Eighteen years ago Pam Warhurst and a group of friends planted the seed of a sustainable food revolution.
Imagine if you could put all the unused public land to work, feeding the community? Since that first thought, Pam Warhurst’s home town of Todmorden has had a green revival. Over a decade later, there are planters in front of the police station. There are edible canal towpaths. Even sweet peas in the cemetery.
“We’re not doing it because we’re bored,” Pam says. “It starts a conversation.” And the language of this conversation is through food. She describes it as a language that cuts across age, income and culture. Food is the great universal that everyone has a stake in.
What began as a plan to rejuvenate her market town in the North of England has become the Incredible Edible movement. With 1200 towns worldwide (including 16 in Scotland), Incredible Edible has grown its local mission into over a thousand offshoots. Each is set up by grass-roots volunteers, tackling food poverty and food deserts.
“You get food right, you get a lot of things right,” she says.
Within 10 years of the first conversation the charity was awarded investment from the Big Lottery Fund to share their journey with other towns.
However building local climate action from the ground up – or not very much beyond the ground – is not an easy thing to do.
This is the focus of East Lothian Climate Hub’s Building Sustainable Action Event on January 24.
Building Sustainable Action in East Lothian
As guest speaker Green Futures Festival 2026, Pam and Incredible Edible will be sharing the lessons of growing the seed of an idea into effective local sustainability.
For anyone who is new to climate and nature action, or groups just getting going, this is the perfect event. There will also be plenty of opportunities for sharing your first, green shoots of success with the East Lothian network (ELCAN). Come, learn and making new connections.
There will be speakers from East Lothian groups like Our Community Kitchen which have used the “language of food” to reduce isolation for people of all ages and abilities.
It will also be a chance to talk with members of Sustaining Dunbar (also part of the Incredible Edible network) and Sustaining North Berwick about local climate and nature projects.
To sign up and for more information about the agenda and list of attendees, visit our Ticket Tailor event page.
Whether you’re still green to climate and nature action, or been growing a local movement, we hope to see you there!
Building Sustainable Action in East Lothian will be at Prestonpans Community Centre, EH32 9QS on Saturday 24 Jan 2026, 10am to 3pm.
Part of the Green Futures Festival 2026 East Lothian’s celebration of communities acting on climate and nature issues.
