This is a part of the Food Justice series on The Landworkers' Radio.

We end this podcast season with the launch of our Landworkers’ Alliance 2023 calendar, On Common Ground. This year’s calendar shares twelve inspiring stories about land rights and land justice, and so for this episode, we’ve explored the story ‘the urban growing project’, in conversation with Richard Galpin, member of the London Freedom Seed Bank.

For thousands of years farmers, growers, peasants and land workers across the world have been saving and exchanging seeds, passing them down from one generation to the next. But over the past one hundred years, the knowledge, skill and practice of seed saving, as well as many varieties of seed, have been all but lost. However, around the world, and here in the UK, there is a growing movement to rebuild seed diversity and seed sovereignty in both urban and rural settings. This movement is centred around working to adapt and build seed resilience in the face of climate change, retraining growers and farmers in the lost art of seed custodianship, and celebrating our seed stories and food and cultural heritages.

The London Freedom Seed Bank is a network of gardeners and food growers across London and was set up to collectively protect, store and keep alive rare and unusual varieties - seed that is grown and saved in London to ensure it has adapted and acclimatised to local growing conditions, making a more resilient seed stock for urban environments.

This series was produced by Dee Butterly and Georgie Styles and was brought to you by the Landworkers Alliance. Thanks so much to all of our listeners and collaborators who joined us over the season!