Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Approach
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Food Logs
3.2. Semi-Structured Interviews
3.3. Respondents
3.4. Analysis
4. Results
4.1. The Practices of Dutch and Czech Allotment Gardeners
4.1.1. Motivations for Gardening
‘For me it is almost a condition to live well. I just need to have my hands in the soil very regularly. And I really enjoy gardening.’NL8
‘It really became a hobby. And now it is a passion; I can’t imagine my life without it anymore.’NL2
‘I inherited the garden from my parents. It’s my life. I feel very good here.’CZ7
‘I grew up in the countryside, and I was used to keeping busy. I missed nature. I enjoy working with the soil; it gives me energy.’CZ2
‘Sometimes I spend an hour just talking. I enjoy that too. I am not that fanatic that I just do my garden. It is also a social event.’NL9
‘The social contacts at the garden are also important to me.’NL5
‘We have a group of friends here, which is great. Every morning we drink coffee together. We celebrate birthdays here, we have a drink together.’CZ3
4.1.2. Eating from the Garden
‘I really enjoy having dinner and actually only eating things from my own garden. That gives me some sort of pride, like, I didn’t buy anything.’NL5
‘It is great richness that you can put something in the soil and that it allows you to eat from it.’NL8
‘I have a “farmer personality”. It’s a joy to grow something. Not out of greediness—it just makes me happy to see it prosper.’CZ7
‘I come here because I get to do something, things grow, I get to see the results.’CZ4
‘Simply that the food tastes extra good when it’s fresh. And also that you know that it’s organic.’NL11
‘More and more also that I know what I eat and that I can be sure that it hasn’t been tampered with.’NL8
‘The taste is entirely different than what you find in the food shop. There it’s kind of tasteless.’CZ10
‘When you have something from the garden, it’s much better than from the supermarkets. There you don’t know what you eat.’CZ2
4.2. Scrutinising Existing Framings
4.2.1. Urban Gardening as an Economic Activity
‘We pay for the plot. It doesn’t pay back what we grow here. But we take it more as recreation and having something to do. But money-wise, it doesn’t pay off.’CZ11
‘I don’t really know whether home-grown vegetables are cheaper than vegetables from the shop. The fertilisers, the labour, and you have to pay the rent. Sometimes you need to replace tools, the seeds. And then it’s eaten, and you have to sow again.’NL10
‘I grow things that are easy to grow. For instance, tomatoes are not demanding. And I enjoy the varieties that you don’t usually find. For example, this year I bought a black tomato; it’s called Black Prince. […] So I grow things that I can’t get [in the shop]. Or things that are expensive in the shop, like garlic. [...] For instance, with beetroot I know I can get it cheaply, and I can get Czech beetroot. Carrots are difficult in this soil, and I also know I can get Czech carrots.’CZ1
‘It is not cheaper, but you eat differently, for example, eating lots of raspberries whereas they are too expensive to buy lots of in the shop.’NL10
‘That kale, that washing, that cutting, and then I think, “My god, for those fifty cents.”’NL7
‘There is a Turkish greengrocer here, and I bring him some stuff too. Last year I had lots of figs (...). I gave him some kilos, and then I could take some produce from his shop. He writes on a sign ‘figs from the neighbourhood’, and then people buy them for 50 cents apiece. So, a restaurant and a shop, but most of it I eat myself.’NL6
4.2.2. Gardening as an Activist Endeavour
‘In winter I really buy winter vegetables. We will never eat lettuce in winter, for example, because now that we have it in the garden, it is very unnatural to eat that in winter. Strawberries, I would never buy them, because I know that is not related to winter.’NL9
‘I eat seasonally. In winter I can easily make do without these pale tomatoes. I prefer to eat beetroot, celery, carrots, potatoes, these root crops, beans and legumes, and that’s it.’CZ1
Interviewer: ‘So you are only strict about organics?’ NL8: ‘Yes, let’s say I am 98% strict with that.’
