Eat Our City, Germans Tell Locals and Tourists – Which They Do!

Andernach, Germany has become known as an “edible city” following a decade-long project aimed at planting fruits, vegetables, and herbs in green spaces instead of decorative plants like tulips – and locals can freely take whatever their hands can carry!

Co-initiated by botanist Lutz Kosack, the project kicked off in 2010 with the 56-year-old determined to create urban green spaces that not only promote biodiversity, but that provide food accessible to everyone as a complimentary local alternative to supermarket products.

Kosack says that nowadays – perhaps triggered and accelerated by the pandemic leaving behind empty shelves in stores – growing an edible town has transformed from being an uninteresting endeavor to a luxury that most cities don’t yet offer.

The initiative has attracted many tourists in Andernach and promoted its significance in the international network “EdiCitNet”, short for Edible Cities Network, where it’s placed alongside major cities dedicated to urban biodiversities such as Rotterdam and Oslo.