Fresh from winning the gold medal at this years prestigious Chelsea flower show, The Prince’s Foundation’s ambassador, Diarmuid Gavin, launched the charity’s new focus on community wide food growing at the “Start Growing Festival” at Clarence House.
The theory behind the Foundation’s new mission is set out in a new book, “Garden Cities”, by Foundation Senior Fellow, Andres Duany.
The Prince’s Foundation will be taking a very realistic approach to food growing.
Andres Duany’s book on the theory of how to get people back onto the land range from preserving growing space in new developments, to the creation of entire agricultural villages’ where the whole community invests its labour, spare time and entertainment budgets in organizing, growing, processing, distributing, cooking and eating its own produce. This might sound extreme but the author argues it could have appeal for baby-boomers looking for an alternative to a retirement village.
Chief Executive of the Prince’s Foundation, Hank Dittmar, told The Landscaper : “The soaring cost of food miles will make it increasingly expensive to move food around so the provision of a reliable, local food supply has to be a priority for us going forward. That means when we plan new developments or regenerate existing ones, facilities for food production should be high on our agenda.”
“This has got to work at every scale – from the window box to the community farm. It’s down to individual communities to choose the level of production they want to embrace – our job is to listen and enable them by what we design.”
www.princes-foundation.org