"Few if any communities - including those that have initiated worthwhile projects - will be prepared for the shocks of high fuel prices and fuel shortages.."
Resilience: The ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy; the ability to absorb shocks. More )
Transition Initiative - recent postings (Latest ) (Link to Transition Town Totnes - new website )
Link to the Positive Energy Conference Reports . Extract from report on day 6 . "Rob Hopkins said ... that when he first watched the film, End of Suburbia, he thought, 'who would design suburbia anyway?' and then realised he lives in suburbia, it just doesn't look like suburbia, but he has to drive his children to school, drive to the shops, drive to visit his friends.... Even if he didn't drive a car, he thought, 'Is this small, conservative area that I live in what I would want to be my main source of cultural stimulus? And if I'm sitting here with my fuel forests and my garden and my zero carbon house, while in the village up the road they're all freezing and starving, what are my options? Am I going to sit at my gate with a gun to protect my interests? Is that an attractive option?' His initial response was of me, mine, then he realised it's about coming together not running away .
November 2 2008 ~ Transition Cities Conference 2008
transitiontowns.org
October 2008 ~ Transition Towns Brixton's involvement with Lambeth Council /www.forumforthefuture.org ".... It was their input into a long-term development plan for the borough which pushed the council to commit to implementing zero-carbon technologies wherever possible, according to volunteer Duncan Law. "Before we got involved, adapting to a low-energy future didn't figure anywhere in the plan," he says. "But after we sat down with the council, we helped them see that the coming energy crisis could be an opportunity for them to lead on low-energy solutions....."October 8 ~Dawn of realisation?
The Telegraph reports on the "First council since Second World War set up to look at food security ""The production, supply and consumption of food in Britain is to be investigated by a dedicated Government council.
The Council of Food Policy Advisors will sit alongside the National Economic Council set up last week to address the financial crisis.
Read in full
September 11 2008 ~ "people are seeing that the future prosperity of where they live relies on them not being oil vulnerable" Lewes - like Totnes - has now produced its own currency . At a time of economic downturn, said Polly Toynbee at the opening, what could be more appropriate than that Lewes, a town with a long history of radicalism and contrariness, should choose that moment to start printing its own money?Guardian : "the Transition Town movement... an idea gaining rapid ground. Last week saw the second anniversary of the setting up of the first transition town, in Totnes, Devon, and also the arrival of the 100th, Fujino in Japan. Communities in each have committed to break free from oil addiction and move, over a period of 10 to 20 years, from a high-carbon economy to a low one...
"The way we are doing things at the moment isn't working," Hopkins says. "During the oil age, success and wellbeing were measured in how much oil you used. But now people are seeing that the future prosperity of where they live relies on them not being oil vulnerable. The imagination that kicks in when people realise that is extraordinary, and to see that in communities up and down the country is humbling. That is what gives me hope for the future." Read in full
September 7 2008 ~ Transition Network is increasingly finding itself invited to work with Local Authorities, large organisations and businesses, "Somerset County Council's decision to become a Transition Council recognises that their role as a Council is to support...""Responding to various critiques of Transition"
Rob Hopkins writes:
"... I don't believe for a moment that we will navigate a way through peak oil, climate change and the end of economic growth without both the positive solutions and proactive responses which engage people ..... a sense that they are making history... non-violent direct action when it comes to stopping the more insane responses it generates from government, i.e. coal, nuclear and airport expansion.
"Working with Transition Aberystwyth is tough, tougher in a way than standing one's ground against a giant oncoming member of the Caterpillar family or escaping a police kettle. Transition calls for a different set of virtues: patience, tolerance, perseverance… Above all perseverance. Transition isn't glamorous or romantic, it's a slog - more Sisyphus than Achilles: (re)forming community, building capacity to engage with lack of awareness, apathy, complacency, fear, hostility, bureaucracy, inertia…"
I would also add that it also requires compassion, humility and an absence of expectation what we are going to be welcomed as heroes, or even welcomed at all. We have to go to people where they are at, rather than expecting them to come to us ..... I think it is entirely sensible that Transition initiatives focus on the positive, in a sea of doom and gloom that is one of the key things that seems to attract people.....
." Read article in full at Energy Bulletin
June 7 2008 ~ "The urgency of this blows away this sort of vague worry about global warming..."
As Matthew Simmons says , "...If energy weren't very important then it wouldn't matter that you have a need for 100 and a supply of 70. But since energy is the one thing that makes our entire global economy work ... when you start having that sort of mismatch, the bullies get to the front of the line and take it first. The urgency of this blows away this sort of vague worry about global warming: I don't know anybody who thinks that's an issue that will affect our lives in the next 15 or 20 years. If we don't solve this in 10 years, it's too late." in the Spectator looks at a new book by Lawrence Soloman entitled The Deniers , "in which he shows that not only is the fabled climate change 'consensus' itself a sham but the so-called MMGW 'deniers' are by far the more accomplished and distinguished scientists than those pushing the theory as a settled and incontrovertible truth..." ".... governments are about to spend hundreds of billions on the basis of this unproved hypothesis. Already vast carbon trading schemes are in operation,selling...nothing. We are about to have vastly expensive wind power farms planted all over the country......one hell of an unproved hypothesis ...." Read Spectator article
June 6 2008 ~ Seize the day - not perpetuate the insanity of yesterday
WMN article on Wednesday: "considerations about the environment, animal welfare and traceability may no longer take precedence, as consumers will shop with their wallets rather than following their emotions..." Hardly "emotional", surely, to be concerned by emerging zoonoses and by the soil erosion caused by the stresses of agribusiness. That we have, like the Red Queen in Alice, been running insanely after more and more growth in order even to stand still, is threatening the planet with starvation. " What are the alternatives to imports from environmentally damaging, industrialised farm systems? Are there possibilities for large-scale domestic food production?" asks the WMN article. Its answer, alas, mainly consists of this: "The biotech companies are using the same argument as the pro-nuclear lobby, that if we wish to continue our present lifestyle, there are no other alternatives, either for feeding ourselves or supplying energy."
