tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87304871574963855352024-03-05T14:06:49.713+00:00holly blackAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.comBlogger286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-5540613071250697212016-07-22T13:50:00.002+01:002016-07-22T13:52:44.974+01:00100 Miles and 2 Mouths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/169835017" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In
the summer of 2015 Holly Black and Jo Barker decided to only eat food
from within 100 miles of their home city Bristol, for an entire year to
find out what it truly means to eat local. See if they made it...</span>
<br />
<div class="first">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A <a href="http://www.blackbarkfilms.com/" target="_blank">BlackBark Films</a> documentary short, this film follows their journey
through the highs and lows as new feasts are foraged, old traditions
explored and tantrums are thrown at the loss of comforting eating
habits.</span>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-82370789387599506032016-04-03T22:07:00.000+01:002016-04-03T22:07:25.257+01:00What I have to offer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j1eNbKiC04U" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-37773370214405645352016-03-30T08:43:00.001+01:002016-03-30T08:44:16.226+01:00Even in 2016, listening to our bodies is a radical idea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Frist published in the <a href="https://thebristolcable.org/2016/03/coexist-period-policy-radical-idea/" target="_blank">Bristol Cable</a>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bristol company<a href="http://www.hamiltonhouse.org/" target="_blank"> Coexist</a> have caused a media sensation by discussing a ‘period policy’ for its majority female workforce<span id="more-10366"></span> – the shocking idea that women who need to take time off to deal with menstrual pain should be able to.</span></span></h4>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">While most coverage was<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/02/uk-company-introduce-period-policy-female-staff" target="_blank"> supportive</a> or<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/03/01/period-policy-company-bristol-coexist_n_9354208.html" target="_blank"> ambivalent</a>, some commentators such as the callers on<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3472914/Male-radio-caller-risks-wrath-women-slamming-period-leave-playing-girly-card-female-guest-puts-firmly-place.html" target="_blank"> LBC radio</a> slammed it as ‘a very convenient girly card’, and unfair to men. It seems acknowledging that severe period pain, is, well, <i>painful</i> is still a radical idea in 2016. And that’s not even taking the feminist politics into account.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bex Baxter, a director of Coexist and facilitator and life coach, is
not entirely sure why this story has been so big, but wonders if it
could be the phrase ‘period policy’ itself.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“The word ‘period’ represents the core of life – what it is to be a
woman, and ‘policy’ represents the patriarchal mechanism to control
people to make sure they don’t abuse the system,” Baxter says. The
combination of these two words presents us with an unexpected
combination of ideas that seem to be in tension with each other.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Coexist, who manage Hamilton House in Stokes Croft, announced their
plan to create a period policy for their staff in February, aiming to
recognise and plan work around employee’s natural cycles.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Coexist policy is currently in process and will address all
natural cycles, including the menstrual cycle. Baxter says that even in
it’s most basic form, any period policy at all – even voluntary – is
radical, “We offer choice. Some women might not want to take it, but we
will support women if they think it’s beneficial to them.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"> “It is revolutionary… It’s about truth.”</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Headlines latching on to the idea that women could be given<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6968326/UK-companys-new-period-policy-set-to-give-women-time-off-work-during-their-monthly-cycle.html" target="_blank"> time off work</a>
due to bad period pains have almost universally missed the wider point.
