by Sara Bivigou
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- British Abbey Parks’ i-Grow programme allows consumers from anywhere in the UK to manage and reap the rewards of an allotment tended in Lincolnshire.
- Consumers visit the i-Grow website and choose a 3m x 2m plot in Abbey Park, East Heckington, Lincolnshire. The plot is spacious enough to plant eight rows of vegetables, which subscribers can pick from a selection of more than 60.
- The hired hands at Abbey Park prepare the land and care for the crops organically. They also upload photos to an online members forum, so that allotment owners can view the progress of their produce from afar.
- When the vegetables are ready, Abbey Parks harvests and delivers them for free to the consumer’s door, with the offer of an optional replant afterwards.
- The service costs £104 per year plus £21 for eight rows of plants.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- The i-Grow service removes distance as a barrier to organic eating in the UK. Even those living in the most urban or cut-off areas have the opportunity to eat carefully produced food.
- The i-Grow service allows consumers to engage with food from before it exists to the moment it hits the plate. That the vegetables grow at their own pace and in a space where they can be watched is a healthy reversal of the fast food consumers have become used to over the last few decades.
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