Ely Apple Day

Our second Apple Day was a great success,it’s such a lovely event! So many positive responses from the people we spoke with, and lots saying they are coming to the conference on the 31st. Lets get some food projects going!

10:10 – Reduce your emissions by 10% in 2010

Individuals, families, companies, schools and local government – Find out how at the 10:10 site http://www.1010uk.org/.

Radio 4 ‘You and Yours’ on Energy Security

Listen to Tuesday 13th October’s discussion on energy security, and the issue that we will face a significant shortfall in energy supply over the next 10 years. Sounds like lots of people are waking up to this issue now! Responses differ, but great the debate’s out there. Listen to it here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n4kcw/You_and_Yours_13_10_2009/

The Future of Food

The Future of Food is a series on BBC 2 about the growing global food crisis that will affect the planet in the years ahead.

You can watch the first two episodes on the BBC site, it’s well worth checking out.

• Future of Food (BBC)

If what you see moves you to action, read more about what we’re up to in the Transition Ely Food Group, in particular the Ely Local Food Conference we’re organising on October 31st this year.

Dmitry Orlov – Seizing the Mid-Collapse Moment

Watch this great video of Dimitry Orlov speaking at a recent 3 day conference in Ireland called “The New Emergency: Managing Risk and Building Resilience in a Resource Constrained World”

Orlov’s book ‘Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects’ is an excellent read, order it from Toppings

Sutton Grapevine

People who know Sutton-in-the-Isle are invited to contribute to a community storytelling and sharing project, Sutton Grapevine.

Created by arts organisation Proboscis and commissioned by ADeC, the project is asking you to share your experience of Sutton-in-the-Isle and the surrounding fenlands whether you live there now or live away, have recently arrived, visited once or pass through on your way to work.

As the region continues to change through internal migration and immigration the initiative aims to let local people explore place and identity.

Proboscis invite people who have memories, experiences, thoughts and stories about Sutton-in-the-Isle to feed them into the Grapevine via a series of events in the village, at the Babylon Gallery and on www.suttongrapevine.org.uk, gathering and sharing stories of everyday life about Sutton and the surrounding areas.

Proboscis will in roving around Sutton between in June gathering stories. They will be back during Sutton Feast Week from the 1st – 5th July with an exhibition and audio broadcasts at St Andrews Church.

See www.suttongrapevine.org.uk or 020 7490 0880 or drop into Babylon Gallery, Ely for more details and to get involved.

Online Video club – May is food security month

Tim Lang’s ten ‘new fundamentals’

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, member of the government’s Sustainable Development Commission and president of Garden Organic, is the leading UK researcher on food security.

In the last 30-40 years there has been enormous investment in what is called efficiency. That means there is no spare.

The food system is like a fully stretched rubber band,  If it breaks, there would be a sharp rebound.  I don’t think a systemic failure is imminent but it is very vulnerable to shocks.

They could be technical shocks, ecological shocks or human disease shocks. We don’t have a sustainable UK agriculture base at the moment and we need one

In these videos Tim Lang highlights ten of his “new fundamentals”

Oil

Water

Climate change

Biodiversity

Demographics

Urbanisation

Labour

Nutrition transition

Health care costs

Battles of power

Tim Lang’s new book is “Food Policy: Integrating health, environment and society” buy it from Toppings, your local Ely book shop.

Transition Ely food group

Visit the our food group page for more information on what we can do to increase the resilience of our local food system.

Age of Stupid at the Maltings

Make sure you don’t miss The Age of Stupid showing at The Maltings on May 24th, see our events page for more information.

Just to whet your appetites, here’s a trailer for the much talked-about film:

Transition Ely online video club – April 2009

April is Permaculture video month!

Practical Permaculture in Britain – Part 1

Practical Permaculture in Britain documentary by Malcolm Baldwin

Practical Permaculture in Britain – Part 2

Bullock Brothers Homestead – A 25 Year Permaculture Project

A tour with Joe, Doug and Sam Bullock on their Orcas Island homestead, site of a yearly Permaculture design course. Using nature as their model, they create edges and wildlife habitat, move water through the landscape, promote diversity, and raise an astonishing variety of plants from sub-arctic to tropical

City Repair – Permaculture for Urban Spaces

What happens when citizens apply permaculture principles to a city grid? They create friendly places within the grid that invite people to come together. Mark Lakeman, co-founder of Portland, Oregon’s City Repair Project describes these “creative intervention” projects as placemaking at its best.

People learn to work together, build trust and have fun. The results, from painted intersections to cob benches and other organic structures, invite people “to inhabit the planet on our own terms” rather than the imposed grid-locked culture of the city.

Are you interested in Permaculture and how it can help in the gradual descent from a carbon-based world?  Get in touch with us at Transition Ely.

East Anglian Transition gathering in Downham Market

On Saturday 7th March, 50 people from 12 East Anglian Transition cities, towns and villages met to talk, plan, network and celebrate.

The towns represented were:

• Eccles
• Bungay
• Cambridge
• Dereham
• Diss
• Downham Market and villages
• Ely
• Ipswich
• King’s Lynn
• Norwich
• Mundesley
• Woodbridge
• Wymondham

View a map of East Anglian Transition Towns

For the morning session we used Open Space technology and quickly set up an agenda with x workshops:

The choice of subjects was eclectic, mirroring the different needs and experiences of the cities, towns and villages present:

Once we’d decided which group to join we set off for the designated meeting rooms. Naturally, I scurried off to the ‘Food’ group.

After the Open Space sessions we all sat down for a well deserved lunch, cooked and served up by our excellent hosts from Downham Market. The food was delicious!

In the afternoon we all took part in a World Cafe session (additional info on World Cafe’s).

The idea behind the World Cafe is to explore questions. A group of four or five sit together and talk through a topic, taking notes on the paper table cloth.

After the World Cafe we came together as a group and began feeding back our thoughts and impressions of the day. Gary from Transition Diss announced the launch of a online networking community for East Anglian Transition Towns (‘Transition East), check back here for more on this.

All in all, it was an excellent event, great for networking, building links and sharing ideas. My thanks and admiration go out to our friends from Downham Market (and villages) for hosting the day.

Looking forward to the next one, in six months time.

(Thanks to Josiah from Transition Bungay for some of the photos!)