I was there when there were nearly 1.5million allotments in this country. It was in the 1940's and, against a background of the 2nd World War and its aftermath and food rationing, it was the only way many people managed to get enough to eat. Most houses had big gardens in those days too, unlike the tiny lawns and concrete driveways constructed today, and it was normal to produce at least some of your own food.
Since then we've degenerated into a society that relies on cheap food and ready availability from ubiquitous supermarkets. Today the average expenditure on food as a percentage of household income is about 9% compared with nearer 30% back then. And most people have lost the ability, the knowledge and the incentive to grow food for themselves.
But apparently this is changing. There is said to be a waiting list of some 100,000 people wanting allotments (on top of the 300,000 who have them already) and local authorities are seeking sites. The National Trust is one of the organisations ready to provide them.
The motivation for all this demand is rather mixed. It began with a resurgence in the desire to eat home grown food. Then as the credit crunch began to bite last year and food prices increased, some consumers thought they could grow it cheaper. Others decided the exercise of digging an allotment would do them good.
Whether all these benefits will be fully achieved by those involved is doubtful. They may well find the costs and the time spent growing fruit and veg rather higher than they would have paid in the supermarket. Some may also find the healthy exercise more demanding than they thought and might give up. Others will experience crop failures as a result of their own ignorance.
Despite all that, however, all will learn something of what it takes to grow good food to fill supermarket shelves. By digging for victory 21st Century style they will also have gained some appreciation of the realities and frustrations of growing crops. The total production of all the allotments will hardly dent national demand and all in all I am convinced the trend is a good thing for Britsh agriculture.