Who shapes the places we call home?
New Wales project brings community growing and local food together with a stronger voice for communities
People gathered at Capel Mawr in Denbigh on Monday 14 September for the launch of a new project supporting communities to grow food, restore nature and have more say over the places where they live.
The event marked the launch of Ein Gardd, Ein Dyfodol (Our Garden, Our Future), which brings together Incredible Edible's experience of community food growing with Rights Community Action's work on land, planning and community power. It will help people create thriving growing spaces and gain a stronger voice in decisions about local land.
The evening included short talks, a tour of the site and conversation over a supper made with produce from Incredible Edible Denbigh, showing how community food growing can bring neglected land back into use and give local people a practical stake in its future. The evening was attended by Local Authority officers, National Trust, FOE, Pam Warhurst CBE, and leading members of the food growing community.
Across Wales, communities are already growing food, restoring nature and bringing neglected spaces back into use. They have deep knowledge of local places, but their access to land and influence over decisions can be limited. Since 2023 Incredible Edible has been calling for a ‘Right to Grow’ to improve community access to their shared public land.
Through local coordinators, Incredible Edible will support communities to find suitable sites, grow food, restore nature and involve more local people. Rights Community Action will work alongside them on secure access to land and on changes to law, planning and policy that could give communities greater influence over local decisions.
The initiative is part of Saith Cenedlaethau / Seven Generations, a three-year collaboration between Incredible Edible and Rights Community Action, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Seven Generations is the principle that decisions made today should respect what came before and consider the people who will inherit their consequences. Drawing on Welsh ideas of stewardship and belonging, including gofalwr and cynefin, it asks how responsibility for land can be shared for the long-term benefit of communities and nature and how changing local policy about land access can build towards a more sustainable future.
Lizzie Wynn and Celia Williams have been running inspiring Incredible Edible community garden projects in Porthmadog (#EdibleMadog) and Conwy for over 10 years.
Lizzie Wynn of Incredible Edible said:
‘Amazing to see determined and talented growers come together to celebrate their achievements, with an intention of creating more community garden spaces.’
Naomi Luhde-Thompson, Chief Executive of Rights Community Action, said:
"Communities hold knowledge, memory and a deep connection to the places where they live, yet too often they are asked to respond to decisions rather than influence them.
"Ein Gardd, Ein Dyfodol is about changing that relationship. It starts with practical local action and asks a bigger question: how can communities have the power and support to steward land for people living now and for generations to come?"
Campaigning towards a lasting Right to Grow policy for unused or neglected public land is one practical strand of this wider work. The project will also explore longer-term approaches to stewardship, community influence and the way decisions about land are made.
Following the Denbigh launch, local coordinators will work with communities in Conwy, Denbighshire, Gwynedd and Powys. The work in each area will reflect its local relationships, history and ambitions, while contributing to a wider conversation about land and community power in Wales.
People and groups who have an idea for local land that could be turned into a community food garden, are involved in a community growing project or want to take part can contact:
celia.williams@incredibleedible.org.uk
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Ein Gardd, Ein Dyfodol
Ein Gardd, Ein Dyfodol / Our Garden, Our Future is a Wales-based initiative helping communities grow food, restore nature and gain more influence over decisions about the places where they live. It combines Incredible Edible's practical, place-based approach with Rights Community Action's work on law, planning and community rights.
About Saith Cenedlaethau / Seven Generations
Saith Cenedlaethau / Seven Generations is a three-year collaboration between Rights Community Action and Incredible Edible, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. It explores an intergenerational approach to stewardship, rooted in shared responsibility for land and the people who will inherit it.
About Incredible Edible
Incredible Edible is a movement that supports people to take practical action in their communities through food growing. Its network includes hundreds of local groups across the UK and internationally. Each group adapts the Incredible Edible model to their own place, their own context, their own community. There is no top-down direction - the movement belongs to the people doing it.
About Rights Community Action
Rights Community Action brings together campaigners, lawyers, planners and community organisers working to give communities a stronger voice in decisions about the places where they live.
