Small-scale agriculture in Russia

Private plots and markets were the only form of private enterprise tolerated under the Soviet system, because the authorities realised, subsequent to collectivisation of agriculture that that was the only way the people would be fed. It is in Russia's favour that this situation abides.

In 1999, 35 million small family plots produced 90% of Russia’s potatoes, 77% of vegetables, 87% of fruits, 59% of meat, 49% of milk — way to go, people!

the bovine,

9 August, 2009

And since 1999, it seems things have only gotten better when it comes to small-scale agriculture in Russia. 

A Russian family by their Dacha, or family plot

In 2003 the Russian President signed into law a further “Private Garden Plot Act” enabling Russian citizens to receive free of charge from the state, plots of land in private inheritable ownership. Sizes of the plots differ by region but are between one and three hectares each [1 hectare = 2.2 acres]. Produce grown on these plots is not subject to taxation. A further subsequent law to facilitate the acquisition of land for gardening was passed in June 2006. (according to a footnote in “Who We Are” by Vladimir Megre, pg. 42)

What other country raises so much of their food in such sustainable, organic, and non-GMO modes of production? While the European Union is setting the stage for agribusiness takeovers of major market share from traditional peasant farmers in places like Poland, Russia seems to be one of the few countries on the global stage moving so clearly in a sustainable and healthy direction.

And while organic farming gets a lot of media attention in North America, the fraction of agricultural land actually under organic cultivation is miniscule at 0.6%. The EU is a bit better at 4%. In spite of the minimal land area under organic cultivation, the movement for healthy agriculture in North America is under increasing siege by government “regulators”.

So what’s behind this wonderful new revival of Russian peasant agriculture? Could it be as simple as one person — Anastasia — a 40-year-old woman from Siberia who befriended a traveling Russian entrepreneur? Based on material Anastasia gave him, that entrepreneur, Vladimir Megre, has published nine books which have become underground best-sellers in Russia. 

One of Anastasia’s imaginations, which Megre describes in considerable detail, is a future in which more and more people live on small (one-hectare) homesteads, which she calls Kin’s Domains. There they cultivate the earth to grow trees and raise vegetables and fruits of exceptional nutritional value, with enough surplus to sell. Anastasia imagines a national culture based on simple rural life in eco-villages like these, in which values of health, love, truth, freedom and beauty take precedence. Eventually she sees this leading to a booming business in eco-tourism as people from all over the world want to come to Russia and catch with their own eyes a glimpse of what humanity and the world can become.

Anastasia, however, is not just a simple peasant woman. In fact, she seems to be something of a spiritual adept, in the ancient Vedic tradition. In addition to her suggestions for agriculture and nutrition, she shares with author Vladimir Megre, insights on subjects as diverse as statecraft and the education of children. The books are an enjoyable and educational read. Though it’s sometimes tiresome to wade through Megre’s personal struggles with the material, I don’t think there’s anything I’ve seen yet that quite compares with what Anastasia has put before us in these few slim volumes. She describes her mission as helping people find their way through “the dark forces’ window of time”. And that’s something we could sure use some help with. Thanks Anastasia!

Here’s an excerpt from one report on the Anastasia material from Scott Fraser, writing for RealitySandwich.com:

Another Russian family at home in their Dacha

“….Vladimir Megre, a Siberian entrepreneur, is the author of The Ringing Cedars Series. The story begins with Vladimir on a commercial trade run through some remote communities of Siberia. He starts to build an interest in the economic value of the Siberian cedar, and then pursues reports of a “ringing cedar,” an anomalous tree that stores cosmic energies and, after many hundreds of years, begins to ring. On his journey, Vladimir meets Anastasia, a young woman who has grown up in the Siberian wilderness. She brings Vladimir back to her forest glade and shares her advice with him regarding the raising of children, living a natural lifestyle, and illuminating the spirit of Creation that rests within every person.

For Vladimir, living a few days in Anastasia’s world is full of shocking and mystifying experiences. Humbled by the simple accommodations of a grass-lined dugout and not even a fire, Vladimir witnesses the abilities of Anastasia’s visionary “Ray,” as well as her astonishing somersaults, swings, and soaring through the forest canopy. Both the wild animals and the plants in her domain are seemingly tamed, observes Vladimir, as he watches the squirrels bring her food, the cedars shower her in pollen, and witnesses a show of acrobatics with the denizen bear!