June 5/6 2008 ~ "if creating energy security means taking land from poor farmers it just causes more problems" The Independent today reports on the growing worry about biofuels at the Rome conference - even the "wonder plant" Jatropha. Defenders of biofuels made from non-edible crops have cited Jatropha as a way for poor farmers to produce fuel for themselves, and as a cash crop, by planting it on waste land. "But," says the article , "what's happening is quite different from that. A handful of big corporations are growing jatropha in huge plantations, in optimum soil conditions and using a lot of water, to maximise the yield. Poor farmers who grow it on impoverished soil find they can't get into the market."
June 5/6 2008 ~ Others see progress differently ... Rob Hopkins is surely right when he says of the highly successful Transition movement, "...people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity." And as Richard Heinberg says , "crisis equals opportunity - for those who are prepared to seize the day. Unless sensible plans to manage disaster are formulated and put forward now, the opportunity afforded by crisis will be hijacked by a familiar cast of characters.." It is a timely warning. (Is it only the Green Party who dare to talk about population control, the localisation of food and genuinely weaning ourselves off oil? Portugal's economics Minister (see Guardian ) is adamant: "Energy and environment are the biggest challenge of our generation. ..The present situation is dangerous." )
June 1 2008 ~ Become a rabble Monty Don, happily recovered from the stroke that led to his retiring from the BBC's Gardeners' World, is on "fighting form as his new role as president of the Soil Association" as Charlotte Higgins put it in the Guardian last week. He pulls no punches on the subject of food security, national self-sufficiency and sustainability. He is calling for those of us who are concerned "to become a rabble" who, faced with the uselessness of most politicians, are thus able to "scare them and pressure them, and subvert the system from the ground up."
transition initiatives . Patrick Holden and Monty Don - like Rob Hopkins - are advising that it is now time to turn private gardens, public parks and the landscaped open spaces surrounding offices over to vegetable growing. Refreshing good sense, particularly at a time when Richard Heinberg is saying cheerfully, " If the effort is framed properly, officials should view it as a gift - an aid in solving potential problems that may actually be looming much closer than many politicians and business leaders currently realize is the case."
May 1 2008 ~ "...people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity." Rob Hopkins The Independent today looks at Totnes: ".... In addition to the pound, the transition town organisation offers people advice at "oil vulnerability auditing workshops" on how their businesses can wean themselves off the black stuff; and the group is in talks with the council over "edible landscapes" - herb gardens instead of ornamental verges and bushes. They have recently secured some allotments for the green-fingered, and are promoting the use of energy-saving light bulbs. Similar ideas are in the pipeline.... "...The viral nature of the growth of the transition movement has taken us all by surprise. We have gone from one transition project to there being 50 formal ones and more than 700 at the earlier stages just by word of mouth and the internet... people are hungry for positive solutions which engage their creativity. The transition movement has been described as being 'more like a party than a protest march', and that feeling of being part of something playful and solutions-focused has undoubtedly been a part of its success."
May 1 2008 ~ "a world where we come to terms with inevitable fuel shortages and work towards a less energy-dependent lifestyle..." CNN CNN yesterday: "...Hopkins, who lives with his family in Totnes, says people have seized upon the 'transition initiative' because it offers an "empowering, inspiring" vision of the post-oil age.
"It has grown into a vacuum -- there is nothing else that looks at ways to respond to peak oil and climate change that feels good," ....Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~ "... enthusiasm for growing your own is stronger than ever." Peterborough Today :
"....
Holding an allotment may have gone out of fashion for a while, once we had recovered from the austere war years and popping to the shops seemed an easier alternative, but today it's very much back in vogue.
Celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver extol the virtues of growing your own and more and more young people are taking up the spade.
In Peterborough, the people renting the 1,300 allotment plots from the city council range in age from 20 to 90.
Three years ago the occupancy rate was 50 per cent, but today it is 78 per cent, and at least nine of the council's 24 sites have waiting lists...."
Wednesday 23 April 2008 ~ Shakespeare's birthday today - and the words of one of his wisest creations:
"Sir, I am a true labourer:As You Like It Act 3 "A Start in Smallholding." See also the Transition Initiative page
Tuesday 22 April 2008 ~ "food and oil prices "risk becoming a destabilising force in the global economy". The FT today reported that record global food prices will be on the agenda of the Group of Eight heads of state summit in July for the first time in almost 30 years.
".....John Lipsky, the IMF's deputy managing director, said in a speech in Rome to an energy forum that the rise in commodities prices required a "globally coherent response", as prices for food and oil had reached a level that could destabilise the global economy.