They’ve instead highlighted that capital is the priority as opposed to
health, menstruation has been medicalised, and talking about periods in
general is<a href="http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/498290/UK-company-Coexist-controversial-new-plan-period-policy" target="_blank"> still taboo</a>. For Baxter it’s much bigger than one day off work a month.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“It is revolutionary. It is groundbreaking work. It’s
about truth. The reality is that women have periods and they shouldn’t
be a problem – they’re not a sickness.” Baxter said, “Sickness can occur
when natural cycles have been repressed, because women are not being
given permission to recognise and work with these cycles.”</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Behind this policy is a way of valuing our natural cycles in all
aspects of our lives – not just the workplace, suggesting that humans
are cyclical beings trying to fit into a linear society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Baxter thinks we are misinformed about our menstrual cycles:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">“Even for women it’s taboo, they are embarrassed and
ashamed of their periods, feeling that these natural cycles repress
them, making them the weaker sex. This is old debris but still in our
consciousness.”</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The power of our menstrual cycle can be used intelligently for
emotional help. “When this happens,” Baxter said, “women become
powerhouses.” Could this be the beginning of a self-care revolution?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">As Baxter argues, resistance is an opportunity for change and Coexist
are happy to be the first to the party, even if they are not exactly
sure why this story has been so explosive. “If we at Coexist can begin
to pull it apart, then it might give other people confidence to explore
it for themselves.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Baxter confirms that this could be the beginning of something bigger,
“Women in pain is almost missing the point, but it is a starting
point. I don’t mind wherever anyone is in the conversation as long as
the conversation is happening.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-46955123855533355162016-02-20T23:43:00.000+00:002016-02-20T23:43:04.661+00:00Lift leg, place foot down, take a step<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>First published on <a href="https://medium.com/@hollynoir/lift-leg-place-foot-down-take-a-step-15f39ee0a332#.jek64pjs1" target="_blank">Medium</a>.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--figure" id="1d57" name="1d57">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Recently,
whilst I was in India, I had a sudden realisation. It hit me when we
were halfway up a huge hill on a forest trek with a group of school
children. I was sweating through my clothes, panting slightly from
exertion and wearing a pair of seemingly over-the-top sturdy boots (in
comparison to the sandals of one of our guides). Each time I paused for a
breath or for a swig of water I felt tired, but I felt good. Usually
any kind of exercise that is constant for an elongated period of time
makes me feel sort of guilty. It makes me feel bad about my health, my
low levels of fitness and the state of my under exercised heart. I tend
to choose sports like climbing, yoga and silks — which take short spurts
of energy and strength, combined with resting positions and moments of
consideration. Which way does my body move, where is the fulcrum of my
balance? Half of this kind of exercise is about understanding your body
and solving the riddle of how to use it to it’s best potential, a form
of technique or style. The other half is pure strength.</span></span></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--figure" id="1d57" name="1d57">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="ea0c" name="ea0c">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
my way up the hill I realised something. I felt grateful. I felt
grateful for my health — rather than the usual feeling of not feeling
quite healthy enough. I felt grateful for my knee which has always
caused me problems, but seems to be doing so less and less these days. I
felt thankful that actually, I <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">do</em>
exercise - cycling every day, climbing and doing yoga, and that my body
seems to function more or less in a great way. Aches and pains come and
go — I occasionally get a cold, but I haven’t had a serious knock out
flu for a long time.</span></span></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="ea0c" name="ea0c">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="6ff7" name="6ff7">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
have never really thought of my health this way before. To be proud of
my body — not in an aesthetic sense but in a deeper way. I had that
little buzz, the little ripple of excitement in my stomach, that I can
remember from way back (over ten years ago) when I reached the bottom of
the Himalayas after a two week trek in Nepal. Back then I was in
Kathmandu, watching the pouring monsoon rain from my humid hotel room,
slowly registering that I had climbed the Himalayas. It felt
indescribably good. And it felt good in a deep deep place.</span></span></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="6ff7" name="6ff7">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="405a" name="405a">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Suddenly,
I had this feeling again. I felt indescribably good about my body. My
bones, my skin, my nerves and my muscles — they all seemed to be
working. They were doing what they are supposed to do and it felt like a
fucking miracle. Yet, it’s just the human body doing human body things
that it’s pre-programmed to do. Lift leg, place foot down, take a step.
