November 2009 – Transition Network Newsletter
By Noemi Andacs 9th January 2010
CONTENTS
FOOD
- Transition Network Food Project Database Launch
- A Transition Food Strategy
- Sowing the Future In Forest Row
- Time to Take Action on Food!
- ISEC Food Roadshow back on tour
NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
EVENT REPORTS
- Taunton Council Considers A Resilient 2026
- What Can Transition Learn From Other Cultures?
- Transition Communities Forum
- Sweden in Transition
FILMS
COMMENT
- Meeting the Challenge of Energy Descent
- Resilience Thinking: an article for the latest ‘Resurgence’
- Critique of Transition Provokes Debate
FOOD
Transition Network Food Project Database Launch
Food project case studies is the first web service to come out of the Transition Web Project. Transition Network Web Co-ordinator Ed Mitchell gives us an outline and invites you to participate.
Having recently help develop ‘A Sustainable Food Strategy for Bristol’, Claire Milne is now helping Edinburgh do the same.
Sowing the Future In Forest Row
Autumn is the time of harvest festivals and an increased focus on food. Along with British Food and Biodynamic Food fortnights, Transition Forest Row in East Sussex held its first Local Food Week.
The Local Action on Food Network is a new national food network that is being coordinated by Sustain to link together all people and projects from across the UK that are committed to working towards a more local and sustainable food system.
ISEC Food Roadshow back on tour
In May 2008, the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC, http://www.isec.org.uk) travelled around England offering a ‘Local Food Roadshow’ about the globalisation of the food industry, and why local food is important for farmers, consumers and the environment. ISEC visited members of the Transition Network with the presentation; facilitated questions & held discussions and most importantly – helped inspire local action on the issues!
ISEC would like to conduct ‘round 2’ of the roadshow in mid 2010, and would love to know if your village, town or city would like to host a session. This is dependent on funding, so your support is crucial. Please let us know if you – or any others you know of – would find the ‘Food in Transition: Local Food Roadshow’ helpful in your area, and we’ll do our best!
Contact Lin, l.etherden@isec.org.uk, 01803 868650.
NEWS
Llandeilo in Wales is the first Transition Initiative to recieve a royal visit from HRH The Prince of Wales and hear about the projects it is doing.
A Musical Award For Transition
The Transition Network has received a wonderful award of $50,000 (£32,000) from Artists Project Earth (APE) generated from the sale of three Rhythms Del Mundo albums.
Forest Row EDAP Download
The Transition Forest Row pre-EDAP published in the Spring has now been made available for free download as a PDF. Printed copies are still available. Details here:
UPCOMING EVENTS
Transition Training in Germany
2 day “Training for Transition” course in Bielefeld, Germany on 5/6th December 2009 now OPEN FOR BOOKINGS
Please note this training will be held in German / Der Kurs wird auf Deutsch gehalten!
For more details & registration please go to:
email: training.for.transition@googlemail.com
Transition Conference in the North
On November 6th, there will be a conference in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire jointly organised by the Cooperative Group, MASTT and the Green Valley Grocer. This will give all the Transition Groups in the North the opportunity to meet, share experiences, and hopefully begin to establish some sort of regional network for everyone’s mutual benefit.
Transition Meet Up In Wales
21st November, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales
A chance to network with groups from other Transition Towns. A warm welcome to anyone who’s in a Transition Town group, is thinking of setting one up, or anyone in interested in finding out about the Welsh Network of Tranistion Towns.
Plus the night before Patrick Holden CBE (Director of the Soil Association) will be speaking on ‘Farming in an Oil Scarce Future’. November 20 at 7.00.
More details on both events and accomodation list
EVENT REPORTS
Taunton Council Considers A Resilient 2026
Something historic happened in the summer of 2009 in Taunton. A UK Local Authority decided to take a whole staff approach to their responsibility for tackling the community’s carbon footprint and dealing with the potential effects of climate change and Peak Oil.
What Can Transition Learn From Other Cultures?
The Gaia Foundation ran a short course at Schumacher College in September “Earth Jurisprudence and Community Resilience: Learning from Africa”. From it Isabel Carlisle learnt that the challenge for Transition now is to build relationships that connect local sub-communities.
A Transition Towns Forum took place recently in Melbourne, Australia discussed the Transition Town/community process and rationale, and proposed the way forward, and how it can be supported by councils across the state.
Naresh Giangrande recently returned from a Transition Training tour of Sweden, here is a short report about his trip.
FILMS
Film Review: “Earth Whisperers/Papatuanuku”
New Zealand is a beautiful and largely unspoilt country. Roughly one-third of it is still forested, three-quarters of that with indigenous species in protected areas. The lakes are clear, the soil fertile, wild plants provide food and medicine—but the flourishing of nature has as much to do with the activism of a small number of people back in the 1970s and 80s as it does with the natural bounty of the land. This film is about ten New Zealanders who are part of the story of working with, and fighting for, nature.
Here is a rather good film from the good people at Transition Whidbey in the US, letting the world know what they’ve been up to. Fantastic to see places making films like this, do film what you’re doing in this way, document your Transition work for ‘In Transition 2.0′.
COMMENT
Meeting the Challenge of Energy Descent
Like it or not, we will be facing a future with ever less energy. But what does this “Energy Descent” mean, exactly? And how do we prepare? A key feature of a Transition Initiative is supposed to be an EDAP. But not surprisingly, it turns out that developing an EDAP in a community is a long and complicated process. Michael Brownlee is co-founder of Transition Colorado and editor and publisher of US based Transition Times, a newly-launched online publication looks at the process and state of play.
Resilience Thinking: an article for the latest ‘Resurgence’
Why ‘resilience thinking’ is a crucial missing piece of the climate-change jigsaw and why resilience is a more useful concept than sustainability: by Rob Hopkins.
Critique of Transition Provokes Debate
A Critique of Transition at WorldChanging that seems to have somewhat missed the point is provoking much debate and detailed response by Rob Hopkins
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
This Newsletter Edited by Mike Grenville
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