Alys Fowler, Urban Food Growing Centre in Brum — and our need for 2000,000,000 calories per day
Alys Fowler tweeted this brilliant news yesterday!
The centre will be at Winterbourne Gardens at Birmingham University, opening in September.
As someone who has challenged Sarah-Jane Watkinson to enable me, a known mint killer, to make my balcony a cost-beneficial living larder (of which more later), the news couldn’t have better timing. And for the city, it is simply wonderful.
But let’s not get too carried away by notions of growing our own food. Sure, it’s great for individuals and family. Sure, horticulture is a great career for youngsters, offering bags of opportunities at all levels. Sure, it’s great for our physical and mental well-being, plus civic and social benefits too.
But it ain’t going to feed a city.
What will? Deciding that rough-and-ready numbers are better than nowt, I’ve extrapolated figures from the info on the side of a baked bean tin in my cupboard.
Assuming there are one million of us here in Birmingham, here’s what the Heinz info says it’ll take to feed us per day, and per year:
Birmingham is an organism with a metabolism, and like any organism I can care to think of, it requires interaction with its outer environment in order to sustain itself.
Perhaps the real goal is not to make Birmingham self-sufficient food-wise (as you have mentioned that seems a little unrealistic), but for it to give back as much as it takes from its wider context, in much the same manner that an organism, when in harmony with its eco-system, does?
Just a thought.