Incredible Edible: Yorkshire town’s food-growing scheme takes root worldwide

When two women began turning disused verges in the former mill town of Todmorden into free food plots, little did they realise they would inspire a global movement of growers.

It’s a simple idea: take over unused or unattractive bits of public land to plant food to feed the community. What is not so simple is where they’re doing it. Todmorden is an old mill town in Yorkshire’s Calderdale valley. It rains a lot, there’s not a lot of sun, and it has experienced major flooding in recent years. But still, the town’s residents continue to grow fruit and vegetables as best they can for locals to pick and eat.

The Toddies didn’t set out to start a food-growing revolution, they wanted to bring their small town together at a difficult time for communities throughout the UK. “Ten years ago it was the beginning of the worldwide economic decline, there was a lot of worry about climate change, but nothing was really happening,” says Mary Clear, chair of IET. “And in this town we were starting to see the squeeze on public services – there was more litter – and we thought, how can we do something that will create stronger communities?”

Read Incredible Edible: Yorkshire town’s food-growing scheme takes root worldwide by Naomi Larsson at The Guardian.