People Before Profit Galway has condemned the decision by Galway City Council to close the allotments in Merlin Park Woods in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
According to PBP Galway activist Conor Dowd, food production is on the list of exemptions from the general lockdown.
"Unlike in supermarkets, people tend to be a considerable distance from one another in allotments. In Merlin Park Woods, each allotment has an area of 50 square metres. There is absolute adherence to social distancing guidelines. Allotments have already been closed in other parts of Galway City and in other parts of the country," he said.
'The decision to not recognise the activities in allotments as food production, speaks volumes about the belief system of the powers that be'
"These allotments provide a space for urban dwellers to directly engage in food production. This process is known to be therapeutic and has the potential to save many trips to the supermarket. Individuals seeking an alternative to food produced by agribusiness should be encouraged, not cut off from their small parcel of land.
"We should also bear in mind the view of the evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace - that covid-19 emerged in the type of factory farm wherein much of the world's processed meat is produced. We share this view in PBP Galway,"said Mr Dowd.
"The decision to not recognise the activities in allotments as food production, whether by a city/county council or in the upper echelons of Fine Gael, speaks volumes about the belief system of the powers that be. It is not food production if it is not a process deeply embedded in the capitalist market economy, it seems.
"We have been made aware that the decision to close allotments nationwide was made ultimately by the Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government, but this is such a grey area that interpretation is possible at many levels of the decision making process.
"We call on Galway City Council to adopt the common sense interpretation of 'food production' and allow allotment holders to continue the work in which they have already invested so much of their time," he concluded.
