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View Full Version : The Last Place in Britain I Would Have Expected To Do This!



Kiforall
2nd March 2013, 14:42
I hope this news puts the rest of Britain to shame and prompts more towns to follow their lead.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/food/4839784/Todmorden-Britains-first-self-sufficient-town.html

The Telegraph 2nd March 2013

Todmorden: Britain's first self-sufficient town

A West Yorkshire town has invoked the Second World War spirit of digging for victory by attempting to become the first in Britain to become self-sufficient in vegetables.

Every square inch of available ground in Todmorden is being dug up and turned into a vegetable plot.

http://www.samburcher.com/content/view/82/1/

Two women have transformed a small mill town on the historic Lancashire/Yorkshire borders into Incredible Edible Todmorden! Mary Clear (pictured) and Pam Warhurst are vegetable activists and instead of getting down about the prospect of rising sea levels, melting ice caps, and social injustice, they decided to take action.

Good on you guys and girls :clap2::clap2:

Joseph McAree
2nd March 2013, 14:59
Hi Kiforall.

This is great story an the fact that the end product is actually getting used by members of the public is so encouraging, more often than not the bureaucrats won't let food be given to the public without all sorts of tests and requirements put in place, this should give is inspiration to us all.

Well done to Todmorden Town and to Mary Clear and Pam Warhurst for their brilliant achievements.

Many thanks
Best wishes
Joe

Pam
2nd March 2013, 15:06
Kiforall-What an uplifting story!!!!! It really is an incredible testimony to the power of 2 ordinary people transforming their world and changing the lives of many in a wonderful way.This is another example to remember when I feel downtrodden and think there is nothing I can do as an individual to better things.

Kiforall
2nd March 2013, 15:19
Kiforall-What an uplifting story!!!!! It really is an incredible testimony to the power of 2 ordinary people transforming their world and changing the lives of many in a wonderful way.This is another example to remember when I feel downtrodden and think there is nothing I can do as an individual to better things.

It is very empowering, especially knowing the town of Todmorden personally. It is quite a lower working class area, drugs problems, unemployment etc. Set in, what I always felt, was a dark depressing valley. It really was an eye opener to me, just shows you can't judge a book by it's cover. Saying that, the working class probably are the ones who have more resilience and are less likely to crumble if the SHTF. Also a good couple of piles of concrete at either end of the valley would make them pretty much inaccessible lol.

Ammit
2nd March 2013, 17:30
very inspirational. Just wish the local councils would give the spare land they have to such schemes. Around me there are lots of places fenced off and I have never seen them used in 15 years, except the grass getting cut.

Such a waste really..

Cidersomerset
2nd March 2013, 19:01
Thanks kiforall among all the doom and gloom, I add to that by some of the posts i put up from
mainstream, which i do for balance not just scaremongering.Because among the love & light bros.
threads which are fine and part of our awakening to other realities, we are still stuck in this one..LOL..

This story is showing something i have thought and discussed over the years.One of my hobbies is
history and I am well versed in WW11 after being given some very big volumes on the history of
that conflict years ago, and digging for victory was a big part of that.The recent horse meat scare
made me chuckle, in the sence many, many millions of people would of ate it if it was avilable then.

This also leads me to the economic manipulation as we know by the power elites and 'banksters'
over the years, which basically under the slogan 'world market'. Which mean't moving industry
from western economies to 'cheap laboured' bigger proffit eastern and up and coming economies.

These economies should be allowed to grow but the moving of all this material around the globe
at vast expence when it could be made next door so to speak is obviously ridiculous and only
fuels the 1 % proffits as can be seen.

An example Bridwater a relitively small market/industial town had a mixed ind base of light engineerig,Cellophane
packaging, Timber,food proccessing and several clothes and shoe factories up to the 1990's.Now we still have
a few small factory units, but its mainly food and distribution with big Morrisons, Gerber food and Wiseman distribution
centres.Now obviously times change and due to corporate policies industries as i said earlier get moved around the
globe to maximise " Share holders proffits ".

