The launch of Supervalu’s ‘Let’s GROW‘ campaign saw Ireland’s horticulture sector, and the struggles it is currently facing, put under the spotlight, with Grow It Yourself (GIY) founder Michael Kelly saying farmers are “struggling to stay” in the industry.
The initiative, which was launched this week (Wednesday, February 8) at Scoil Mhuire gan Smál in Inchicore, Co. Dublin by Supervalu and GIY, aims to educate primary school children on food literacy and give them the tools to grow fruit and vegetables at home.
Kelly told Agriland that the campaign aims to highlight the struggles of Ireland’s horticulture sector as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, high input costs and food inflation.
“I think, particularly with vegetables, we know that the horticulture sector in Ireland is going through a really really bad time. Farmers are really struggling to stay in that industry,” he said.
“I think that it’s a really curious thing in some ways because it’s at a time when all of the climate signs are telling us that eating more vegetables is really good for the planet and for our own health.
“It should be Irish horticulture’s moment in the sun almost, and instead it’s the opposite.”
Kelly said the Let’s GROW campaign will see primary school children educated on the work, time and effort that goes into growing fruit and vegetables in the hopes of giving them a new-found appreciation for the food they eat and the effort that goes into bringing it to their tables.
“Part of food empathy is understanding the work that goes into it. I think when you grow your own food, even if its only 5% your own food or 1%, you definitely have an appreciation for the work that goes into it that and an awareness of the things that can go wrong,” he said.
“For people who are very experienced at growing, you still get things that don’t work out.
“I think you understand then that it’s important that farmers get paid a fair price for the food that they produce as well, because it’s such a skill and it takes so much time, is so expensive and is a very difficult process.
“I think that understanding, if we can build that in for kids at a very young age, it will hopefully make them different consumers when they grow up.”
Understanding of horticulture sector
Principal of Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, David Gough, said the initiative would help children understand and recognise the work that is done by those in the horticulture sector and realise that it is not simple.
“It is so important for the children to come out week-on-week and watch their vegetables grow,” he said.
“Then they realise that it’s just not a simple quick fix; that they need to come out and tend to them, look after them and make sure they’re fed and watered.
“That translates, on a much larger scale, to what happens in horticulture across the country, so the children are able to tie in the two together.”
The principal said that he hopes the campaign will give students a new-found appreciation of growing and that they might take back some of the knowledge that they have learned in the garden and in the classroom back home, and maybe start to grow some of their own vegetables.