But even these minute details blew my mind. It was like a moment in a
film when someone is brought back from the dead, or given a new body, or
made visible for the first time (there should definitely be a film
about this if there isn’t already) and they look at their hands as they
slowly turn them over… <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">These are my
hands. And they do all the things hands are supposed to do. Aren’t they
brilliant? YOU ARE BRILLIANT, HANDS, well done.</em></span></span></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="405a" name="405a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="9958" name="9958">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I wondered why this feeling had resurfaced. When I arrived in India I told myself to stop worrying about <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/2015/12/18/when-life-gives-you-lemons" href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/2015/12/18/when-life-gives-you-lemons" rel="nofollow">my lemons</a>.
I asked myself to not wallow over the negative feelings I’d been
struggling with in 2015 and to not focus on what happens when I get back
to the UK — instead, to just sit with myself. Be present. Try and see
India for what it is — a break. A series of moments to appreciate
everything that India may mean to me, without pulling it apart. I found
myself just sitting much of the time. Listening. Watching. Just kind of
‘being’ (whatever that means). At the time I didn’t think anything of
it, but now, back on my home turf, I feel as though it has allowed me to
see the good alongside the bad. I’ve always turned to words, turned
into myself when I feel things are bad — capturing descriptions and
frustrations in my private notes. Yet, now the staccato moments that I
usually have of seeing the spectacular or of recognising this beautiful
life we are all a part of — these moments are lasting longer. They are
sitting inside me for longer. The sunset last night still lingers in my
mind. The beauty of the winter sunlight drowning me as I cycled home
past the dock yard this afternoon feels overwhelming. The bright and
simple feeling of my feet on my bike pedals driving me across the city
that I love. The funny words in the local paper that made me smile. The
little girl in the vegetable shop eating a pear with such detailed
dedication that she almost made me cry with happiness.</span></span></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p" id="9958" name="9958">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf--p graf-after--p graf--last" id="db05" name="db05">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
don’t really know what this all means, and to be honest, I don’t really
mind not knowing. As long as it keeps on happening, I’ll keep on
lifting up my legs, placing my feet down and taking another step.</span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-58732730492296924722015-12-30T13:07:00.000+00:002015-12-30T13:07:08.398+00:00play<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YoE480mzrk0" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-22560104981205979842015-12-18T15:59:00.002+00:002015-12-18T15:59:46.304+00:00When life gives you lemons…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0D5JuOeysCeUIaYa0IXLWi_97ODwi7xfNRBQYD0Ezi6k-Wpba4PnNoThK3pHIkE3G7KxwwoYReBJoPJRWr2P8Jm-AnWKAr4h8SPkN2dBIn9lWW9EDg27ymWq8D12WwBnkkbwD2AJWCbg/s1600/20151208_214550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0D5JuOeysCeUIaYa0IXLWi_97ODwi7xfNRBQYD0Ezi6k-Wpba4PnNoThK3pHIkE3G7KxwwoYReBJoPJRWr2P8Jm-AnWKAr4h8SPkN2dBIn9lWW9EDg27ymWq8D12WwBnkkbwD2AJWCbg/s640/20151208_214550.jpg" width="640" /></a></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>First published on <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/2015/12/18/when-life-gives-you-lemons" target="_blank">Going Local Going Green</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/@hollyblack/when-life-gives-you-lemons-7f38a9704f0a#.l2g2bb2y1" target="_blank">Medium</a>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When
life gives you lemons, don’t worry. Even if you can’t begin to imagine
what lemonade looks like, never mind what it might taste like, don't
worry. If you lose your lemons, it's okay - they are still out there
somewhere, and in all likelihood, they’ll turn back up on your doorstep
when you least expect them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In 2015 I lost my lemons, so to speak.
And when I say lemons, I really mean 'my shit'. The past 12 months have
been full of ups and downs and roundabouts - a bit like Milton Keynes.
