How we can eat our landscapes
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0:01 - 0:03The will to live life differently can start
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0:03 - 0:07in some of the most unusual places.
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0:07 - 0:09This is where I come from, Todmorden.
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0:09 - 0:11It's a market town in the north of England,
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0:11 - 0:1415,000 people, between Leeds and Manchester,
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0:14 - 0:16fairly normal market town.
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0:16 - 0:18It used to look like this,
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0:18 - 0:20and now it's more like this,
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0:20 - 0:24with fruit and veg and herbs sprouting up all over the place.
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0:24 - 0:29We call it propaganda gardening. (Laughter)
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0:29 - 0:32Corner row railway, station car park,
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0:32 - 0:36front of a health center, people's front gardens,
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0:36 - 0:39and even in front of the police station. (Laughter)
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0:39 - 0:42We've got edible canal towpaths,
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0:42 - 0:44and we've got sprouting cemeteries.
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0:44 - 0:51The soil is extremely good. (Laughter)
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0:51 - 0:53We've even invented a new form of tourism.
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0:53 - 0:57It's called vegetable tourism, and believe it or not,
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0:57 - 1:01people come from all over the world to poke around in our raised beds,
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1:01 - 1:04even when there's not much growing. (Laughter)
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1:04 - 1:07But it starts a conversation. (Laughter)
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1:07 - 1:11And, you know, we're not doing it because we're bored. (Laughter)
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1:11 - 1:16We're doing it because we want to start a revolution.
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1:16 - 1:17We tried to answer this simple question:
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1:17 - 1:20Can you find a unifying language that cuts across age
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1:20 - 1:25and income and culture that will help people themselves
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1:25 - 1:26find a new way of living,
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1:26 - 1:28see spaces around them differently,
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1:28 - 1:31think about the resources they use differently,
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1:31 - 1:33interact differently?
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1:33 - 1:35Can we find that language?
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1:35 - 1:39And then, can we replicate those actions?
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1:39 - 1:42And the answer would appear to be yes,
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1:42 - 1:45and the language would appear to be food.
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1:45 - 1:47So, three and a half years ago, a few of us
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1:47 - 1:49sat around a kitchen table and
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1:49 - 1:52we just invented the whole thing. (Laughter)
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1:52 - 1:56(Applause)
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1:56 - 1:58We came up with a really simple game plan that we put to a public meeting.
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1:58 - 2:01We did not consult. We did not write a report.
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2:01 - 2:03Enough of all that. (Laughter)
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2:03 - 2:06And we said to that public meeting in Todmorden,
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2:06 - 2:09look, let's imagine that our town
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2:09 - 2:11is focused around three plates:
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2:11 - 2:13a community plate, the way we live our everyday lives;
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2:13 - 2:16a learning plate, what we teach our kids in school
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2:16 - 2:19and what new skills we share amongst ourselves;
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2:19 - 2:22and business, what we do with the pound in our pocket
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2:22 - 2:24and which businesses we choose to support.
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2:24 - 2:27Now, let's imagine those plates agitated
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2:27 - 2:29with community actions around food.
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2:29 - 2:32If we start one of those community plates spinning,
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2:32 - 2:35that's really great, that really starts to empower people,
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2:35 - 2:37but if we can then spin that community plate
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2:37 - 2:40with the learning plate, and then spin it with the business plate,
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2:40 - 2:44we've got a real show there, we've got some action theater.
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2:44 - 2:47We're starting to build resilience ourselves.
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2:47 - 2:50We're starting to reinvent community ourselves,
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2:50 - 2:54and we've done it all without a flipping strategy document.
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2:54 - 2:59(Applause)
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2:59 - 3:02And here's the thing as well.
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3:02 - 3:04We've not asked anybody's permission to do this,
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3:04 - 3:07we're just doing it. (Laughter)
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3:07 - 3:08And we are certainly not waiting for that check
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3:08 - 3:11to drop through the letterbox before we start,
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3:11 - 3:13and most importantly of all, we are not daunted
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3:13 - 3:15by the sophisticated arguments that say,
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3:15 - 3:19"These small actions are meaningless in the face of tomorrow's problems,"
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3:19 - 3:23because I have seen the power of small actions,
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3:23 - 3:25and it is awesome.
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3:25 - 3:28So, back to the public meeting. (Laughter)
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3:28 - 3:31We put that proposition to the meeting, two seconds,
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3:31 - 3:33and then the room exploded.
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3:33 - 3:37I have never, ever experienced anything like that in my life.
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3:37 - 3:40And it's been the same in every single room, in every town
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3:40 - 3:41that we've ever told our story.
