Turning The Tide - performances - 6 and 11 April

Climate change had a high profile this winter thanks to the Copenhagen summit and many of the carbon reduction campaigns, such as 10:10. And though the world’s governments came to few real agreements and the media has focussed on climate scepticism it’s clear, perhaps more than ever, that individuals and communities have a decisive role to play in keeping the carbon levels in the atmosphere down.

To keep the conversation about climate change going and avoid “burn out” is the intent behind the play, Turning the Tide. It’s set in a small rural community where very different characters comes to terms with changing their lives to reduce carbon emissions, from the perils of wheelie bins to arguments about wind farms. Afterwards the cast invite the audience to discuss the issues explored in the play. It’s a lively informal way for people to explore modern dilemmas that are often thought about but not always expressed or acted on. “Drama can be an effective and fun communication tool,” said Open Space Theatre Company director, Yves Green, speaking after the cast’s first performance at Wenhaston Village Hall. “Ordinary people can often be excluded.”

The play has been hosted by different Transition initiatives throughout Suffolk and is showing at Framlingham on 6 April and in the Woodbridge Library at 2pm on 11 April. It ends its month-long Suffolk tour in Bungay and if you’d like to take part as well as find out about any aspect of carbon reduction, from using one of the Library monitors to joining in with the town carbon audit, do come along.

Turning the Tide – A Carbon Fantasy in One Act by Peppy Barlow is at the Bungay Library on April 11 at 6.30pm. If you would like to reserve a place, please ring 07976 941 613 or contact .

Greener Fram: Future Visions - A World Beyond Oil

This Saturday March 27 Greener Fram will be holding an event centered around the key Transition topic, peak oil. This event will provide an exploration of what oil depletion could mean for Framlingham and the surrounding area, and how we can respond to these changes to create a brighter future.

- For every barrel of oil we discover we now consume three
- Oil production is already falling in sixty counties
- At some point global oil production will start to fall - FOR EVER

How can our communities adapt to changes that will come about through energy depletion and climate change?
How can we secure our future food supplies when at present every calorie of food takes 10 calories of oil to produce?
A report produced recently by UK industry, with a foreword by Richard Branson, warned about The Oil Crunch - a wake up call for the UK economy.

The Speakers will include:

Simon Weeks, Cookpole Energy Action; a community wind-power project near Halesworth
http://www.energyaction.org.uk/

David Strahan is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary film-maker who specializes business and energy. He is a trustee of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, fellow of the RSA, and an honorary researcher at the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre.
http://www.davidstrahan.com/

William Kendall, Maple Farm, Kelsale; “One hundred years ago Maple Farm, along with its neighbours, would have been producing all of the fresh food that the local town and villages needed. We hope that this can be the case again.”
http://www.maplefarmkelsale.co.uk/

Tim Waygood was born and raised on Church Farm. All his family farmed when he grew up, now he's the only one. It has been a lifetime of interests and passions that have led him to start up the family farm again and to found the Agrarian Renaissance.
http://www.peopleand/

We will also have a range of stands, and local food and drink for refreshments, plus an informal opportunity for everyone to feed in their ideas and ask questions about this very important topic. Tickets: £4, £3 concs. Time: 1-6pm. Venue: Thomas Mills High School, Saxtead Road, Framlingham.

For more information contact http://www.greenerfram.org.uk/.

Norwich: Food,Inc.

This must-see film tells an unwholesome story of big American agri-business, where working conditions, animal welfare, the livelihoods of farmers and consumers’ health are all held hostage by the drive for ever bigger profits.

The film highlights how a mere handful of companies control most of the food production business. One such company, Monsanto, has teams of detectives out scouring the countryside for farmers daring to save seed from one year to the next – or those that could be said to encourage such practice through their offer of services, like seed cleaning.

The film illustrates how ‘corn’ (maize to us) is turned into beef in the notorious feeding lot (with not a blade of grass in sight) – how corn indeed forms the basis for so many products in what seems on the surface to be an almost infinite choice in the modern American supermarket; how chickens (with echoes here of recent TV programmes by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & Jamie Oliver) are crammed in their thousands into spaces where they can barely move around – and if they could, they’re so weighed down by grossly fattened bodies that their legs can’t carry them more than a few paces.

Don’t miss this film! Catch it at Cinema City on Monday, 29th March, 8.30 pm. Peter Melchett – Policy Director of the Soil Association and North Norfolk organic farmer – will be present at the end of the film for a Question & Answer session. The Soil Association is the official charity partner of the film.

Suggested links: http://www.foodincmovie.com/; and ‘Why Food, Inc. should make us all retch’ by Charles Clover in The Sunday Times: www.timesonline.co.uk/news.

(Sarah Gann/Transition Norwich Food Group)

REPORT: Transition Talk Training (Colchester)

Twenty of us met at the Old Library in Colchester Town Hall for a useful day of learning how best to spread the T word. In essence it's the art of instilling in your audience the gravity of the dilemmas we all face without scaring them rigid; guiding people beyond that 'Peak Oil Moment' and giving them something solid to hold onto once Pandora's box has been opened - conjuring a good ship Transition to climb aboard and not leaving just a soggy plank to cling onto.

There was plenty of inspiration and energy in the room as folks from Bedford, Broxbourne, Colchester, Debenham, Norwich, Waldon, Wivenhoe and Woodbridge (plus Kevin all the way from Cornwall!) shared ideas and strategies. It was clear that it's not just a presentation of facts that wins peoples hearts and minds (although getting those facts right is crucial), it's the passion and conviction of a messenger speaking from their personal experience. The most infectious way of spreading the word and getting people involved is by displaying the momentum of Transition schemes in action and examples of success.

