Public land and spiky plants

Why not grow fruit and veg?

Courtesy of the British tax payer

When I first read about growing food in public spaces in 2022, my first thought was the Imperial War Museum’s display, digging for victory, It had been a day trip with Finlay, a few years ago when I was still taller.

The campaign had been a response to harsh rationing becoming a reality, with Britain at war with Germany in 1939. The British Ministry of Agriculture encouraged the public to grow their own food. It was a highly personal campaign which allowed everyone to feel that they were making a difference, contributing to the country’s war effort.

Open space was transformed. Gardens, public parks even the lawns outside the Tower of London became vegetable patches. It helped to ensure that everyone had enough to eat and morale remained high.

Significantly, it lasted beyond the end of the war. Britain may have been on the right side, but the country was bankrupt and couldn’t resume food imports in the same volumes because there was no money. Bread actually started being rationed in 1946, following a poor harvest and rationing wouldn’t end completely for another 8 years in 1954.

Incredible Edible community

A network of 150 community growing groups under the banner of Incredible Edible announced plans recently, which would obligate local authorities to keep a register listing all suitable public land for vegetable and fruit-growing. Local groups could then apply for access to these plots. It makes a lot of sense when you hear their incredible story.

If you eat you’re in

In the northern market town of Todmorden, population 15,000, something remarkable started in 2008. Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear held a public meeting to see if an appetite existed for a new way of living, using the dead space around the town differently. They came up with three areas of focus which they call plates - community, learning and business. The connection is food and growing it locally. Their motto, if you eat you’re in, reflects actions which are joined up and inclusive.

It started with a seed swop, until they found a strip of wasteland which was primarily a dog toilet. They turned it into a herb garden. Next was the corner of the car park at the railway station and removing the prickly plants located around their new £6m health centre. These were replaced with fruit trees, bushes and vegetables. They even grow corn outside Todmorden police station.

Courtesy of Lancashire Telegraph

Artists and designers in the community got involved, designing signage to help explain what was growing in all these raised beds, what to pick, what to leave.

Vegetable tourism

It has been so successful, that people come and visit from all over the world. By 2016 (web site needs an update), there were over 100 groups in the UK and 600 globally. Visitors and locals, can follow the Incredible Edible green route, which takes people through Todmorden, helping to change footfall and behaviour.

School partnership

They partner with a secondary school and created a hydroponics company. The children do most of the work and sit on the board. A generous garden centre gave them a muddy strip of land which has been transformed into a market garden training centre. Local academics have also helped out and designed a horticultural course for the school.

Local economic confidence

They started with some fundraising which paid for Incredible Edible blackboards to be given to every Todmorden trader selling local producer. Traders wrote on the boards what they were selling that day. Sales went up.

They created an egg map, which highlighted people who were selling their spare eggs. It started with 4 houses, there are now 64 on the map. Residents starting asking shops for local eggs which encouraged nearby farmers to increase the amount of free range hens on their farms. More stalls have now appeared selling more locally produced food. Half the food traders report that profits are up.

All of this has been achieved with the minimum of bureaucracy and local authority involvement, no reports, no consulting and no more money, just public spirited local growing. They’ve proved that small actions are not meaningless, exactly as Jane Goodall demonstrated in The Book of Hope, which I wrote about recently.

Right to grow

Pam Warhurst (Incredible Edible) summed up where she would like to see change.

Stop planting prickly plants around buildings - create edible landscapes - local planners should make food sites central to the city plan.

Now they’re campaigning for local authorities to keep a register of public land which could be licensed to local groups to grow food. The campaign has cross-party support from Lords and MPs who are calling for the government to include in any levelling up legislation. Given how bereft of ideas this government is, it would appear to be a fabulous opportunity to do good.

Between 2008/09 and 2020/21, the number of foodbank users increased from just under 26,000 to more than 2.56 million. There are more foodbanks than McDonald restaurants in the UK now. Add the current recession, energy inflation, more awareness of food miles and climate change, demand is growing for more opportunities to grow food locally.

What if?

Researchers at Lancaster, Liverpool and Cranfield universities concluded that if all the urban green spaces in England, Scotland and Wales were used to grow food, it could provide about 40% of our fruit and vegetable requirement.

One study in Sheffield focused on allotment areas. The conclusion, there was more than enough land to support the fruit and veg needs of the city’s population. Other benefits would be a shorter supply chain and an improvement in food access.

It was the same story everywhere. Urban green spaces are under-utilised for food production. There is also a network of knowledgeable, committed gardeners, already working allotments and community gardens who could help provide the technical support needed to help others.

Crisis? What crisis?

There is war in Europe again. Climate change continues with many scientists warning, too little too late. Only this week, Shell’s annual general meeting was disrupted by protesters chanting, we will stop you. Shell continues to seek new licences from the British government for further oil exploration in the North Sea.

Yet in Todmorden and many other corners of England, they’ve managed to create a sense of purpose and community, encouraging investment in more kindness to each other and the environment. It’s a strong belief, an echo of what must have gone before, to create a different, more benevolent future.