His warning contrasts with the institution's much milder comments at its recent spring meeting, when it said: "Inflationary risks - notably from higher food, energy and other commodity prices - have risen."
The UN secretary-general has warned that the crisis in food and fuel prices "could trigger a cascade of other multiple crises . . . affecting economic growth, social progress, and even political security around the world."
April 17 2008 ~ "... some great old photos of Clapham Common dug up for allotments, and people growing food on the rooftops of London during World War Two." Middlesbrough Council commissioned a map from designers Andre Viljoen and Katrina Bohn - authors of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes - which identifies existing and prospective foodgrowing sites in Middlesbrough. It details existing allotments in the town, maps surplus land and highlights connections between the town and local food producers. This is a plan for the local authority and others to consider as a new context for strategies towards a more local and sustainable food economy. (see Designs of the Time and see below on Middlesborough ) review of Andre Viljoen's book on continuous productive urban landscape says "it is a hugely readable, passionate and visionary book. It aims to put productive land use at the centre of urban design. ... He advocates creating networks of green spaces throughout the city (he takes London as his case study), which are connected by cycle paths and walkways, which combine urban agriculture, recreation and a wealth of other uses. ...a book of the most profound importance at this point in history...We should view our cities as much in terms of being productive spaces as we view our rural areas...." See review .
April 16 2008 ~ Professor Bob Watson "Can we change our priorities in the agricultural sector?" 850 million in developing countries do not have access to the food they need.
Energy 'experts' promoting biofuels in the EU have not sought the views of agriculture specialists or soil scientists on biofuels and Professor Watson's thoughts as chief environment scientist on the sustainability of biofuels have never been asked for - but he warns that the policies have run ahead of the science. video report ) Ironically, it was the very day that the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) made 2.5% biofuels a compulsory ingredient at the pumps. CNN reports that "Many people on both sides of the debate are pushing for a second generation of renewables from sources like wood waste, non-edible crops and crops that grow much faster."
April 16 2008 ~ The British Government failed to sign the IAASTD accord. Prof Watson's deeply-held view that "Business as Usual will not solve the problems of poverty and hunger" appear to cut little ice with the UK, USA, Canada and Australia who have all failed to sign the final report after disagreement over its conclusions about trade. The IAASTD report's key questions include how to enhance production of more nutritious food in a way that has
"no adverse consequences for the environment - indeed positive consequences and in a way that really helps the poorest of the poor. We believe we can build on the successes of the past and make the system more participatory ...making sure we understand the needs of women, who play an absolutely key role in agriculture in developing countries, and we need to combine local and indigenous knowledge with the knowledge that we have in the more formal part of society - in the universities and think tanks and governments...Some trade policies of today certainly help some people but don't help the poorest of the poor.." See also Farmers Guardian d You can hear Professor Watson on YouTube talking with great seriousness about social exclusion and environmental degradation.
April 16 2008 ~ There is emphasis in the report on proven traditional agricultural methods from around the world as much as on the new technologies. The controversial questions surrounding GM were not dodged by the IAASTD report. The fact that we still don't know how GMOs will alter biodiversity, eco-system function or affect human health is seen as important. "We do know," says the video report , "that corporate control over seeds can undermine the livelihoods of small scale farmers." As for the combined expertise of the smaller farmers across the world, the four year study took pains to collect information. We learn, for example, that after Hurrican Mitch in 1998, farmers in one small area of Honduras using "zero tillage" (which helps prevent mud slides) managed to feed the rest of the country.
April 15 2008 ~ It has exacerbated a global food crisis - yet our petrol tanks must now contain at least 2.5 per cent biofuel... The Independent : "Amid growing evidence that massive investment in biofuels by developed countries is helping to cause a food crisis for the world's poor, the ecological cost of the push to produce billions of litres of petrol and diesel from plant sources will be highlighted today with protests across the country.....
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said: "Thanks to flaws in the Government's system, companies selling these fuels will even be allowed to get away with saying that they don't know whether they've been sourced sustainably or not. This makes a mockery of the entire idea of sustainability standards."
April 15 2008 ~ "the period of intense oil production [growth] is over". Even today's story of a possible big oil discovery in Brazil may not delay the ending of cheap oil by very much. The Carioca field ( BM-S-9) is located beneath a layer of salt in water more than 2,000 meters deep. No official information is available yet to confirm the guess that there might be 33 billion barrels of oil there - and the cost of extracting it will be very much higher than in conventional oil wells. Extracting and turning the oil into usable form will also be extremely energy-intensive.
Only recently has the physical technology even existed to drill in water that deep. It will be a difficult and expensive enterprise. However, it may perhaps alter the policies of the country most desperate to secure supplies. FT today reports that the vice-president of Lukoil has compared Russia with the North Sea and Mexico, where oil production is declining dramatically - and even the Russian government has admitted that production growth has stagnated.
April 15 ~ "It is hard to understand how two such different food economies could occupy the same planet, until you realise that they feed off each other" "the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol ... could feed one person for a year" George Monbiot today tells us in the Guardian that this year, global stockpiles of cereals will decline by around 53 million tonnes - while the production of biofuels will consume almost 100 million tonnes. He reminds us that Ruth Kelly promised that "if we need to adjust policy in the light of new evidence, we will" - and wonders what new evidence she requires."...In the midst of a global humanitarian crisis, we have just become legally obliged to use food as fuel. It is a crime against humanity, in which every driver in this country has been forced to participate...
