Lithuania: Grassroots – the community initiatives leading Lithuania’s urban farming revolution
Sosnovskiene is a co-founder of The City Laboratory — a project that brings food growing into urban spaces.
By Tautvile Daugelaite
The Calvert Journal
Feb 22, 2022
(Must see. Mike)
Excerpt:
Lithuanians may also tell you they are a nation of farmers — even if their only agriculture experience is weeding their grandmother’s garden. Up until the late 90s, most of rural dwellers had gardens in their backyards. Urban citizens would often own small plots of land with summer houses. And while it might no longer be customary, the idea of growing their own food is still important to many Lithuanians, either as a plan, or a distant dream.
For now, however, it often remains highly unprofitable to cultivate smaller pieces of land. Despite efforts from different NGOs, governments, and the European Commission to promote alternatives — small or medium-sized family farms, organic, no-till, or biodynamic farming — mass farmed food pushes higher-cost, better-quality products out of the market.
But it’s these alternatives that are appearing in Lithuania’s urban spaces: reaching out to communities to teach them not only about growing food, but also about growing closer. Whether as a way to reconnect with the national roots, an opportunity to redefine the agricultural identity for modern times, or as a tool for community building, food growing is seeping back into urbanised society.
