Are you keen to secure a Right to Grow for your local area? Join us for the next Right To Grow Learning Network where we will be discussing how to build the case for a Right to Grow, and how to engage decision makers within your local authority. There will be time built in to the session for questions and discussion. Find out more about the Right to Grow here.

Our Speakers

Dr Les Levidow, Senior Research Fellow, Open University

Community food growing has many societal benefits, but the vast evidence has rarely brought more helpful support measures from Local Authorities. Why not? Our action-research project created a knowledge-exchange process among Borough-wide advocacy groups. Together we identified many barriers, so that the groups could find ways to overcome or bypass them. You can find out more about the study here.

Janie Bickersteth, Incredible Edible Lambeth

How can we better understand the barriers, challenges and opportunities of food growing on public land? From 2021-2023, Incredible Edible Lambeth partnered with Arup to deep dive into these issues. With multiple interviews of stakeholders ranging from housing officers to growers, IEL pieced together some of the answers and is now creating a framework for community food growers, which we hope will make it easier for people to face the challenges and seize the opportunities as they emerge.

Councillor Andrea Berardi (Runnymede Council), Senior lecturer Open University

How did Andrea, as a member of the opposition, manage to engage officers across all units and fellow councillors from across the political spectrum to overwhelming support a ‘Right to Grow’ motion? He will outline the compromises that had to be made, but also how the community-led engagement process delivered a strong mandate for practical action to support communities’ right to grow.