Sowing the seeds of urban farming

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Is agriculture a purely rural activity? Not any more, if a new breed of urban farmers get their way.

Across the country, roof-top honey farms, window-box herb gardens and parkland vegetable patches are taking root.

And as food prices rise and the economic downturn bites, ways to grow your own, on your doorstep, are likely to become increasingly popular.

Food campaigner and television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recently helped five Bristol families turn a derelict patch of land on their housing estate into a smallholding.

And several green groups have come up with a hugely ambitious proposal called the Feed the Olympics.

They want to see 6,000 acres of land in the capital used to grow enough food for the 14 million meals that will be needed during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

'Real passion'

This, they say, would require 2,012 new food-growing spaces, including community gardens, allotments and roof gardens.

The allotment is certainly nothing new. For those who lived through World War II - and remember Dig for Victory - the idea of urban farming will be familiar.