While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760 million tonnes will ... feed animals - which could cover the global food deficit 14 times. ..."
Having looked askance at a purely vegan diet, and noted that although pigs and chickens feed more efficiently than grain-fed beef - unless they are free range, "the monstrous conditions in which they are kept" becomes an issue, he encourages us to consider a freshwater fish that can be raised entirely on vegetable matter. He then draws attention to the surreal nature of our awareness of the global crisis: "While half the world wonders whether it will eat at all, I am pondering which of our endless choices we should take...." A salutary article - but it does rather suggest that George Monbiot thinks that there is no immediate worry for the UK. Of course the prosperous West must do what it can to give practical help to the worst affected - but unless we quickly revamp our whole thinking about energy and local food supply - and consign bio-fuel targets to the scrap heap - food riots could be a reality here too.
April 14 2008 ~ "we aren't boycotting supermarkets entirely but we are gradually weaning people off them" Good news from a self-sufficient village in Hampshire. The VAT registered village cooperative in the village of Martin has been successfully operating for nearly four years now. There are 164 families there and 101 of them signed up to work the "Future Farms" rota. The Mail reports:
"Every year more produce is added and the scheme - likened to a community allotment - has breathed new life into a village that has only a church and a working men's club.
.... the farm sells 45 types of vegetables, 100 chickens a week, 20 pigs a year, 32 lambs a year and is now starting to sell beef. The strengths of such a scheme are many; not least that so many people are working together for a common purpose.
April 14 2008 ~ We need "intelligent growth"
Suicidal "Growth" is leading to famine. "How can we persuade economists and governments to see ‘growth' in another light?" asks Stephan Harding in this month's Resurgence "...we in the affluent North must grow our abilities for living simply - we need to learn to do well with less.
Intelligent growth also involves the growth and recovery of the soil. We need to allow soil to thicken wherever it has been depleted by the depredations of the agribusiness farmers and their corporate overlords..." All Africa.com )
April 11/12 2008 ~ "The backyard organic garden is sounding less and less like an elite affectation, every single day." In an article at Salon, "Peak Weed Killer?" , we read that industrial monoculture will soon be in trouble because of the "relentless ascent of synthetic fertilizer prices" - this includes price hikes for glyphosate -- a.k.a. Monsanto's RoundUp --because of the increasing scarcity of a key ingredient: phosphorus:
"...rock phosphate, the source of nearly all industrially-used phosphorus, is a non-renewable resource....synthetic fertilizer and industrial herbicide prices are rising because of growing demand, resource scarcity, and energy costs. That backyard organic garden, presumably recycling every nutrient possible, is sounding less and less like an elite affectation, every single day." Read article
April 11 2008 ~ role for gardening and urban agriculture Professor Lang's talk sets out several relevant questions in a Powerpoint Presentation that effectively communicates a sense of urgency. One slide asks:
If 95% food is oil-dependent, what would a post or ‘less oil' food economy look like?
Which sectors need to change most?
Cost: prices need to rise but how much would they? SDC $100 showed +5-10%
Skills on farm - role for gardening / urban agriculture? There is, of course, no official food security policy yet. Gundula Azeez (Soil Association) also gave an audio & Powerpoint presentation at the meeting and the All-Party Parliamentary Group now has their own website where several interesting links can be found.
April 11 2008 ~ Family farms and urban gardens
Roger Doiron is Founding Director of Kitchen Gardeners International , a nonprofit network of 5200 gardeners from 90 countries
source "My job as a sustainable foods advocate is to convince people that family farms and gardens not only can feed the world, they're the only thing that can in the long run. Big, industrial agriculture ....would not have been possible were it not for the cheap and easily-obtained inputs on which industrial foods depend, the most important of which is oil. It has been estimated that our highly-industrialized food system in the US requires 5-10 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie of food energy. Kitchen Gardeners International website carries a wonderful photo of urban food growing.
April 11 2008 ~ "people want to make it a mainstream activity" A recent Guardian article suggests very seriously that the growing of fruit and vegetables in town-centre planters and parks could be a blueprint for the future"....Groundwork South Tees advised schools, mental health hospitals, residential care homes and retailers on planting and growing many varieties of herbs, vegetables and fruit. Containers of different sizes were used so people could cultivate whatever space they had.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, knows as well as anyone that the era of cheap food in the UK is over, and that the nation is "sleepwalking into a crisis". With rising oil and food prices the idea of urban farming in the UK is of vital importance - but the fundamental problem is that so much land has ended up in the hands of private developers.
Monday April 7 2008 ~ Briefing day for everyone interested in setting up a Community Supported Agriculture project.
One example of how things are taking off locally (food feet rather than food miles) is a briefing day for everyone interested in setting up a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project.
information and booking form
(new window) The event is FREE and lunch and refreshments will be provided. Places are
limited so booking is essential. For more information on the
Soil Association's new Community Supported Agriculture project,
contact Amanda Daniel on adaniel@soilassociation.org
Monday April 7 2008 ~ The crisis is global Anyone who still thinks that the turmoil in financial markets isn't going to affect world growth should read today's Financial Times in which the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and former French Finance Minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, rubbishes the notion that the credit crisis is largely a US problem. Developing countries such as China and India would be affected. "The crisis is global," he said. "... . use of public money can be examined....The forecasts we are going to release in a few days are not very optimistic. The downside risks we underlined in the last world economic outlook have materialised." The myth of economic growth continues and will take some dispelling. The UK continues, with apparent complacency, to watch its ability to feed itself decline. A serious question is to ask for how much longer the UK can import cheap food from countries which are themselves getting more and more concerned about the rise in prices. (see also the Transition Initiative page)
Sunday April 6 2008 ~ Staring down the barrel of a crisis "It's time to abandon the cruise ship of empire in exchange for a lifeboat... to trust in ourselves, our neighbors and the Earth that sustains us all."
