Transition Times

A Question of Food

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:25:04 +0000

One of the questions on everyone’s minds at the moment is: what are the health or disease causing possibilities of food? Obesity is a major cause of many illnesses and has mostly replaced other food related illnesses such as rickets and pellagra but how many of us are aware that these illnesses have been seen again in our modern cities?

Perhaps we are still unsurprised by the prevalence of these symptoms seen in undernourished populations of the poorer regions of the world but now it is becoming more common to see them in G.P.s waiting rooms in London, Birmingham and other major cities. A recent study by Sustain , a food campaigning organisation, and the Mental Health Foundation, also linked the growing incidence of mental ill-health to our changing diet.

Poor nutrition effects every cell of our bodies, our emotions and, as previously stated, our mental health and thereby effects every part of our society. Studies of cultures around the world that still eat traditional diets full of wild game and wild picked foods have very good health and few of the diseases seen in people eating ‘western’ diets. Why is this the case?

Sarah Garton

Sarah Garton, our guest nutritionist this month, tells us why, explaining exactly what food does in our bodies.

Transition City Lancaster has also been encouraging people to make their own preserves and even swap them on swap stalls, usually seen at our events. On the program this month we talk more about keeping food but this time just in our larders.

Do you know how to stock a Healthy Home Larder or even what food falls into which food category? Can you plan meals and shopping? We have some tips from four TCL members who all know a little about food.

We Transitioners are also concerned with the world’s depleted resources that are being wasted by trucking food around the world unnecessarily; oil is a precious commodity and should, as our supplies run low, be used carefully. We also use oil to make fertilisers and pesticides but organic growing, brought up to date with newly discovered and rediscovered techniques, provides plentiful food and keeps our soils healthy for future generations.

All of this and much more is discussed in Feeding the family, an hour long radio program found at the link below. Enjoy listening.

April. feeding the family

Marching on with the radio

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:40:57 +0000

March stomped in with icy evening skies and bright dry days that held all the promise of a warm spring just like last year; I even saw a butterfly! But what’s in store for our local community station, Diversity fm, at the time of writing, is still very uncertain.

Whatever happens, no one will be able to say that the people who run the station, Duncan, Tony, Chris et al, haven’t done their utmost to keep it going for the people of Lancaster and Morecambe.

Duncan Moore

We will of course, carry on making our radio programs whether we are on the air or only to be found on the web.

Dr. Kathryn Turner

As the members of the radio team were halved in February while Caroline was on a half work, half family celebration in Thailand and India (its alright for some people) the team of one (myself) cheated a little bit by rerunning some recordings from past shows as well as making new ones with the Incredible Edible Anna , about a fantastic food project happening in Lancaster and returning to the garden of the wonderful Dr. Turner for more seasonal tips for gardening on a budget.

In the process of looking for appropriate pieces to rerun this month I listened to many past programs and realised what a wonderfully varied and interesting bunch of people we have had the privilege to record over the last eighteen months while making this program for TCL. I hope you get the chance to listen to at least some of them and enjoy them half as much as I have.

As well as these new recordings, you’ll hear again Rod Everett and Jennifer Lauruol on different aspects of permaculture, Mary Clear talking about the development of the Incredible Edible Todmorden from its roots and a piece of the wind-blown interview that Caroline did with Julia Russell while walking down by the Lune in a hail storm. I don’t think Caroline will ever let me forget that I was supposed to do that interview. You’ll have to forgive the sound on a couple of these but they’re all worth listening or relistening to from the link below. Enjoy!

Transition City Lancaster Radio Show 5th March 2012

REconomy – is Lancaster moving forward??

editor — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:54:24 +0000

For me, understanding Peak Oil was to understand that here in staid, safe little Lancaster, we were utterly vulnerable and dependant for our very existence, our essentials of food, water, energy, clothing on national or multi-national companies.

The Transition REconomy project, so clearly outlined in the Transition Social Reporters blog by Fiona Ward’s blog, has been a timely response to many people’s cry – how do we create some real security and resilience when the means of providing essentials for our communities are mainly in the hands of distant, profit-driven powers? As if that’s not enough, over-laying the problem of resource depletion we have now the insistent and progressive problems of economic crisis. That sounds pretty distant and theoretical – what it means here is the council can’t afford to keep the market open, meeting ex-pupils disheartened and depressed with no prospects of a job, the need for a food bank to stop people going hungry.