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3:41 - 3:46People are ready and respond to the story of food.
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3:46 - 3:48They want positive actions they can engage in,
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3:48 - 3:51and in their bones, they know it's time
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3:51 - 3:53to take personal responsibility
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3:53 - 3:55and invest in more kindness to each other
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3:55 - 3:58and to the environment.
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3:58 - 4:01And since we had that meeting three and a half years ago,
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4:01 - 4:05it's been a heck of a roller coaster.
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4:05 - 4:08We started with a seed swap, really simple stuff,
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4:08 - 4:10and then we took an area of land, a strip on the side
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4:10 - 4:12of our main road, which was a dog toilet, basically,
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4:12 - 4:16and we turned it into a really lovely herb garden.
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4:16 - 4:18We took the corner of the car park in the station
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4:18 - 4:20that you saw, and we made vegetable beds
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4:20 - 4:23for everybody to share and pick from themselves.
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4:23 - 4:24We went to the doctors. We've just had
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4:24 - 4:27a 6-million-pound health center built in Todmorden,
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4:27 - 4:30and for some reason that I cannot comprehend,
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4:30 - 4:34it has been surrounded by prickly plants. (Laughter)
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4:34 - 4:37So we went to the doctors, said, "Would you mind us taking them up?"
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4:37 - 4:39They said, "Absolutely fine, provided you get planning permission
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4:39 - 4:41and you do it in Latin and you do it in triplicate,"
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4:41 - 4:44so we did — (Laughter) — and now there are fruit trees
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4:44 - 4:47and bushes and herbs and vegetables
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4:47 - 4:51around that doctor's surgery.
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4:51 - 4:53And there's been lots of other examples, like the corn
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4:53 - 4:55that was in front of the police station,
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4:55 - 4:57and the old people's home that we've planted it with food
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4:57 - 4:58that they can pick and grow.
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4:58 - 5:00But it isn't just about growing,
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5:00 - 5:03because we all are part of this jigsaw.
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5:03 - 5:06It's about taking those artistic people in your community
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5:06 - 5:08and doing some fabulous designs in those raised beds
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5:08 - 5:10to explain to people what's growing there,
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5:10 - 5:12because there's so many people that don't really recognize
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5:12 - 5:14a vegetable unless it's in a bit of plastic
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5:14 - 5:16with a bit of an instruction packet on the top. (Laughter)
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5:16 - 5:19So we have some people who designed these things,
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5:19 - 5:21"If it looks like this, please don't pick it, but if it looks like this,
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5:21 - 5:23help yourself."
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5:23 - 5:26This is about sharing and investing in kindness.
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5:26 - 5:28And for those people that don't want to do either
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5:28 - 5:30of those things, maybe they can cook,
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5:30 - 5:33so we pick them seasonally and then we go on the street,
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5:33 - 5:35or in the pub, or in the church,
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5:35 - 5:36or wherever people are living their lives.
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5:36 - 5:39This is about us going to the people and saying,
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5:39 - 5:41"We are all part of the local food jigsaw,
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5:41 - 5:44we are all part of a solution."
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5:44 - 5:46And then, because we know we've got vegetable tourists
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5:46 - 5:49and we love them to bits and they're absolutely fantastic,
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5:49 - 5:52we thought, what could we do to give them an even better experience?
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5:52 - 5:54So we invented, without asking, of course,
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5:54 - 5:56the Incredible Edible Green Route.
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5:56 - 5:59And this is a route of exhibition gardens,
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5:59 - 6:03and edible towpaths, and bee-friendly sites, and the story
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6:03 - 6:06of pollinators, and it's a route that we designed
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6:06 - 6:09that takes people through the whole of our town,
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6:09 - 6:12past our cafes and our small shops, through our market,
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6:12 - 6:16not just to and fro from the supermarket,
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6:16 - 6:18and we're hoping that, in changing people's footfall
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6:18 - 6:21around our town, we're also changing their behavior.
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6:21 - 6:24And then there's the second plate, the learning plate.
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6:24 - 6:26Well, we're in partnership with a high school.
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6:26 - 6:29We've created a company. We are designing and building
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6:29 - 6:31an aquaponics unit in some land that was spare
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6:31 - 6:33at the back of the high school, like you do,
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6:33 - 6:35and now we're going to be growing fish and vegetables
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6:35 - 6:38in an orchard with bees,
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6:38 - 6:40and the kids are helping us build that,
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6:40 - 6:43and the kids are on the board, and because the community
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6:43 - 6:44was really keen on working with the high school,
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6:44 - 6:48the high school is now teaching agriculture,
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6:48 - 6:51and because it's teaching agriculture, we started to think,
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6:51 - 6:54how could we then get those kids that never had a qualification
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6:54 - 6:56before in their lives but are really excited about growing,
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6:56 - 6:58how can we give them some more experience?