It all began with<a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/" target="_blank"> Going Local Going Green</a>.<br /></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><strong>On reflection</strong></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Going Local Going Green is <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/" target="_blank">this research project</a>
I’ve been working on looking at health, food, nature, economy, land use
and food in the city of Bristol - not, as you may have thought, my
lemons. As part of our<a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-methodology"> Action Learning methodology</a>
we’ve had to meet once every four weeks or so to reflect on the past
month and plan for the month ahead. This process is intense. It involves
speaking for 20 - 30 minutes in a stream of consciousness about both
the things we have achieved and would like to achieve, and also how we
are feeling. In all of my 31 years of life I have never been in a
situation like this before. To sit with 3 other people and to be given
an opportunity to express how I feel about my life. The process began
with speaking about work related to the research project, and it ended
with a mini life crises. Being allowed an open and supportive space to
express myself felt incredibly difficult at first. Although I like to
think of myself as emotionally intelligent (or something along those
lines) it turns out, when we started this back in April 2015, I was not.
I was going through the motions but there was something blocking me,
and this became more and more evident as the monthly sessions passed by.
Some months I turned up hidden behind a stone cold wall - refusing to
get any deeper than a list of actions and events for the past month,
avoiding questions about emotions. One month I turned up and pretty much
refused to speak because I felt so angry and sad. One member of the
group who is much more learned in the ways of Action Learning said that
this moment was when they thought they were either going to lose me, or
break me. It turns out, I was ready to break. And break I did.<br /></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Feeling my way</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I
had a bout of depression for around 6 weeks, with days full of
inconsolable tears and a sense of hopelessness I haven’t felt since I
was a teenager curled up on the bathroom floor. I felt as though I
couldn’t see the way out of how I was feeling and started to worry that
this is how I would feel forever. I started seeing a counsellor who
practices gestalt psychotherapy - connecting me with my body and my
feelings in a way I hadn’t been aware of before. Who knew you could just
feel emotions? I’m such an analytical soul (I blame academia) with an
ingrained internal process of; emotions turn up - analyse critically -
put in box - file in psyche - never think about again. I didn’t realise
that with emotion comes acceptance and responsibility. There is a sense
of intention and self care - and most importantly an understanding of
yourself and of other people. Who would have thought? Certainly not me
12 months ago.<br /></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Pressure points</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With this fresh look at my
mental health, came a slow look at my physical health. I’ve been having
migraines about once a month since my return from Mexico in March. I
started seeing another therapist - an acupuncturist, to see if I could
alleviate some of this pain. His work has also been around my emotional
health, helping to ‘open up some of my channels’ which may have been
seriously blocked since I was a wee bairn. Or at least since I was a
teenager struggling to handle my emotions (the beginning of the box
situation as above). Acupuncture has been a revelation to me. I don’t
understand it. I know it works, because I can feel it. Different
meridian points have made me feel different things. And the migraines
are beginning to alleviate, which is incredible as they’ve been haunting
me each month for the best part of a year now. How? I don't know.
Sometimes you just need to trust that something works.<br /></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Menstrual times</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Closely associated with both of the above is my new found <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/2015/8/24/me-my-womb-and-i" target="_blank">menstrual literacy</a>.
When I started blocking my own communication in Action Learning, and
making a note of when my migraines came, I realised it’s all related to
my menstrual cycle. So, as one of my Going Local Going Green pals
suggested, I started looking into what this could mean in terms of my
menstrual cycle and the changes that my body goes through each month. It
would be fair to say this is sort of a positive pandora’s box for me.
Everything has been flying out, but it hasn’t all been bad. It’s been
one of the most profound experiences of my life. We live in these bodies
yet we know so little about them. It turns out we’re cyclical beings in
a cyclical world that is pretending to be linear (and wants us to
pretend to be linear too). It’s complicated and completely simple at
exactly the same time.<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, now I’ve turned into one of those
people who talks about lemons. There is a lot more to this, as you can
imagine. I can feel my life changing every day. I’m trying to do the
things that make me feel good more and to confront the things that don’t
make me feel very good. I’m learning about what intention means. I feel
like I’m a bit late to the mental health and wellbeing party, but I’m
glad I’m getting there in my own time. I’m doing things like this;
saying out loud the way that I’m feeling. It’s amazing and terrifying.
