The Power of Community is a thought provoking film of how Cuba has restructured all food production after losing it's oil supply. See review below.
Here are a few thoughts from Alan and Dawn (The Big Red Sofa) on the subject. With the danger of our oil and gas supplies being limited by the suppliers, maybe we should be doing something now?
As we started to discuss the other day there is a
lot of stuff we should be converting into the third dimension. I believe
we need to set a select group of people, real people from as many diverse
sections of the community as possible, to work together to research, establish,
implement and monitor a series of indicators of our developing sustainability as
individuals and as a collective community. This should not be aimed at the
folk who already subscribe to such an ethos, either knowingly or subconsciously
but to everyone who has an impact on the town. This includes locals and
visitors but also people who work here, who supply us (with whatever) and so
on.
None of the above is new or even innovative.
What it needs is to get done [sorry about the rubbish English] so we have a
chance of maintaining a reasonable lifestyle for ourselves and for those who
come after us. We have the chance, and we should grab the chance, to set
an example here in Chagford, for our own community and for other people in the
world. We keep following and that is good if the example is
appropriate. We have the resources and the expertise here to be leaders,
not just followers, all we need is an appropriate degree of co-ordination, not
just within or between the existing groups but across the board in terms of the
different groups that make up the community at large.
Rant over....for now!
Alan
Sorry, going to add a bit to Alan's comments.
Whilst I agree with what Alan has written, I think the crucial element is being
missed. Cuba has made these incredible changes because it has been forced to do
so. Who knows we soon may face finding out the hard way but until then we still
sit in our ivory tower. I believe that until people really disconnect with
consumer dependence (and we as a family are nowhere near this) nothing real
will happen. How do we achieve this unless we are forced into it? That is the
question for me, and so I don't have an obvious answer but happy to keep
trying!
Dawn
