The Urban Growing Revolution

The Food Programme

BBC

Arts, Food

4.4 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Planting and growing food has had a massive boost during the pandemic - and that hasn't been limited to those with gardens.

Right across the country, people have been making the most of balconies, rooftops, even window boxes to get their green-fingered fix, as increasing numbers of us enjoy the benefits of interacting with nature and having a hand in producing our own food.

Hot on the heels of her own spring planting project, Leyla Kazim explores stories of food being grown in cities: from individuals re-purposing tiny outdoor spaces during lockdown; to community garden projects providing fresh food and mental health support; through to innovative urban farms offering ideas for our future food security.

Leyla speaks to writer and YouTube gardening sensation Huw Richards; Dr Jill Edmondson from the University of Sheffield, who's collecting data on national growing habits; and a range of first-time growers who've been following her tutorials on social media.

She also hears from Woodlands Community Garden in Glasgow, and the Grow Cardiff city growing project - and heads to Stockport rooftop garden The Landing with chef Sam Buckley from Where The Light Gets In and Jo Payne from Manchester Urban Diggers, to find out just how valuable a green space for growing food in the heart of a city can be...

Presented by Leyla Kazim; produced in Bristol by Lucy Taylor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
0:03.8	podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.
0:08.6	It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.
0:15.3	What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism
0:19.8	and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.
0:23.7	And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject
0:28.4	you might not even have thought you were interested in.
0:30.2	Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,
0:36.1	you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.
0:39.7	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:44.6	Hello, you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program.
0:49.7	Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure.
0:54.7	We hope you enjoy it.
0:55.7	Just take a moment and think about what it means to be able to grow your own food.
1:08.0	Maybe just for yourself, maybe for your family or even for your community, but planting, nurturing and harvesting something edible from seed to plate is really rather special. And perhaps even more so in an urban environment with
1:26.5	very limited outdoor space and that is exactly what growing numbers of us have been
1:31.6	doing this past year.
1:33.0	From first timers sewing seeds on their window sills
1:37.0	to the innovators trying to build more resilient
1:41.0	and sustainable city food systems for the future.
1:44.0	These are stories of an urban growing revolution.
1:50.0	I've always liked the thought of gardening
	...

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