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Make Asbo yobs work in allotments, says new food czar Rosie
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard05.08.08
Young people with anti-social behaviour orders could be made to work in allotments, Boris Johnson's new food czar said today.
Former newspaper editor Rosie Boycott said the move would benefit the environment and give young people a sense of pride.
Ms Boycott has been appointed by the Mayor to chair the London Food Board, which aims to improve access to healthy, locally-produced and affordable food. She said she would also support local markets and encourage families to eat together.
"I want to advocate the use of allotments and growing our own food," she said. "We can lean on councils to release more land and kids on Asbos could be put to work on them. If you've grown your own food you feel prouder of it and appreciate it more. We also want to limit food waste and eat more locally. If everybody grows more of their own food we have a greener city and help climate change."
Ms Boycott, a former editor of the Independent on Sunday, has her own small organic farm and writes about the importance of food in improving health and in reducing the carbon emissions which cause climate change. She has also written a book about her experiences on her farm.
Mr Johnson said: "I am hugely excited that Rosie Boycott has agreed to chair the London Food Board and champion the provision of high-quality, nutritious food in the capital.
"Rosie is as passionate as I am about the importance of locally-produced, affordable food to our health and wellbeing as well as the role food can play in protecting our environment.
"Rosie is bursting with great ideas on how we can boost the level of top-notch food grown locally and support London's local, independent food industries and smaller shops."
Ms Boycott takes over the chair of the London Food Board from Green Party Assembly member Jenny Jones.
Reader views (21)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
@obnoxio the Clown
Google 'climate change evidence' - first result - the Royal Society. Not exactly what I would describe as a warmest clique, a hot bed (sic) of tax raising, tree hugging, green loonies.
There is ample evidence, but as with most scientific research, it is varied, hugely complicated and results can be interpreted in different ways. Just because Governments have jumped on it for their own ends doesn't mean it isn't true, it just means that Governments twist issues to suit themselves.
The problem is that to do something about it will be expensive and will disrupt people's lives, so cognitive dissonance kicks in and suddenly it's not that bad. It's the same process that causes smokers and drug users to play down the negative effects of their dangerous habit.
- Think B4 You Speak, The hottest part of the country
When the puff of smoke of bluster, pledges and wishy-washy policies are swept away what are Londoners left with?
Well, nothing. And what did the fools that backed a clown expect?! It's funny ride, laughable even, but that will soon turn to embarrassment at the realisation there's nothing there. A bit like between the ears of the man in power eh.
- Jj, London
Hard labour, that's what they need. If the perps need supervising to do the digging over of the plot properly they should pay the supervisors wages for the day & if they don't do the task properly they can come back again tomorrow & fork out (sorry) another days wages until they finish.
- George, Essex
@Think B4 You Speak: go on then, where's your proof:
a) that the planet is warming at all
b) that man is causing it if it is warming
c) that reducing carbon emissions is the best thing to do if both of the above are true?
Make it nice and simple, because I'm dumb. I don't believe in words like "consensus" or "probabilities". I keep getting told that "the science is settled", but somehow no-one can show me what the science is.
I await your reply with bated breath, thanks in advance.
- Obnoxio The Clown, The circus
Andrew Kirkham - are you a climatologist?
Maybe a PhD would help you understand the issues better than a cursory reading of the Daily Mail.
- Think B4 You Speak, London
What is growing your own food got to do with climate change. The latter is not happening, it is totally fictitious, it is the latest wheeze of failed politicians, the green lobby and Governments desperate for more reasons to tax you.
Growing your own food is good because it good quality, cheap,and provides exercise.
It makes me throw up when you get idiots such as Ms Boycott and, sadly it seems, B Johnson going along with the absurd warmest clique.
- Andrew Kirkham, maidenhead
Interesting comments so far. We are a social enterprise running a community allotments project on the Bransholme estate in Hull. We share the space with the Council who let plots to individuals while we split our area into small plots to encourage as many people as possible to have a go at growing. We work with many disadvantaged groups on the site including young offenders (who come along with a supervisor) and those not in mainstream school. Thanks to our ethos on site and some fantastic staff everyone who engages with the project gets something out of it and most people quickly develop a real sense of ownership which in itself aids security. The attitude of the young offenders ranges from 'I never want to do this again' (deterrent) to 'I'd really like to get more involved and do some training' (making a life change). No proposed action is ever a carte blanche solution, but working on the land whether on allotments or farms or somewhere in-between has such a huge range of benefits it must be worth giving it a try.