As Vladimir’s critical interest in these phenomena grow, Anastasia stresses the importance of the wisdom she offers, offering the vision of an emerging culture re-united with Nature. Letting the children grow up in orchards and gardens full of our love is the key to reclaiming humanity’s Creator role on earth, and this new Age of Co-Creation will be realized when we empower our dreams with the purity of thought that comes from living a natural life.

"A typical Russian garden" by "uncommon vistas" on Flickr

This is the story of The Ringing Cedars. Whether one accepts it as fact or fiction, it is playing a massive role in transforming the culture of Russia, and in various communities around the world.

Dachniks is a term for the cottage-gardeners of Russia, and we become very familiar with their story in reading Anastasia. Leonid Sharashkin, editor of The Ringing Cedars Series’ English editions and a doctoral student in Agroforestry, is able to share with us the massive impacts of this gardening movement in the larger context of Russia’s agricultural economy:

“Currently, with 35 million families (70% of Russia’s population) working 8 million [hectares] of land and producing more than 40% of Russia’s agricultural output, this is in all likelihood the most extensive microscale food production practice in any industrially developed nation.

“According to official statistics, in 1999 more than 35 million families (105 million people, or 71% of country’s population) owned a dacha or a subsidiary plot and were cultivating it… The 35 million plots of these families occupy more than 8 million hectares and provide 92% of Russia’s harvest of potatoes, 77% of its vegetables, 87% of berries and fruits, 59.4% of meat, and 49.2% of milk.”

“When you look at the contribution of gardening to the national economy as a whole, it’s even more stunning,” Sharashkin said. “In 2004, gardeners’ output amounted to 51% (by value) of the total agricultural output of the Russian Federation. This represents 384 billion rubles (approx. US$14 billion!!!), or 2.3% of Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is greater, for example, than the contribution of the whole of electric power generation industry (317 bn rubles), significantly greater than all of forestry, wood-processing and pulp and paper industry (180 bn), significantly greater than the coal (54 bn), natural gas (63 bn) and oil refining (88 bn) industries taken together. The share of food gardening in national agriculture has increased from 32% in 1992 to over 50% by 2000.”

Russian Dacha

“Essentially, what Russian gardeners do,” he concludes, “is demonstrate that gardeners can feed the world – and you do not need any GMOs, industrial farms, or any other technological gimmicks to guarantee everybody’s got enough food to eat. Bear in mind that Russia only has 110 days of growing season per year – so in the US, for example, gardeners’ output could be substantially greater. Today, however, the area taken up by lawns in the US is two times greater than that of Russia’s gardens – and it produces nothing but a multi-billion-dollar lawn care industry.”

Though the dacha movement has its roots in Russia’s traditional peasant culture (and more recently in post-WW2 programs to boost agricultural production) the Ringing Cedars movement has had its own major contributions since the release of the books in 1996. A strong focus on planting trees and using non-timber tree products, permaculture principles like “no-dig” gardens, and fulfilling a spiritual relationship with the land are some of the new characteristics among the dachniks who have been inspired by Anastasia.

As well, the readers of Anastasia are also at the heart of a growing Russian eco-village movement. These are subsistence communities made up of multiple family estates, normally called “Kin’s Domains,” a term that appears in the books. Along with each family’s estate of between one and three hectares, these eco-villages may include community areas with a school, clinic, theatre, and festival grounds. Before the release of the Ringing Cedars books, Russia was without an eco-village movement; but in 2004, a conference of readers had attendants representing more than 150 eco-villages!

The spiritual affinity within the communities of the Ringing Cedars movement lies in their vision of re-establishing “Motherland,” an eco-culture where every person is fulfilling their role as a Divine Co-Creator. As readers go deeper into the series, Anastasia begins to reveal the path back to the state of a Creator Being, teaching about “The Science of Imagery,” of empowering our creative ability with pure thought, feelings, and a loving relationship with Nature. She also shares her stories about the history of the People of Earth, of the priests who led us into the Occult Age that is just now ending, and of the Beauty that was found in the gardens and rituals of an ancient Vedic race.

