Transition Culture

Very inspiring thank you! It took me back to the Transition Conference in London last year that I enjoyed so much. I’d very much like to know if a new date and venue have yet been set for the UK conference this year?

You might also be interested to know that there is the first gathering of Transition London groups taking place tomorrow… have a look at http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2010-03-30/transition-london-initiatives-gathering

Thanks Rob, though I live in Donegal, so can’t just pop to London at the drop of a hat! I was wondering about the main conference because – as you know – guilt free to the uk from Ireland via bus,boat and train takes a bit of forward planning!

Very inspiring conference for all those living in the South East…… thanks to all those who put this together.

Someone mentioned in the video the meanwhile clause about the use of derelict land for food production…… could someone point me in the right direction for this piece of legislation.

I couldn’t find anything about the intriguing “meanwhile clause” either, but it sounds like usufruct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usufruct

Maybe it was just something that had been mentioned as a possibility, rather than an actual piece of legislation? I’d love to find a campaign for its introduction in Britain…

The Meanwhile Lease was mentioned in a recent article here
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/7361528/Grow-your-own-vegetables-in-the-local-skip.html

It’s part of a new govt initiative creating a Land Bank linking growers to disused land. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who tries it out to see whether it’s for real.

Meanwhile, I find there’s loads of land that can be ‘adopted’ around a town. My neighbour has lent me a small parcel of land for a forest garden. And a group of us has taken over a plot of land on an industrial site awaiting development. We’ve been given huge wooden boxes from a construction project for growing food in; it’s amazing how many resources are out there if you start to ask. The Permies among us can develop all sorts of Earth Repair tricks as we go.

My personal experience was bittersweet. I didn’t like the price, 30 pounds, 10 times more than other similar events organized locally. And the organizer accepted the booking after expressing in detail his opinions about me, that aren’t exactly flattering.

I found the workshop from OVESCO was really good and interesting, and the Open Space session on transport had some pretty good stuff. The afternoon declined from there. The “EDAP in two hours” was fun but didn’t show me anything I didn’t know already. I quite liked the theatre at the end, but I don’t particularly go for the theory that engaging in arty/spiritual activities are the way to make the world a more sustainable place.

And I reached I really low point with the visioning exercise at the end. It completely depressed me. I haven’t seen the Transition film yet, but I know somebody who saw it and told me that it’s the most depressing climate change film she’s seen yet, and doing this exercise, I could tell why. Before it started, my heart sank when she said the target was 2030. The target used to be 2020, are we moving targets now that it’s getting uncomfortably close? Are the problems always going to be 20 years away? Then, when she asked to walk for the second time to “this time we have planned”, I just couldn’t help thinking that we aren’t really planning, we are just getting together and chatting. Even Ben Brangwyn is now saying that planning should wait. If you don’t understand what I mean, see here:

http://transitiontowns.org/forum/topic/working-on-an-edap