Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-Will investors show an appetite for local food?
-Can farmland be saved without the farmer?
-USDA grant program benefits farmers market producers
-Grass-finished beef market sees exponential growth
-County to hear local food plan
-Ecuador, Indians trade blame for bloody clashes
-Greenpeace protesters target Alberta oilsands again
-Nigeria’s oil rebels name mediators
-Mark Thurstain-Goodwin Responds to Colin Tudge on ‘Can Totnes and District Feed Itself?
-Under the Clinton Global Initiative, Growing Power takes its grassroots-agriculture model to Africa
-Americans turn to backyard chickens for food, security
-Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilisation?
-Critic’s Notebook: From earth to table, in more ways than one
-Can one woman save Africa?
-Africa doesn’t need a green revolution. It needs agroecology
-Human-made Crises ‘Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,’ Scientists Warn
-The Australian town that kicked the bottle
-Energy executives offer ideas on stimulus
As readers know, I’ve written about the difference between healing and today’s petrochemical-drug oriented medical system. The insurance being debated is seldom about true health care, especially not for post-petroleum living. Should Baby Boomers be worried only about government programs, or also some of their modern conveniences taken for granted? Some of these trappings of our troubled civilization hardly work and are toxic.
Kate Magruder feels that “Opinions make walls. Stories make bridges.” Using narrative, music and images, Placement Project participants create short stories that not only empower the tellers, but also elicit respect, admiration and tenderness from listeners. Kate hopes that telling our stories can build an honest sense of community in her town of Ukiah and beyond.
Marc Wegerif is an old school friend of mine from when I grew up in Bristol. After school he moved to South Africa and was very involved in activism there, and he now lives in Tanzania and works for Oxfam. He recently got back in touch and I sent him a copy of The Transition Handbook. Subsequently he sent me a long and thoughtful letter, with his reflections on the book, and on how it might relate to Africa. The whole question of what Transition might look like in a developing world context is something we have rarely explored at Transition Culture, and Marc has given me permission to reprint his letter here by way of initiating that discussion.
Reading Novella Carpenter’s _Farm City:The Education of an Urban Farmer_, I found myself a little jealous – sure, I’ve got 27 acres, but she has Buddhist monks across the street who help her recapture her escaped pigs. Life is full of tradeoffs ;-).
Thoughts on the relationship between food issues, rural movements, and Climate Camps. To be more specific: this post mainly compares the distinct focuses and limitations of the Diggers’ movement toward agricultural autonomy, and the Climate Campers’ rallies and interventions against coal plants, airport expansion projects, and other commercially-driven operations.
-Resilience Takes Form – A Handbook for Transition
-A Detailed Analysis of Somerset County Council’s Transition Resolution
-Curry Stone Prize Finalists announced, includes Treehugger fave Rob Hopkins
-Human-made Crises ‘Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,’ Scientists Warn
-City life is a honey trap from Frances’ beleaguered bees
-A New Way to Turn Plastic Into Fuel?
-Don’t despair — get out there and do something
-Conservation for a New Era
Dandelion leaves flown thousands of miles north from Mexico now grace the organic section of our best local grocery stores…I find myself smiling at the latest proof of the power of our greening greenbacks. I am as well amused and saddened by the irony that the leaf generously and effortlessly yielded every hour for most months of the year by soil and worms in our own backyards must be carried north in airplanes guzzling barrels of oil and spewing millions of pounds of greenhouse gases.