Guy R. McPherson is a professor of conservation biology at the University of Arizona. His article today in the Arizona Republic pulls no punches about what he feels will be the inevitable result of the end of Cheap Oil. "You can kiss goodbye groceries at the local big-box grocery store: Our entire system of food production and delivery depends on cheap oil.
.... We have come to depend on cheap oil for the delivery of food, water, shelter and medicine. Most of us are incapable of supplying these four key elements of personal survival....
On the other hand, the forthcoming cessation of economic growth is truly good news for the world's species and cultures....
Our individual survival, and our common future, depends on our ability to quickly make other arrangements. ..a personal challenge..." See also warmwell Transition Town page.
April 6 2008 ~ EU's Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Products (RAPEX) includes UK wind turbine While human scale windmills for local small-scale use are of value, Warmwell's page on windfarms carries the caption, "Beware missionary Zeal over wind farms..." Many of the references deplore the fact that the highly subsidized devastation of vast areas of our most beautiful landscape by windfarms is mere political green window-dressing - what is now called "greenwashing". While the Government no longer pays direct subsidies to the operators they demand that the electricity utilities take a growing percentage of their supply from wind power - the cost goes straight to customers. Wind turbines currently occupy a total of five square miles of Cumbria. EU RAPEX page, we see a wind turbine in the UK described as posing "a risk of injuries because of insufficient tightening or movement of the connecting bolts. This results in fatigue leading to overload which causes the heads of the bolts to pop off." As one emailer laconically puts it, " I knew these things are spoiling the landscape, will never produce enough power to pay for themselves but to use them as weapons of (mass) destruction..."
April 4 2008 ~ Food prices... effects are being felt globally.
The FT is taking the subject very seriously indeed. Their InDepth page on food prices covers many aspects - all of which are challenging. They talk of a long-term, structural change.
April 3 2008 ~ The National Conference for Transition Towns is to be held in Cirencester next weekend
We're grateful for the information that this will take place at the Agricultural College (just outside Cirencester on the Tetbury road) The energetic Green MEP,Caroline Lucas, is in the area and will be addressing the Conference on Friday. Then she will going on to talk in Stroud about the future of food production- and will be conveyed round the area in one of the Stroud Valley Car Club motors. The Transition Network conference takes place in Cirencester from 11-13 April 2008. It will run from lunchtime on Friday 11 April to midday on Sunday 13 April.
The conference ".. is designed for people involved in a transition initiative in their locale or who are "mulling over" whether to start one up. There will be workshops, Open Spaces, World Cafés, presentations, discussions, dancing and maybe even a soccer match.
The aim is to help people learn how to broaden, deepen and accelerate their initiative, and connect with people to share ideas, inspiration and experiences."
The conference programme and content are almost complete.
April 3 2008 ~ Top-down does not work The success of the Transition Town lies in its evolutionary process - starting with the enthusiasm of communities taking matters into their own hands and watching in awe at what so quickly starts to take shape because of all the various local skills and talents available. The "Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins is an antidote to the way top-down government works. "It's a question of unleashing the collective genius around you.. ...unless we can create this sense of anticipation, elation and a collective call to adventure on a wider scale, any government responses will be doomed to failure, or will need to battle protractedly against the will of the people..... ." So it is with a sigh that we read in today's Telegraph : "Ministers have drawn up plans to force through the development of 10 eco-towns despite widespread local opposition..." The eco-towns proposed - and what "eco" means in this context is rather hard to fathom - include poor Throckmorton, in Worcestershire. (recent posts on the Transition movement) See also update in Guardian And as Charles Clover says in the Telegraph , "The fact remains that it would be more eco-friendly not to build these eco-towns at all."
April 2 2008 ~ "alternative ways of handling any future outbreak, with minimum disruption to the industry.." From the website of www.meatinfo.co.uk we learn of the existence of a report, written by the Chief Veterinary Officer, Jim Scudamore, who was in post during the 2001 FMD disaster.
John McIntosh, the Chairman of the Aberdeen & Northern Marts group is quoted:
"During his address McIntosh spoke about the unfortunate phase of foot-and-mouth which struck during August and September 2007.
Empathising with livestock producers, he said he too felt the same financial pain and anger as a result of FMD but hoped the Scudamore report - which details the government's retired chief veterinarian's findings - would suggest alternative ways of handling any future outbreak, with minimum disruption to the industry." We should very much appreciate any further information about this report. UPDATE More about the review (Many thanks to Anne Lambourn)
April 3 2008 ~ The National Conference for Transition Towns is to be held in Cirencester next weekend
We're grateful for the information that this will take place at the Agricultural College (just outside Cirencester on the Tetbury road) The energetic Green MEP,Caroline Lucas, is in the area and will be addressing the Conference on Friday. Then she will be going on to talk in Stroud about the future of food production. The Transition Network conference takes place in Cirencester from 11-13 April 2008. It will run from lunchtime on Friday 11 April to midday on Sunday 13 April.
