As our first Covid lockdown approached, many New Zealanders put vegetable gardening on their lockdown project list, and I did too. When I discovered that our local seed and seedling providers had completely sold out, I became uneasy.
The upside was that it meant people were using this time to start growing food. The downside was the scary realisation that we don’t have local seed sovereignty. I was shocked to discover that a few global corporations hold most of the power over our planet’s seeds.
I had always wanted to be part of a community garden, but it took the threat of being prevented from growing food to mobilise me. I started researching community gardens online, and was excited to learn how popular they are becoming worldwide – it turns out, localisation is the new cool.
Centralised control of our food supply and loss of biodiversity are problems we are facing, but we can do something about it. By growing food and saving seeds within our communities we can help restore food resilience.
‘The biggest challenge has been getting the community involved. While members of the we only have a small group of committed volunteers who work the gardens.’
