A View of How Local Food Communities are Developing 'Across the Pond'

[Season Burnett, KCCSAC Director]

This article was brought to the Coalition's attention by an alert CSA
community member, and is an interesting reminder that everyone around
the world is finding solutions to the need for safe, responsible, and
locally-produced food. Thanks, Rose!


ENGLISH TOWN DIGS UP LOTS OF SPACE TO GROW
Community-Wide Movement Reflects Rising Interest in Guerrilla
Gardening
By Karla Adam
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, August 16, 2009

TODMORDEN, England -- Gardening has long been something of a national
sport in Britain. But while Britons are spending as much time as ever
digging and weeding, many have been choosing lately to plant food --
turnips instead of tulips -- with a gusto not seen since their
country's World War II Dig for Victory campaign.

The trend is unusually visible in Todmorden, a market town about 200
miles northwest of London, where residents have planted crops in
dozens of public places. Young cherry trees adorn the police station.
The entrance to the health center is decorated with raspberry bushes
and apple trees. And the local train station's platform is green with
mint and rosemary.

"It takes a leap of faith to grow in a graveyard, to be corny," said
resident Mary Clear, as she bent over and pinched a weed sprouting
between an onion and a strawberry plant in Todmorden's vast Victorian
cemetery.

The community-wide effort began about 18 months ago when Clear, 54, an
energetic woman who works for the town government, sneakily started
planting seeds in her spare time with a few friends. Any nook, cranny
and postage-stamp-size bit of land was up for grabs. The campaign
blossomed with the plants, and now the movement operates under the
name Incredible Edible Todmorden and receives funding and support from
the local council and businesses.

"It makes people interact with their town," said Estelle Brown, 65, a
local Web designer, as she snapped a pea from a vine growing next to
the town's canal and ate it.

Many space-starved Britons who do not live in towns such as Todmorden,
where rhubarb-for-free nods outside the local pub, grow food on
allotments.

Britain has about 300,000 such community gardens, which are protected
under legislation dating to 1887. But demand far exceeds supply, with
about 100,000 people on waiting lists -- a number that has jumped
nearly 700 percent in the past 12 years, according to Geoff Stokes,
secretary of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

. . . . . . .

Read the entire article at WaPo's site and see the accompanying photos
here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/15/AR2009081502031.html
(You may have to log in to see it there.)