There are still hard days and there always will be, but now I can allow
myself to be honest with when I’m having these days and do the things I
need to do to be kind to myself - whether it’s stretching my bones out
or challenging my mind. I still find all this openness a minefield and
I’m extremely thankful for my friends and family helping me to navigate
through this. And I apologise in advance if I verbally vomit about any
of this stuff, because I think it’s all brilliant and scary and I need
all of your help to make sense of it all - and I hope I can help you in
return.<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Right now, my lemons are doing alright. I hope yours are too.</span><br />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-30237004611321434632015-12-08T23:42:00.000+00:002015-12-08T23:42:00.458+00:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/144575429?color=ffffff" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/144575429">Age of the Farmer</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/spencermacdonald">Spencer MacDonald</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-45685070706286962922015-12-07T21:37:00.000+00:002015-12-07T21:37:00.036+00:00The Period Poem<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4vu2BsePvoI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-18168076958722063082015-12-06T21:37:00.000+00:002015-12-06T21:37:04.664+00:00#streetgoats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/146758688" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br />
<a href="https://vimeo.com/146758688">Street Goat - Crowd Funding Campaign Film</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user605721">Joanne Barker</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-43075806921027972632015-11-09T19:05:00.001+00:002015-11-09T19:05:34.974+00:00Emtithal Mahmoud <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uaWw6-3GrcU" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-21663230541861444112015-10-06T14:40:00.002+01:002015-10-06T14:41:44.368+01:00pale blue dot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XG90YYHCSeA/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XG90YYHCSeA/hqdefault.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"From this distant vantage point the earth might not seem of any particular interest. but for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of - every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate or joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions ideologies and economic doctrines. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician. Every superstar, every supreme leader. Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there, on the mode of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters, of a fraction, of a dot." </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Carl Sagan. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M" target="_blank">Pale Blue Dot.</a> </span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-39454771112208503532015-08-23T19:38:00.001+01:002015-08-23T19:39:26.533+01:00The Locavore Diet: Week 5 - Failure, the guilt of failure, and more failure. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_qlQxFDEeOs" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-57033515148108003232015-08-19T19:40:00.000+01:002015-08-23T19:40:57.627+01:00The Locavore Diet: Week 3 - Getting drunk and deep. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V_sF84rbE-k" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-9765918275170020812015-08-16T19:37:00.000+01:002015-08-23T19:39:10.097+01:00The Locavore Diet: Week 2 - Beans, the M5 and a cup of tea.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lg_5TmFZTgY" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-60736126172903437052015-08-05T23:35:00.000+01:002015-08-05T23:35:00.790+01:00The Locavore Diet: Week 1 - freaking out.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JuyL4FMP8LU" width="560"></iframe></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-70937604992513541732015-08-05T23:33:00.000+01:002015-08-05T23:33:09.756+01:00Wild Geese<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">You do not have to be good.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">You do not have to walk on your knees</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">You only have to let the soft animal of your body</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">love what it loves.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Meanwhile the world goes on.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">are moving across the landscapes,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">over the prairies and the deep trees,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">the mountains and the rivers.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">are heading home again.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">the world offers itself to your imagination,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">over and over announcing your place</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">in the family of things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">By Mary Oliver.