The conference ".. is designed for people involved in a transition initiative in their locale or who are "mulling over" whether to start one up. There will be workshops, Open Spaces, World Cafés, presentations, discussions, dancing and maybe even a soccer match.
The aim is to help people learn how to broaden, deepen and accelerate their initiative, and connect with people to share ideas, inspiration and experiences."
The conference programme and content are almost complete.
April 3 2008 ~ Top-down does not work
The success of the Transition Town movement (there are now over 35 formal
Transition Initiatives in the UK - including towns, cities, islands,
peninsulas, with over 500 globally at the earlier stages of launching the
process. And evolutionary process it is - starting with the enthusiasm of
communities taking matters into their own hands and watching in awe at what so
quickly starts to take shape. The "Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins is an antidote to
the way top-down government works. Official policy has its own agendas and is
determined to keep control in the centre. The Transition Initiative begins
with the skills and talents of local people - and their willingness to build
upwards to create something for all to share in the challenge of a very
different future. Rob Hopkins writes,
"...unless we can create this sense of anticipation, elation and a
collective call to adventure on a wider scale, any government responses will
be doomed to failure, or will need to battle protractedly against the will
of the people." So it is with a sigh that we read in today's
Telegraph :
"Ministers have drawn up plans to force through the development of 10
eco-towns despite widespread local opposition..." The eco-towns proposed -
and what "eco" means in this context is rather hard to fathom - includes ,
Throckmorton, in Worcestershire, pushed around by government decree for
many years,particularly during the foot ande mouth tragedy, in spite of well
organised and intelligent protest from its inhabitants.
April 2 2008 ~ "a real grass roots movement that is inspiring people
to get involved.."
/icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/ today on the spread of
Transition towns, in which communities "focus on sustainability through
renewable energy, allotments and farming but also aim to explore possibilities
of water supply, waste recycling" - and "new economics" in the form of
localisation of currency. Transition Town Llandeilo is following in the
footsteps of Totnes. "Local currency puts money back into local businesses
whereas ordinary money takes it out." their website ,
"....people who choose to use the currency make a conscious commitment
to buy local first. They are taking personal responsibility for the health
and well-being of their community by laying the foundation of a truly
vibrant, thriving local economy." March 31 2008 ~ Back to the backyard - not simply because it's fun but
for our economic survival
Peak Oil is a turning
point for society - and denial is getting harder for politicians (especially
when even the
Archers are discussing "going Transition"with such conviction).
Transporting food over vast distances is simply not going to be possible for
much longer. optimistic podcast clip about backyard production. "A
modern fusion that also involves water re-use, solar design, more use of trees
and integrating animals into that too.....Chickens forage in a healthy system
based on organic methods of soil building and waste recycling.... in this
world of less energy, we have to redesign everything we do." March 31 2008 ~ Small scale biofuel production - another matter.
Another BBC
article explains how a retired teacher makes his own backyard biofuel from
chip fat. He says he likes
"the idea of using a waste product to make oil, and I like the idea of
being energy independent... it also saves a lot of money" It costs him
some £21 for a tank of home-made bio-diesel, compared with £80 at the garage.
March 27/28 2008 ~ Peak oil' meeting in Taunton
www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk There will be a talk on
Peak Oil, Climate Change and Transition Towns:"...Transition Towns aims to
work with Somerset communities to make positive moves to increase resilience
to falling oil levels. Victoria Watson and Mike McGuffie are holding the
meeting at Silver Street Baptist Church at 7.30pm on Monday, March 31. The
problem, the solution and the way forward'. Ms Watson said: "We are looking to
reach out to all those people who are concerned by these issues and want to
contribute in some way to working towards a better future for all of
us."...."March 27 2008 ~ Ninety-five per cent of the UK's fresh fruit is imported
Guardian yesterday ".....Tim Lang, professor of food
policy at City University, says the era of cheap food in the UK is over, and
that the nation is "sleepwalking into a crisis". He points out that the UK has
an especially poor record on producing its own fruit and vegetables.
"Ninety-five per cent of fresh fruit is imported. This is ludicrous in a
country with 2,000 varieties of apples..March 27 2008 ~ Transition Towns: " We've got to reduce our dependence on
oil.....And you're expecting the whole of Ambridge to get involved?"
Listen again to The Archers last Monday - and
UPDATE Pat Archer: Definitely the whole of Ambridge and other villages. Most of
the places doing it are Transition Towns. There are a few villages. .... In
Stroud they're setting up a community bike scheme …. "Tony thinks it's a good idea" and it's good to see that the writers
of the Archers think so too.March 27 2008 ~ Green MEP Caroline Lucas, will be visiting Stroud on Friday,
April 11th.
In the evening she will be speaking alongside Stroud Parliamentary
candidate Martin Whiteside and Nick Weir from Transition Stroud at the
Subscription Rooms. The theme of the evening will be 'The Future of Food' The
evening begins at 7.30. There is no charge for entrance, but a small donation
towards the hire of the room would be appreciated.
March 27 2008 ~ "Economic contraction may be bitter medicine, but it's part
of the cure for what ails our planetary home."
