12 May 2009
The Evolution of ‘Can Totnes Feed Itself?’
I am currently in heads-down Totnes Energy Descent Plan editing/writing mode, which is proving hugely time-consuming, so posts at Transition Culture will be a bit erratic over the next few days. I am currently working on the food section, which is fascinating. We have been lucky enough to get a grant from Landshare to allow us to commission Geofutures in Bath to take Simon Fairlie’s Can Britain Feed Itself? paper and to focus it on Totnes and its surrounding ‘foodshed‘. It is fascinating work, and the first public unveiling of it will be on Monday May 18th, at an event in Totnes called, imaginatively, ‘Can Totnes Feed Itself?‘.
Burn out is a real and present danger for anyone involved in Transition, as indeed for any kind of community work or environmental activism. I have known several green activist/campaigners who suffered from terrible burnout, that led to depression, withdrawal and cynicism. At this year’s Transition Network conference there will be a workshop on dealing with burnout, a subject that has been a regular feature of Transition gatherings since its inception. When I visit Transition groups around the country, burnout is raised regularly as a concern, given that most initiatives are self-funding and driven by volunteers. I am not immune to it myself, but I was wondering the other day how come, given the incredible amount of commitment and energy people around the world are putting into Transition, there isn’t far more burnout than we actually see. In yesterday’s paper 
