Transition Culture

5 Apr 2010

A Film of the Launch of ‘Local Food’

It’s a while ago now, but the great event that was the launch of “Local Food: how to make it happen in your community” has now been immortalised in a rather good film record of the evening.  It was hosted by yours truly, but featured talks by Claire Milne (Transition Network), Julie Brown (Growing Communities), Zoe Leventhal (Transition Town Brixton’s Food Group) and permaculture artists Holly Gregson and Richard Houguez, as well as, of course, Tamzin herself.  The film was made by Samuel Stonehill to whom many thanks.

Local Food Book Launch, October 2009 from Tamzin Pinkerton on Vimeo.

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25 Mar 2010

Martin Crawford and me speaking at the Launch of ‘Climate Friendly Food’

A while ago, at Schumacher College, Climate Friendly Food was launched, an innovative approach to getting farmers measuring the carbon implications of their farming, definintely worth supporting and checking out.  There were some great speakers, including a particularly in-form Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust.  Here is his talk, and below it, mine.  Regular readers will know that Martin is a great hero of mine, and his forthcoming book ‘Creating a Forest Garden’ is eagerly awaited at Hopkins Towers.

…and here’s mine….

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23 Mar 2010

Transition and resilience: an interview on Zoom’d

I recently did an interview for the radio show Zoom’d Leadership with John D. Schmidt on the Voice America Talk Radio Network.  It was very enjoyable, and I think the final result turned out well.  You can hear it here, and download the podcast also.

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22 Mar 2010

Interview with Phillip Blond of ResPublica, author of ‘Red Tory’

A while ago, at a Soil Association event in London, I found myself on a panel with Phillip Blond of ResPublica, and was really impressed by his insightful thinking on how politics might best enable the process of localisation.  Phillip’s book. ‘Red Tory’ is due to be published in a couple of weeks, and I was delighted that Phillip agreed to do an interview about his thinking.

So, Phillip, perhaps I might start by asking what is ResPublica?

ResPublica was launched officially by David Cameron last year, and what we’re really about is trying to produce, or mainstream, genuinely radical new ideas for changing the current dispensation. In our view the agendas of the old Left and the old Right, those of the last 30 years, have run out of steam. Some were necessary at some point, but neither are delivering now and we need a new political settlement and a new middle ground, and we are interested in crafting with others that vision and talking about how to realise it. That’s really what Respublica is about, our strap line is “changing the terms of the debate” and that’s what we’d like to do”.

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19 Mar 2010

An Interview with David Orr, author of ‘Down to the Wire’. Part Three.

As somebody who has lived a long time immersed in climate data and environmental information and has lived with your nose up against the reality of that for a long time, how do you cope with that? What are your coping mechanisms? Knowing what you know, how does it affect how you live your life?

There is something to TS Elliot’s statement that humankind cannot bear too much reality. Not totally, but clearly if you come down with cancer or heart disease you want the truth. Ecological truths are harder for us to absorb and the pain of the world, not many of us can face this. A Canadian wildlife guy, John Livingstone, wrote some brilliant stuff, he really felt nature, and when he saw what was happening, extinctions and so forth, he wrote these outraged, impassioned columns, but it always amazes me that more people aren’t angry about this.

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