From The Guardian
Incredible Edible’s guerrilla gardening movement encourages people to take food-growing – and more – into their own hands
By Damien Gayle
Pam Warhurst insists she’s no anarchist. Nevertheless, the founder of Incredible Edible, a food-focused guerrilla gardening movement, wants the state to get out of people’s way.
“The biggest obstacle is the inability of people in elected positions to cede power to the grassroots,” she says.
Sixteen years ago, Warhurst left a conference addressing sustainability and climate change feeling utterly bereft at the prospect of what faced humanity. It was on the train home from that event that she made up a plan to encourage people to take charge of their own food resilience.
Since then her idea has taken root across the UK and around the world, with at least 150 Incredible Edible groups across the country, from Orkney to Cornwall, and sister movements in France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and even Argentina.
Her message is simple. Failures of leadership around the unfolding disasters of climate breakdown, plummeting biodiversity and social disintegration have left people with only one choice: to take matters into their own hands.
“Because I am interested in systems change,” she says. “It’s the system [that is the] problem, not the people.”
At first glance, Warhurst, a plainspeaking West Yorkshire woman, is an unlikely radical. But she has the kind of inspirational energy that makes listeners’ hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
At first glance, Warhurst, a plainspeaking West Yorkshire woman, is an unlikely radical. But she has the kind of inspirational energy that makes listeners’ hairs stand up on the backs of their necks.
Warhurst conceptualises the mission of Incredible Edible as three spinning plates: “You grow, in the place you call home, food to share – sometimes you ask permission, sometimes you don’t. You share the skills you’ve got, you find out who knows how to do things in your community.
“And the third plate is, if you’re really going to try to create impact in the place you call home, you have to try and support the economy, you have to try and see if there’s local jobs in it.”
The result is an all-round benefit for the community: free, healthy food, physical activity, and a forum to connect with neighbours in an increasingly atomised society. And for Warhurst, it shows something else: “What it’s doing is demonstrating that in a crisis when you’ve not got a load of money, there’s a lot you can do if you trust the people.”
How has the group managed to thrive and survive for so long, and how has it managed to spread so far? “Our longevity is down to the positive message that inspires people to just do it, rather than corporate-speak around theory. And sharing cuppas and smiles as we work together in our neighbourhoods, all in it together to make life better through sharing food.”
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