jump to navigation

Bantry Community Supported Agriculture February 18, 2009

Posted by Graham in : General , 1 comment so far

Perhaps the most positive project to be initiated in this neck of the woods to promote local resilience in the face of global economic meltdown is the Bantry Community Supported Agriculture scheme.

You can read about this in detail on Ivan McCutcheon’s excellent local food blog, Food Culture West Cork.

Brainchild of John Dolan, a Cavan man who settled in West Cork nearly 10 years ago, the pilot scheme involves three farmers on the Sheep’s head peninsular who have agreed to grow plots of oats and potatoes, which are open now for subscribers to buy shares in.

John writes:

A pilot project has been started in the Bantry / Sheeps Head area. It has started with  3 – 5 acres of oats and 1/2 acre of potatoes for the 2009 planting season. The aims  of the project are: •    To introduce the concept of CSAs to potential producers and consumers in our area and pave the way to extend the project in the 2010 season. •    To develop the infrastructure necessary to produce roled oats for porridge locally. Were not making breakfast for everyone! •    Extend awareness of issues concerning local food security. •    To identify producers for the 2010 season who are interested in better crop rotation – heading for an organic cycle. •    To explore ways to expand the project to other crops for the 2010 planting season – barley -  energy crops – biomass willow?.

John has focussed on staples like these because many people already grow their own vegetables in west cork, while grains in particular may be harder to produce on the garden scale and require the input of experienced farmers. It is a great achievement for john to have found local farmers open to the idea, and others should study the model closely as it is surely one that will need to be widely adopted.

Powerdown Toolkit #3: It’s All Connected February 16, 2009

Posted by Graham in : Permaculture, Powerdown, community , 1 comment so far

This is the introduction to the third week of the Powerdown Toolkit 10-week community learning course created by the Cultivate Centre in Dublin. It has an accompanying TV show with a 30-minute episode accompanying each week of the course, soon to be aired on Dublin Community TV.

It’s All Connected: Whole Systems Thinking and Permaculture

Systems theory is an interdisciplinary theory of how we can understand the world in terms of the dynamics of a system: a network of interrelating parts which themselves can also be seen as parts.

This idea of “parts within parts” has been referred to as a “holarchy”- a nested series of systems, one within the other like Russian dolls.

Thus, an atom is part of a molecule which is part of a cell which is part of an organ which is part of a body. As a formal branch of science, systems theory emerged first within the ecological sciences, but has been perhaps most influential in the development of computers. Since the 1960s, its use in the understanding of humans interconnectedness with the rest of nature in the “web of life” has been a compelling and powerful motivation for the sustainability movement. (more…)

Ben Goldacre, Jeni Barnett and MMR February 12, 2009

Posted by Graham in : General , add a comment

The controversy over the Jeni Barnett show and media irresponsibility  continues over at Bad Science.

Here is a brief quotation given there from an interview with a nurse who phoned in to debate the issue on Jeni Barnett’s show:

Yasmin: Well, you’d be surprised. And at the moment we are expecting a measles epidemic and it’s because of people like Ken Livingstone and people like yourself. You talk about young mothers who have a very difficult decision to make and, I agree, they do, and I spend a lot of time talking to them. But people like you don’t really make it any easier for them. And you were just talking about somebody with an ear infection. I’ve been talking to somebody I know who had a child who woke up with the contents of their ear on the pillow and that was down to the rubella virus. So you really need to think about what you’re doing here and why you’re doing it.

I think all responsible environmentalists should give Ben Goldacre there support-  worrying as the increase in Measles and Mumps is, this is an opportunity for us to stake a claim for rationality and show that beliefs do in fact have real effects in a real world. The lamentably ignorant anti-science position of all- too-many environmentalists – which has of course more in common with Bush’s War on Science than any progressive environmental vlaues- is hazardous to the health and well-being of real people, in this case children.

The curious thing here is that this misinformation has been propogated by the media’s irresponsibility- which appears to be one of the main sources of fuel for the rise in irrationality and superstition, dragging us back to the 19th century- or beyond.

Since when has the media been a standard bearer for environmental ethics, progressive values of Earth Care , People care and Fair Shares?

It might also be an opportunity for the health and Well-being sub-groups of Transition Towns to make a clear statement on this issue and inform people responsibly about the public health issues surrounding vaccinations.

Deconstructing Climate Change Denialism February 11, 2009

Posted by Graham in : General , 2comments

Excellent post here on Skeptico unpacking in detail the kind of false arguments used by some to deny climate change. Really good analyses, very useful for all sorts of anti-scientific claims.

From the BBC: “Rise in measles ‘very worrying’” February 7, 2009

Posted by Graham in : Health, Science and Rationaltiy , 3comments

From the BBC yesterday:

“Measles cases in England and Wales rose by 36% in 2008, figures show…

“Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said it was “irresponsible” for parents not to have their children vaccinated.

He said: “I think it’s irrational, I think it’s putting children’s lives at risk. I can see no shred of benefit.

“There is no evidence that having vaccines separately is better. There are good reasons why it’s worse.”

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said confidence in the MMR vaccine was returning but it was vital that parents made sure all their children had received both doses.

“Measles is a sinister and nasty illness and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

For anyone who thinks that it is cool and trendy and somehow “alternative” or even “mystical” to avoid the MMR vaccine have a look at Ben Goldacre’s recent forray into the subject.

Some of the transcript of the broadcast he is writing about is available here and the comments after this blog are worth reading to get an idea of the different points of view, and where they come from.

Powerdown Toolkit # 2: The Power of Community- Social Capital, Resilience and the Local Community February 5, 2009

Posted by Graham in : Peak Oil, Powerdown, Transition Towns, community , add a comment

This is the introduction to the second week of the Powerdown Toolkit 10-week community learning course created by the Cultivate Centre in Dublin. It has an accompanying TV show with a 30-minute episode accompanying each week of the course, soon to be aired on Dublin Community TV.

Subject: “Community powerdown”.

“Community” is often dismissed as a romantic notion, “harking back a golden age that never existed”. Traditional rural communities tended to be held together by the absence of choice: you were your mother’s daughter or your father’s son, and the range of possible futures – opportunities for travel, education, and employment- were limited.

From an ecological perspective, such opportunities were limited essentially by the availability of energy. This may have lead to a sense of being stifled by the conservative norms of the community, and their  parochial and sometimes oppressive nature. The community became something to escape from once the opportunity arose. (more…)