 1890 Paris Secret: How to Grow 4x More Food on the Same Land claims that the French market gardens of the 1890s, the Marishes, produced much more food per hectare than growers do now. These were gradually replaced by mechanised food growing which used more land and less labour.

Singing Frogs Farm in Sebastopol, California generates over $100,000 per acre in revenue from a 3-acre no-till market garden. The per-acre revenue numbers are what make Singing Frogs Farm a landmark: $100,000+ per acre versus $3,000 to $5,000 for conventional vegetable farms. Even if the monetary difference is due to crop differences, the labour intensive nature of their method shows much greater yields per acre can be achieved when more labour is used.

Less labour, lower wages

UK wages have shifted from an era of steady growth to one of historic real-wage stagnation and rising inequality. Since the 2008 financial crisis, inflation-adjusted wages have largely stagnated. An analysis by the Resolution Foundation shows that while UK real wages grew by an average of 33% per decade between 1970 and 2007, they flatlined entirely after the 2008 financial crisis, despite being supported for the low-paid by minimum wage legislation. AI is likely to reduce the need for labour.

An obvious policy when food supply is likely to be constrained when the need for labour falls is to apply more labour to food growing, increasing the demand for labour and increasing the supply of food. This suggests giving up some land currently used for traditional agriculture and converting it to high intensity market gardens to produce more food.

Such a change could bring in methods of food growing that will use much less chemical fertiliser, the production of which causes a substantial proportion of the world’s carbon emissions.

Local plans can do it

Local plans can designate specific areas for horticulture. Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) often allocate land for market gardens, community food growing spaces, allotments, and commercial horticultural development areas to support sustainable food networks and local economies. [1, 2, 3] The York Local Plan should do this.

Gardens for most

The York Local Plan should aim that most new housing should have gardens. Most people want gardens – as surveys by Professor Carmona of UCL have shown:

Access to private open space from the home was the strongest home design-based predictor of comfort.  Households with a private garden or terrace space were the most comfortable, followed by those with a private balcony or shared garden. Households with no access to any sort of private open space were considerably less comfortable.

Research by the Royal Horticultural Society and Horticultural Trades Association shows that over 35% of UK adults actively grow their own fruit, vegetables, or herbs. [1]

• Space Access: 78% of British adults have access to a private garden, and a third set aside dedicated patches for vegetables. [1]
• Interest vs. Reality: Up to 60% of urban Brits would like to grow their own produce. However, allotment availability has declined by about 60% since the 1950s, creating barriers for those lacking garden space. [1, 2]

Best wishes

Geoff Beacon