It seems obvious that we need, as Fiona said, “to build a new local economy”. We have a Real Wealth and Livelihoods group in Lancaster, full of ideas, aware of the challenges and difficulties of the local economy, working to educate itself and to spread awareness. Members have undertaken film showings, studied Chris Martenson’s Economics Crash Course and grappled with the rather scary experience of inviting Nicole Foss to come and speak last spring. The group exists alongside those other intertwined initiatives that are so much part of the Lancaster scene, Shared Futures CIC working through North Lancaster Social Enterprise Group (NLSE) and the Ethical Small Traders Association (ESTA) with its strap line “Helping the Transition towards Local Wealth and Well Being”.

The prime movers of the two organisations, Jez Hall and Mike Hallam are part of the Transition scene, within it and beyond it, enhancing the activities of businesses already in existence, building their resilience. Part as REconomy puts it of “transition to a new economic paradigm”. NLSE runs conferences, courses and support for members, as they put it “Facilitating mutual advice, education and knowledge sharing activities. Exchanging skills, knowledge and time, where possible using mutual exchange in place of monetary exchange.” They have worked closely with the Lancaster City Council Local Sustainability Partnership. Through LSP funding Shared Futures have created an interesting participatory budgeting experiment: this spring local social enterprise start ups have been able to “pitch” for funding in order to put into action entrepreneurial ideas supported and mentored into being through a course run by Shared Futures.

As usual, in Lancaster it seems like a lot is going on out there and Transition City Lancaster often functions as a meeting place, a way of communicating and linking up initiatives from other sources. But I wonder whether we are really making significant progress towards resilience. Granted, every economically thriving business that operates locally contributes to the circulation of local money and should reduce the supply chain a little. But how many of the businesses whether established or start up, are providing those essentials of energy, water, food, clothing?

Last summer a former Green Party local councillor, Anne Chapman, was chief mover in establishing Morecambe Bay Community Renewables (MORE), an Industrial and Provident Society (co-op) set up for the benefit of its members. Its aim was to install free solar pv on the roofs of public buildings, schools etc, raising local investment finance then using the FITs as a way of expanding the business, providing a return on investment and supporting other energy saving initiatives. As a founder member I spent many hours acquiring potential roofs, talking to school head teachers, sports clubs boards, community centre managements, making presentations, explaining the project. We got through all the legal hurdles in record time and were ready to present our share offer, just as the government announced the cut to the FITs. Unlike OVESCO, as we were spread more thinly and dependant on planning permissions we had not yet received, we were unable to scramble to completion. Six months work by nine dedicated, busy and unpaid professionals – gone. Getting into play on the essentials is risky: it demands commitment well over and above what most people can even imagine. My hat is off to everyone who has managed it elsewhere and to Anne, who, undeterred, is still beavering away on our one viable project, and about to involve us in a hydro scheme that looks really exciting.

That is one story of much Lancaster effort going into creating resilience getting stymied by economic forces outside our control. There are others. We are surrounded by local producers who are at the mercy of international “spot markets” when it comes to the price they get for locally produced meat. They are in dire need of good links with consumers, a guaranteed local market. Farmer Phil Wilcock, who runs Foragers has been trying for some time to set up a farmers’ co-operative to sell farm produce through an outlet in Lancaster city centre. The indoor market seemed the ideal place – it needed something new to draw in custom and the farmers needed the space. Now the market is set to close – the council tied to a 99 year lease, falling revenues and rents that can only rise, can’t go on with the subsidy. I am sure Phil’s idea will come to fruition but at the moment there doesn’t seem to be the support, the joined up thinking, that can help farmers like Phil who have little spare time, to ensure we have the food security we need in Lancaster.

Recently our only dedicated green grocers in Lancaster closed at a week’s notice, lease up and the owner wishing to retire. Tricia, who ran the shop, wants to go on as a trader herself. She has huge local knowledge and is an amazing enthusiast for the local seasonal produce she has always sold. In many ways the shop was a hangover from a different age and one that transitioners really appreciated as we went looking for local food, asking the questions supermarkets can’t answer. Without the shop our only veg sources are organic produce delivered twice weekly to a local co-operative and a stall on the Wednesday and Saturday markets. Or the supermarkets. As a friend of mine admitted –

since the shop closed I’ve seen more of the inside of Sainsburys than I care to.

We are facing a sudden loss of our resilience, a break in the short supply chains and a transfer to those long chains beloved of big business. Many people have been quick to support Tricia and the idea of getting a shop going again. But we all know it takes time, expertise in accounting and legal areas, equipment, investment money. Are we up for it? I think of the thriving veg shop featured in Transition 2.0 and smile. Overall it’s a risk but a risk, that if we take it, is one more small step forward for the Lancaster REconomy.

