Join in the Food Harvest
Monday, May 18th, 2009 by Nigel
There are plans afoot. Real plans aimed at tackling climate change by getting us to become more local. Which means in the future we could all be taking local holidays, growing our own food, and generating our own energy.
Last week at a Transition Town meeting in Brighton, I discovered Harvest Brighton & Hove – a council supported 20-year plan to grow a lot of food sustainably within the city. This includes growing food in public parks, areas of empty land around housing estates and container gardening on balconies.
I was really inspired by the idea of food growing in every park and garden, and wondered if other towns and cities have similar plans. (Anyone?)
And if you want to start growing more of your own food right now, you don’t necessarily need a big garden, and it’ll save you money and energy and cut your carbon footprint. To help, we have an expanding range of grow your own products for small spaces and gardens.
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May 18th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Yes, many Transition groups are getting going with grow your own, dig ins etc
heres a link to our towns site so you can see the types of things we are doing – our group is newish – the main group which has led the way is Totnes they are really active
http://transitionlostwithiel.org/events/
it may be worth you thinking about discounts for Transition groups – just google Transition and you will find all the towns who are transitioning!!
May 18th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Just re your question about those growing in public places - Todmorden in West Yorkshire (on the border with Burnley where I live) has been doing this for a while. It was highlighted and championed by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall on on eof his recent programes too! It was even started without consent by the local authority but I belive there is now sustained support for the programme!
May 18th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Check out www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk for inspiring local growing.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Thanks – have passed link on to Canterbury Environment group.
I have not seen council involvement before, but did see a news article last year on the television of �guerrilla gardening� where people were planting vegetable and herb crops in council beds and planters. I seem to remember it was in the North.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Todmorden in West Yorkshire has a very successful Incredible Edible Todmorden scheme which aims to have the town self-sufficient in veg by 2018. Check out the website at www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk Pam Warhurst who helps to run it is a mine of info on this issue and has great contacts across the country, sure she’d be happy to hear from you.
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
It makes complete sense to grow your own food, when I go to the super market these days you can see the shelves full of fruit and vegitables transported from all over the world to fill everybodies plate. The carbon foot print of it must be incredible.
we have only got a small garden in the middle of the city but we try to grow what we can each year as it save the pennies and the environment.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
The best information i have found exactly here. Keep going Thank you
July 7th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I just found out that Harvest Brighton & Hove have been awarded a £500,000 grant to pursue their inspiring city food growing project.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I’ve read your posts with interest… just would like to share with you that we (Incredible Edible Todmorden) had a very fab day last Wednesday…up in Thirsk we were announced overall winners in the Yorkshire and Humber region for the Action for Market Town awards… whilst we also had a presence down inLondon as one of the 19 shortlisted ideas for the Sustainable Development Commission’s Breakthrough Ideas’ launch… details of both, plus all our activities/blogs can be found on our website. It’s fantastic how the message is spreading throughout the country…