Greeks reclaim Athens Airport for growing food

A group of community-minded gardeners have turned a former Athens airport into a blooming vegetable plot, showing how Greece’s eroded soil holds the keys to a revival in farming and a way to buck the jobless trend.

‘If we want to survive on this land we must first help to heal the earth,’ said Nicola Netién, agro-ecologist, teacher and co-creator of the NGO Permaculture Research Institute Hellas. He was talking to a group of some fifty people of all ages who had gathered for two days of workshops on self-sufficiency, how to self-organize, agro-ecology and composting. This small gathering was taking place on a beautifully sunny autumn day at the former Athens airport, Ellinikon.

When the airport moved to another location 10 years ago in preparation for Athens hosting the 2004 Olympic Games, there was the hope and the State’s promise that this now available land would become a park. Then the ‘crisis’ landed and rumors began spreading that the site had been sold to an international developer who would pour yet more concrete on the chaotic sprawl that is Athens. This is when a small group of local residents, bearing seeds and armed with shovels, moved in. Their mission: to create a communal and productive agricultural space that will encourage an exploration into antidotes for the ecological-economic-educational and cultural crisis.

‘Thirty percent of Greece’s arable land has salinized and every year Greece looses 750,000 cubic meters of topsoil as a result of erosion and poor land management,’ Nicola continued as his demonstration compost pile grew. Just a few kilometers west and the political drama of a failing government and national bankruptcy was unfolding. The world watched the theatrics of politicians scrambling for self-preservation, while the contagious and desperate fear of being ejected from the Euro spread and the markets turbulently responded.

Natasha, one of the first to start working this small plot at the Ellinikon, told me that since the beginning of the current crisis, more and more people are visiting this small edible garden. She understands why. A year ago she was anxious that her future and her basic needs were dependent on the State that employs her. She had no survival skills. Now, she says, she feels empowered by being proactive in forming her community and learning how to grow food.

There are other examples of Athenians taking matters into their own hands to reclaim small plots of land so as to create communal green spaces; sometimes quietly and peacefully and other times after long drawn out battles with riot police. An example of the latter is Navarino Park in the centre of Athens. This again involved a broken promise by the State. One of the most densely populated areas of Athens was hoping for a park, so when the plans changed to build a parking lot, the local residents organized and resisted. Despite the violence and threats by police, residents stood their ground and cultivated this small plot that is now a budding potential of urban agriculture.

All these examples are neighborhood initiatives. It would be wrong to suggest this is a single coordinated movement. Often confused by the scale of change that is needed and starved for stories of hope, there is a tendency to inadvertently prescribe meaning to and inflate such examples so as to enthuse optimism in ourselves and in others that we are well on our way to dismantling ‘business as usual’. But this would be doing these small groups of activists a disservice. This is not their story, at least not for now. They are in the process of finding their way.

Life in Greece has gotten harder and people are quite literally going hungry. The cultural and the economic reality on the ground and the systemic rot that is so pervasive demand an exploration into context relevant ways of organizing, empowering, sharing knowledge, and redefining our values and our identities.

Riots in Athens have become common; albeit an expression of discontent, the dynamic that has developed between rioter and State seems to maintain the status quo. As I understand it, these local activists are not interested in head on combat against the ‘business and politics as usual’ that is largely to blame for the erosion of land and values, but rather they undermine the status quo by actively participating and investing in their own communities’ potential.

Within each small neighborhood group there is a collective evolving, sharing knowledge, learning, building and growing together. Perhaps these small groups and their gardens will be catalysts for change-maybe they will become nodes in an emergent network of urban farmers-maybe not. Regardless, this is an account of people proactively engaging the challenges and opportunities they are faced with. When Greece’s dominant narrative, particularly of late, has been of bankruptcy, corruption, nepotism, inefficiency and violence, it is important to recognize that this is not the whole story. With respect for others’ work, as well as our own, and as a defense against the infectious cynicism of such depressing dominant narratives, we must conserve and in fact cultivate the space for hope to articulate itself.

‘We can compost anything that was once living. Soon we will be able to add our Euros to the pile,’ Nicola said with half a smile. For a brief moment the group became uneasy and nervously laughed. This unease though quickly dissipated. ‘A healthy compost pile should never smell bad…’

This blog was taken from The Ecologist website

Resistance is fertile

Food growers and friends; it’s been another amazing year here at Grow Heathrow of eating salads fresh from the greenhouses, roasting yellow, red, and black peppers and tasty tomatoes in the clay oven and seasoning our food with home-grown herbs – and now it’s time to brave the winter winds, get the wellies and wheelbarrows out and prepare for our 3rd food growing season down in Sipson.

This coming year we will be expanding out to the AIRPLOT site in Sipson where we will grow directly into the fertile ground and plan to cultivate the whole lot!