We are now at the end of an unprecedented period of abundance that has
been dependent upon temporary sources of cheap energy. Are we finally waking
up to the need for a wholly different mindset? Richard Heinberg in his article
"Making
the most of a global depression" takes a long cool look at the reality of
the present situation - but finishes with upbeat good sense:
: "....we can manage this contraction either foolishly or
intelligently. Read in full . Richard Heinberg is the author of "The Party's Over " and "Peak Everything ."
He is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute .
March 25/26 2008 ~ "The Great Turning" - the Ecological or
Sustainability Revolution
A "positive
energy" conference is taking place this week at the Findhorn Foundation
(recently found to have the lowest ecological footprint ever measured in the
industrialised world) For those who have not been able to attend the full
week, the last two days of the conference, this Thursday and Friday, can be
attended as a mini-event: From Crisis to Opportunity at which the speakers include
Richard Heinberg, one of the world's foremost peak oil educators:
"Let us accept the current challenge - the next great energy transition
- as an opportunity to re-imagine human culture from the ground up, using
our intelligence and our passion for the welfare of coming generations and
for the integrity of nature's web as our primary guides ." and Rob
Hopkins, founder of Transition Town Totnes (see below ), the first
transition town project in the UK.
March 24 2008 ~ "It's about creating alternatives, realistic ways of
living that can inspire everyone in the whole of society..."
"Back to the Land" is back - as Farming Today This Week (Listen Again R4 22 March) explained. The programme was
largely concerned with "savvy" smallholders who use modern technology and
networking. The message is "Don't wait." An allotment plot is the first place
to start - the best fertiliser is your own footprint. Be there! And take each
step at a time - and one to one training is important. "...most of us care a great deal about our animals and it's perhaps a
fact that there are good and bad in both smallholders and huge farmers. If
you are going to keep animals you've got to be responsible and this applies
to large or small. It doesn't matter which. I know a number of large farmers
who are not well trained in caring for their livestock." Dr Larch Maxey
(Swansea University), who is examining ‘back-to-the-land experiments' showed
how different now from the sometimes unrealistic idealism of the 60s and 70s
is the present acceptance of the sheer hard work and learning involved in
getting back to the land.
March 24 2008 ~ "Moving to New York City," she said, "was what first got me
interested in food and farming."
The New York Times quotes a 32 year old former second-grade
teacher, who moved from her Harlem apartment to a farm in Tivoli, NY
where, she says,"we are committed to farming practices that care for our
animals and for the land. We are currently selling grass-fed lamb and pastured
chicken on a pre-order basis." "The Greenhorns"
a film that is "not a political attack; nor is it meant to make you feel bad
about what you eat. This film documents those who are establishing solutions
to our contemporary crises. The stakes are high, but so are our chances of
preserving our farmland, our food supply, and the practice of family
farming...."www.agireora.org in Italian)"The project is to initially
import 50 thousand calves per year, and gradually increase the number of
animals imported up to a maximum of 150 thousand per year."
March 24 2008 ~ Wealth and security now lie in productive land
Staffordshire County Council had, last year, proposed to sell all or most
of its nearly 9,000 acres of farmland to generate funds. Options drawn up
included a plan to reduce the number of starter farms by a half. But it has
now changed its mind. A review undertaken last summer involving consultation
with tenant farmers, the Staffordshire branch of the NFU, the farming
community itself and the general public has, according to the Farmers Guardian, resulted in the Council's "pledging
not only to keep its farms, but to reinvigorate them". While this is good news
in itself, the talk, Justice, Farms and Victory Gardens
March 24 2008 ~ "... How did we forget something so basic?..."
Justice, Farms and Victory Gardens "....I can think of no more certain way to ensure we will go hungry than
to be as ignorant as we are of the role of food and agriculture in our
lives...this is just growing food! Every one of us is more privileged,
better educated, more powerful and in every way better prepared to change
the world than thousands of people who already did it. How can we possibly
do less than they, when the stakes are so high? So please go home and plant
your gardens." The present crisis has been on the way for some time. It has
been caused partly by chasing the wrong challenges, depending on false
assurances and the blandishments of those who want to make money by lending it
- but what seems inescapable is that wealth now lies in local productive land,
not the insubstantial dreams of politics and finance. March 20 2008 ~David Cameron "Britain risks food shortages and
rocketing prices unless we begin to grow more of our own produce."
In a speech at the centenary conference of the National Farmers' Union in
London, Mr Cameron said that the increase in the consumption of meat means
that farmers now feed 250m more tonnes of grain to their animals than they did
20 years ago. The nation's "food security" must be guarded as jealously as
that of our independent fuel supply.
"We face the potential prospect that the abundance of food that we all
take for granted will come to a crashing end. Yet just as we are relying,
indeed we are depending more and more on foreign farmers to fill our
shopping bags, cupboards and fridges, so the days of abundant food from
around the world may well be coming to an end" One wonders what a
Conservative Minister would do in government and whether there would again be
a Ministry that watched over the needs of farming, food and rural affairs. All
the same, the Transition Towns movement (see below) shows convincingly that a
consideration of urban food growing may now be almost as urgently
needed as concern for sustainable rural farms.
March 18 2008 ~"It's a question of unleashing the collective genius
around you..."