(Andy Croft/Transition Norwich http://www.transitionnorwich.org/ ).

Turning the Tide (A carbon fantasy in one act) By Peppy Barlow

Showing at Halesworth Library on 21 March 2010 starting at 11 0’clock.

Showing at other local venues: Framlingham at St Michaels Rooms at 7:30pm on 6th April and Woodbridge Library at 2:00pm and Bungay Library at 6:30pm on 11th April.

The idea behind the project is to use drama as a novel means of communication in trying to encourage action over carbon reduction. Many people seem to feel “burnt out” following the first wave of enthusiasm as a result of doom and gloom climate change stories in the media and the play is designed to re-stimulate interest through entertainment.

The play sets out to hold a mirror up to what is happening in our society, without being preachy.
Halesworth in Transition (HinT) are preparing to form an Energy Group to explore ways of reducing our energy output.

Created with sponsorship from the East of England Development Agency. Tour funded by the Green Suffolk Fund, the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Sustainability Fund & The Adnams Charity.

The play is aimed towards children 8 upwards and their families, if you are interested please just come along.

Linda Owen

Halesworth in Transition (HinT)

Permaculture Weekend with Sustainable Bungay

Since forming in November 2007, Transition initiative Sustainable Bungay have hosted several successful community events, including a local food conference, a give and take day, two carfree days and an energy day. In 2010 the group plans to transform Bungay library courtyard into an inviting and sustainable green space and ‘living library’ with raised beds, compost bins, wormery and rainwater harvesting.

Graham Burnett teaching

With this in mind we asked permaculture teacher and author Graham Burnett http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/ from Southend in Transition to run a weekend introduction to permaculture at the library in January. 15 of us from Bungay and other local Transition initiatives immersed ourselves in two full-on days of theory and practical group exercises.

Considering the territory

The basis of the Transition movement (founder Rob Hopkins taught permaculture for many years), this approach is about “designing sustainable human communities by following nature’s patterns”. It works with the shapes of the living world (e.g. branches, waves, the spiral of snail shells, the scattering of dandelion seeds), rather than imposing artificial straight lines and boxes on it. Key before starting our project was how to take time to observe nature’s rhythms and cycles, rather than rushing for a quick fix.

Paul talks about caring for fruit trees in his allotment-type garden

During the course we also learned how this ecological design system offers low carbon and energy saving solutions to food growing, transport, waste, the economy and community spaces.

After the weekend it was my turn to write for the Transition Norwich community blog (18-22 January), and I go into more detail about the weekend there, so do have a look.

Sustainable Bungay meets on the third and fourth Tuesday of every month at The Green Dragon, and the Bungay Library. All welcome.
To get involved with the library courtyard project, email Nick: transitionnick@gmail.com
To contact Sustainable Bungay email Sustainablebungay@gmail.com or call Josiah on 01986 897097

Pics by Josiah Meldrum (top and bottom) and Mark Watson (middle)

Calling Transition Food Groups

The Making Local Food Work programme has taken on regional advisers to support and promote community food co-operatives, out of a belief that they build social cohesion, encourage healthier eating, raise awareness of seasonality, benefit the local economy, keep growing skills alive, bolster local resilience by opting out of the multinational supermarket hegemony...

The adviser for East of England is me - Gemma Sayers - hi! I want to see lots of new food co-ops set up! And to improve the sustainability of those that exist. My role involves finding existing food co-ops and mapping them on the Food Co-ops Finder website: http://www.foodcoops.org/
My definition of 'food co-op' encompasses small wholefood buying groups, veg box/bag schemes, veggie van deliveries, markets - anything where a community comes together in a non-profit way to meet their dietary needs.

Online mapping will hopefully make it easier for people seeking a food co-op to join, as they can stick in their postcode and a map appears with what co-ops exist nearby.

If you're in a food co-op, please go ahead and add your details to the Food Co-ops Finder website. Even if you don't want more members, please consider adding yourselves without contact details, for the map's sake! East Anglia is looking skimpy!

If you're a member of a food co-op i'd love to come see how it's run, how you're set up, so i have a chance to learn from different models, and also i can offer you specialist advice both myself and through the partners on the MLFW programme - Co-ops UK, the Soil Association...
Perhaps you want to expand your customer base, or to learn consensus decision making because those interminable meetings are driving you mad?

If you don't have a food co-op near you but you want to join one or set one up, I would like to help you!
Setting up a food co-op can be a really easy first step for communities to start taking control.


What i can offer for FREE is:

*The Food Co-ops Toolkit: www.sustainweb.org/foodcoopstoolkit/
This is a comprehensive guide to setting up and running a food co-op in all manner of forms. There is a paper version on request.
*Coming to do presentations like 'How to set up a food co-op' to your group
*Access to specialist advice on business plans, governance and legal structures, co-operative principles in practice, marketing, financial sustainability
*Training days, workshops, exchange visits to other food co-ops and mentoring
*Local food newsletters
*Colourful leaflets, posters and banners to promote your food co-op

Please do get in touch.

If you are part of or know organisations in your area dealing with local food or communities and food access, i'd love to have their contact details!

Thanks,
Gemma Sayers
East of England Food Co-ops Adviser
(Transition Ipswich)

gemma@sustainweb.org
07971863586

www.foodcoops.org
www.sustainweb.org
http://www.makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk/