It will produce fish, fruit and vegetables to be served in the canteen and used in food technology lessons. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Instead of people leaving Todmorden, they’re actually moving in because of the Incredible Edible effect! This pretty spot on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border reinvented itself in 2008 with the founding of the volunteer-run community gardening scheme Incredible Edible; six years on, and they're really reaping the rewards. We aim to provide access to good local food for all, through • working together A sense of achievement: from small seeds to tasty towns. That got people talking to one another and from there the project has just kept on growing. In the phrase coined by Jaime Lerner, mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, it's "urban acupuncture" - small but carefully targeted interventions that make a big difference. By planting for biodiversity, it is possible to mitigate some of the effects of urban development and large-scale farming. Incredible Edible is a local food movement that started six years ago in the Yorkshire town of Todmorden. "We have 'propaganda gardens' and we have 'accidents' – we fall over with some herbs and they just suddenly take root…". The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. But why not? But the last word on growing local food must surely go to Warhurst: "It's the only thing we can do to just try to change the future. Cheeky, and brilliant. No fear of getting nicked if you take a lettuce without paying for it here. She’s the mastermind behind crowd funding publication of the book telling the story of Incredible Edible and we had a chat with her to find out more about the project and how you could get involved. It reconnects a town that had been split into three, divided by the Burnley, Rochdale and Halifax roads. The important thing to understand is that Incredible Edible isn’t a system with a manual; it will look different depending on the nature of the place where it is being established and the people who get involved. Please make a donation to support The Ecologist platform. It takes too long and anyway we're improving the place." We’re running a crowd funding campaign to raise £10,000, which will pay for an initial print run. And while Todmorden may have a head start, others are following and pioneering their own approaches to edible placemaking. As Pam Warhurst, Incredible Edible's co-founder, put it: "We don't ask permission. They also create the opportunity to manage and enjoy life now. By growing and sharing their own food, people are beginning to prise themselves away from global supply chains and build a degree of resilience, cushioning the impact of shortages or price rises. People would stop and ask why; some would join in and grow their own. Woe betide, indeed. "The time to read a report, write a report, make a strategy document, take it to a committee and do bugger-all is long gone. The police chief even begged them not to ask him for permission to plant at the station, because then he'd have to go through his superiors and it might never get the green-light – another indictment of the hands-tied culture of permission so prevalent in many organisations today.