[ELECTRON] Fwd: Scottish orchards: This Land is Your Land Event

[Bob Hamilton]

Scottish orchards:  This Land is Your Land Event Hi Folks

I’d like to invite you to attend our “This land is Your Land” Events  ...

If you don't know of Woody Guthries song see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE

The context is that Scottish Government are consulting over the summer
on Community Empowerment – and this represents a great opportunity for
people wanting to make a difference.

Our events are in Edinburgh City Chambers  on 4th August and at Glasgow
CCA on 11th Aug. (It’s short notice – apologies Summer holidays etc have
intervened ! ) – but do  make the effort to come along. It’ll be fun.)

The structure of these events is very inclusive and people coming along
will be encouraged to talk about practical projects – and celebrate
what’s already happening and  what they are doing, and to contribute
their ideas of how to make Community Empowerment relevant to people.

Please book at

http://thislandisyourlandedinburgh.eventbrite.com/ - for the Edinburgh
Event on 4th Aug

Or

http://thislandisyourlandglasgow.eventbrite.com/ for Glasgow. On 11th Aug


Who should attend... ?

People interested in doing things for themselves. Our view is that
Community Orchards, community gardening, food events, Scotland in Bloom,
are all examples of community empowerment in action.  Local shops, local
produce  and local businesses are also about  community empowerment.
There is a lot of anxiety about definitions – but I think that it’s
about people doing stuff to help their local community.

What do we want to see added to the Community Empowerment Bill?

“A Right to Grow”

This is personal – and you may have other ideas – which is great, but!
My view is that Right to Buy, puts up rather a high barrier to community
groups – whereas a presumption in favour of communities being able to
use community owned land – unless there is good reason why not,  seems
much more sensible and achievable in many cases. This is an idea that
has had a lot of support and also interest in the media. The petition
has had about 600 signatories now... And the comments are thoughtful and
interesting.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/land-for-landless-scots-for-grow-your-own/


I wrote this piece for the Sunday Express a couple of weeks back, which
I think makes the points .. .



See below...

Give us grounds to grow! John Hancox , Director of the Commonwealth Orchard

Hard times call for some smart thinking, and my view is that it’s well
time for a new Dig for Victory Campaign. All round Scotland there’s no
shortage of unused land which the public own already. There are also
plenty of people who are desperate to get hold of land to grow their own
healthy, delicious food. In these difficult economic times it makes very
little sense to have unused land sitting idle, while people who’d love
to use it for productive food growing can’t.

Over several years now, The Commonwealth Orchard, has been helping
schools and community groups to develop orchards, food gardens and
healthy eating projects. Our mission is to create a Fruitful Scotland
with trees growing in parks, gardens schools and wherever there is room,
looked after by local people. People really love planting and harvesting
their own food. It’s cheap, good for you, tastes great, and I’ve yet to
find anyone who thinks it’s a bad idea.

And it’s fresh – if you pick an apple off the tree (I picked the first
of this season’s apples this week,) it’s as fresh and delicious as it
can be.  It’s a well known scientific fact, that what you grow, and pick
yourself tastes far better. You don’t need to import fruit from France
if it’s growing outside your window in Glasgow.  Growing your own saves
money, saves carbon, and saves the planet.  If everyone agrees that it’s
a no brainer, why is it so very hard to get land to grow food?

In real exasperation we took a Petition to the Scottish Parliament in
June, calling for Government agencies who hold public land such as
Forestry Commission Scotland, the Crown Estate, local authorities,
health boards, and environment groups to make much more land available
for people to plant, grow and harvest their own. We were pleased to get
cross party support from the MSPs on the Petitions Committee. We really
hope this will lead to positive action, soon.

Our call is for a Right to Grow. That would mean that people wanting to
grow on unused land could do so, unless there is a good reason why not.
   We are not calling for changes in land ownership as much land is
already in public ownership. The Right to Grow would be rather like the
“Right to Roam” which came about after WW2 and now allows access for
walkers into the hills. While this was opposed by landowners at the
time, it’s now the norm and works well.

Government agencies have done various one-off food growing projects.
Great though these are, for instance a community garden project in Fort
William isn’t much use if you live in Falkirk. We don’t need “pilot
studies” now: community orchards, and gardens and also school orchards
have been well tried and tested. We need to get on and do far more, and
we need the bureaucracy to be removed.  Everyone needs somewhere to grow
something. The Dig for Victory campaign worked in wartime and can work now.

We don’t need self appointed experts getting us bogged down in
complexity. During World War 2, when loads of unused land – an estimated
1.4 million allotments across the UK-  was brought into production with
people growing vegetables, fruit, as well as keeping bees, chickens and
even goats – and the effect was that the Nation’s health improved
dramatically.  People were just given encouragement to get on with it –
it was so simple.  If it worked then, why not now?

Providing land for food growing, helps people to help themselves. People
don’t want to sit home and watch daytime TV - they want something useful
to do. This is true for people young and old, rich and poor, urban and
rural. Being able to go and get your hands dirty and grow things is so
important to people. And it’s vital that children learn these skills so
they know how to feed themselves in what is an uncertain future.

Growing your own food builds confidence and health and without these the
country can’t recover. The wartime Dig for Victory campaign has lessons
for today.  Sustainable economic growth clearly isn’t a term understood
by our economists or bankers, but it’s what drives the people who plant
community orchards - you plant trees for future generations - not for
immediate personal gain. We are in an economic mess and it’s time to
allow ordinary people to get land to grow, and let them dig us all out
of it.

If you wish to mug up on the consultation document – details below.

Consultation on the Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill is currently
underway.  This is an important piece of proposed legislation for
everyone in the community growing movement.

The Bill consultation is divided into 3 parts and seeks to gain views on:
* Making it easier for communities to take part and have their say
* Helping communities to own land and buildings in their area
* Making the best use of buildings and land
The consultation runs over the summer, closing on 29th August, and this
is of course a particularly busy time for all of us.  Nevertheless the
issues the Bill addresses are important ones for the future of our
movement and we would urge you to take the time to respond.  You can get
involved and make your views known in several ways:
By responding to the consultation using the full consultation on a
proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill
<http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/7786/0>  or the ‘easy
read summary’ <http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00394566.pdf> .

John

John Hancox
The Apple Man
0778 606 3918

Www.scottishorchards.com
Www.commonwealthorchard.com
Www.fruitfulschools.com
Www.scottishfruittrees.com
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