The urban farmers taking over someone else's backyard as a reprieve from the pandemic

During Melbourne's first lockdown, Meg and fellow volunteers began delivering bags of produce to members who were self-isolating. (Lisa Clausen)

In an article in the ABC, reporter Lisa Clausen covered the Backyard Farmers project, a brainchild of Growing Farmers, a community regenerative urban farming group. The group was created in early 2020 to strengthen local food security and sustainability.

In it, Clausen references Sustain's National Pandemic Gardening Survey. She writes, "the group hopes to build on a pandemic-driven surge of interest in food growing. More than 60 per cent of those who participated in the 2020 Pandemic Gardening Survey, conducted by Sustain: The Australian Food Network, said they had increased their edible food growing over the past 12 months."

"Anyone who grew a tomato during lockdown — even a little bit of their own food — knows that feeling of how satisfying is it to be working with the processes of nature," Growing Farmers president Alice Crowe tells Clausen.  "It reminds us how connected we are with the earth and there's a feeling of deep satisfaction that comes from that."

Read the full article here.