Food-an incredible mechanism for change

With Greta Thunberg in the UK, and climate activism taking centre stage, we thought it important to remind ourselves of the beginnings of Incredible Edible and the reasons and importance of our movement.

Incredible Edible’s aim was always to connect communities, facilitate conversations and make the change into a decarbonised world easier for those communities that were coming together and using food and the conduit for that action. There is no doubt, and there has been no doubt for decades, that human caused climate change is here, and that across the world, including in the UK, we are feeling the effects of the changing climate. Flooding, fires, drought, ecological breakdown, weekly storms, hurricanes……….the list goes on and whilst we understand there have always been climate changes, never have those changes been caused by one species; in this case humans.

It’s often assumed that Incredible Edible is about growing food, but in fact that is just the mechanism for bringing those communities together, and most groups are actually an amalgam of people who are also involved in many other organisations, from Extinction Rebellion, to Friends of the Earth, the Transition Town Movement, to sustainable energy projects, and lots lots more. But what brings us together is out incredible ethos of creating a better future that sees kindness and health and wellbeing the factors that we use as data to show a thriving world.

Our motto “if you eat you’re in”, hopefully expresses the inclusivity all groups practice, but especially now we’d like to open that up and express our concern for, and offer a welcome to, all the extraordinary young people who are becoming a powerful voice for change, but who also, in many cases, are truly terrified and suffering acute anxiety around the planet they are to inherit. We understand you feel let down by generations who have known this was coming, but while it’s certainly not been enough, many of us have been banging this drum for a long time and longing for someone to come along that the politicians and government would take notice of. We genuinely hope this is the time and that it’s not too late. We’d like you to know you are always welcome at Incredible Edible groups and we would love to work with you and support you in any way we can.

We have a long way to go, but a step change seems to be coming and finally people are waking up. So why not get involved and join a movement using food to support the creation of healthy, connected local economies and communities?