Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Showing results 186 - 190 of 267 for the category: Food.
I wrote recently about the event in Wadebridge I spoke at with Anthony Gibson of the National Farmers Union which explored, among other things, biofuels, organics and localisation. In the interests of balance and on throwing more light onto the different perspectives that were aired that night, and offering a different perspective, here is Mr. Gibson’s regular column in the Western Morning News.
The last couple of weeks have rather felt like a whirlwind of talks here there and everywhere, travelling late on trains and being up far too late. People often ask about films of talks and where they are available, so here is a recent talk I did that has just been posted online. A few months ago I spoke at **Cornwall’s future – land use, resource depletion & changing climate**, a conference at Duchy College in Cornwall organised by Transition Penwith and Environment Kernow, who are part of the Cornish Strategic Partnership and who bring together a group of various organisations with an interest in sustainability in Cornwall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIXgaftMgVw
The event, which I wrote about here before, was excellent, featuring Dr. Colin Campbell, David Strahan, Patrick Holden and myself. Those good people at Environment Kernow filmed the talks and have just posted them on YouTube. Here is the first part of the talk I gave, which looked at applying the Transition approach to food and farming.
Not having a TV myself I missed Monty Don’s recent episode of **Around the World in 80 Gardens** where he visited Cuba and the organoponicos there. However, on the day, at least 5 different people rang me up to ask me if I had seen it, and how great it was. I therefore plan to sit down this evening and watch it on BBC I-Player, a rather wonderful new device of the BBC’s that allows you to watch the last 7 days worth of their programmes, if you feel so inclined. I’ll write more about it when I have seen it, but given that it is only available to view for another 5 days, I thought I’d mention it now.
On the 16th January I attended a great event in Wadebridge in Cornwall called **The Decline in Oil: are you worried by the rising price of oil?**, which had been organised by Duchy College Rural Business School, the NFU, Climate Friendly Endillion, Transition Penwith and the Soil Association Organic South West. Held in Wadebridge Town Hall, the evening was attended by a crowd of about 140, of whom about 40 were farmers and the rest of whom came from Wadebridge and further afield, from some of Cornwall’s other Transition Initiatives.
Clearly, in the context of energy descent, this is a question we should all be asking, yet amazingly no one has really asked it in any depth since Kenneth Mellanby’s book ‘Can Britain Feed Itself’ published in 1975. In the most recent issue of the excellent publication The Land, editor and planning reform campaigner Simon Fairlie returns to Mellanby’s report and attempts what he admits is a “back of an A4 envelope” update, and the results are fascinating. You can download the pdf. of his report here, it may be the most fascinating and important piece of reading you take away with you for the Christmas break. His conclusion is similar to Mellanby; yes Britain can feed itself, but the key is the amount of meat we consume.
