THE last time Todmorden was meaningfully involved in any kind of revolution, the Napoleonic Wars were raging and Britain was in the process of transforming itself into the greatest industrial powerhouse the world had ever seen. Back then the currency of change was cotton. Two centuries later, it is plants and vegetables such as chard and rhubarb.

Surrounded on three sides by the Pennines' lush valley walls this pleasant, if unremarkable, town a few miles from the Lancashire border is an unlikely staging post for a foodie revolution, but campaigners behind the "Incredible Edible Todmorden" initiative believe
it can become a catalyst for communities up and down the country.

The self-sufficiency drive is the brainchild of café owner Pam Warhurst, who enlisted the help of her friend Mary Clear to get the ball rolling. It's only been going since February and already they've set up a website and online forum, and started three community fruit and veg gardens and a seed exchange network.

Pam, who has run the Bear Café in Todmorden for the past 20 years, switched on to the idea after listening to Professor Tim Lang, the man who coined the term "food miles", speak at a national land conference.

"He said, 'forget about growing plants, grow vegetables' and it just struck me that with all the pressures we're hearing about regarding food prices and the big changes likely in the future, the best legacy we could leave our children is to make sure people understand more about what they're eating and where it comes from.

"We're not interested in being anything trendy or making money. We're just a town that recognises the need for people to reconnect with good, quality food that's grown locally."

With soaring food costs and growing concern about where produce comes from, Pam thinks it makes sense. "It has all sorts of knock-on effects, it's healthier, it cuts down on air miles and it helps create a greater sense of community because it encourages people to swap plants, so there's lots of spin-offs."

At first glance, Todmorden is just like any other market town, but dig a little deeper and you notice something is stirring here. In just a few months, vegetable patches and herb gardens, with everything from rhubarb to rosemary, have sprung up, transforming disused land
and grass verges.


"We've got herbs growing up at the railway station so that anybody coming off the trains can pluck whatever they want, and we've also put recipes up suggesting ideas how to cook things like rosemary or parsley." It's all there to be cooked and eaten, she says. "Some people said they'd be trashed within days, but no one's vandalised them, there's no fag ends or beer cans, it's fantastic."

Mary, a Todmorden In Bloom volunteer, believes they are helping safeguard the town's future. "I have seven grandchildren and I'm very aware that during their lifetime there's likely to be big food shortages.

"But I'm a great believer that people are supposed to enjoy eating and growing food, and that's what the Incredible Edible campaign is all about, because once you start producing your own food you're hooked."

She thinks one of the reasons it's proving so popular is down to the place itself. "This is a border town and quite often they feel neglected, and Todmorden has a history of getting things done itself, there's a real community spirit here."

It's something Pam agrees with. "Tod's got a very strong sense of identity and I believe that if we're going to really get people reconnected with the land and the food they eat, it's got to revolve around somewhere with a sense of place.

"It can't be some amorphous national project, and what we're trying to show is that by everyone working together we can create something that's not just a quick fix, and if we can do it in Todmorden, anyone can do it."

What's refreshing about the scheme is it's being driven by the local population, not by faceless, if well-meaning, quangos. "We don't want committees and strategists or rhetoric, we want people who will roll their sleeves up," says Pam.

The response has been remarkable. "People are literally stopping us in the street now and asking what they can do. It's really got people interested because something like climate change can seem too big, but food they can relate to, and it cuts across class and age."

Several local schools have set up allotments so that youngsters can grow their own fruit and veg, which can be sold at nearby markets, with any profits ploughed back into buying seeds and plants. There are also plans to hold cookery classes and introduce land management and horticulture courses. "A lot of kids at school don't want to be a brain surgeon or get into IT, but to be an apprentice to a local farmer, or to have a bakery business, that's quite attractive," says Pam.

Local firms are getting involved, too, with ambitious plans in
the pipeline for a lottery bid to help fund an organic fish farm. Other ideas are smaller, but no less clever. "We've got local cafés that instead of having loyalty cards that you can swap for a cup of coffee, you collect 'x' number of stamps and they then plant a tree instead."

Sceptics might dismiss what's happening here as little more than a fad, but Pam disagrees. "If we don't link farmers into it and if we don't get consumers and producers working together and buying into the Todmorden brand, then it's not sustainable, and these hillsides will fall back into non-production," she says. "But because more people are starting to buy local eggs, farmers are coming to us and saying they've never sold so many, and now they're talking about getting more free-range hens and pigs."

She believes the self-sufficiency drive can underpin the local economy. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and if
we have a brand of sustainable tourism then that's going to interest a heck of a lot of people who will come here, which means you have more B&B's and more jobs on farms and in cafés."

Pam denies it's an attempt to undermine the big supermarket chains. "We're not doing this to fight the multi-nationals and I'm certainly not going to picket supermarkets. We want to show people there is a commercial value in growing and producing locally, and if we can reduce the need to go to a supermarket then that's got to be part of the solution," she says.

"But we recognise that supermarkets employ local people, so we're not trying toput them out of business here, we're just saying we
don't have to fly food halfway across the planet."

Campaigners admit they're unlikely to get everyone in the town eating local food, but they're adamant they can make a difference. "We're not unrealistic about what we can do, but we don't have to produce animals in Yorkshire and take them down to Cornwall to be slaughtered only to bring them back again.

"Ultimately, year on year, we want to raise the amount of food locally grown and locally consumed and if, in turn, we can create more local dairies and abattoirs, then that would re-invigorate farming communities and have a knock-on effect," she says.

"For me this town in the middle of the south Pennines can start a bit of a revolution, because if we get this right we can be reaping the rewards for generations to come."



To find out more information about the campaign log on to www.incredible-edible-todmorden.com