Czechs have long tradition of homegrown foods – but why is trend on rise now?
Czechs are among the leading nations in Europe when it comes to growing food at home. Indeed, a CVVM survey published this week found that no less than 70 percent of people in Czechia cultivate their own fruit and veg – 62 percent in their gardens and 8 percent on their balconies. But why is this practice so common? I spoke to Jan Vávra, an academic who does research in this area.
“It's quite a high level, but it's not surprising, because it's a tradition.
“The number was even higher in the early 1990s. Then it slowly decreased and our long-term data say it was about 40% until 2010 or 2015. But since 2020 it’s been increasing again.”
Just to rewind for a second, you say it's a tradition – where does that come from? Is it partly influenced by communism, and the fact that many people had their own country cottages because they couldn't really travel?
“I think that’s one of the reasons, but the tradition is even longer.
“In rural areas, when you have a house and when you have a garden, there’s a 90% chance that you will grow some food, vegetables, fruits and so on.
“If you have a cottage, more often you have fruit, but you have vegetables, too.
“If you have an allotment garden in a city, you grow there.
“And the history of allotment gardens is much older than communism. You find them through the whole Europe.
“It started in the 19th century, when rural people moved into the urban centers to work in factories, in industry.
“They received allotments so they could grow some food and spend time outdoors, because there was much more pollution and the work was dirty.
“It's true that during the communist era, food self-provisioning, or food growing, was more apparent in Eastern states than in Western states.
“One of the reasons was that people were not allowed to travel, so they spent more time at allotments and weekend houses.
“Another reason was that there was a more limited offer of the food you could buy in terms of fresh fruits and vegetables, and imported fruits.”
One thing that surprised me was that the survey found that for Prague the number was also high – over 40 percent. Is that mainly from allotments? What's the reason that it's also high in Prague?
“It's a combination. Even in Prague, there are family houses with gardens.
“As I said, if you have a garden, even in the city, there is a really high chance that you will grow at least something.
“The other reason is that in large cities like Prague, many people have weekend houses or cottages outside.
“And allotments are in third place. But in Prague and Brno now allotment gardens are under very big pressure because of commercial and residential development.”
You are part of a team studying what's called “household food resilience”. And your own research indicates that, as you said a few moments ago, Czechs have again begun growing even more food themselves in recent years. Why is that trend happening now?
“We noticed this during the last five years.
“One reason may be that it gained some popularity during Covid. In Western Europe, there was a boom while in Czechia there was an increase, because even before it was very popular.
“Then some data indicate that increasing food prices that came with the major inflation in 2020-2024 was a motivation for some parts of society too; for some people, the financial motivation became more important than 10 years earlier.
“If you check the most recent data which my colleagues have now, the financial motivation is, again, not that important.
“What’s important – and this has remained very much stable – is that people want to have fresh vegetables, healthy vegetables. They want to know where the food comes from.
“And it's a hobby. It involves spending time outdoors, often with your family, but it's not like intensive like a sport. What's most important is you see some benefit.”
So regardless of the reasons for the trends, I guess you feel like this is something that Czechs should be proud of, that they grow so much of their own food?
“Yes, I think they should be.
“Sometimes when we talk with fellow researchers from the UK, the Netherlands or other Western countries, they want to motivate their governments and societies and people and urban mayors. They want to motivate them to get to where we already are.
“You mentioned resilience. We argue that if you have more sources of food, you are more resilient.
“If there is some shock – higher prices, or food chains will be stopped because of war or Covid or climate issues – you have some other sources.”
Jan Vávra works at the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and is an assistant professor at the University of South Bohemia.
