Abstract
This study aims to analyze one method in current usage helping small suburban or rural communities to not only survive, but thrive, specifically through strategic landscape incorporation and use of ethnobotanical (ETB) plants native to or adopted by the area. We focus on the Incredible Edible (IE) movement in Todmorden, England as a successful case using ETB landscape, and reviewed positive changes over nine years. We also study how widely and when the IE method has spread. Methodology includes interviews, multimedia literature review, and trend analysis. Methodology and keywords used in the IE system are discussed, and are based upon a few basic ideas to create a sustainable community-landscape system. Our results show that people in the economically depressed rural zone of Todmorden desired change, but were hesitant to do so. Our study’s main findings are that independent global media can have a deep effect on grassroots movements, and that, compared with the lack of it, the use of ETB landscape when incorporated into community planning and activities can have deeply positive sociological and environmental effects, including heritage preservation and sustainability.