Transition Heathrow hopes to use this new growing site as a opportunity for different groups in the area to be part of the process of learning how to grow fruit and veg for their community, from scratch, with skills sharing and fun – and at the end of it lots of fresh organic produce to cook together and share, enjoy and sustain us!

But we will need help, and now is the time to prepare the ground for the spring. Its a bit later than usual but by the first week of January we plan to have done a cardboard and compost mulch all over the grass field – getting it ready to directly plant into when spring arrives.

We’re reclaiming fields and taking back control of our food production! Come help make the first stage happen and we reckon you’ll be back picking juicy tomatoes with us again this summer!

We have lots of cardboard to lay and 13 tonnes of conditioner top soil to barrow on and rake out – the more people the better and lighter the work! Starting at 9:30am sharp till dark both Thursday 5th and Friday 6th January – Big winter soups and fires in the evenings for those that stay.

Where: We will gather with tools and tea at Grow Heathrow (look HERE for directions) to then walk together to the Airplot site. Call our site phone 07890751568 if you arrive later to be directed to the airplot.

There is space to sleep both nights and longer if you wish at Grow Heathrow site, do bring a good sleeping bag for extra warmth and a tent if you want. Bring warm layers, a hot flask, a pair of gardening gloves if you got them and your lovely faces,

With slightly cold soily fingers but warm glowing cheeks the Grow Heathrow Crew excitedly looks forward to seeing you in the field. Resistance is Fertile!

Whose land? Our land

More and more people are becoming interested in growing their own food. But our ability to take this essential step towards a sustainable future is being stifled by the radical inequalities of land distribution, in a country where patterns of land-ownership have changed little since feudal times, and the access to land of those who don’t own it has actually diminished. We will not be able to succeed in our Transition aims without challenging these inequalities and improving access to land for the many.

At a recent Transition discussion I was at, there was much talk of the value and importance of local food growing to a sustainable future. The merits of small-scale organic farming are many – reducing the oil-dependency of our food-chains, and reducing our own dependence on systems which destroy biodiversity and alienate us from our environment. Rising food prices are a direct result of climate change and decreasing oil supplies, and are a key aspect of the social injustices embedded within these twin crises as the poorest suffer most – both globally and in our own country. For these reasons, and for many others (perhaps mostly just because it’s fun), more and more people are starting to grow their own food, which is a fantastic thing.

But there is a problem: there doesn’t seem to be enough land. Allotment waiting lists have been rising rapidly across the country, in some places as much as 15 years long, and the price of land is also on the rise. More of us than ever live in apartments, without any garden to dig, and those who vision the future of our cities seem determined that this trend should continue.

There are some really useful initiatives going on to mitigate this situation. Some Transition Town run garden-sharing projects, to match up those who want to grow with those who haven’t got the time to keep up their garden; and there’s an interesting project originating in Manchester called Allotment Finder, which is trying to get the data about the different waiting lists for different sites and inform people who are searching for space where they might be able to find it more quickly.

But fundamentally, these are just sticking plasters for a crippling disease. In the UK, 0.3% of people own 67% of all the land in the country. It’s no wonder that the other 99.7% struggle to share out the remainder between us: to find enough space for our lettuces or for our community spaces. Not only is the ownership of land centralised in the hands of a tiny group of aristocrats, little changed over hundreds of years, but large swathes of land are desperately under-used and ill-managed. The UK consists of about 60 million acres. Admittedly not all of this is cultivable, but we do not lack in fertile land on this island. Even in an inner-city borough, a little walk around your neighbourhood will probably reveal numerous empty plots and scraps, going to waste. Without enabling people to access this land, there is no way that they can start to transition to a more sustainable way of life.

When the MST visited Grow Heathrow

It is not a coincidence that access to land is a core issue in the achievement of our aims: the removal of access was a core element in the onward march of capitalism which has brought us into the unsustainable present. As land was gradually claimed and enclosed from the commons, those who were left without land had to find other means to earn money, in order to buy food and to rent back the space to live in from the landowners who had taken it all. In some parts of the world, this process is happening right now, igniting resistance from indigenous groups such as the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil, the Landless Workers’ Movement.

The ZAD, in Nantes, France

Internationally, many groups are struggling on this issue. Reclaim the Fields, for example, is a Europe-wide network of community food growers who are very concerned about access to land, and Grow Heathrow – the squatted market garden where I live – is part of this network. In May last year I joined a RtF event in France, where about 200 people took over and cleared an abandoned field that lies in the path of another proposed airport near Nantes – you can read more about it HERE. The current government’s attempts to criminalise squatting will make it even more difficult for people to reclaim land to grow and live on, reinforcing the existing injustices at a time when a radical rethink is more necessary than ever.

This blog was taken from the Transition Network website as part of their social reporting pilot project.

