Ken Elkes Information Worker at Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens 

Where were you born?

Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

What did your parents do?

Nothing vaguely environmental. My mum was a housewife and my father a storesman at a Young Offender Institution.

What is your working background?

Mainly journalism. I started on local newspapers before freelancing on various national newspapers in London. I then became Editor of a features agency which provided editorial material worldwide until I got bored with sending copy to all these far-flung places and decided to visit them instead! After some extended globe-trotting I returned to the UK and now divide my working time between FCFCG, freelance journalism and creative writing.

What motivates you to be an environmental activist?

I grew up in a very rural area and have always appreciated the natural environment as a result. I have also travelled a lot and have seen first-hand the contrast between natural beauty and man’s very unsustainable activities, particularly in parts of Central America, South East Asia and Southern Africa. Countless times I have visited places overflowing with beautiful landscapes and stunning or unique plants and animals. But these same countries also have terrible environmental problems. Big corporations and governments collude to cause huge damage to the natural environment and this seems to filter right down to the local level so that litter and waste is dumped anywhere and everywhere and people don’t seem to care about their local environment. Cities often grown unsustainably with shanty towns sprawling across the countryside, no building controls and buses belching out fumes. Developed countries which should be leading the way on these issues are culprits too. I recently visited friends in Phoenix, Arizona in the USA, which is a city built in the middle of the desert, where there are lots of golf courses with green lawns, all irrigated by waters taken from not so sustainable sources.

What does your current job entail?

My job encompasses all elements of information work for the Federation, including press and PR work  - in order to showcase the benefits of the community farming and gardening movement - producing publications, updating and content on the website, acting as an information resource for our members and helping shape future information policy.

The Federation supports, represents and promotes community-managed farms and gardens, helping them empower local people, often in deprived areas, to build closer, healthier and more integrated communities. We are the national face of the community farming and gardening movement, working to raise its profile with policy-makers, funders and the public. I think many people don’t realise the scope of what our member groups do. Take for example the UK’s oldest city farm Kentish Town, which has been going since 1972. It was built on marginal land in an area of local authority housing either side of railway lines running into London. People from the local community certainly come to the farm to visit the animals or enjoy the greenery. But it’s much more than that. It’s a focus for youth education and community work, for example helping young people make a connection with where their food comes from or increasing their awareness of their environmental impact. Like all our members, it creates opportunities for people to do things for themselves, which hopefully leads them to take more pride in their community and to make it a better place.

What is your involvement with Every Action Counts?

We have tried as much as possible to promote EAC to our members, while also thinking about their own environmental impact. Our groups are already doing a lot in this area, but Every Action Counts has been useful in letting our smaller groups know there are simple things they can do to improve their environmental behaviour. Every Action Counts gives organisations an opportunity to think about the small ways in which they can take action to make a difference.

The postcards have been popular because they convey a simple message, carry useful information and stimulate debate. We used them at our Bristol member’s summer show and gave them out to children attending.

The improved EAC website helps our groups find more detailed information about the initiative, once they have found out about it either from our own website or through our publications.

The Sustainable Development Action Plan made us sit down and think about anything we could do and act as a model for members. We are now trying to get funding for spreading the methods we used in creating our Environmental Action Plan.