Roots Allotments - Ed Morrison on transforming urban spaces into thriving community-growing hubs.
In this latest episode of The Food Talk Show, host Ollie Lloyd welcomes Ed Morrison, the CEO of Roots Allotment. This membership-based business aims to empower communities across the UK to grow their food and become part of a vibrant local community. From the germ of an idea during lockdown, the company is pursuing a bold vision for sustainable self-reliance.
Ed Morrison's journey with Roots Allotment began serendipitously during a pre-lockdown gardening talk in Lyme Regis, where he encountered no-dig gardening pioneer Charles Dowding. This meeting ignited Morrison's interest in sustainable food cultivation, leading him to propose a market garden on unloved land in his grandmother’s garden. After a wildly positive experience growing during lockdown, Ed and a couple of old friends from Bath, set about create a business that has flourished in the last few years.
Roots Allotment is not just about growing vegetables; it's about fostering community and inclusivity. With nine sites across England, in places like Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bath, Stourbridge, Chelmsford and Croydon, each allotment buzzes with human and insect life. Morrison's ambition is to develop a network of over 100 sites with over 100,000 people growing their own food within a decade. With every location fostering a sense of community, this vision has the potential to impact more than just the way some people eat.
Converting land into allotments isn’t without its challenges, from sorting members' seeds into tiny packets to accessing quality compost. However, Morrison highlights that one of the most pressing issues is finding suitable land amid the competition from housing developers and other edge-of-town developers.
If all this sparks a desire to have a Roots Allotment near you, visit their website and complete an application form - apparently, all it takes is 300 signatures from friends to influence where their next site is!
Edited by Stella Gent
