Leader comment: A return to The Good Life?

No matter how hard human beings try to divorce themselves from nature, it seems to retain a powerful hold over us.

Penelope Keith, Richard Briers, Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal starred in BBC sitcom The Good Life (Picture: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From Henry Thoreau’s ‘Walden; or, Life in the Woods’ in 1854 to beloved 1970s sitcom The Good Life, we have celebrated at least the idea of adopting a simpler, back-to-basics way of life, far from computers, commuters and the complications of modern life. Usually, however, such urges tend to begin in later life and among a disaffected few.

But students at Dundee University have now successfully campaigned to be allowed to grow their own fruit and vegetables on allotments on campus, which is apparently all part of the ‘edible gardens’ movement sweeping Europe.

If the young generation is returning to the land, could we be at the start of a genuine societal change that sees more of us grow our own food? Could more be done to free up spaces for allotments to produce the fruit and vegetables we all need as part of a healthy diet? It might help those struggling to make ends meet, people left isolated by the modern world and anyone who would like a little bit more of The Good Life.