Transition Towns in Wellington

The international Transition Towns movement is gaining momentum in New Zealand.

Here in the Wellington region we already have active groups in groups in Brooklyn, Hataitai, Johnsonville, Karori, Lower Hutt, Ngaio, Upper Hutt, Wadestown, Aro Valley and Wellington South.

The Transition Towns movement shares with Slow Food an overarching concern for local communities and their environments - and many in the movement are placing importance on traditional food production methods.

The most recent issue of Slow Food's Snail's Pace focuses on urban agriculture, and contains an article about permablitzes. Permaculture principles heavily inform the Transition Towns movement - and so you'll currently find many Transition Towns groups - including those in Wellington - at different stages of planning or carrying out permablitzes.

To find out more about Transition Towns in Wellington and its upcoming events, see the New Zealand Transition Towns website.

Fructivism!

British activist George Monbiot again ... this time on growing your own fruit and the ills of modern varieties designed for supermarkets.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/02/food.foodanddrink

NZ Slow Food blogs

This year at least two other NZ Slow Food convivia have set up blogs - Slow Food Marlborough and Slow Food Waitakere. It seems like a great way to keep in touch with what Slow Food members are doing around the country.

Small is Bountiful

UK author George Monbiot (he who doesn't fly, and came to Wellington Writers and Readers Week via satellite link) has written a recent column on how small farmers offer the best chance feeding the world.

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/06/10/small-is-bountiful/

Alice Waters on the future

Chef, restaurateur, food writer and food activist extraordinaire Alice Waters offered these thoughts at Terra Madre, a Slow Food event in Turin in 2006:

I believe that the destiny of humankind in the twenty-first century will depend most of all on how people choose to nourish themselves. And if we can educate these senses, and break down the wall of ignorance between farmers and eaters, I am convinced — because I have seen it with my own eyes time and again — people will inevitably choose the sustainable way, which is always the most delicious alternative.

—quoted in Alice Waters and Chez Panisse by Thomas McNamee

The Down Home Diet

Today I had lunch with Christine Dann who has been travelling around the North Island interviewing people for a book with the working title The Down Home Diet. Her book is going to be about relocalising our our food supply, and how it can be produced sustainably. She’s looking at oil-free and low carbon ways of accessing, growing and eating food.

We talked about the Slow Food movement, what the Aotearoa convivium is doing and hoping to achieve in and around Wellington. Christine is looking for examples of how people are producing food and welcomes your stories — write to her at christine@horomaka.org.

From what she tells me, there's a lot of interesting things going on out there, a lot of interesting people doing good, food-related things. It’s to be published by Craig Potton Publishers towards the end of this year. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.