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6:58 - 7:00So we got some land that was donated
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7:00 - 7:01by a local garden center.
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7:01 - 7:04It was really quite muddy, but in a truly incredible way,
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7:04 - 7:07totally voluntary-led, we have turned that
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7:07 - 7:09into a market garden training center,
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7:09 - 7:12and that is polytunnels and raised beds
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7:12 - 7:15and all the things you need to get the soil under your fingers
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7:15 - 7:17and think maybe there's a job in this for me in the future.
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7:17 - 7:20And because we were doing that, some local academics said,
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7:20 - 7:21"You know, we could help design
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7:21 - 7:23a commercial horticulture course for you.
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7:23 - 7:24There's not one that we know of."
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7:24 - 7:27So they're doing that, and we're going to launch it later this year,
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7:27 - 7:29and it's all an experiment, and it's all voluntary.
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7:29 - 7:31And then there's the third plate,
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7:31 - 7:33because if you walk through an edible landscape,
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7:33 - 7:35and if you're learning new skills, and if you start to get
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7:35 - 7:37interested in what's growing seasonally,
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7:37 - 7:39you might just want to spend more of your own money
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7:39 - 7:41in support of local producers,
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7:41 - 7:43not just veg, but meat and cheese and beer
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7:43 - 7:45and whatever else it might be.
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7:45 - 7:48But then, we're just a community group, you know.
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7:48 - 7:50We're just all volunteers. What could we actually do?
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7:50 - 7:52So we did some really simple things.
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7:52 - 7:53We fundraised, we got some blackboards,
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7:53 - 7:55we put "Incredible Edible" on the top,
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7:55 - 7:57we gave it every market trader that was selling locally,
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7:57 - 8:00and they scribbled on what they were selling in any one week.
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8:00 - 8:02Really popular. People congregated around it.
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8:02 - 8:04Sales were up.
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8:04 - 8:07And then, we had a chat with the farmers, and we said,
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8:07 - 8:08"We're really serious about this,"
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8:08 - 8:10but they didn't actually believe us, so we thought,
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8:10 - 8:13okay, what should we do? I know. If we can create
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8:13 - 8:15a campaign around one product and show them
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8:15 - 8:17there is local loyalty to that product,
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8:17 - 8:20maybe they'll change their mind and see we're serious.
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8:20 - 8:23So we launched a campaign -- because it just amuses me --
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8:23 - 8:25called Every Egg Matters. (Laughter)
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8:25 - 8:28And what we did was we put people on our egg map.
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8:28 - 8:31It's a stylized map of Togmorden.
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8:31 - 8:32Anybody that's selling their excess eggs
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8:32 - 8:35at the garden gate, perfectly legally, to their neighbors,
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8:35 - 8:37we've stuck on there. We started with four,
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8:37 - 8:39and we've now got 64 on, and the result of that was
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8:39 - 8:41that people were then going into shops
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8:41 - 8:44asking for a local Todmorden egg, and the result of that
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8:44 - 8:46was, some farmers upped the amount of flocks they got
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8:46 - 8:48of free range birds, and then they went on to meat birds,
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8:48 - 8:51and although these are really, really small steps,
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8:51 - 8:55that increasing local economic confidence
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8:55 - 8:58is starting to play out in a number of ways,
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8:58 - 8:59and we now have farmers doing cheese
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8:59 - 9:01and they've upped their flocks and rare breed pigs,
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9:01 - 9:02they're doing pasties and pies and things
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9:02 - 9:05that they would have never done before.
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9:05 - 9:07We've got increasing market stalls selling local food,
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9:07 - 9:12and in a survey that local students did for us, 49 percent
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9:12 - 9:15of all food traders in that town said that their bottom line
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9:15 - 9:17had increased because of what we were actually doing.
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9:17 - 9:20And we're just volunteers and it's only an experiment.
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9:20 - 9:21(Laughter)
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9:21 - 9:24Now, none of this is rocket science.
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9:24 - 9:27It certainly is not clever, and it's not original.
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9:27 - 9:31But it is joined up, and it is inclusive.
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9:31 - 9:33This is not a movement for those people
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9:33 - 9:35that are going to sort themselves out anyway.
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9:35 - 9:36This is a movement for everyone.