Harmondsworth Scout Group message of support

Heres a message of support which we especially like from the local Harmondsworth scout group co-ordinator.

Just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for all of the help that you have given us over the past year.

The allotment has been harvested and we shared our produce with not only the children’s families but also the local community. Your expertise and enthusiasm was a god send. The wildlife pond is thriving and we now have all manner of creatures visiting, the children are so proud of it and they relay the story of it’s construction to any one who is willing to listen!

We are delighted to see that you have been awarded the right to stay for the near future at Grow Heathrow. The difference you have made to the community has been immeasurable and we only wish that there were more people like yourselves willing to protect the land, the vulnerable and the community.

As you know it has been a very difficult year for many of our children as they have had to watch their friends move away and the security blanket that the community threw around it’s children has been pulled away with so many residents, young and old, leaving the area.

There has however, been one friend, a new one, that we have grown to love and respect and it is Grow Heathrow whose volunteers have been able to look these children in the eye and say we won’t leave you. The confidence you have instilled in our children has meant that they can look to the future and they now understand that with the right guidance and commitment the Villages can still be their homes and provide the safe environment that every child is entitled to grow up in.

We all love visiting Grow Heathrow where the children have learnt so many things and we hope that we can build on this with you in the future. Some of our children live in flats with no gardens so the chance to come down to Grow Heathrow and dig in the dirt is like winning 1st prize for them. And then we have our young teenagers… who, in their sulky, difficult way think you are all cool and it is really refreshing to see them responding to your advise. We have all learnt so much from the centre and you guys have given the children so much, we only hope that things will work out and that you will be able to stay at Grow Heathrow and help further develop the Centre and continue to support the community.

Having grown up in Sipson I remember the Nurseries and all of the activity that surrounded them, to see them fall into disrepair and then be used as a personal dump was heart breaking but nobody had the knowledge of how to stop this happening and then you turned up. You showed us all that we can change things and we don’t have to allow the degeneration of the area to succeed.

If human beings are being abused the law will protect them, if animals are being abused the law will protect them, let us hope that the law will also start to protect our land and stop it from being abused.

Come on down! Making, fixing and growing at Grow Heathrow

This beautiful flyer says it all. At Grow Heathrow we’re rolling out 3 regular events. If making stuff is for you then get down to our crafternoon sessions every Tuesday from 2-5pm. If you want to learn how to fix your bike then bring your bicycle down and get involved with the bike workshop running on Thursdays from 1-5pm. And if you want to get your hands dirty with soil rather than oil then head down to the gardening club sessions running every Sunday from 2-6pm.

Heathrow villages are blooming marvelous

Transition Heathrow have teamed up with Harmondsworth village allotments to bring you a community project to brighten up the villages with hanging baskets and public flower beds.

After the crazyness of last Thursday with 40 riot police rudely invading Grow Heathrow, we are moving on to concentrate on more serious business. On Sunday 22nd May from 10am at Grow Heathrow there will be a day of planting up hanging baskets and containers for residents to take home to hang around the neighbouring villages.

One week later on Monday 30th May, again from 10am at Grow Heathrow, we will have a day dedicated to planting up all the flower beds in the area. In the meantime we’re asking all local residents to drop off there hanging baskets in preparation to The Vicarage in Harmondsworth or to Grow Heathrow in Sipson.

If you want any more information or have any other ideas to bring to the project then please e-mail info@transitionheathrow.com

Gardening club brings in the kids – Joe’s Blog

On the 6th March the inaugural Gardening Club was swamped by over 25 members of the local cub scout group that were keen to get their hands dirty and get the growing season off to a flying start.

They came prepared with packets of seed and an eagerness to learn. After lunch, cooked themselves on barbecues, the young group were given an introduction to what a seed is, what they need and where they come from. After this was all explained the serious business of sowing began. In a whirlwind of energy seed trays and pots were soon filled with compost and seeds waiting to erupt into a wide range of plants from beans and peas to onions, tomatoes and salad crops. Above the patter of small feet and shrill voices could be heard shouting phrases such as “I want a magic bean” and “how old do I have to be before I can live here?” As water trickled from the can so the hysteria subsided and we talked abut what would happen in the lives of the seeds we had planted. Many were destined to live out their days in the houses of the children that attended as everyone took a pot to grow at home. However, the majority are to be grown on the site until they are ready to be planted out in another workshop at the scout hall allotment.

The return of the cubs on Sunday 3rd April saw much excitement at the emergence of the seeds that they had planted a month before. We watered them and talked about the progress of growth that was occurring. The enthusiasm of the group as they were given a tour of the natural structures that we have been building to live in was amazing. Exclamations such as “I can’t believe you live in a den, that is so cool,” laid the foundations of our own construction project. Together we built a bender out of Hazel beside the pond. The day was rounded off by planting tree species that will produce wood for the construction of many more elaborate dens in the future. We also sowed seeds that instigated the start of Sipson’s biggest sunflower competition.