REconomy poster; ESTA logo; MORE logo; Foragers logo

A question of community

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:31:22 +0000

Transition City Lancaster’s February radio program was this month still aired from the studios of the Diversity radio station in Lancaster but the station’s future is quite uncertain. Watch this space for updates.

The New Year inspired thoughts of the bigger picture so we’ve been working on the subject of ‘community’. Liz Neat and Gina Dowding, both having worked in the area for years, joined me in a studio discussion of ‘what is community?’ to top the show.

Liz, working for the National Coalition-Building Institute, comes from a background of working with minority groups and runs workshops on racism, exclusion etc. Gina has worked with many sectors of the community as as a Green Party councillor and in other roles. It can be heard in our voices how much we all enjoyed the discussion.

We had to work in the smallest studio, which is really not set up for three people, so I was banned to the room next door where I had to talk to them with microphone and headphones, through a glass partition. You can tell that we soon got used to this. It’s an obvious point but until we had adjusted our chairs and mikes so that we could see each other’s faces, we weren’t happy. This phenomenon can be experienced on Skype technology: when the visual connection goes we are very unsettled and just as relieved when it returns. As Liz emphasised, we are social creatures and our instincts are to communicate in the best way we can: words are good but adding facial expressions is so much better.

After we had tried but not necessarily succeeded (tell us what you think) to tie down the meaning and role of community. We tried to list many of the sections that make up a community but these are not finite and nor are the minutes allotted to our show. We did manage though to fit in Mary Clear talking about the development of the business side of Todmorden as a food town and, continuing the financial theme, Michael Hallam then gave us his view of what went wrong with the financial sector and how it affects everyone in our small city. Of course he then went on to say how a healthy financial/business section of the community would work.

Caroline Jackson finished the subject by interviewing the organiser of the volunteers at St John’s Hospice that sits just over the river from the town centre. This interview touched on what individuals give to the community by volunteering and discussed the role of charities. St John’s is as well known for its lovely garden as by its compassionate work with its clients and it is obvious that Caroline takes full advantage of the gardens as a volunteer-student of gardening and a visitor popping in to grab a cuppa and smell the roses.

These programs are made by a couple of volunteers but we would welcome anyone who wanted to edit, help plan the programs or interview the many interesting and knowledgeable people that assent to being verbally probed by our amateur team. It is very rewarding, educating and sometimes quite entertaining.

To listen to the show click on the link below:-

February’s Radio Show

Transition Conference – Liverpool 2011

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:09:03 +0000

Most of the recordings for Transition City Lancaster’s January radio program came from the 2011 Transition annual conference held in Liverpool. The sound is not always clear because of all the buzz of excited voices in the rooms but one voice stands out and needed no editing: Rob Hopkins gave an off-the-cuff interview to Caroline Jackson without need for even a pause for thought.

Other contributors to the program gave a post-conference low down on how the conference worked: Gail Capstig from TCL’s steering group compares it to the 2010 conference in Edinburgh. These comments could help us make future conferences even more welcoming and accessible to people from all walks of life. Again and again we are accused of being middle class and out of touch when in reality many of us were not born with the privileges of wealth and education. But, however welcome we try to make them, some people will not be happy with the conference model, it is after all meetings within meetings at one huge meeting. Hands up how many of you hate meetings? Yes well, put your hands down now. One conference attendee, in conversation with Lancaster’s Simon Gershon, voiced how even professionals and highly educated people can be overwhelmed and intimidated by the knowledge and intellectual capabilities of some of the speakers.

Here are also examples, in the varied voices at the conference, of inspiring initiatives from around the world; practical projects that are changing our communities by example, by fulfilling a need such as having fresh local food and, in some cases, providing sustainable livelihoods for local people.

Through these voices we also feel the passion of individuals such as the woman who runs a local bookstore, the foodies discussing grafting and even the young man who though he initiated his local transition and felt he had much to give, also felt excluded from it. These are voices we can enjoy listening to, be inspired by and, hopefully, learn from.

To listen to January’s program click below:-

TCL Radio Show January

Ye are many – they are few

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:25:58 +0000

For most of my life the amount I knew about economics could have been written on the back of a postage stamp. And worse than that, I really didn’t want to know any more. I was so sure of the truth of Wordsworth’s poem:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

I truly believed that economics in, would mean poetry, music and art fell out.

Meantime I got on with money and life by a process of observation and unquestioned prejudice. I was brought up poor, the kind of slightly genteel poor that is uncomfortable with its inability to buy the children shoes, new school uniform or enough blankets for the beds. Life was not always predictable or comfortable. We moved sixteen times one year and were finally homeless. In the council house we were so glad to get, the hot water heater was only lit on Sunday evenings, when the bathwater was used one after the other by the whole family. No harm was done but it’s not what we expect today. My father didn’t make things easier by liking a flutter on the horses and as a war pensioner he had too much time on his hands and there were too many betting shops around.