Changing our assumptions and values about what a truly sustainable society
looks like seems well overdue - and the efforts of the Transition Towns movement
gives more hope than much of the hot air emanating from Westminster or
Brussels. (Watch Rob Hopkins on You Tube on the subject of the end of cheap energy, Peak
Oil and the UK. He is impressive.) There can be no doubt that we are in
trouble. The FAO's food price index has rocketed up by almost 40 per cent this
year. International wheat prices are up 50 per cent on last year's. As for
the end of cheap energy ,
the Press Association reports
"...Crude oil prices rose to new highs near to 112 US dollars a barrel
yesterday, forcing the cost of petrol at the forecourts up to 106.7p a
litre, with diesel at 113.9p, according to latest figures from the AA.
....." Meanwhile, economic growth
continues to be the myth that prevails and the UK watches its ability to feed
itself decline with apparent complacency, continuing to import cheap food from
countries that are themselves getting more and more concerned about the rise
in prices.
March 18 2008 ~ " As Richard Heinberg put it, people are instinctively more
interested in what is going into their car than in what is coming out of the
exhaust pipe...".
It is well worth putting aside 52 minutes to listen to the quiet
eloquence, (without any notes), of Rob Hopkins on the subject of our future
and how there are better ways of presenting to people the crisis that's coming
than dire warnings about Global Warming. (Best to download the You Tube video to your own computer)
".... It's a fuel-in problem rather than an emissions-out problem. And
Peak Oil is very important because it's like putting a mirror up to a
community and saying, "Where's the resilience gone in this community?
Where is this community's ability to withstand shocks?" And particularly
when we go back to the 30's and 40's we see that then we had that
resilience. We had a vibrant local economy. We had local food. We had local
agriculture..." His conclusion to the complex question, Can we support the
people that we have? is "Yes we can - but we need to rediscover what was good
about the world before cheap oil and rethink our basic assumptions.." Nor does
he shirk the population problem.
March 17/18 2008 ~ Cheap food culture has led to dangerous lack of disease
surveillance and lowering of welfare standards
Livestock farmers, having to contend with rocketing fuel prices, huge
increases in feed costs and all the depressed profits caused by the UK
policies on such animal illnesses as foot and mouth and bluetongue, are
thinking twice before calling out a vet. And because there are now far fewer farm
animal vets , those left have to travel further and are charging
more.EDP24
quotes Peter Stevenson, chief policy advisor with Compassion in World
Farming, on the ever more serious shortage of farm vets.
"Regular visits from the vet mean it is more likely a disease will be
spotted in its early stages, be they seriously dangerous diseases such as
foot and mouth or less severe illnesses....I don't think there is any
doubt that some farmers are simply not calling vets in like they used
to...." Veterinary bodies too have a responsibility to encourage
students to take up farm vet practice. The lack of surveillance provided by
regular vet visits are ever more dangerous in these days of fast-spreading
zoonoses. March 16/17 2008 ~ "The evening felt celebratory, positive and
inspiring. Transition Handbooks sold like hot cakes..."
Droughts, soaring oil prices , global population increase, the distancing
of commodity markets from genuine supply and demand signals - and the
conversion of food crops into biofuel as a result - a global food crisis is
already with us. What we need is a precise, detailed, what-to-do manual. And
Rob Hopkins, described in a review of his startling new book, the "Transition Handbook" , as "... a superb communicator,
visionary and one of the most important thinkers in our chaotic 21st century
world" has provided just that. Transition
Handbook must become required reading for anyone who thinks personal
action is better than waiting hopefully for a benighted political system to
emerge into the light.
March 16/17 2008 ~ Let them eat biofuel...?
It is good to see Christopher Booker squaring up to the departed Chief
Scientific Adviser in Beware the politician posing as a scientist in the
current week's Spectator. Climate change was proclaimed by Sir David King to
be "a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism" - but
the UN World Food Program (WFP) is now saying,
"the increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming in the
world" and yet more and more agricultural land is being turned over to
the production of crops used to manufacture biofuels, such as ethanol. Last
week, the new CSA, Professor Beddington, commented (Guardian ), that the food crisis was more urgent and
serious than climate change - yet as Caroline Lucas says, the policymakers
in neither Brussels nor Westminster have any workable or acceptable plans in
place. They continue to seem in denial of what is apparent to so many of us.
And even though David Cameron too was reported (last Sunday's
Herald ) to have said, "You could feed a person for a whole year from the
grain that produces just one tank of fuel for a sports utility vehicle"-
none of the major parties in traditional politics seems able to galvanise
people towards practical solutions. In contrast, the highly interesting Treehugger website , another enthusastic supporter of
the Transition Town Movement, offer what they term, "some humble suggestions
of potential solutions":
March 16/17 2008 ~ In glorious contrast to our politicians and ever more
chaotic Ministries..
...the launch of the latest Transition
Town, Forest Row in Sussex, demonstrates anything but complacent
inaction. Green MEP Caroline Lucas (see You
Tube ), in her message of enthusiastic support for the Transition Town
movement, had this to say about rebuilding the infrastructure to revitalise
local food economies:
"....Over half the food imported in 2002 was indigenous produce...it
could have been sourced in this country, could have been grown in the UK's
temperate climate...it would be much easier if we had changes to the rules
of the EU Single Market and the World Trade Organisation, but it is also
true that there is much that we as individuals and communities can do
ourselves..to begin to power down, to become less dependent on fossil
fuels and more dependent on each other"