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">H/T to young mr Nicholas Mulvey. </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-71763815616982627812015-07-29T10:33:00.002+01:002015-07-29T10:35:54.397+01:00The locavore diet: all peaches and cream? Not quite…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #363636; line-height: 24px; text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOJRVS_VW2ecYcbJha-8Sk3gIvuMBR_VcCObtd5x7EV4XuEhiaX37D7eu-L_AwPdpTq-9d09nquN31zaEHZteRS_ita0doYU3gefxPExe_c3ciOBZ6XSDflVUV2OoYKwseleDJCfVJ0k/s1600/20150723_091152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmOJRVS_VW2ecYcbJha-8Sk3gIvuMBR_VcCObtd5x7EV4XuEhiaX37D7eu-L_AwPdpTq-9d09nquN31zaEHZteRS_ita0doYU3gefxPExe_c3ciOBZ6XSDflVUV2OoYKwseleDJCfVJ0k/s640/20150723_091152.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>First published <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/2015/7/23/the-locavore-diet-all-peaches-and-cream-not-quite" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A quick look at how I felt about Day One (July 20th 2015) of the locavore diet. It wasn’t all peaches and cream, needless to say. In fact, not even close.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breakfast</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Today was Day One of the diet and already I've stumbled and fallen. Me and my partner in crime, Jo, agreed that we could eat any perishables still left from the previous week - a transition week, if you will. All the fruit and veg left over from last week are fair game. Great. I, however, live with a person who is very strict when it comes to commitment - and is especially serious about food. Although we've just returned from a weeklong trip to Pembrokeshire - eating very locally (fish, potatoes, laverbread, cockles, salmon, cheese, butter... the list goes on), on Day One he still refused to eat a breakfast of Welsh bread, Welsh butter and Welsh cheese. So we went without. The hardest part for me was not waking up to a hot cup of tea. I stared forlornly into the tea and coffee cupboard, wishing that we'd worked out how to grow those special plants in our climate en masse. Instead, I found a few measly looking mint and lemon balm leaves in the yard and covered them in boiling water - which, in hindsight, is probably a really good practice for the mornings. Drinking a cup of hot water to flush your system – surely my skin will be glowing in days?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Lunchtime</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />When lunchtime arrived we ate halloumi, red pepper and cucumber wraps with a twist of lime. Nothing local about that - but it was within the proviso of using up perishables, so we relaxed into the idea of being in a transition week - at least we has a lemon or two left in the veg basket. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Then, slowly, as our hunger grew, we started to freak out.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />I told him not to worry, I had a great idea. A new organic food shop had opened just down the cycle track from us. We put on our waterproofs and got on our bikes (which felt very fitting when visiting an organic food shop). When we arrived it smelled like incense and was full of people just hanging out - which immediately made my boyfriend leave. He's not one for sandalwood. Sweating in the humidity I asked one of the employees for local produce. Just those, he said as he pointed to a pile of 6 courgettes in a basket. We’re about organic, not local, he said. (cue the benefits-of-organic spiel - from which I felt I shouldn't - or couldn't interrupt). When I explained the project he showed me their stock of various fresh produce, all from Lancashire (all organic), just outside the limits of the research. He said they did have some British quinoa, but he wasn't sure where it was from, and there was currently none in stock. He said maybe a barter system would be good, or growing my own. I sulkily pointed out that this was an experiment and it's possible I might fail, to which he sympathetically smiled and told me to wait until August and September when the shelves will be full. The one thing they did have, after a rummage for watercress and bean sprouts, were eggs. Local eggs. I greedily grabbed the last two boxes, wanting to walk out the door feeling triumphant after all. However the overarching dismay was as wet as my rain sodden hair, and the shopping bag felt extremely light as we plodded on.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />The supermarket</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Next stop - the local supermarket to see how we'd do there. The fruit and vegetable aisles provided surprisingly good results. Mushrooms from Somerset, Strawberries from Herefordshire, potatoes from Suffolk (might need to check that's within 100 miles actually), tomatoes and spring onions from Worcestershire - and lots of courgettes again. I did buy quite a lot of things that are ‘UK produce’ in my desperation; cider vinegar, rapeseed oil, milk, yoghurt and oats - which I will research now and potentially forfeit once the transition week is over.