Tag: Sustainable Food

Good Food Stories: Right to Grow

By Emma Andrews

Published 20th October 2023

Welcome to #GoodFoodStories Meet the Network! We’re doing a series of informal interviews with local food activists to showcase some of the great food work happening across Leeds with the aim of inspiring and building a good food movement.

First up is Dan Robinson from Incredible Edible Leeds, whose going to tell us about the Right to Grow campaign.

Hi Dan, tell us a bit about what you do.

Hi, I’m Dan Robinson. I head up Incredible Edible Leeds and I’m also on the board of the wider Incredible Edible Movement. Incredible Edible was set up to create kind, confident, and connected communities using the power of food. We work across communities, education and local business to show people where their food comes from and to enable people to lead happier, healthier lives by growing and eating local, healthy and sustainable food.


What is the right to grow. And why are you taking this approach?

It’s essentially what it says on the tin. It’s about giving ordinary citizens the right to grow food in the public realm. Lots of people want to grow their own food but don’t have the opportunity to do so for various reasons, including navigating the legal requirements and the red tape for accessing public land, which can be complicated. However, there’s a sense that both people within local authorities and ordinary citizens want to be part of the solution. And that’s where change comes from.


What’s been done so far?

A whole host of organisations have signed up to support Right to Grow including Sustain, the Food Ethics Council, and the Urban Agriculture Consortium, along with many sustainable food partnerships including FoodWise.

On the Incredible Edible website there’s a briefing for local authorities that lays out the benefits and the reasons for Right to Grow, including a draught motion that councils can put forward, and if they want to they can adopt it to have a Right Grow within their authority. Hull has recently done this and is the first local authority in the UK to do so.

What’s happening in parliament to support the Right to Grow?


In Parliament there’s been quite a lot of movement with an amendment tabled to the Levelling Up Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords that’s got cross-party support. However, legislation takes a long time as there’s a ping pong approach going backwards and forwards between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. So we’re also looking at introducing a 10 minute rule bill in the House of Commons, where an MP gets 10 minutes to pitch the idea. While this doesn’t create legislation, it gets people talking about it and it can move up the agenda.


What would be the impact of a successful Right to Grow bill?


It’s got so much potential! It would pave the way for more community food growing projects and all the benefits that comes with that, and more wildlife friendly spaces in urban areas. And more local, nutrient dense foods freely available for those who need it most.


What has Incredible Edible Leeds’ involvement been?


Changing the law is of course fundamental but there’s lots that can and must happen while we work towards that. I’d love to have that proof of concept taking place in West Yorkshire, starting with Leeds leading the way ahead of national policy.


We need to tell the stories that show the benefits, develop tools and resources to make implementing a Right to Grow practical and possible. We also need to ensure that it’s reaching and impacting the communities that would benefit most from increased access to fresh, freely available fruit and vegetables – that’s why we’ve been developing the Incredible Edible network across Leeds.


How can community members take action and join the movement towards the Right to Grow?


Anyone interested in accessing land for food growing or wanting to find out more can take a look at the Right to Grow page on our website. On there you can write to your local councillors and your MP to tell them about the campaign and ask them to support either a local Right to Grow motion in Leeds or legislation in Parliament.


Many areas of Leeds have Incredible Edible projects, so take a look at edibleleads.org.uk to see if there’s a project in your area that you can get involved with. And if there isn’t, let us know if you’d like to create one and we can help.  

Compost Collective Leeds: Pilot Success!

By Emma Andrews

Published 30th March 2023

FoodWise Leeds is celebrating the success of delivering a 1-year community composting pilot, in partnership with local grass-roots organisations and community groups. Compost Collective Leeds is now expanding across the city, with funding to establish six additional sites.

Jump to:

THE PILOT

Since February 2022, FoodWise Leeds has partnered with grass-roots organisations and community groups to establish two community composting sites in Garforth and Seacroft. The ambitions for these sites were to enable community members to:

  • Reduce food waste by recycling food scraps
  • Create a free source of compost to grow local food, flowers and other plants
  • Collectively #compostforclimate and reduce their carbon footprint
  • Support their local green and growing spaces

In just 3 months, over 180 5litre caddies were emptied into community composting bins, transforming over 250 kilos of diverted food waste into a future free source of compost. This means approximately 950 kilos of CO2 emissions (GhGs)1 have been saved; the equivalent weight of around 4 local alpacas at Leeds’ Meanwood Valley Urban Farm!

Once the compost is ready, local members will be collecting their share and any remaining will be given to local green/growing spaces (e.g. Incredible Edible Garforth community food growing beds and Seacroft Forest Garden).

Photo credit: Meanwood Valley Urban Farm

Local Councillor Katie Dye enthuses about her local site Compost Collective Seacroft:

“The scheme has been really successful. From experienced composters to complete beginners, the pilot has engaged lots of different people who are now turning food waste into compost to grow more food!

FoodWise Leeds were able to provide the guidance needed to set up and establish the site for long-term sustainability, with expertise and resources from bin design to delivering members training. Climate Action Seacroft has been a great support, co-facilitating training, looking after the compost bin and encouraging people along the way. Links have been made with community organisations such as the LS14 Trust who are offering a free tea or coffee with each caddy emptied and Chapel FM who are composting food waste from their cafe.

It would be fantastic to see community composting extended so that more people can benefit, and we can cut waste across the city.”

Compost Collective Garforth partners: Incredible Edible Garforth and Eco-Friendly Garforth. Funded by Outer East Community Committee and Food for the Planet (Sustainable Food Places).

Compost Collective Seacroft partners: We Are Seacroft, Climate Action Seacroft and LS14 Trust. Funded by Inner East Community Committee and Food for the Planet (Sustainable Food Places).

Read more about the pilot sites here.

Our Approach

FoodWise Leeds has shared an overview of their approach to setting up the pilot sites (below). Key to the continuing success of these sites is the co-production with local community. This has been achieved this through strong partnership working, community consultation and local skill sharing/development. One key outcome of this approach has been the positive impact on helping to reduce social isolation (i.e. community composting as a social activity), one member told us “I’m already a keen composter, I came to meet people”.

To achieve the ambitions for each site, FoodWise and partners worked through the following stages, developing supporting resources and tools. For example, Compost Collective Leeds Members Handbook (viewable here).

GROWING THE MOVEMENT

With strong links to the Leeds Food Strategy, the vision for Compost Collective Leeds is to work in partnership with local communities to grow a network of community compost sites across Leeds. Taking action towards this and based on the success of the pilot, FoodWise has secured funding to develop an additional six sites in partnership with other Leeds-based communities.

Compost Collective Leeds sites provide communities with a tangible way to take action in caring for themselves, their communities and the planet.

INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A SITE?

If you are a local organisation, community group or community member interested in setting up a local Compost Collective Leeds site, please get in touch with FoodWise Leeds (info@foodwiseleeds.org) to discuss how we might support you and your community.

Footnote: 1 Calculation based on insights within the UK Food System GHG Emissions report (WRAP) (i.e. approximately every kilo of food waste in the UK is associated with 3.8 kilos of GhGs (CO2e)).