In episode three, I spoke with Julie Smith; an urban gardener and food enthusiast who manages the Skip Garden in Kings Cross (https://www.kingscross.co.uk/skip-garden). As part of the charity ‘Global Generation’, Julie is involved in a number of grassroots projects that focus on community outreach and collective food growing.
Food security is becoming a vital issue of the present and future. As climate instability ricochets through global supply chains, sprawling cities like London are increasingly taking up experiments in urban farming. Dietary trends and increasing controversy around meat eating have opened up further considerations in the debates around food; namely a focus on the real ecological and social cost of cheap and always accessible food products. Growing food has an intimate relationship with community empowerment and sovereignty, and as Julie illustrates, it is a collective act that allows us to pay attention to the fragile relations that sustain life.
When I asked which book has inspired her thinking and work, Julie recommended The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen.
reading list three: Julie Smith
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollen
The Energy Glut, The Politics of Fatness in an Overheating World, Ian Roberts
Sisters of the Soil: Urban Gardening as Resistance in Detroit, Monica White: |link|
How urban agriculture is transforming Detroit: |link| [TED talk]
The Changing Face of Urban Farming: |link|
The Global Generation Skip Garden: https://www.kingscross.co.uk/skip-garden
What is Agroecology? |link|
Aquaponics: Sustainable Urban Farming: https://www.foodunfolded.com/how-it-works/aquaponics-sustainable-urban-farming
- Aquaponics farm in London: https://www.growup.org.uk/
‘Road network’ for insects could be created across Britain to protect bees, butterflies and moths, Sarah Knapton: |link|
Soil Erosion and Degradation Threats, WWF. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-and-degradation
Green therapy: how gardening is helping to fight depression, Sarah Johnson: |link|
Making time for soil: Technoscientific futurity and the pace of care, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa: |link|
Reseeding the Food System, Rowen White: |link| [podcast]
Tending Soil, Emma Marris: |link|
Food Justice and Food Sovereignty: |link|
tales in the anthropocene 