Cittaslow Mold member Peter Brownhill visits Todmorden

Having been featured in the past few weeks by George Allagiah on the BBC’s ‘Future of Food’ in September, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on Channel 4’s ‘River Cottage’ in October, I decided to pay a visit to the market town of Todmorden in Calderdale near the Yorkshire/Lancashire border to see it for myself.

Incredible Edible Todmorden as it has come to be known was set up by two local women – Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear and has resulted in many of the small town’s residents getting involved in community-wide vegetable and flower growing, composting, cookery courses and so on. There has been a wartime spirit of co-operation and a willingness to try anything by the locals; many of whom live in back-to-back housing without gardens. On scheme’s website it features land share and using public land, explaining how the locals signed their first community growing licence with Calderdale Council.

Incredible Edible Todmorden has been about changing the mindset of local government to encourage enterprise and self-sufficiency. Although co-operating with the council in using public land there are numerous other land-share agreements and even so-called ‘guerrilla gardening’ using public flower beds and roadside plots. Local allotments and farms are also involved. Local schools and businesses have created links between food production and people. One of the town’s high schools is getting involved in the Soil Association’s Food for Life Partnership where member organisations commit to transform food culture amongst young people, families, schools and communities.

Other ideas include an oral history project and a cookbook of local recipes and the Every Egg Matters campaign to make Todmorden self-sufficient in eggs by 2018.

During the 1980’s European farming subsidies encouraged trade rather than self-sufficiency and local food production and as a result we are now dependent upon imports. Initiatives like Incredible Edible Todmorden and the Transition Towns movement intend to secure our future food supplies in an uncertain world and global economy. In this they share goals with the Cittaslow towns all over the world. People are doing it for themselves and determining their own future. Look them up at:

www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk
www.soilassociation.org/Watwedo/FoodforLife

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Cittaslow Mold, Environmental, Home, Local Produce & Community, Space & Place, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.