'Incredible Edible' founder speaking in Motueka

March 1st, 2016

A founder of the "Incredible Edible" project that has turned the West Yorkshire town of Todmorden into a world-renown tourist attraction is speaking in Motueka tomorrow.

Pam Warhurst (pictured) will speak on Wednesday, March 2nd, from 9.30am at MOTEC (opposite the Motueka library) about how her team strengthened the community by turning her town into an amazing edible place and tourist destination. The Incredible Edible project, begun in Todmorden, aims to bring communities together through the medium of locally grown food.

The idea behind the Incredible Edible was to create a better community through food, which was something everyone could relate to.

Communities growing their own food in public spaces gave people improved confidence and changed the way they looked at their world, she says. It starts by putting food in a public place to start conversations.

In Todmorden where the project was started there were fruit and vegetables growing outside the police station which had opened up a dialogue between officers and the public.

"If you start to use local food at the heart of what you're doing you'll be amazed at what you can do," she told Stuff website.

Once people started to consume the community produce they would head in the stores and ask for local produce, wanting to support local companies, she said.

The demand on local growers then encourages them to diversify. The movement was also about the sharing of knowledge and skills within a community because everyone had something to contribute.

A lot of young people did not know how to grow, cook and preserve the produce of summer to enjoy in the middle of winter. Incredible Edible was not about scale, but was about doing things differently, she said.

Motueka has already begun work on a much smaller scale to introduce edible plantings into public spaces. The gardens in Ledger Reserve planted last year are already growing quickly, thanks to the work by a team led by Petra Stephenson and the support of Keep Motueka Beautiful.

Another "urban food forest" is being planted out behind the Community Gardens on Old Wharf Road, and the group are looking at other possible areas for public edible plantings.

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