In the small town of Todmorden in the north of England, fresh organic produce is growing everywhere. There are sweet-smelling herbs at the railway station, vegetables sprouting in the public car park, and an apothecary garden next to the local Health Center.
This is the Incredible Edible movement, a grassroots campaign to provide healthy fresh food to the whole community, while promoting local produce and educating people on the joys of cultivating veggies.
Incredible Edible co-founder Pam Warhurst explained how she and her friends sat around a kitchen table six years ago, brainstorming ways to make positive change in the world.
They began with a simple question: Can we find a unifying language that cuts across age, income and culture, that will help people themselves find a new way of living? Then came the thunderbolt. Food is a basic human need, but fresh, healthy organic food is a basic human right. “None of this is rocket science, but it is inclusive,” Pam says. Ultimately, this is a movement for everyone. We say, ´if you eat, you´re in.´
What followed was a public meeting, where Pam and her associates received a standing ovation after presenting their plan. It was an ambitious, idealistic project which not only addressed the issue of what we eat, but where we spend our money and what we teach our children.
“I wondered if it was possible to take a town like Todmorden and focus on local food to re-engage people with the planet we live on, create the sort of shifts in behavior we need to live within the resources we have, stop us thinking like disempowered victims, and to start taking responsibility for our own futures,” Pam explains.
Read more: http://www.trueactivist.com/incredible-edible-free-food-project-replicated-worldwide/