‘Organic, yes it is important but it is difficult to... well, the price stops me sometimes.’NL1
‘Like, wait a minute, this is from Italy, or this is from Belgium. Ok, a little closer, less traffic. Or like this is from Belgium, but it is probably from a greenhouse, so better Italy because there it just grows on the field.’NL11
‘When you discover how much work it takes to grow something, and you see it on the market for a couple of crowns… it’s hard. And they can’t compete with supermarkets; those have it even cheaper. And if you don’t use fertilisers, it’s small, and people don’t like it. But nowadays people start caring about local food.’CZ1
‘We mostly cover our own consumption. Of course, sometimes I see something we don’t have, and I buy it, but that’s rare. I don’t even buy watermelons. I prefer to pick currants in the garden. They have plenty of vitamin C, and it’s ecological, whereas when you buy it…’CZ7
5. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Tornaghi, C. Critical geography of urban agriculture. Prog. Hum. Geogr. 2014, 38, 551–567. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Okvat, H.A.; Zautra, A.J. Community Gardening: A Parsimonious Path to Individual, Community, and Environmental Resilience. Am. J. Community Psychol. 2011, 47, 374–387. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Bell, S.; Fox-Kämper, R.; Keshavarz, N.; Benson, M.; Caputo, S.; Noori, S.; Voigt, A. Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe, 1st ed.; Routledge: Abingdon, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2016. [Google Scholar]
- Kosnik, E. Production for consumption: Prosumer, citizen-consumer, and ethical consumption in a postgrowth context. Econ. Anthropol. 2018, 5, 123–134. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Taylor, J.R.; Lovell, S.T. Urban home food gardens in the Global North: Research traditions and future directions. Agric. Hum. Values 2014, 31, 285–305. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Veen, E.J.; Derkzen, P.; Visser, A.J. Shopping Versus Growing: Food Acquisition Habits of Dutch Urban Gardeners. Food Foodways 2014, 22, 268–299. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- McClintock, N. Why farm the city? Theorizing urban agriculture through a lens of metabolic rift. Camb. J. Reg. Econ. Soc. 2010, 3, 191–207. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Eizenberg, E. Actually Existing Commons: Three Moments of Space of Community Gardens in New York City. Antipode 2012, 44, 764–782. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Barron, J. Community gardening: Cultivating subjectivities, space, and justice. Local Environ. 2017, 22, 1142–1158. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- McClintock, N. Radical, reformist, and garden-variety neoliberal: Coming to terms with urban agriculture’s contradictions. Local Environ. 2014, 19, 147–171. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Timpe, A.; Cieszewska, A.; Supuka, J.; Tóth, A. Urban Agriculture Goes Green Infrastructure. In Urban Agriculture Europe; Lohrberg, F., Lička, L., Scazzosi, L., Timpe, A., Eds.; Jovis: Berlin, Germany, 2016; pp. 126–138. [Google Scholar]
- Koopmans, M.E.; Keech, D.; Sovová, L.; Reed, M. Urban agriculture and place-making: Narratives about place and space in Ghent, Brno and Bristol. Morav. Geogr. Rep. 2017, 25, 154–165. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Veen, E.J.; Bock, B.B.; van den Berg, W.; Visser, A.J.; Wiskerke, J.S.C. Community gardening and social cohesion: Different designs, different motivations. Local Environ. 2016, 21, 1271–1287. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Prové, C.; Dessein, J.; de Krom, M. Taking context into account in urban agriculture governance: Case studies of Warsaw (Poland) and Ghent (Belgium). Land Use Policy 2016, 56, 16–26. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- van den Berg, L.M.; van Veenhuizen, R. Multiple functions of urban agriculture. Urban Agric. Mag. 2005, 1–3. [Google Scholar]
- Siebert, A. Transforming urban food systems in South Africa: Unfolding food sovereignty in the city. J. Peasant Stud. 2020, 47, 401–419. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Diekmann, L.O.; Gray, L.C.; Baker, G.A. Growing ‘good food’: Urban gardens, culturally acceptable produce and food security. Renew. Agric. Food Syst. 2020, 35, 169–181. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Capital Growth. Available online: https://www.capitalgrowth.org (accessed on 27 April 2020).
