Comments on: Local Food and Relocalisation: a Totnes case study: a section from my forthcoming thesis…

By: Howard Silverman

Howard Silverman — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:46:53 +0000

Hi Rob, Congratulations on this work. I hadn't noticed this post until today's about your thesis. In the US, my colleagues and i worked on a similar spatially specific analysis: "How many people could Ventura County (California) feed?" That project and other N. American research are summarized in this post about foodsheds.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:31:48 +0000

Hi Rob,
Fantastic topic! I’ve almost finished a reasonably simlar thesis here in Melbourne. Seems to be something that it fortunately gaining more attention in political discussions, but perhaps not as much as it truly deserves. Best of luck!
Stephanie

By: Simone Wilkie

Simone Wilkie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 19:09:10 +0000

Excellent…a taste of a really crucial piece of work Rob. I think you are well hitting the mark here

By: Locavore News — World « Terra Coeur

Locavore News — World « Terra Coeur — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:47:28 +0000

[...] a national average provision of 7 allotments per 1,000 population (Crouch & Rivers 2006). Excerpts from a forthcoming thesis by Rob [...]

By: Pranav Bihari

Pranav Bihari — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:15:09 +0000

Really liked your well researched piece. I would urge you to take a look at some of the work from the following website on local development planning: http://www.proutinstitute.org/mediaandresources.htmland the Water and Land Management section from this book: http://www.pia.org.au/UnderstandingProut/Volume1/UP_v1_Essays.htm

By: Raven Gray

Raven Gray — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:01:20 +0000

Wow. This is a serious piece of research and writing. Fantastic.

Thank you so much for working so hard on this, for putting it all together so beautifully, and for making it available for people like me.

I particularly enjoyed the quotes from the oral histories you’ve done. They take me right back to my(now sadly deceased) grandparents, who despite growing up in central London, lived without electricity and gas, and grew most of their own food in the back garden, and on a nearby allotment.

I would love to get a hard copy of your finished thesis.

By: Elrond

Elrond — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:30:20 +0000

Thanks for sharing this section of your work, it’s great to read it in one go. Very stimulating.

Best wishes for your submission.

(I’m @puerhan on twitter)

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:59:19 +0000

Looks good. What a huge piece of work.

In section 5.4.2 one of the paragraphs starts…

One study at Cornell University showed that in the mid-1990s the US used over 100 *billion* barrels of oil per year to manufacture food (Morgan 2008)

Shouldn’t the “billion” be “million”?

By: Steve Balogh

Steve Balogh — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:47:28 +0000

Rob, I would love to read your thesis. Either after your defense/revisions, or even before.

We have a local foodshed study – at the county level, soon to be published in a book by David Pimentel.

Steve Balogh, Ph.D. Student
Environmental Science – Env. Systems and Risk Management

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:06:53 +0000

Human Geography, University of Plymouth.

By: Amir Carmel

Amir Carmel — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:02:00 +0000

Rob,
In which academic department are you doing your Phd?
Amir

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:47:42 +0000

Thanks Shane, very helpful….

By: Shane Hughes

Shane Hughes — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:35:56 +0000

I hope this is recieved as constructive…. in the opening section you pose the question;

“What degree of localisation is possible, and what degree is, in fact desirable.”

You beautifly explore the question, demonstrate a breadth of understand backed by a wealth of evidence. My only tweak – I’d find it more readable and concise if the question was answered at the outset, even if only to state that the question is unaswerable. The reader is then given a context for the rest of the text.

It’s the old;

“# Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them.
# Tell them.
# Then tell them what you told them.”