An allotment is a plot of land made available for growing food and so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the allotment holder. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred plots. these are assigned to be cultivated by individual households, in contrast to 'community gardens' where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people.
The individual size of an allotment is suffiecient to provide for the needs of a family. Often the plots include a shed for tools and shelter, and sometimes a hut for overnight accommodation. There is usually an allotment association, which leases or is granted the land from an owner who may be a public, private or ecclesiastical entity. The allotment holders pay a small membership fee to the association and have to abide by the corresponding constitution as interpreted by the management committee. Allotments and community gardens can be found all over the world, and have a fascinating history.
In the UK, the Enclosure Acts and Commons Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries left many poor households without land for cultivation to provide for healthy food for their families. In due course of time allotment legislation was enacted. The law was first fully codified in the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, then modified by the Allotments Act 1922, and subsequent Allotments Acts up until the Allotments Act 1950. To this day, local councils have a duty to supply sufficient allotments to meet demand.
Studies of the socio-cultural and economic functions of allotment gardens see them as offering an improved quality of life, low cost food, relaxation, and contact with nature. For children, gardens offer places to play, to encounter the world of nature, and to experience activities like planting and harvesting. For parents, the elderly and for the depressed, and the physically challenged, allotment sites offer opportunity to meet people, to share good practice. The total number of plots has varied greatly over time. In the 19th and early 20th century, the allotment system supplied much of the fresh vegetables eaten by the poorer families. The better off families relied on the kitchen gardens attached to their residences. In both cases, the food supplied to the households was healthy and fresh, coming directly from soil to table, being free from agribusiness fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and preservatives.
Over the course of the 20th century it became increasingly difficult for children to say with any certainty how their food made its way from soil to table. Many had no idea where on earth it came from. I have seen a 7 year old boy walking round and round a cabbage growing in my kitchen garden, trying to puzzle out why it was standing in the soil. Cabbages, for him, grew on supermarket shelves. The parents themselves had spent their childhoods indoors, feeding on pre-prepared food as their parents, in turn, honoured their supposed obligation to "grow" the financial economy.
To be continued...
You may already have seen this Julian Rose interview about organic farming and food agenda?
See Also Blog; Child Care Policy and the Economy, Maria Lyons, 3 April 2024
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