‘Grow your own’ fever has gripped the Pennines community, which is aiming for self-sufficiency – Britain

Incredible Edible Todmorden: Introducing Britain’s greenest town

By Joanna Moorhead
The Independent
29 November 2009

It’s an ordinary small town in England, but its residents claim they’ve discovered the secret that could save the planet. And with world leaders preparing to gather in Copenhagen in just over a week’s time to debate how to do just that, the people of Todmorden in the Pennines this week issued an invitation: come to our town and see what we’ve done.

In under two years, Todmorden has transformed the way it produces its food and the way residents think about the environment. Compared with 18 months ago, a third more townspeople now grow their own veg; almost seven in 10 now buy local produce regularly, and 15 times as many people are keeping chickens.

The town centre is dotted with “help yourself” vegetable gardens; the market groans with local meat and vegetables, and at all eight of the town’s schools the pupils eat locally produced meat and vegetables every lunchtime.

“It’s a complete turnaround,” said Pam Warhurst, a former leader of Calderdale Council, board member of Natural England and the person who masterminded the project – called Incredible Edible – and motivated her friends and neighbours to join in. “Our aim is to make our town entirely self-sufficient in food production by 2018 – and if we can carry on at the same rate as we’ve done over the past 18 months since we had our first meeting and set this initiative up, we’re going to make it.”

And the scheme’s leaders are now hoping to export their idea: two weeks ago the town held a conference on how to make Incredible Edible-style initiatives work elsewhere, and more than 200 people from across Britain attended.

They heard the story of Todmorden’s transformation, starting with what Ms Warhurst calls the “propaganda planting” of vegetables around the town centre 18 months ago. Nick Green, who runs a converted mill that provides workspace for local artists, took on the job of doing the planting. He said he chose the first venue – a disused health centre – because it was in the middle of the town and would attract plenty of attention. “We wanted everyone to see what we were doing, so they could ask questions and ultimately join in,” he said. “The old health centre has plenty of land in front, so it was ideal. I didn’t ask anyone’s permission: I just went there with my spade and my seeds and I planted cabbages and rhubarb.”

Incredible Edible was originally funded out of the participants’ own pockets. “We were very clear that we didn’t want to look at what grants were available and mould our projects to suit them,” said Mr Green. “We felt that what would work was to start with the town and what it needed. We’d look for money later on.” What the project leaders found was that a lot could be achieved with small amounts of cash. And awards and grants have followed – the latest is the Kerrygold Farmers’ Co-operatives Awards last week, when Incredible Edible won the “most inspirational community project” and £1,000.

One of the founding principles of the movement has been to make it as inclusive as possible; in this it differs from transition towns, said Ms Warhurst. “We are working with people who would find transition towns hard to identify with. Our project is all about finding the lowest common denominator, which is food, and then speaking in a language that everyone can understand. Plus we don’t have strategies; we don’t have visiting speakers; we don’t have charters and documents. We just get on with things: this is all about action.”

The project has been moulded to fit with where people in Todmorden are and the lives they lead. Many live in homes without gardens, and the local social housing landlord, Pennine Housing, has given out more than 1,000 starter packs of seeds and growing troughs, and invited tenants to cooking and gardening classes. “There are people here who don’t own a recipe book and who don’t have a garden, but we want to show them that they can still cook and grow vegetables,” said Val Morris, the tenant involvement officer for Pennine Housing.

See the rest of this article here.

See the excellent Incredible Edible Todmorden website here.