EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH


GREEN AND PLEASANT


Clockwise from left: Spitalfi elds City Farm; Wenlock Herb Garden; Surrey Docks Farm; and Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden


>


When Justin Pearson dropped out of sixth form aged 17, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. ‘I’ve always been


more of an outdoors person,’ he says, ‘and I’ve never liked classrooms. You hear people talk about how diffi cult it is to get a job, and they’re the ones with qualifi cations – but they’re still struggling.’ Justin’s love of the great outdoors led him to volunteer with Cultivate London, a community food-growing project based at multiple sites in West London. Having worked briefl y as a labourer, Justin soon found himself picking up new food-growing skills. ‘Cultivate is much more relaxed than my labouring job, but the head grower is more hands-on and helpful.’ Justin is just one of a growing


breed who are fi nding employment opportunities in roof-top honey farms and parkland vegetable patches.


www.cityandguilds.com/broadsheet


‘I’ve never liked classrooms. You hear people talk about how diffi cult it is to get a job, and they’re the ones with qualifi cations’


JUSTIN PEARSON


In Roots to Work, a report published in partnership with Capital Growth, the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development (CSD) looks at the role community food-growing groups and other urban agriculture projects can play in creating job opportunities. Urban agriculture is the creation


of agricultural landscapes that involve growing food or keeping animals in urban or built-up areas. In these types of places, land is often in high demand, and the spaces available are not suitable for mechanised farming. As a result, urban agriculture tends to rely on small-scale cultivation and hands-on practices.


WELL-BEING BENEFITS


Community food-growing projects, city farms and other urban agriculture initiatives in London already reach people who are facing particular diffi culties with their employability.


BROADSHEET 178 | WINTER | 31


PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVE PHILLIPS


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40