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9:37 - 9:41We have a motto: If you eat, you're in. (Laughter)
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9:41 - 9:43(Applause)
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9:47 - 9:52Across age, across income, across culture.
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9:52 - 9:56It's been really quite a roller coaster experience,
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9:56 - 9:57but going back to that first question that we asked,
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9:59 - 10:02is it replicable? Yeah. It most certainly is replicable.
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10:02 - 10:05More than 30 towns in England now are spinning
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10:05 - 10:07the Incredible Edible plate.
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10:07 - 10:10Whichever way they want to do it, of their own volition,
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10:10 - 10:13they're trying to make their own lives differently,
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10:13 - 10:16and worldwide, we've got communities across America
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10:16 - 10:17and Japan -- it's incredible, isn't it? I mean,
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10:17 - 10:20America and Japan and New Zealand.
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10:20 - 10:22People after the earthquake in New Zealand visited us
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10:22 - 10:26in order to incorporate some of this public spiritedness
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10:26 - 10:30around local growing into the heart of Christchurch.
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10:30 - 10:33And none of this takes more money
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10:33 - 10:36and none of this demands a bureaucracy,
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10:36 - 10:39but it does demand that you think things differently
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10:39 - 10:43and you are prepared to bend budgets and work programs
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10:43 - 10:45in order to create that supportive framework
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10:45 - 10:48that communities can bounce off.
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10:48 - 10:50And there's some great ideas already in our patch.
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10:50 - 10:53Our local authority has decided to make everywhere
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10:53 - 10:56Incredible Edible, and in support of that
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10:56 - 10:57have decided to do two things.
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10:57 - 11:01First, they're going to create an asset register of spare land
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11:01 - 11:03that they've got, put it in a food bank so that communities
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11:03 - 11:04can use that wherever they live,
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11:04 - 11:07and they're going to underpin that with a license.
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11:07 - 11:09And then they've said to every single one of their workforce,
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11:09 - 11:12if you can, help those communities grow,
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11:12 - 11:14and help them to maintain their spaces.
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11:14 - 11:16Suddenly, we're seeing actions on the ground
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11:16 - 11:18from local government. We're seeing this mainstreamed.
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11:18 - 11:22We are responding creatively at last to what Rio demanded
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11:22 - 11:25of us, and there's lots more you could do.
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11:25 - 11:27I mean, just to list a few. One, please stop putting
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11:27 - 11:30prickly plants around public buildings. It's a waste of space.
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11:30 - 11:34(Laughter) Secondly, please create -- please, please create
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11:34 - 11:36edible landscapes so that our children start to walk
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11:36 - 11:39past their food day in, day out, on our high streets,
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11:39 - 11:41in our parks, wherever that might be.
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11:41 - 11:45Inspire local planners to put the food sites at the heart
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11:45 - 11:48of the town and the city plan, not relegate them
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11:48 - 11:52to the edges of the settlements that nobody can see.
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11:52 - 11:54Encourage all our schools to take this seriously.
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11:54 - 11:57This isn't a second class exercise.
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11:57 - 12:00If we want to inspire the farmers of tomorrow,
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12:00 - 12:03then please let us say to every school,
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12:03 - 12:07create a sense of purpose around the importance
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12:07 - 12:09to the environment, local food and soils.
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12:09 - 12:11Put that at the heart of your school culture,
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12:11 - 12:14and you will create a different generation.
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12:14 - 12:17There are so many things you can do, but ultimately
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12:17 - 12:19this is about something really simple.
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12:19 - 12:23Through an organic process, through
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12:23 - 12:27an increasing recognition of the power of small actions,
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12:27 - 12:31we are starting, at last, to believe in ourselves again,
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12:31 - 12:35and to believe in our capacity, each and every one of us,
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12:35 - 12:39to build a different and a kinder future,
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12:39 - 12:42and in my book, that's incredible.
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12:42 - 12:45Thank you. (Applause)
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12:45 - 12:56(Applause)
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12:56 - 13:00Thank you very much. (Applause)
- Title:
- How we can eat our landscapes
- Speaker:
- Pam Warhurst
- Description:
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What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course. With energy and humor, Pam Warhurst tells at the TEDSalon the story of how she and a growing team of volunteers came together to turn plots of unused land into communal vegetable gardens, and to change the narrative of food in their community.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 13:21
Francisco Gnecco edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Francisco Gnecco edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Emil-Lorant Cocian edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Emil-Lorant Cocian edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Juliana Rincón edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Miguel Cisneros-Franco accepted English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Miguel Cisneros-Franco commented on English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes | ||
Emil-Lorant Cocian edited English subtitles for How we can eat our landscapes |