Anastasia also gives advice regarding the sowing of seeds, raising bees, and ideas for setting up a permaculture-style estate. Along with accounts of kombucha UFOs, ancestraldolmens (ancient burial chambers), and supernatural orbs, The Ringing Cedars Series contains a diverse array of paranormal tales, practical sustainability, poetic scripture, and cultural vision. For me, the books are a captivating read of personal, cultural, and spiritual significance.

Across Russia, “Garden Plot Acts” legislation is increasingly coming into effect, entitling each Russian citizen to a piece of land free from taxation and inheritable though the family line. I read this message of sovereign title to land for the purpose of spiritual fulfillment as a hopeful tiding of humanity’s future here on the planet. As I wander about visiting homesteads, farms, communities, and seeking the stories to inspire a natural and spiritual life, I have discovered Anastasia. It is one of those inspiring stories, and there are many blessings for us all on the path of Inspired Co-Creation…”

Read the whole story here on RealitySandwich.com

From “Woman in Russia.com”:

“In the 1960s the then General Secretary N.S.Khrushchov in compliance with the agricultural programm in Russia began to grant private citizens six hundred square meters plot on lease in collective orchards. Such a plot was called “dacha” (a country house). In the 1990s dachas turned from a place for rest into a major means of surviving – people then were more like farmers than amateur gardeners. For most people a dacha is a place to grow vegetables, fruit, berries…”

The economic situation has been slightly changing in the country since the late 90s. And gradually dachas have been turning into a place for a rest…

References:

Organic Farming by Country, from Wikipedia

“Out of Russia comes again the hope of the world” — Edgar Cayce   See this page for more background on Russia’s spiritual mission in our time.

Ringing Cedars Press – American distributor of the Anastasia books in English translation

Lead picture is from “From Russia with Love”

Second picture is from “Women in Russia” 

Uncommon Vistas on Flickr, source for “A Russian Garden” photo (3rd picture)

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Clearance of Polish Peasant Farmers

A sensible use of Christchurch's empty space

It is so rare to come across any sensitive initiative coming out of government that would do anything to help citizens develop resilience.

The only vestige of hope in the future in responding to present and future events comes from LOCAL government.

Edible Forest for Christchurch?

The Canterbury District Health Board is suggesting that parks and plots around Christchurch be transformed into edible gardens

This following item from the Chrsitchurch Press dates from January

Land could feed city

Mayor Bob Parker has given his support for a sustainability initiative which could see a food forest incorporated into the proposed Avon River Corridor.

the Press,

24 January, 2013

On a recent trip to Christchurch's sister city Seattle, the Mayor was treated to a tour of the Beacon Food Forest project.

A food forest is a carefully constructed ecosystem which substitutes edible plants, shrubs, trees and groundcover in place of conventional forest plants.

The system is layered, with tall fruit and nut trees, shrubs of berries, climbing edible vines, and strawberry groundcover (for example).

Anyone can help themselves to edible harvests, and anyone can contribute to the forest maintenance as it is meant for public use.

The idea fits eco-advocate Kevin McCloud's dream of seeing Christchurch become a productive and green city.

The Beacon Food Forest in Seattle is a 7-acre development on public land. Run by the community for the community, the forest is still in its early stages.

When complete, it will provide free fruit, vegetables and nuts to anyone who wants to harvest it.

Mayor Bob Parker said the forest was a "brilliant programme".

"I love the food forest idea, " he said. "Veges and fruit tend to come in plastic wrap from a supermarket these days."

He hoped the forest could be incorporated into the proposed Avon River Corridor - land soon to be owned by the Government.

The forest would fit seamlessly into the existing proposal which called for cycle and canoe ways, activity areas, and wetland reserve.

"I think this is what Christchurch is naturally moving towards. The Government is making the call on this land, but if they consult on this, I would be more than happy to raise this [food forest] as an idea for that land."

Existing backyard fruit trees and veges gardens could be included in a forest development.

"That's part of the red zone story, the legacy of the people who owned that land before the earthquakes, " he said.

Concerns had been raised in Seattle about people taking more than their fair share, but the nature of the programme is that anyone can take what they need. If all the food is gone, the project has been successful.

"This is a 21st century idea on a grand scale."

Feeding the local community

-->

NZ: Asset-Based Community Development

Epuni Primary School's Common Unity Project aims to produce enough fruit and vegetables to feed not only the school's 110 pupils but their families as well. It's a classic example of what's been called Asset Based Community Development - or ABC Development.

