Dig for Victory

One month following the outbreak of WWII Britain's Ministry of Agriculture launched the "Dig for Victory" campaign in an effort to provide essential crops to families and neighborhoods while also freeing up space on shipping convoys for war materials. By 1943, roughly 1.4 million allotments around the UK were producing 1.3 million tons of food, enough to sustain half the nation's food and vegetable needs.

Today, however, the UK gets more than 80% of its food from abroad. A quarter of all its imported lettuce, for instance, comes from Spain. Oranges? From California. Strawberries? Mexico. And so on. So what does any of this have to do with you, us, or anyone? After calculating the average personal carbon footprint in Britain, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that food production and its transport accounted for 23 percent of each person's total, resulting in our greatest use. That's significant considering other factors include such aspects as personal transport and home energy use. (If you'd like to calculate your own footprint, give their calculator a try).

At the moment, more than 80% of the UK's inhabitants live in urban areas. And with an abundance of flat, unused, asphalt rooftops equivalent to the size of 24 Richmond Parks, some estimate that London could produce as much as 25% of its own food needs. Will we ever see wheat fields and livestock production in the cities that rivals that seen in the rural areas of the country? Likely not. But who's to say? All we know is here at Rooftop Salsa we're looking forward to the day when signs no longer read "Save The Forests," but rather "Save The Asphalt."