- Sam Linton, Hull, UK
Does she not know how difficult it is to get an allotment, there are waiting lists that in some cases are years long to get an allotment. She would be giving these low lives a gift for being idiots.
- Nick, London
Er, so the 1000 people in my London borough waiting 3/4 years for 1/2 an allotment will have to wait even longer if this scheme ever sees the light of day. At least get your feet under the desk before making uninformed policy proposals. There are plenty of conservation and environmental schemes around London that could do with some manual graft. Still, at least we are not paying for the food czar, apart from her fares up from Somerset...
- London Lad, London,UK
As an allotmenteer of 5 years the last thing I would want to see is the subjects of Community Service or Anti Social Behaviour Orders on the plots- particularly under duress. Its bad enough with burglary, thefts and criminal damage to plots and their produce as it is, without publicising the location of otherwise secluded allotments to the very groups of folk who cause the problems in the first place. And there aren't enough plots to go around in most boroughs any way- so is Ms Boycott suggesting that ASBO'ers should jump straight to the front of the queue? Yet another systemic reward/reinforcement for unlawful behaviour!
- James, London
Nice one Squiz, LOL, you have to admit its very good practice for these blade boys.
- James Hennessy, london england
I am always among the first to champion Boris's work, which up to this point has been excellent.
But, please tell me Boris, what on earth can Rosie Boycott bring to the table as the new food czar? And why on earth does London need a food czar?
Rosie Boycott's biggest claim to fame, apart from being a newspaper editor, was her campaign for the personal use of cannabis to be decriminalised, so how that suddenly qualifies her to be some sort of expert on food, I don't know.
And what on earth is a so called food expert (czar) doing, telling us how young tearaways should be treated?
You are treading on very dangerous ground here Boris, with appointments such as this. You could end up, like your predecessor, being called Red Boris.
- Peter Thurgood, London, UK
Another pie in the sky idea. Who pays for the supervision and the tools. Is Rosie going to sit there with a shotgun and what sanctions will there be if the little darlings don't want to work or mess about. All you will produce is some very expensive food.
- Robert Thornton, malaga spain
Any person is better than misguided and so out of touch Jenny Jones, its time to put the green minority protest party at the back of any meaningful debate or decision making concerning London,they had the previous mayors ear and actually started to believe in their own importance, Rosie boycott will spell it out and not enter the dreary world of being PC, good luck to her..
- Jonnie Of Brixton, london
Mony Don already tried getting wayward youths to work on an allotment and ended up tearing his hair out.
- Michael Hargrave, Surbiton UK
1)If my Council had any land to 'release', they'd already have built a zillion cheap (quality, not price)flats on it.
2) One reason people give up on allotments is the activities of anti-social young people.
These are good intentions not yet quite thought through: what does surprise me is how few schools seem to offer gardening instead of games. An allotment can exercise,entertain and educate many more people per unit area than a football pitch or tennis court, in all weathers too, and develop habits of long-term planning. Often people have two or three allotments on one site, which seems wrong when whole classes could be enjoying them.
- Mdj, Leyton, e10 london
Oh dear god, now we have smoking Rosie jumping on the bandwagon, on the other hand, it might work. She might be able to be calm them with some nice organic spliffs.
- James Hennessy, london england
These anti-social kids should be made to do some work and at least make some public use out of them. Giving them just an ASBO is what they want, after all most of them collect them. Work them them to the bone, like the rest of us trying to make a decent living.
- Toni, Barnet
No. No. No. That's not punishment. They should be given the worst jobs going. Lots of well-behaved kids would love the chance to work on an allotment -- as would many adults. We can't 'reward' anti-social behaviour. Lax consequences are no deterrent.
- Philip, London, England
Yes, great idea. And they already have knives with which to peel the vegetables. Really. It's better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and prove it.
- Squiz, Islington
Why would any proud allotment owner want dysfunctional chavs charged up on alcopops ruining all their hard work? Allotment success requires research, hard physical work and patience - I doubt these "yoofs" have any of these qualities.
- Joe, London