The good part about this has been highlighted by the recent horse meat scare and the 'finacial terrorism' by the elites.
Is people may start to think out of the box like the article you posted.Many have been doing this for years, but
not on a larger community scale.This is why i mentioned industry because, although the mainstream scares us
into thinking all is gloom and doom. There comes a point when prices become to high, products can also be
made locally again like shoes, clothes etc and not feeding the sweat shops around the world.

This does not mean they lose their new found industries, but they stop being shafted by corporates and supply
their own upcoming markets regionally.There would still be global trade and if all the wealth created by these
work activities were distributed fairly, not put into bombs and the 1 % pockets.....


Anyway this is a long winded answer of saying good article ..LOL..Steve

Kiforall
2nd March 2013, 21:18
Hi Steve, we can keep hoping something good will come from this. It may not be because people become awake to the bigger elite control picture but more that needs must.

Where by, at the start big supermarkets were under cutting local business they seem to have got greedy and I've found meat from the local butchers is now slightly cheaper and obviously fresher and better quality, the bread is also cheaper at our local shop. They've become too used to having custom without question, at one time I couldn't afford to shop locally.

My family has just started making use of the 2yr old manure heap my four s**t machines helped with, the garden is full of tubs of all descriptions ready for planting, a great opportunity to get the home schooling outside and cover a worth while subject for a change. I was ready for selling two of the horses over the winter
but they are staying just in case needs must................transport or food.;)

Ellisa
2nd March 2013, 23:43
This is an inspiring story and I wish it well.

However, I think Titanium has a valid point. In so many places now the by-laws and regulations make it difficult to sell or even distribute food produced under such conditions. Many years ago in a street near me a forward thinking person planted half a dozen fruit trees as street trees. At the time there was a bit of a push to plant food trees in public places. These ones had blossom and fruit, and some of the locals used the picked the fruit! It was no secret, and indeed the council tree loppers used to hack at the branches every now and then same as for the other street trees. Then last year they were removed, -chopped down and thrown away by the council workers as they were not approved street plantings. We now have small flowering gums, which will be pretty when they grow up a bit, but they are not a food source for humans.

So I hope it is a happier outcome for Todmorden.

Kiforall
3rd March 2013, 00:28
This is an inspiring story and I wish it well.

However, I think Titanium has a valid point. In so many places now the by-laws and regulations make it difficult to sell or even distribute food produced under such conditions. Many years ago in a street near me a forward thinking person planted half a dozen fruit trees as street trees. At the time there was a bit of a push to plant food trees in public places. These ones had blossom and fruit, and some of the locals used the picked the fruit! It was no secret, and indeed the council tree loppers used to hack at the branches every now and then same as for the other street trees. Then last year they were removed, -chopped down and thrown away by the council workers as they were not approved street plantings. We now have small flowering gums, which will be pretty when they grow up a bit, but they are not a food source for humans.

So I hope it is a happier outcome for Todmorden.

At the moment it sounds as though the community have the support of the local council but I can imagine the Goverment may want to put a stop to it with some legislation just incase we all get the same idea.

They couldn't have the large supermarkets loosing out and communities eating fresh healthy food, what would be the value in that? :rolleyes:

Tesseract
3rd March 2013, 01:36
Years ago while in Russia I happened to meet an American economist who, strangely enough, was the person responsible for overseeing the roll-out of MacDonald's in that country. Everything was going well, he told me, until it came to sourcing cucumbers and tomatoes for the burgers, because virtually the entire domestic supply of those foods came from people's back yards and not industrial farms.

Youniverse
3rd March 2013, 03:58
Great news! I hope that sort of thing spreads everywhere and rapidly!

Ammit
3rd March 2013, 09:49
I am so inspired by this that I have contacted my local council regarding the wasted land in the area and the possibility of loaning it to the general public. It would be fantastic to see folks in the area join forces for a common goal. It may even bring folks together as a start for a future shtf community.

I now wonder if I will even get a reply, but, will post if I do.