Reflections on Our Recent Right to Grow Network Meeting...
- millie649
- Aug 18
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 19
At our last Good Food in Greenwich meeting we focused on the Right to Grow, a national campaign pushing for a rights-based approach to community gardening.
Rachel Dring from Capital Growth gave a
wonderful presentation that captured the current institutional challenges to
community growing and explored what benefits (from better health outcomes to reduced reliance on high-carbon food imports) having a Right to Grow might bring. See the bottom of this page to download and view the presentation! A Right to Grow would require local authorities to maintain a free, accessible map or all public land that is suitable for community cultivation or wildlife projects. They would also need to make it straight-forward for community groups to secure free leases to cultivate the land, and allow those groups to bid for the land should the authority decide to sell it. Meeting attendees (a mixture of local businesses, organisations and council members) worked together to think about what practical and strategic factors should be in place for the Right to Grow to work well in Greenwich, from water sources to implementing growing in schools.
Overall, the network meeting was a great opportunity for community and council members to work together to think about the future of gardening and growing in Greenwich and laid some fantastic foundations for making change in the borough. The group even got the chance to visit local community garden, Buds of Barnfield, to see a flourishing community garden in action!
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Some useful, relevant resources:
Full report on the benefits of the Right to Grow: Right To Grow: Benefits for Local Authorities
Learn about how Southwark passed the Right to Grow: Orsetta Hosquet from Southwark Council speaks about the Right to Grow
Join our next foraging walk in Eltham: Foraging Walk - Eltham | GCDA Learning
Rachel's presentation:
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