Crystal Palace Food Market, England

By Rob Hopkins, originally published by Transition Network

November 4, 2015

Society
NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

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Rather than us write about the wonderful Crystal Palace Food Market ourselves, we thought we’d invite those involved to tell their own story. So, armed with a rather fetching cloth shopping bag and a voice recording device, our intrepid 21 Stories reporter Rob Hopkins headed to London to spend a morning immersed in beautiful breads, captivating cupcakes, lovingly-leavened loaves and delightful dishes. Founders and market managers Karen Jones and Laura Marchant-Short showed him round, and from the discussions with them, and with traders, he lovingly crafted this suitably delicious podcast:

An award-winning urban food market which “stands as a powerful reminder about what can happen when people dare to put a dream into reality”.

Asked what they would tell world leaders if they dropped by the market on the way to Paris for COP21, Karen and Laura told us:

"Encourage people to take the initiative and give them the tools to do so. You might be surprised what they can achieve. It is possible to create bottom up infrastructure that can deliver locally sourced sustainable food on a significant scale. Over the long term, we can make changes that can have significant impact on the carbon footprint of food in an area. We are doing what we can. Are you?"

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Intrepid ’21 Stories’ reporter Rob Hopkins with Karen Jones and Laura Marchant-Short, the market’s managers.

Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He presents the podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘ which invites listeners to send in their “what if” questions and then explores how to make them a reality.  In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Hopkins has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought and A Good Read, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Apres Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.

An Ashoka Fellow, Hopkins also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and has received two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. He is a keen gardener, a founder of New Lion Brewery in Totnes, and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project. He blogs at transtionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition.

Tags: #netzero, 21 stories of Transition, building resilient food systems, Transition movement

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