Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Transition initiatives have spawned a number of fascinating new enterprises, and in today’s post we’ll be looking at one of them you may not have come across yet, Hodmedod’s Great British Beans, which has emerged from work of Transition City Norwich and East Anglia Food Link. What follows is an interview with one of its founders, Josiah Meldrum.
• Storms on US Plains stir memories of the ‘Dust Bowl’
• The Battlefront in the Front Yard
• Congress Includes Awful 2008 Farm Bill Extension in Fiscal Cliff Deal
• Up to 50% of food is wated worldwide, report says
• Post-Prop. 37 Poll Shows the Future of GE Food Labeling is Alive, Well and Living in California
• Farmers Rally at White House to Protest Monsanto’s GMO Empire
A huge ‘dome of heat’ over Australia has broken temperature records, and this heat has been so intense that the Bureau of Meteorology has been required to create new colours for their charts, which had previously been capped at 50 degrees. Deep red has now been superseded by deep purple. Bush fires have been raging across the country – a sign of a warming world, the impacts of which are destined only to intensify.
Greece knows a thing or two about democracy. And as an increasingly arid nation, good water management is fundamental to its future, both political and physical. The recent financial crisis hasn’t only tested Greek democracy, but its water as well.
Across the nation, a robust and inspiring local food movement is gaining momentum but faces critical challenges of overwhelming demand, limited production capacity, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to capital. Meanwhile, as the unsustainability of the industrialized corporate food system becomes increasingly evident, a global food crisis threatens to land on our own shores. Our communities are food insecure.
It is difficult for me to believe that people pay good money to buy water to drink and not complain at all. Eventually, I suppose, we will have to buy air to breathe. Yesterday, I watched with awe as a man emerged from a store bearing three big plastic bags jammed with plastic bottles of water. I asked him how much bought water costs these days. He said that with gas down to nearly $3.00 a gallon, the water costs about the same. I guess I should go to town more often so I can learn what progress is all about.
Across the nation, a robust and inspiring local food movement is gaining momentum but faces critical challenges of overwhelming demand, limited production capacity, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to capital. Meanwhile, as the unsustainability of the industrialized corporate food system becomes increasingly evident, a global food crisis threatens to land on our own shores. Our communities are food insecure.
Permaculture books telling you how to grow things abound. They are many, varied and wonderful. For some reason, however, permaculture books telling you how to EAT what you grow in interesting, creative and delicious ways are not, in fact, very abundant.
Changes in public sector food procurement in Brazil have improved not just the quality of school meals; they have led to a reduced ecological footprint and a more engaged civil society driving the green economy. In this article, Kei Otsuki explores the processes of decentralization and localization that have taken place in Brazil since 1997 through the lens of food procurement. The case demonstrates how an active civil society can lead to change for better, more sustainable, and locally supportive practices.
“Quick test: Could you, for a full month, eat exclusively what’s grown within ten miles of your home? What would you eat? Would you survive? Would you suffer? Would you even want to run the experiment given you can run to your grocery store for a cornucopia of delights?"
The older (and lazier) I get, the more creative I become at putting up temporary fencing that ends up being permanent.
As we approach the winter solstice and the end of one long count and the beginning of another, our understanding of the Mayan world is rapidly being transformed by new knowledge.
