Our President Tim Lang delves into the UK’s preparedness for food shocks and how our gardens could and should be utilised.

We gardeners like to get on with things. Do what must be done, according to circumstances. Weather, time, scale. Beneath the mundaneness are many motives: pleasure, food output, being in the outdoors. Sounds and silence. The physicality. Exercise. Friendship. Skills. Watching others. Messing about. Looking. And learning from mistakes.

I have spent more than two years reviewing potential impacts from shocks to the food system, requested by the National Preparedness Commission. Is the public adequately prepared for shocks? I don’t think it is but there are good things we can amplify.

I considered: what shocks might affect the public? How would people react? Are they aware of the possibility? What might happen? Do people retreat to individualism or become community minded?

These are huge questions. Many shocks could disrupt what we think of as normal. The entire food system is based on Just-in-Time, itself based on computerised logistics. There is little ‘redundancy’, flexibility in systems. I’ve had to walk through the impact of big shocks, also lesser order shocks, a few disruptions. How might they knock on? What is essential?

The report title is deliberate: Just In Case. Just-in-Time systems may be brilliantly efficient, but they are disruptable. Take a look at the report1 (actually there are two). The main report is detailed and long. A shorter summary gives the overview.

There’s a whole chapter on the kinds of things people can do such as growing a bit of food. But you don’t do that the day after shock happens. You need to have that underway before! Since we don’t know when shocks come, that means there ought to be more gardening now.

Up to 4.9% of UK land is residential gardens2. But what are they used for? Too much is neither sustainable nor food focussed. So if some can be food focussed, how can that be community oriented? To view the full report, visit:

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/news/food-shocks