Please come and join in the fun. Every Sunday @Grow Heathrow from 2pm.

Community garden project started in Brighton

Underneath the concrete there’s some exciting growing going on in the middle of Brighton. A growing community of individuals have got together to transform a derelict space in the city centre of Brighton into a vibrant food growing space, the project is called Brighton Mound.

The space in Brighton has been unused and full of rubbish for 14 years now and so the Mound gardeners have proposed an alternative solution. A mutually beneficial agreement for temporary use of the vacant land which would allow the site to become a much needed community space in this age of austerity and a local food growing initiative.

Despite a violent intrusion by bailiffs the project lives on. In under 2 months, all the rubbish has been cleared, shelter and raised beds have been built, meetings and work weekends have been held, signs and banners erected and many gardening events have been attended by lots of people from the local community.

We at Transition Heathrow know how important it is to get the local community on your side and Brighton Mound seems to be achieving this too. The project has the backing of the local neighbourhood, local businesses and the green councillors.

To get involved, check out their website, donate them some stuff, send them a statement of support or get down to there next working day.

Reclaim the fields

A call out to all community food growers, farmers, permaculturalists, land occupiers, seeds savers and swappers, those who want to RECLAIM FIELDS!

Its time to meet and share stories about all the exciting growing projects all over the UK, from those fresh and ready to sprout to projects already rooted in rural and urban communities.

Resistance is Fertile!

Reclaim the Fields is a constellation of people and collective projects willing to go back to the land and reassume the control over food production.

Determined to create alternatives to capitalism through cooperative, collective, autonomous, real needs oriented small scale production and initiatives, putting theory into practice and linking local practical action with global political struggles.

On Saturday 12th March 2011 Reclaim the Fields UK will launch itself into the unknown, beginning what they hope to be a fruitful collaboration of UK projects and people in solidarity over food sovereignty and common access to land. From fields far and wide, cities near and far, where muddy hands and feet are set on the ground, they are calling all those who are working the land for the common good.

Grow Heathrow is the host where everyone will spend the weekend getting to know each other and the various projects from across the country, take part in workshops and discussions (including access to land and land struggles) and share ideas to nurture a vision of what we can create here in the UK and Europe.

FRIDAY EVENING: from 5pm people arrive set up tents, dinner and fire

SAT FULLDAY: morning- presentations from various project. afternoon – discussions / workshops. evening – dinner, film, music, fire, talk

SUN MORNING: morning- optional practical session / more discussion / stay and help prepare the site for the european reclaim the fields assembly.

What to bring:

a tent (email if you need indoor sleeping space, this is available but limited)

Donations for food

seeds for a mass seed swap

Flyers, stories and info about growing projects in the UK.

It is essential that you book your place before the 6th March 2011 so that hey can get an idea of numbers to cater for.

There is no fee but donations will be asked for to cover food.

reclaimthefieldsuk@riseup.net

The reclaim the fields European assembly will begin on the Monday 14th at Grow Heathrow. Those who feel keen to be involved in organising for the RTF camp which will take place this summer are welcome to stay for the week, which will be working-group orientated, focusing largely on logistics for the RTF camp – a chance to get more involved in the reclaim the fields European network.

The following weekend all are welcome to join the P.E.D.A.L. weekend of workshops on storytelling, creative disobedience, legal, consensus decision making and the Occupation of Palestine. The event will be held on the 19th and 20th of March. P.E.D.A.L. starts their 100 day cycle to the West Bank on the 21st of March from Grow Heathrow.

For more information on Reclaim the Fields and the network visit www.reclaimthefields.org, for more information on Grow Heathrow check out the rest of our website and information on P.E.D.A.L can be found at http://sowestand.com/p-e-d-a-l-100-days-to-palestine/

We look forward to meeting you on the land

Grow Heathrow growing group back in action

To all gardeners, permaculturists, transition towners, people who have never planted a seed before, wise, new, skilled and fresh, all welcome!

The spring is edging nearer and at Grow Heathrow after our exciting news of another growing season on our beautiful land in Sipson, it’s time to get together and plot, plan and plant what we want to build, grow, seed, and eat!

This meeting will be a space for us all to look at our success from our last growing season, make improvements to some problems we faced growing flowers, fruit and veg in and outside of our greenhouses, and to start to think about seeds and crops to be grown this year – using a permaculture design throughout hopefully involving many residents, friends and supporters who get involved in the process of planning and planting.

Come to Grow Heathrow 7:00pm 8th February 2011

A weekly gardening club will also be starting at Grow Heathrow from Sunday 6th March, 2pm.

Lets get skilled up! We all have green fingers ready to sprout…

… and of course resistance is fertile!