So I worked out some simple rules:
1) Spend as little as possible
2) Get educated and then be securely employed
3) Save money in the bank – you might need it suddenly
4) Don’t gamble or get into debt

Peers and younger siblings took a different path – offered money by willing banks, they have borrowed. In the property boom they acquired property. They bought cars and had holidays. If they caught me darning socks and mending the kids’ clothes in the late eighties they laughed and told me “You just throw them away”. Yet they were not professionals or high earners, they had ordinary jobs and sometimes none. Driven by fear, it was me who had the profession and the comfortable income.

Now I stand and look into an abyss called our “economic situation” and all my rules are worth nothing. The banks and insurance companies and pension funds have my money and it is so twisted and bound up with their debts and over valued assets that all savings are at risk. We are, as a result of bank bail outs, in debt and paying the price, all of us, whether we like it or not. Education is no guarantee of a good job, or even any job, especially if you are young. The security I spent a lifetime chasing is come to this. And if I think I am in a scary place, how much worse is it for those in personal debt too.

Nicole Stoneleigh , economist and blogger, took Transition to new places through her talk at the conference in 2010. In April she visited Lancaster and her analysis of the economic situation is still troubling us. Put simply, because that’s all I can manage, we are in an economic “bubble” and as with the bubbles of the past it will run its course, according to the rules by which these things operate. With accuracy she anticipated the crises in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy. She looked forward to a time of such economic rigour that local government, health services, police would be stringently cut. When house prices would revert to pre bubble levels (can you remember how much it cost to buy a house in 1980?). Talking to her afterwards, I wandered what the worst of it would be like. She spoke of planning for 3 or 4 years of real austerity, of the need for cash, credit would be worthless, and good reason to lay in supplies of those things we thought essentials. Food presumably being the most obvious. Her final comment was perhaps the most chilling – we need to work to make sure our communities stay together, build social capital, make alliances between the generations. Political groups, particularly the far right will seek to use the situation to spread blame and fear. How long did she think we have to prepare? Eighteen months she said – and that was in April.

But when Nicole spoke to us, there was no Occupy movement and there seemed very little hope that many people would ever understand let alone protest the situation we are in. My heart beats a little faster these days. Maybe times are a-changing. I want to hope so whilst I fear conflict and violence but far worse than that manipulation and disillusionment. When the discussions are over and the time comes for action, will those actions create a fair and secure world for the future, for the young, who are in words of David Malone, The Debt Generation?

I think we are back to the end of Shaun’s blog where he asked of the Occupy movement:

“can we build alternative, independent systems to support us, even in a period of energy descent?”

For an answer try The Automatic Earth blog for 12 November which contains an article by Nathan Carey: The Revitalization of Rural Economies, about Hardwick in Vermont. Here is a model for sustainable living created by a community that is pooling its resources to create the resilience it wants. It isn’t called Transition but that is what it surely is. It seems to me that they are just a step or two ahead of Black Isle, Totnes, Norwich, Omagh many other Transition communities. There, as in some places here, somehow people have begun to put their real money into the systems that support local life. It is time to do the same everywhere, time to recognise a new relationship, an unselfish economic relationship that puts the support of community at its heart and leaves individualism, wise or profligate, at the gate.

We have to take Occupy on from the streets into the hearts and minds of the people who watch or pass by or have no chance, leisure or inclination to sit on pavements. How? Well I hope you other bloggers and readers answer that. Why? Because then there is hope for the future. I will close with the words of another poet, writing after the brutal suppression of an Occupy movement in the nineteenth century, Peterloo.

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many – they are few.’

Percy Shelley

Pictures: William Wordsworth, cartoon Warner and photo Mildred’s Daughters from Automatic Earth 12/11, cover “The Debt Generation” (well worth reading) Peterloo by Richard Carlile

Marketing for Hippies

admin — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 12:26:14 +0000

For anyone trying to run alternative health practices, ethical green trading enterprises or thinking of starting a local foodie type business then you could get a lot of useful information from a Canadian called Tad Hargrave. His website marketingforhippies.com is a useful resource for free advice and information to help small, local and ethical businesses to grow through learning the lessons of good marketing practice.

Now, if this sounds anathema to you because you hate everything associated with consumerism and the capitalist crazy growth mentality then this is exactly why you should take a look at this site. It has been designed for people like you.

Tad is essentially a marketing consultant who trains small business owners in the not so black arts of getting your good, positive and healthy products and services out there in the world. Check it out.