Community Food Growers gather in Birmingham
by Drucilla James
Some of the UK’s leading experts will be in the second city this month to inspire everyone, from novices to professionals, to grow their own food and to link up with fellow enthusiasts.
Rather than DIY, GIY -Grow it Yourself -will be holding its first ever event in the UK with a day consisting of demonstrations, talks – both practical and philosophic, discussions and opportunities for networking.
GIY was founded four years ago in Ireland by Mick Kelly to draw people to work together and learn from each other and help build the home-grown food movement. GIY now involves 500,000 individuals and 800 groups.
“Learning to grow food is always best done with others. GIY is based around this, by creating local groups of like-minded folk who want to learn to grow. Every time I go to Ireland I am blown away by how successful it is, so it’s incredibly exciting to have it come to the UK,” said Alys Fowler, BBC gardening presenter.
Alys will be amongst the speakers at the event along with others including author Mark Diacono and journalist Lia Leendertz.
The GIY UK Gathering takes place at Birmingham University on Saturday 20th July from 9am to 5pm and tickets for the day cost £25
Tickets and more information are available from www.giyinternational.org