Kings' Lynn - Talk on Waste Management - Friday 14 May

A last minute cancellation in his speaker dates has meant that Prof Paul Connett, one of the world’s leading experts in waste management, is coming to Kings Lynn tomorrow (Friday 14th May) to give a talk regarding the incinerator which is planned for Kings Lynn, and Zero Waste which is a viable, sustainable alternative.

Dr. Paul Connett is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College. Since 1983 he taught chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he specialised in Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology. He retired in May 2006. Over the past 25 years his research on waste management has taken him to 49 states in the US, and 52 other countries, where he has given over 2000 pro bono public presentations. Ralph Nader said of Paul Connett, “He is the only person I know who can make waste interesting.”

The talk is free and open to everyone, it is hoped that some of those councillors who are proposing and supporting the incinerator will make themselves available to attend the talk. It will be at the NORA offices 6:30pm for a 7pm start, till 9pm Friday 14th May. The NORA offices are on the South Gate roundabout. There is a small car park on site. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear an independent expert’s view of the incinerator.

Bungay Community Bees - New Spring Project

Recently bees have been disappearing in their millions, affecting not only the production of native honey in every country, but most importantly, the bees' great task of pollinating the trees, fruit, vegetables and herbs that make up two-thirds of what we eat every day. In Bungay a new group has formed within Transition initiative, Sustainable Bungay, to help the threatened honey bee.

Bungay Community Bees is a Beekeeping Project which aims to manage hives in as sustainable a manner as possible. It will run as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) scheme where members own ‘shares’ in the bees, hives and harvest, taking part in the beekeeping year. This allows members to support honey bees without being ‘hands on’ - though the group plan is to fund training and hives for up to two new beekeepers each year.

“We are not a commercial venture and honey production is viewed as a bonus rather than a prime motive for bee keeping. We aim to use two or three systems over the next few years until we find one that suits us and the bees best.”

In the first year Bungay Community Bees hopes to recruit at least 20 supporters to invest in two hives (National type) and colonies, insurance for two beekeepers, basic equipment and training for two new beekeepers with the Waveney Beekeepers Group. Benefits will include visits to the hives to learn more about beekeeping, an opportunity to have a hive in your garden and most exciting of all, attending a honey harvest. The share of honey and wax will increase as the hives grow in strength and number.

Bungay Community Bees is being organised by Elinor McDowall and Gemma Parker. Both Transition beekeepers learned their art with the Waveney Valley Beekeepers and already have two hives and fifteen members signed up for the project.

“We’re hoping to acquire our first bees via the Waveney Beekeepers Group” said Elinor. “These are likely to be a mongrel mix of Italian origin and native British bees. However, in future years we would like to try some more native bees which are smaller and darker and because they are well- adapted to this climate, may be more resilient in times of change.”

In Waveney, there has been a huge increase in beekeeping interest. Last November the documentary, Vanishing of the Bees was shown to a packed audience at Geldeston Village Hall and a great cheer went up in the audience as Suffolk Beekeepers were seen marching to Parliament with their petition to help save the endangered bee.

In response gardeners everywhere are starting to growing flowers for the bees in their gardens and windowsills and local and sustainably-harvested honey has become highly-sought after. But perhaps the most effective way everyone can help starts at the table.

Colonies are made vulnerable to disease (especially the varroa mite), by the widespread use of pesticides and lack of bio-diversity in single-crop farming, as well as the the stressful nature of commercial beekeeping.

By eating fruit and vegetables grown without chemicals on organic farms or in local allotments and gardens which support a strong diversity of wild and domestic plants we will be giving pollen and nectar to one of our greatest allies on earth.

If you want to start a bee-friendly garden this summer, why not come along to Sustainable Bungay’s Give and Grow Seedling Swap on Sunday May 2 at the Bungay Library Courtyard and meet the Bungay Community Beekeepers?

If you would like to join Bungay Community Bees contact info @sustainablebungay.com. Membership is £20 per annum. The Give and Grow Seedling Swap is on May 2, Bungay Library Courtyard, 11am-2pm. For more information about the project and how CSAs work contact www.sustainablebungay.com.

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)