FREE VEGETABLES FOR EVERYBODY !

The small town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom may seem like a classic and quiet little town, but something quite unusual has drawn a lot of attention. The inhabitants have started what may become a revolution, completely changing the ways we produce, buy and eat food.

The town has installed more than 70 large flower beds. Nothing extraordinary you may think, you find flower beds in any respectable town. However, instead of flowers, you will find in those beds curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions, all manner of vegetables and salad leaves. The question is: Who dares to use the town’s infrastructure for growing his/her own food?

The answer is plain and simple, the town itself. The locals are encouraged to help themselves with whatever they need. The initiative has been launched by two woman, Mary Clear, a grandmother of ten and Pam Warhurst, the former owner of the town’s Bear Cafe. The goal of Incredible Edible (as the scheme is called) is simple, to make Todmorden the first town in the country that is self-sufficient in vegetable and fruit. As Mary says: ‘It’s a very ambitious aim. But if you don’t aim high, you might as well stay in bed, mightn’t you?’

The idea came one night when Mary and Pam were discussing the state of the world and wondering what they could do to change it. They came to the decision that they had to start local and came up with the idea for Incredible Edible.

But 70 beds for vegetables are not nearly enough to produce food for the 15 000 inhabitants of the town. They serve only as a recruiting technique, to encourage locals to grow their own food in their garden. Today, hundreds of citizens have planted vegetables in their front yard and are on their way to self-sufficiency.

Why the front yard? Well the idea of Incredible Edible is not only for people to grow their own food, but also to share it with the whole neighborhood. Three years ago, when Incredible Edible was launched, Mary lowered her front wall, in order to encourage people to walk into her garden and help themselves. The idea is to create a real community around the thing that all humans use, food.

The project is thriving. Online gardening classes have been provided for the inhabitants, the local college offers now a course in horticulture, and they even started to grow other food than just vegetable and fruit: the local school has been awarded a grant to set up a fish farm to provide food for the town and teach valuable skills to the children.

With the success of the operation in their town, Mary and Pam hope to spread Incredible Edible to more towns in the country and even the world. As Joe Strachan, a rich American that decided to settle in Todmorden, says: “There’s a nobility to growing food and allowing people to share it. There’s a feeling we’re doing something significant rather than just moaning that the state can’t take care of us. Maybe we all need to learn to take care of ourselves.”

#Society