- MYHarvest. Available online: https://myharvest.org.uk/ (accessed on 27 April 2020).
- Farming Concrete—Measuring the Good Things in Community Gardens. Available online: https://farmingconcrete.org/ (accessed on 27 April 2020).
- Alaimo, K.; Packnett, E.; Miles, R.A.; Kruger, D.J. Fruit and vegetable intake among urban community gardeners. J. Nutr. Educ. Behav. 2008, 40, 94–101. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Blair, D.; Giesecke, C.C.; Sherman, S. A dietary, social and economic evaluation of the Philadelphia urban gardening project. J. Nutr. Educ. 1991, 23, 161–167. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kortright, R.; Wakefield, S. Edible backyards: A qualitative study of household food growing and its contributions to food security. Agric. Hum. Values 2011, 28, 39–53. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pourias, J.; Duchemin, E.; Aubry, C. Products from Urban Collective Gardens: Food for Thought or for Consumption? Insights from Paris and Montreal. J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev. 2015, 5, 175–199. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Exner, A.; Schützenberger, I. Creative Natures. Community gardening, social class and city development in Vienna. Geoforum 2018, 92, 181–195. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- De Zeeuw, H.; Dubbeling, M. Cities, Food and Agriculture: Challenges and the Way Forward; RUAF Foundation: Leusden, The Netherlands, 2009. [Google Scholar]
- Van Veenhuizen, R. Cities Farming for the Future—Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities; RUAF Foundation, IDRC and IIRR Publishing: Manila, Philippines, 2006. [Google Scholar]
- Keshavarz, N.; Bell, S. A history of urban gardens in Europe. In Urban Allotment Gardens in Europe; Bell, S., Fox-Kämper, R., Keshavarz, N., Benson, M., Caputo, S., Noori, S., Voigt, A., Eds.; Routledge: Abingdon, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2016; pp. 8–33. [Google Scholar]
- McClintock, N. From Industrial Garden to Food Desert: Unearthing the Root Structure of Urban Agriculture in Oakland, California. ISSI Fellows Working Papers. 2008. Available online: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1wh3v1sj (accessed on 10 November 2018).
- Delgado, C. Mapping urban agriculture in Portugal: Lessons from practice and their relevance for European post-crisis contexts. Morav. Geogr. Rep. 2017, 25, 139–153. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Drechsel, P. Strengthening city-region food systems during and beyond COVID-19. Water Land Ecosyst. 2020. Available online: https://wle.cgiar.org/thrive/2020/04/08/strengthening-city-region-food-systems-during-and-beyond-covid-19 (accessed on 20 April 2020).
- Alber, J.; Kohler, U. Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union. Soc. Indic. Res. 2008, 89, 113–127. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Grivins, M. A comparative study of the legal and grey wild product supply chains. J. Rural Stud. 2016, 45, 66–75. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Jehlička, P.; Daněk, P. Rendering the Actually Existing Sharing Economy Visible: Home-Grown Food and the Pleasure of Sharing. Sociol. Rural. 2017, 57, 274–296. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Acheson, J. Household Exchange Networks in Post-Socialist Slovakia. Hum. Organ. 2007, 66, 405–413. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gabriel, C. Healthy Russian Food is Not-for-Profit. Mich. Discuss. Anthropol. 2005, 15, 183–222. [Google Scholar]
- Williams, C.C.; Round, J.; Rodgers, P. The Role of Informal Economies in the Post-Soviet World: The End of Transition? Routledge: London, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2013; ISBN 978-1-135-03685-0. [Google Scholar]
