An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent
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.
Regular readers will be familiar with James Samuel by now, a founder of Transition in New Zealand, and publisher of the blog Yesterday’s Future. If you have seen ‘In Transition’, James is the guy discussing Oooby with the outrageous shirt. He was recently asked to give a talk to a local CSA project, giving them some ideas for how to manage their project. He developed a 6 stage process which looks like a good way of looking at creating successful projects. You can see his presentation below, and read a transcript of it here.
For today’s post, I am handing over to Jimmie Hepburn, who farms organic carp quite near to me here in Devon. During the Middle Ages, carp farming was commonplace, but once we were able to harness the power of ancient sunlight to plunder the sea, it mostly died out. Jimmie’s project, Aquavision, is beginning to make freshwater aquaculture financially viable. He wrote an excellent article on the latest edition of ‘Organic Farming’ magazine (Issue 101: for subscription details call 0117 914 2447). I thought it was rather wonderful, and asked to be able to reproduce it here. You can read the full article here.
As expected, the recent paper ‘Can Totnes and district feed itself?’ has started stirring things up. An intriguing response comes from Colin Tudge, a director of LandShare CIC (co-funders of the research) and leader of the Campaign for Real Farming. Colin’s thesis is that the food security issue is a simple matter of feeding the population as far as practical from local sources, recognising that some trade between specialist production areas will always be necessary. He argues that we simply need macronutrients (energy foods and protein), mainly in the shape of grains, and micronutrients – vitamins and minerals – and that by growing lots of wheat and encouraging more urban horticulture we can feed ourselves. I’m brutally over-summarising, of course, but he is keen to keep things simple.
Last year I grew fantastic leeks that stood tall and proud in the garden through the winter months and underpinned many a meal. This year I got them in good and early, and they were looking wonderful. This week though, something has gone horribly wrong. From being proud columns of dark green leeky goodness, they have begun to crumble before my very eyes. Starting somewhere around the middle, they are being turned into slimy ribbons, eventually being reduced to stumps. This is not good. What ails my leeks?
Somerset County Council was the first UK local authority to pass a resolution in support of Transition Initiatives across Somerset in July last year. The motion was pushed through by what was largely a LibDem council, since when, a few months ago, following a local election, the Council has gone largely Conservative. Transition Training also ran a training day with Councillors. So what has happened since? Has the resolution been sidelined by the new administration? How deeply does awareness of Transition run? What role has Transition Somerset, a coalition of local initiatives, played? Niamh McDonald, in her MSc dissertation at University College London has set out to answer those questions.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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