For Facebook page GO HERE

Another garden falls foul of the law

Quebec front garden gets to stay after 'give peas a chance' protest

Global Montreal,

24 July, 2012

A Drummondville couple who ran afoul of authorities with their front-lawn vegetable garden have been given a reprieve – they won’t have to uproot the offending plants until the start of September.

This comes after a Sunday bed-in to “give peas a chance” caught the attention of the powers that be.

Michel Beauchamp and Josée Landry were facing fines of as much as $300 a day in bylaw violations for transforming their lawn into a garden of leafy delights this summer.

In an attempt to cultivate a healthier lifestyle, the couple decided to grow their own produce.

But the municipality says the front lawn must be 30-per-cent grass.

The story has attracted international attention, thanks to the power of social media and perhaps in part to a slow summer news cycle.

On the weekend they staged a John Lennon and Yoko Ono-like bed-in to further spotlight their plight.

The “give peas a chance” was a word play on the famous peace plea of the former Beatle when he and his wife staged a protest in bed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

The threat of fines came after two warnings, the most recent received last week.

The couple were supposed to pull the law-breaking rhubarb and other greens by Tuesday.

That deadline has now been moved to Sept. 1, but the battle is not over.

Beauchamp and Landry vow to defend their right to garden on their land, but at the root of the problem is that the land is not all theirs.

“Only a certain percentage of the land belongs to them; from the sidewalk in about seven feet, that space belongs to the public municipality,” said Reynald Forcier, a spokesperson for Drummondville.

The couple lives in the former town of St. Charles de Drummond, annexed to Drummondville in 2004.

Whereas the city of Drummondville has passed a grass-only front-lawn bylaw recently, homeowners in the former St. Charles de Drummond have kept the right to plant vegetables and other greenery in their front yards, but only on 70 per cent of the space.

The remaining 30 per cent, the city portion, must be grass, says the bylaw.

Beauchamp and Landry have told the media that their plans to switch their lawn to a vegetable patch were approved verbally by a city environmental services inspector before they embarked on their ambitious project.

But Forcier said there must have been a mix-up in the interpretation of what they could do and how much they could do it.

“The city is NOT against vegetable gardens in Drummondville, but there must be some rules,” Forcier said. “Gardens like this one can be beautiful but this (precedent) could lead to excess with others.”

Once members of the city council are back from holidays on Aug. 13, these issues will be debated in the next council meeting.

“With the new rules passed for Drummondville, there are no (vegetable) gardens allowed in front from now on, but for those with acquired rights, we will be debating how to interpret the percentage rule,” Forcier said.

“The council will take another look at this based on the documents we have received from the couple.”

Watch a video of the garden being built in the video below

Guerilla gardening

We need more of this, everywhere!

Guerrilla Grafters Bring Forbidden Fruit Back To City Trees

A group of fruit fans in the San Francisco Bay Area is secretly grafting fruit-bearing tree limbs onto fruitless trees

NPR,

7 April, 2012

Spring means cherry, pear and apple blossoms. But in many metropolitan areas, urban foresters ensure those flowering fruit trees don't bear fruit to keep fallen fruit from being trampled into slippery sidewalk jelly.

But a group of fruit fans in the San Francisco Bay Area is secretly grafting fruit-bearing tree limbs onto those fruitless trees.

I visited the "crime scene" one recent day, but I can't tell you where it is because I was with the "criminals."

"If we say where it is, they could come after me," says Tara Hui, a fruit tree grafter. She's talking about city officials, who manage the trees and say it's illegal to have fruit trees on sidewalks.

So let's just say we're in some Bay Area city in a working-class neighborhood, at a line of pear trees that bear no pears.

Hui and two assistants pull out a knife, reach into a plastic bag filled with twigs no bigger than your pinkie, and cut from a fruit bearing pear tree. She says it's an Asian pear, and that she's grafting it onto a flowering pear tree.

They whittle a wedge into one end of their twig, then cut a groove into a similar-sized twig on the city tree. They join the two, like tongue and groove carpenters. And when their grafted twig eventually grows into a branch.

"There will be a much better looking tree that actually will provide fruit for people that come by," Hui says.

Hui's motives to break the law are straightforward.

"We don't have a supermarket and we have very few produce stores [here]," she says. "What better to alleviate scarcity of healthy produce in an impoverished area than to grow them yourself and to have it available for free."

Carla Short, an urban forester for the San Francisco Department of Public Works who's in charge of 103,000 public trees, has a different view of fruit trees.

"It gets very dangerous very quickly," Short says. "I mean the minute that fruit gets crushed on the sidewalk, it is slippery. We certainly don't want people to get injured."

She says fruit isn't forbidden everywhere, and the local government does encourage them in community gardens.

But that does put the city forester in an awkward position — advocating for publicly available fruit trees, but policing guerrilla grafters. Short says her team is looking for the guerrilla grafters but hasn't found them yet.

And what will they do if they find them? First, try to reason with the grafters, she says.

Meanwhile, Hui imagines these same streets in the coming years.

"Just taking an evening stroll, and then you see a fruit and you reach over and now you're nourished," says Hui.

So far, officials have yet to discover which of the city's decorative trees will become delicious trees because the grafts aren't yet old enough to bear fruit.

#OpSeedBomb

Anonymous - #OpSeedBomb - Operation Seed Bomb

Food security is an increasing concern, with prices on the rise, political unrest, climate change. we cannot wait on this issue any longer. 

This spring participate in #OpSeedBomb, and spread some green.

An example of relocalization

With all the dreadful news coming through it might be time for something a bit more uplifting....

Carrots in the car park. Radishes on the roundabout. The deliciously eccentric story of the town growing ALL its own veg

the Daily Mail,

10 December, 2011

Admittedly, it sounds like the most foolhardy of criminal capers, and one of the cheekiest, too. 

Outside the police station in the small Victorian mill town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, there are three large raised flower beds.

If you’d visited a few months ago, you’d have found them overflowing with curly kale, carrot plants, lettuces, spring onions — all manner of vegetables and salad leaves.

Today the beds are bare. Why? Because people have been wandering up to the police station forecourt in broad daylight and digging up the vegetables. And what are the cops doing about this brazen theft from right under their noses? Nothing.

Well, that’s not quite correct.

‘I watch ’em on camera as they come up and pick them,’ says desk officer Janet Scott, with a huge grin. It’s the smile that explains everything.

For the vegetable-swipers are not thieves. The police station carrots — and thousands of vegetables in 70 large beds around the town — are there for the taking. Locals are encouraged to help themselves. A few tomatoes here, a handful of broccoli there. If they’re in season, they’re yours. Free.

So there are (or were) raspberries, apricots and apples on the canal towpath; blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries beside the doctor’s surgery; beans and peas outside the college; cherries in the supermarket car park; and mint, rosemary, thyme and fennel by the health centre.

The vegetable plots are the most visible sign of an amazing plan: to make Todmorden the first town in the country that is self-sufficient in food.

‘And we want to do it by 2018,’ says Mary Clear, 56, a grandmother of ten and co-founder of Incredible Edible, as the scheme is called. 

‘It’s a very ambitious aim. But if you don’t aim high, you might as well stay in bed, mightn’t you?’

So what’s to stop me turning up with a huge carrier bag and grabbing all the rosemary in the town? 

‘Nothing,’ says Mary. 

What’s to stop me nabbing all the apples?

‘Nothing.’ 

All your raspberries? 

‘Nothing.’

It just doesn’t happen like that, she says. ‘We trust people. We truly believe — we are witness to it — that people are decent.’

When she sees the Big Issue seller gathering fruit for his lunch, she feels only pleasure. What does it matter, argues Mary, if once in a while she turns up with her margarine tub to find that all the strawberries are gone?

‘This is a revolution,’ she says. ‘But we are gentle revolutionaries. Everything we do is underpinned by kindness.’

The idea came about after she and co-founder Pam Warhurst, the former owner of the town’s Bear Cafe, began fretting about the state of the world and wondered what they could do. 

They reasoned that all they could do is start locally, so they got a group of people, mostly women, together in the cafe.

‘Wars come about by men having drinks in bars, good things come about when women drink coffee together,’ says Mary. 

‘Our thinking was: there’s so much blame in the world — blame local government, blame politicians, blame bankers, blame technology — we thought, let’s just do something positive instead.’

