"We aim to encourage and enable our community in Tring to....a sustainable future-"   but what does sustainability mean? The following article in the Telegraph of 15/4/2008 illustrates it well

Village shuns supermarket, grows own veggies

An entire village is weaning itself off supermarkets and leading the Good Life by growing its own meat and vegetables.

Those involved liken themselves to the TV characters Tom and Barbara Good, who give up work to live off the land in the BBC comedy, The Good Life.

Volunteers and paid staff produce chickens, pigs, lambs, honey, garlic, onions, chillis and green vegetables on several sites in Martin, Hants, which has a population of 405. The villagers gather every Saturday morning to sell their produce.

Nearly four years after the experiment started, its detractors have been proved wrong.

Every year more produce is added and the scheme has breathed new life into the village, which has a church and a working men's club but no supermarket.

Of Martin's 164 families, 101 have signed up to be members of Future Farms for an annual £2 fee, but anyone can buy the produce.

The farm sells 45 types of vegetables, 100 chickens a week, 20 pigs a year, 32 lambs a year and is starting to sell beef.

Nick Snelgar, 58, who came up with the idea in 2003, said the project was gradually "weaning" villagers off supermarkets.

He said: "I like to think of it as a large allotment in which there are lots of Barbaras and Toms working away.

"There are also Margos as well, but everyone can get involved because we have to sell the goods, do accounts and market the food to the village. The nearest supermarket is six miles away in Fordingbridge. Of course people still have to go there for things like loo roll and deodorants and fruit you can't grow in Britain.

"So we aren't boycotting supermarkets entirely but we are gradually weaning people off them and as a result are reducing our carbon footprint by not using carrier bags and packaging."

Mr Snelgar, a horticulturalist, said the VAT-registered co-operative had grown so much that last year it had a turnover of £27,000 - most of which was ploughed back into the scheme