1) That Hackney council fund local food growing the same as tree planting in Hackney, which currently has a £9 million budget.
2) Provide significantly more spaces in parks, on roads and car parks, and on Hackney Council housing estates for community food growing, where appropriate, and specifically investigate the of use the Millfields Park National Grid site for food growing when it is returned to Hackney.
3) Work with existing growers, allotment societies and support organisations such as Orchard Project, Growing Communities and Organic Lea to make this happen.
Why is this important?
Both the climate emergency and Covid 19 have shown the importance of local community food growing both in driving down carbon emissions, more so than tree planting, and in providing food autonomy for the residents of Hackney. We know it is possible to grow good cheap food for residents in cities when supported by the local, regional or national authorities, as various growing schemes have shown, but we are in an emergency and need to dramatically scale this up. Unlike Detroit, famed for it's urban farms, Hackney has little spare or free land. So we need the council to support this both by providing land and in terms of financial support.
This petition has been produced by Clapton / Homerton Urban Growers Organisation