We’re standing by a car park in the town centre. Mary points to a housing estate up the hill. Her face lights up. 

‘The children walk past here on the way to school. We’ve filled the flower beds with fennel and they’ve all been taught that if you bite fennel, it tastes like a liquorice gobstopper. When I see the children popping little bits of herb into their mouths, I just think it’s brilliant.’

She takes me over to the front garden of her own house, a few yards away. 

Three years ago, when Incredible Edible was launched, she did a very unusual thing: she lowered her front wall, in order to encourage passers-by to walk into her garden and help themselves to whatever vegetables took their fancy.

There were signs asking people to take something but it took six months for folk to ‘get it’, she says.

They get it now. Obviously a few town-centre vegetable plants — even thousands of them — are not going to feed a community of 15,000 by themselves.

But the police station potatoes act as a recruiting sergeant — to encourage residents to grow their own food at home.

Today, hundreds of townspeople who began by helping themselves to the communal veg are now well on the way to self-sufficiency.

But out on the street, what gets planted where? There’s kindness even in that.

‘The ticket man at the railway station, who was very much loved, was unwell. Before he died, we asked him: “What’s your favourite vegetable, Reg?” It was broccoli. So we planted memorial beds with broccoli at the station. One stop up the line, at Hebden Bridge, they loved Reg, too — and they’ve also planted broccoli in his memory.’

Not that all the plots are — how does one put this delicately? — ‘official’. 

Take the herb bushes by the canal. Owners British Waterways had no idea locals had been sowing plants there until an official inspected the area ahead of a visit by the Prince of Wales last year (Charles is a huge Incredible Edible fan).

Estelle Brown, a 67-year-old former interior designer who tended the plot, received an email from British Waterways. 

‘I was a bit worried to open it,’ she says. ‘But it said: “How do you build a raised bed? Because my boss wants one outside his office window.”’

Incredible Edible is also about much more than plots of veg. It’s about educating people about food, and stimulating the local economy.

There are lessons in pickling and preserving fruits, courses on bread-making, and the local college is to offer a BTEC in horticulture. The thinking is that young people who have grown up among the street veg may make a career in food.

Crucially, the scheme is also about helping local businesses. The Bear, a wonderful shop and cafe with a magnificent original Victorian frontage, sources all its ingredients from farmers within a 30-mile radius.

There’s a brilliant daily market. People here can eat well on local produce, and thousands now do.

Meanwhile, the local school was recently awarded a £500,000 Lottery grant to set up a fish farm in order to provide food for the locals and to teach useful skills to young people.

Jenny Coleman, 62, who retired here from London, explains: ‘We need something for our young people to do. If you’re an 18-year-old, there’s got to be a good answer to the question: why would I want to stay in Todmorden?’

The day I visit, the town is battered by a bitterly-cold rain storm.  Yet the place radiates warmth. People speak to each other in the street, wave as neighbours drive past, smile. 

If the phrase hadn’t been hijacked, the words ‘we’re all in this together’ would spring to mind.

So what sort of place is Todmorden (known locally, without exception, as ‘Tod’)? If you’re assuming it’s largely peopled by middle-class grandmothers, think again. Nor is this place a mecca for the gin-and-Jag golf club set.

Set in a Pennine valley — once, the road through the town served as the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire — it is a vibrant mix of age, class and ethnicity.

A third of households do not own a car; a fifth do not have central heating. 

You can snap up a terrace house for £50,000 — or spend close to £1?million on a handsome stone villa with seven bedrooms. 

And the scheme has brought this varied community closer together, according to Pam Warhurst. 

Take one example. ‘The police have told us that, year on year, there has been a reduction in vandalism since we started,’ she says. ‘We weren’t expecting this.’

So why has it happened? 

Pam says: ‘If you take a grass verge that was used as a litter bin and a dog toilet and turn it into a place full of herbs and fruit trees, people won’t vandalise it. I think we are hard-wired not to damage food.’

Pam reckons a project like Incredible Edible could thrive in all sorts of places. ‘If the population is very transient, it’s difficult. But if you’ve got schools, shops, back gardens and verges, you can do it.’

Similar schemes are being piloted in 21 other towns in the UK, and there’s been interest shown from as far afield as Spain, Germany, Hong Kong and Canada. And, this week, Mary Clear gave a talk to an all-party group of MPs at Westminster.