- Duží, B.; Tóth, A.; Bihuňová, M.; Stojanov, R. Challenges of Urban Agriculture: Highlights on the Czech and Slovak Republic Specifics. In Current Challenges of Central Europe: Society and Environment; Vávra, J., Lapka, M., Cudlínová, E., Eds.; Charles University: Prague, Czech Republic, 2014; pp. 82–107. [Google Scholar]
- Gritzas, G.; Kavoulakos, K.I. Diverse economies and alternative spaces: An overview of approaches and practices. Eur. Urban Reg. Stud. 2016, 23, 917–934. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Smith, J. From Házi to Hypermarket: Discourses on Time, Money and Food in Hungary. Anthropol. East Eur. Rev. 2003, 21, 179–188. [Google Scholar]
- Jehlička, P.; Kostelecký, T.; Smith, J. Food Self-Provisioning in Czechia: Beyond Coping Strategy of the Poor: A Response to Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008). Soc. Indic. Res. 2013, 111, 219–234. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pungas, L. Food self-provisioning as an answer to the metabolic rift: The case of ‘Dacha Resilience’ in Estonia. J. Rural Stud. 2019, 68, 75–86. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Schatzki, T.R. Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the Social; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 1996; ISBN 978-0-521-56022-1. [Google Scholar]
- Reckwitz, A. Toward a Theory of Social Practices: A Development in Culturalist Theorizing. Eur. J. Soc. Theory 2002, 5, 243–263. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Dobernig, K.; Veen, E.J.; Oosterveer, P. Growing urban food as an emerging social practice. In Practice Theory and Research: Exploring the Dynamics of Social Life; Spaargaren, G., Weenink, D., Lamers, M., Eds.; Routledge: London, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2016; pp. 153–178. [Google Scholar]
- Shove, E.; Pantzar, M.; Watson, M. The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday Life and How It Changes; Sage: London, UK, 2012. [Google Scholar]
- Schatzki, T.R. The Site of the Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change; Penn State Press: Pennsylvania, USA, 2002. [Google Scholar]
- De Krom, M.P.M.M. Governing Animal–human Relations in Farming Practices: A Study of Group Housing of Sows in the EU. Sociol. Rural. 2015, 55, 417–437. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Evans, D. Consuming conventions: Sustainable consumption, ecological citizenship and the worlds of worth. J. Rural Stud. 2011, 27, 109–115. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Veen, E.J. Community Gardens in Urban Areas: A Critical Reflection on the Extent to Which They Strengthen Social Cohesion and Provide Alternative Food. Ph.D. Thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 2015. [Google Scholar]
- Warde, A. What sort of a practice is eating? In Sustainable Practices. Social Theory and Climate Change; Shove, E., Spurling, N., Eds.; Routledge: London, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2013; pp. 33–46. [Google Scholar]
- Church, A.; Mitchell, R.; Ravenscroft, N.; Stapleton, L.M. ‘Growing your own’: A multi-level modelling approach to understanding personal food growing trends and motivations in Europe. Ecol. Econ. 2015, 110, 71–80. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Vávra, J.; Megyesi, B.; Duží, B.; Craig, T.; Klufová, R.; Lapka, M.; Cudlínová, E. Food Self-provisioning in Europe: An Exploration of Sociodemographic Factors in Five Regions. Rural Sociol. 2018, 83, 431–461. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Veen, E.J.; Eiter, S. Vegetables and social relations in Norway and the Netherlands: A comparative analysis of urban allotment gardeners. Nat. Cult. 2018, 13, 135–160. