People in the Riga context still have a lot of food in the fridge that is not coming from the supermarket. This is taken for granted. Cherished as typical for the context, but not seen as an asset. By supporting urban citizens in their efforts in self-growing they are given the agency to provide their own food and become more resilient in times of crisis. Citizens in Riga partly fill their fridges with food grown by relatives, colleagues, friends. Food acquired from these sources does not involve any money or other kind of compensation - it is completely non commodified. For this reason, it is not accounted as part of the country’s economy but forms the basis of a quiet food sovereignty.
The many crises have ensured that there is a strong urge for self-sufficiency. Prosperity of course causes people to worry less and less about their own supply, but the recent economic crisis and the fear of shifts in world hegemony ensures that there is still an awareness to provide themselves with food. As a tradition of generations or from a desire for a healthier life, many Latvian keep on growing their own food. Knowing where the food comes from and how to grow it allows one to valorise it. This means educating more conscious consumers of commodified food resulting in support of locally grown products. Considering that there still is a lot of knowledge present but can disappear soon, it needs to be cherished.
The Soviet occupation urged people but also encouraged people to provide themselves with food during times of food shortage or deficit of healthy products. As a result, the new inhabitants of the microrayons got the opportunity to cultivate a small piece of land next to their living place of 300m2. This amount was considered to be enough for the provision of food for 1 family.
"Pats savam saimes galdam" (“Do it yourself for your family table”), a project by Inara and Boris Teterovs fund gives the opportunity to 436 families to cultivate a kitchen garden of 300m2. This garden produces an average of 200kg of food that is equal to 40 weeks of food provision.
Today food expense makes 21% (approximately 344eu/month) of the average expenses of a family in contrast to the 11% (approximately 172eu/month) for the monthly costs of living. This explains why own food produce can make a difference to reduce the monthly expenses. 72% of the Latvian population finds that food expenses can have a negative effect on the monthly expenses.(1)
There is potential for the residualised allotments to provide food for the city conforming to agroecological principles. There is knowledge on gardening, there are lots of allotments (currently not managed ecologically), that are potential representations of agroecological urbanism. There are also grassroot activist groups already striving for alternative types of urban gardening and permanent status of allotment sites in the city planning. The main motive behind their activities is environmental sustainability and economic sovereignty.
Nevertheless we have to conclude that the city is hesitant to invest in the allotment sites, to develop them, to consider within the planning processes and to grant a legal permanent status, because the allotments are perceived as private spaces (although not owned by the users) as opposed to common good.
Any kind of farming is currently not considered by planners to be part of the functions appertaining to the urban environment. The allotment gardening is only tolerated because of its historic background (it is there as long as nothing else is planned in these areas). The challenge of this project is to raise awareness among the policy makers and urban planners of the significance of agroecological urban food growing.
Allotment garden of 300m2 can significantly contribute to the food provisioning of a family both financially and as a source of healthy food.Existing allotment users practice urban growing for various reasons, but the majority of them can be divided into two broadly defined categories:
a) the older generation having the garden already for decades, using it mainly for food production, but lacking knowledge in ecology and sometimes even common sense. This results in an abuse of the fertile soils and pollution with various chemicals as well as hard, non organic garbage (broken glass, plastic, metal wires, nails or screws etc.); b) the 'new-wave' gardeners, practicing mostly in order to have self-grown, ‘ecological' food with known origin and to educate urban children about the processes of nature. Planting traditional plant varieties is the best way to preserve biodiversity.