Todmorden was visited by a planner from New Zealand, working on the rebuilding of his country after February’s earthquake.

Mary says: ‘He went back saying: “Why wouldn’t we rebuild the railway station with pick-your-own herbs? Why wouldn’t we rebuild the health centre with apple trees?”

‘What we’ve done is not clever. It just wasn’t being done.’

The final word goes to an outsider. Joe Strachan is a wealthy U.S. former sales director who decided to settle in Tod with his Scottish wife, after many years in California. 

He is 61 but looks 41. He became active with Incredible Edible six months ago, and couldn’t be happier digging, sowing and juicing fruit.

I find myself next to him, sheltering from the driving rain. Why, I ask, would someone forsake the sunshine of California for all this?

His answer sums up what the people around here have achieved.

‘There’s a nobility to growing food and allowing people to share it.

 There’s a feeling we’re doing something significant rather than just moaning that the state can’t take care of us. 

‘Maybe we all need to learn to take care of ourselves.’

Bringing farm life into the heart of the city — Gorgie City Farm

And from Edinburgh, Scotland another story about community gardens in the midst of an urban environment.

A lovely article with great photos.

Digital Journal,

2 August, 2011

Gorgie City Farm is nestled among tenements, schools, shops, sports stadiums and lies on a busy main road, Gorgie Road, which is one of the main arteries in and out of the city. It's also only a short bus ride from the centre of town.

Back in 1977 the land on which the farm now lies was derelict. There were a few plans tabled which would have seen houses built on the site but people in the area decided that they'd rather see the area developed as a green space and, thanks to the works of a local community group, the area was opened as Gorgie City Farm in 1982. 


Since then the farm has had tens of thousands of visitors each year.

For the article GO HERE

Lyttelton plans to be self-reliant to safeguard food

Radio New Zealand,

3 August, 2011

Here is a bit of good news from Radio New Zealand - the community of Lyttelton is growing its own food as a response to this year’s earthquake (and the suburb of Sumner is following suit).

Of course this makes good sense, not only in terms of natural disasters but in developing local resiliance to Peak Oil and economic hard times.  

Wouldn’t it be nice if other communities followed Lyttleton’s example.

To listen to the podcast GO HERE.

Woman faces jail time for vegetable garden

The face of fascism or just bureaucracy gone mad? From Russia Today

Julie, Julie, how does your garden grow? Ask around Julie Bass’ Oak Park, Michigan neighborhood and you’ll hear an array of opinions. Some love it, some hate it and some don’t care.

The city’s government, however, completely detests her organic vegetable garden. Now the city is considering putting her behind bars if she doesn’t ditch her veggie patch.

Bass has been charged with a misdemeanor for violating a city code that says yards must have “suitable, live, plant material.”

"It's definitely live. It's definitely plant. It's definitely material. We think it's suitable," she tells station WJBK.

Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski isn’t happy with it though and says to the station that the site is “not what we want to see in a front yard.” If Bass continues to ignore the town’s tickets and citations, she could be looking at jail time.

Bass says she began the garden, which contains five planter boxes of basil, cabbage, carrots and more, when the price of organic food just became too high. She said that a front-yawd garden, rather than a back yard one, would be, well, “really cool.”

“The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help.”

Some neighbors are turned off, however, by the grotesque site of hideous, thriving plantlife in front of their very own eyes. “They say, ‘Why should you grow things in the front?’" says Bass. “Well, why shouldn't I? They're fine. They're pretty. They're well maintained.”

Oak Park’s government — and a few picky neighbors whose parents clearly never taught them the importance of eating their veggies when they were younger — says it has to go, though.

“I know there’s a back yard. Do it in the back yard,” one neighbor tells the station.

"They don't have (anything) else to do (if) they're going to take her to court for a garden," said neighbor Ora Goodwin.

Rulkowski says, "If you look at the definition of what suitable is in Webster's dictionary, it will say common. So, if you look around and you look in any other community, what's common to a front yard is a nice, grass yard with beautiful trees and bushes and flowers."

But a growing, nurtured bevy of beds of budding produce? That’s just bizarre.

How bizarre? If Bass doesn’t move her bushes to the back, she stands to spend up to 93 days in jail.


More on this from the local Detroit newspaper