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Pourias, J.; Aubry, C.; Duchemin, E. Is food a motivation for urban gardeners? Multifunctionality and the relative importance of the food function in urban collective gardens of Paris and Montreal. Agric. Hum. Values 2016, 33, 257–273. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Gibas, P.; Matějovská, L.; Novák, A.; Rolfová, E.; Tvardková, V.; Valešová, I.; Veselý, M. Zahrádkové Osady: Stíny Minulosti, Nebo Záblesky Budoucnosti? Charles University: Prague, Czech Republic, 2013; ISBN 978-80-87398-30-2. [Google Scholar]
- Fendrychová, L.; Jehlička, P. Revealing the hidden geography of alternative food networks: The travelling concept of farmers’ markets. Geoforum 2018, 95, 1–10. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Tisenkopfs, T.; Kovách, I.; Lošťák, M.; Šūmane, S. Rebuilding and Failing Collectivity: Specific Challenges for Collective Farmers Marketing Initiatives in Post-Socialist Countries. Int. J. Sociol. Agric. Food 2011, 18, 70–88. [Google Scholar]
- Bilewicz, A.; Śpiewak, R. Beyond the “Northern” and “Southern” Divide: Food and Space in Polish Consumer Cooperatives. East Eur. Polit. Soc. Cult. 2019, 33, 579–602. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Smith, J.; Jehlička, P. Quiet sustainability: Fertile lessons from Europe’s productive gardeners. J. Rural Stud. 2013, 32, 148–157. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
Date | Food | Source | Amount | Usage |
---|---|---|---|---|
1/8 | Potatoes | Supermarket | 2 kg | Own consumption |
8/8 | Plums | Garden | 200 g | Gift for neighbour |
20/8 | Zucchini | Gift from sister | 1 kg | Pickled |
30/8 | Apples | Bought from a farmer | 20 kg | Stored |
… | … | … | … | … |
Dutch Gardeners | Czech Gardeners | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age | Gender | Household Size | Allotment Size | Age | Gender | Household Size | Allotment Size | ||
NL1 | 57 | F | 1 | 170 m2 | CZ1 | 32 | F | 2 | 225 m2 |
NL2 | 66 | F | 1 | 400 m2 | CZ2 | 52 | F | 2 | 200 m2 |
NL3 | 68 | M | 2+ | 80 + 250 m2 | CZ3 | 70 | F | 2 | 200 m2 |
NL4 | 69 | M | 2 | 250 + 250 m2 | CZ4 | 51 | F | 2 | 200 m2 |
NL5 | 68 | F | 2 | 225 m2 | CZ5 | 28 | F | 3 | 200 m2 |
NL6 | 55 | M | 3/4 | 100 m2 | CZ6 | 63 | F | 1 | 200 m2 |
NL7 | 65 | M | 1 | 250 m2 | CZ7 | 64 | F | 2 | 240 m2 |
NL8 | 56 | F | 3/4 | 161 m2 | CZ8 | 54 | F | 2 | 200 m2 |
NL9 | 69 | M | 2 | 270 m2 | CZ9 | 67 | M | 3 | 225 m2 |
NL10 | 56 | F | 2 | 200 m2 | CZ10 | 44 | F | 2 | 225 m2 |
NL11 | 63 | F | 1/2 | 160 m2 | CZ11 | 68 | M | 2 | 225 m2 |
Dutch Gardeners | Czech Gardeners | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harvest (kg) | Self-sufficiency (%) | Harvest (kg) | Self-sufficiency (%) | ||
NL1 | 52 | 88 | CZ1 | 9 | 36 |
NL2 | 38 | 75 | CZ2 | 162 | 26 |
NL3 | 58 | 73 | CZ3 | 67 | 76 |
NL4 | 46 | 21 | CZ4 | 50 | 51 |
NL5 | 28 | 90 | CZ5 | 2 | 6 |
NL6 | 18 | 44 | CZ6 | 137 | 68 |
NL7 | 16 | 69 | CZ7 | 87 | 67 |
NL8 | 41 | 68 | CZ8 | 26 | 100 |
NL9 | 51 | 77 | CZ9 | 32 | 79 |
NL10 | 41 | 82 | CZ10 | 16 | 21 |
NL11 | 85 | 86 | CZ11 | 44 | 43 |
Average | 41 | 70 | 57 | 52 |
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Sovová, L.; Veen, E.J. Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5134. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125134
Sovová L, Veen EJ. Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia. Sustainability. 2020; 12(12):5134. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125134
Chicago/Turabian StyleSovová, Lucie, and Esther J. Veen. 2020. "Neither Poor nor Cool: Practising Food Self-Provisioning in Allotment Gardens in the Netherlands and Czechia" Sustainability 12, no. 12: 5134. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125134