Transition Culture

14 Dec 2007

Ted Trainer’s Q&A Part Three.

**5. How conscious are people that what they are doing is extremely subversive…that to make a town sustainable and just is to more or less eliminate the normal economy, by taking control of their fate and preventing market forces and the corporations from determining it for you. Is there a sense that what they are about is taking collective control of their town?**

It is my sense that the “extremely subversive” nature of the Transition approach is implicit rather than explicit. Permaculture teacher Mike Feingold once described permaculture as “a revolution disguised as organic gardening”, and the Transition model is designed similarly to come in under the radar.

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10 Dec 2007

Support Nut Tree Planting in Totnes as a gift this Christmas.

Many of you will be familiar with the **Totnes, the Nut Tree Capital of Britain** project that has been running for a while now, with the aim of planting as many productive trees within the town as possible, as a food security project as well as an awareness raising one. The first plantings were done with the Mayor earlier this year, and a second round of plantings has just taken place which was sponsored by the Tree Council. A big tree planting day is planned for Sunday 17th February, and we’d like to make it a really impressive scale of tree planting. We are also training people up in the community as Tree Guardians to look after them.

We’d like to invite your help. Are you struggling to think of a Christmas gift for a friend or loved one? Do consider making a donation to Nut Tree Capital of Britain project. We’ll send a card to the recipient, with whatever message you want, and a thank you from TTT. Please help out in whatever way you can to enable the creation of a veritable nut grove next February. You can make your donation easily via PayPal here, or to use other lower-tech means, contact Teresa on 01803 863 110 or teresatotnes(at)yahoo.com. Thanks!

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5 Nov 2007

Transition Initiatives in the Latest Ecologist Magazine.

This month’s Ecologist magazine is one of the best editions yet. It contains a superb piece called ‘Power On’ which offers a refreshingly frank assessment of the UK’s energy situation in the light of peak oil and climate change which is essential reading (I’ll link to it when an online version becomes available). It also has a long piece about Transition Initiatives which presents the whole approach in a very positive way. The Ecologist have kindly given us permission to reproduce this article below;

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2 Nov 2007

A Young Farmer Reflects on Transition Initiatives, Peak Oil and the Prince of Wales’ Food and Farming Summer School.

I wrote a while ago about the Prince of Wales’ Food and Farming Summer School which I taught on during the summer. It was a fascinating event, bringing together a wide range of people to explore the question “what is sustainable food?” The National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs sent two members along for the event, and it was interesting to read recently an article about the Summer School by Gloucestershire dairy farmer and YFC member Rob Harrison, in which he reflects on the impact the event, and in particular the session on peak oil and Transition Initiatives had on him.

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31 Oct 2007

Monty Don on Peak Oil and Gardening.

Monty Don is the presenter of BBC’s ‘Gardeners World’ programme, as well as a prolific writer on organic gardening, including the book ‘The Complete Gardener’. Recently he heard the talk I gave at the Prince of Wales’ Food and Farming Summer School, and was quite moved by it. The result, once the mental dust had settled, is the following article, which is an edited version of one that appears in this month’s Gardeners World magazine.

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