Food Growing

More and more people in Scotland want to grow their own fruit and vegetables but land availability is a big challenge. greenspace scotland champions the development of the Our Growing Community model to support communities in urban scotland to take a more holistic and strategic approach to community food growing.

In 2017, the greenspace use and attitude survey asked Scots about growing your own fruit and vegetables. Just under a quarter (24%) of respondents grow their own; a decrease from 32% in 2011. Conversely, there was an increase in growing from respondents living in the 15% more deprived areas (20% grow their own in 2017, compared to 14% in 2011).

Most people (87%) who grow their own do it in their own garden; with 7% growing in an allotment and 2% in community gardens. Half of respondents (50%) who do not currently grow their own would like to do so. Lack of a garden is cited as the main barrier (44%), followed by lack of gardening skills (32%), don’t have time (26%) and can’t get an allotment (14%).

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires each local authority to prepare a food-growing strategy for its area to identify land that may be used as allotment sites, identify other areas of land that could be used for community growing, and describe how the authority intends to increase provision for community growing, in particular in areas which experience socio-economic disadvantage. greenspace scotland has supported the initial stages of developing a Local Food Growing Strategy (LFGS) in six Scottish local authority areas and produced a series of learning notes based on this work.