The Tasmania Project : more Tasmanians started growing their own food during the COVID-19 pandemic : report 20

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic sparked Australian’s interest in home gardening, with people stocking up on items to produce their own food at home, including vegetable and herb seeds and seedlings. Given the many benefits of gardening, this interest in increased self-sufficiency could be seen as a positive response to the pandemic. The Tasmania Project’s Food Survey of 1170 Tasmanians investigated if respondents were growing and catching more of their own food, and whether the pandemic had increased their interest in learning how to grow, catch and hunt food. Understanding who our new home gardeners are in Tasmania could reveal where there are new opportunities for people to continue developing and sharing food production and catching skills, to assist with maintaining gardening for both self-provisioning and health into the future.