A TINY village in Hampshire has influenced campaigners in the US with its ideas of self-sufficiency.

Martin, near Damerham, has become a shining example of how to live “the good life”, and US campaigners are now pressing America’s new president to promote healthier food.

The project in Martin was started in 2004 and aims to use community-owned land to cultivate enough produce to feed the village’s population.

Villagers raise their own chickens and pigs and grow all manner of vegetables including potatoes, garlic, onions and chillis.

The US-based campaigners, who call themselves Eat The View, want Barack Obama to plough up five acres of the White House lawn and use it to grow healthy foods for local communities.

Their aim is to introduce “edible landscapes” into gardens and green spaces right across America, with their inspiration being taken from Martin’s Future Farms project.

Food and environment writer Graham Harvey this week told residents of the village that their Future Farms project was years ahead of the American campaign.

It was a success story that has become the model for food campaigners in the US and around the world.

Speaking at Future Farms’ annual meeting, Mr Harvey said: “Suddenly Americans have begun to realise there’s something wrong with their food.

“Their over-processed supermarket foods have been the cause of obesity and ill health. Now they are looking for healthier, more natural alternatives.

“But they are not turning to the agricultural industry which is locked into intensive industrial methods.

“Instead they are looking to community farms and small-scale producers to bring back healthy food – the very thing that Future Farms has been doing in Martin for years.

“That’s why this experiment in a small village in Hampshire is so important to the future of the world.”