"We must plough up the land" - Winston Churchill

My last posting 'Mind the carrot...etc' ended by asking what would be the impact if 100,000 people in London started growing their own fruit and vegetables?

To find out, I embarked on a quick sortie to the Ministry of Food exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in Kennington, south London.

The 'Dig for Victory' artefacts on display unearthed (sorry, pardon the pun) some juicy statistics. 

For instance, six million British families grew their own vegetables during World War II. 

The number of allotments rose from 850,000 in 1939 to 1,750,000 by 1943.

Allotments sprouted (oops!) in unlikely places, such as around Queen Victoria's precious Albert Memorial in Hyde Park (see photo). 

Vegetable production increased by 55% during the war. Potato output rocketed up 80%.

One million British households kept chickens, geese and turkeys in 1943. 

Over 100,000 people joined 4,000 registered pig clubs. These produced 6,000 tons of meat per year - enough bacon for 150 million breakfasts.

Such sizzling stats, of course, reflect Britain's wartime fear of mass starvation.

The Andalucia Star was just one of hundreds of food-carrying merchant ships sunk during the conflict.Tons of Argentinian meat and eggs bound for Britain cascaded into the Atlantic when a German U-Boat torpedoed and sunk the Andalucia Star - my grandfather Les' former merchant navy cargo vessel - in October 1942.

"We must plough up the land," urged Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Manchester on 27 January, 1940. 

'Dig for Victory' and the Ministry of Food succeeded in keeping Britain fed during the war. 

Today's emergencies might not brandish a swastika or fire torpedoes but rising oil and food prices, financial turmoil and junk food diets all menace us from various directions. 
Maybe, we'll have to grow more of our own food in the twenty-first century.

But will we have enough land?

Image: Imperial War Museum

Paul Coleman, London, November 2010

Reboot camp helps London homeless to kick drugs

"C'mon then man, let's get on with it," Hussain chunters, limbering up on tiptoes.

"You'll start running but your mind will tell you to quit, well before your body needs to stop," bellows Ian McClelland, his drill sergeant's voice rasping with parade ground gravel. 

Pigeons then scatter into the Hyde Park air as Hussain and a small gaggle of London's homeless, many of them past and present crack and heroin users, scamper around a sandy track on a punishing 1km sprint. Their intensity and speed attracts the attention of passers-by strolling near the Serpentine lake. 

McClelland, a British Military Fitness instructor, has just put these lads through a severe yet fun army-style fitness test involving stretches, lunges, sprints, press-ups, star jumps and sit-ups (above). "It's not a boot camp but the guys really enjoy getting fit together," says the shaven-headed instructor.

"I'm clean of hard drugs now," says Hussain just a few minutes after romping home first past the post in the sprint. "I think I'd have died without this fitness programme. My health problems are behind me." 

Hussain started running with residents and workers at the King George's Hostel in Westminster shortly after switching from methadone to Subutex, part of his detox from heroin. (Listen to audio interview with Hussain).

"This is better than rehab, which costs thousands. I stopped going out robbing long ago," says Hussain, who still runs with the group. The BMF's fitness scheme for Westminster's homeless hostel residents, many of them current and past heroin and crack users, is now in its third year.

However, I'm told by a hostel worker many of Londoner's homeless crack users are endangered this summer by a growing menace - Tuberculosis (TB). A mobile health screening unit is busier than ever trying to test London's homeless people for TB.

"If you're coughing and spitting up in crack den, you think that's just the effect of the crack," says my source. "But the symptoms of crack not only help to spread TB but also mask TB symptoms." 

Paul Coleman, London, July 2010

Audio interview with Hussain: Paul Coleman.