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />On leaving the supermarket I hurriedly called the grower from <a href="http://simshill.co.uk/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sims Hill Shared Harvest</a> - the veg box scheme of which I’m a member, leaving a rushed message asking for a bigger box, and perhaps a swap of some produce which isn't local, for those that are – followed swiftly by a call to another farmer friend who runs the salad bag scheme <a href="http://ediblefutures.org/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Edible Futures</a> to sign up (life saver) and a last call to a mate who is the Animal Manager on a therapeutic working farm just up the road, <a href="http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/changing-lives-day-farm/story-17174604-detail/story.html" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Elm Tree Farm</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />"I need your eggs," I whispered, "All of them."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Fortunately these good people talked me through the farmers markets and shops in Bristol to get my local food, complimented by encouraging messages of support.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Maybe it's not going to be so bad after all. Only time will tell.<br />Read more from Holly <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest?tag=holly" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</span></span></h4>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-38711462835362228472015-07-29T10:30:00.001+01:002015-07-29T10:30:43.732+01:00The Locavore Test<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YzBKA1P3ne4gY0BK3LpmftSr2sA3TfJzdF26k8GErtQYR43LcIqurvmZDbGfxHZnXHIVu1nVgxmLDp68Nu9NP-X9zBRmu8EReoW8-H8B0YR0ise8oa2C-5UX4ht_MHJmajuctLs8tdU/s1600/20150527_211616.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2YzBKA1P3ne4gY0BK3LpmftSr2sA3TfJzdF26k8GErtQYR43LcIqurvmZDbGfxHZnXHIVu1nVgxmLDp68Nu9NP-X9zBRmu8EReoW8-H8B0YR0ise8oa2C-5UX4ht_MHJmajuctLs8tdU/s640/20150527_211616.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; line-height: 24px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Blog first published <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest/thelocavoretest" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #363636; line-height: 24px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As part of the Going Local Going Green research project we’re embarking on a 100-mile diet – or the ‘<a href="http://www.localfoodswheel.com/locavores/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">locavore diet</a>' as I have come to call it. In other words, only eating food that has been grown, processed and sourced within 100 miles of Bristol.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">From the moment we start, I will adopt the locavore test to see if what I'm consuming is local or not. When I walk into a café I will conduct the locavore test. When I head to a friends house for a cup of tea – I will ask the inevitable (and occasionally annoying) questions of the locavore test. Before I bake a cake – I'll locavore test the ingredients. It may become a thing. (It also may not become a thing because I fear I’m slowly becoming that person – the difficult one that claims to have a wheat intolerance, or not eat animal products, or who can only eat raw, fallen foods from the trees of Eden and so on.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>How are we doing it?</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We’re not crazy – although we may appear to be slipping into some version of mildly odd to the untrained eye. We’re undertaking this project to help us work out what we mean by ‘local’. After all, we are doing a research project that falls under the label of ‘Going Local, Going Green’. When we talk about local, be it the local shops or the local area, what is it that actually makes it local? Is it the fact it’s in walking distance, that it’s familiar to us, or is it more than that? When it comes to food it gets even more complicated. Did I buy it locally? Was it processed locally? Was it grown or bred locally? Were the seeds local/ heritage/ native to the country or region? Where did the soil come from? These are all things we have to think about (maybe not the soil bit for now). Taking inspiration from the Canadian couple <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100-Mile_Diet" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon in their book ‘Plenty’</a>, and the amazing food hubs emerging throughout the UK with the <a href="http://openfoodnetwork.org/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Open Food Network</a>, we’re slowly developing a feeling of what ‘local food’ means in the contemporary sense of the word.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana;">What have we done so far?</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So far we’ve set dates to start the diet. Then changed them. Then set them again, then changed them again. My initial lassaiz faire attitude is starting to back fire on me as the fear and the list of ‘can’t haves’ slowly builds. We’ve been keeping food diaries in order to start thinking about where our food comes from. We’ve been researching certain products, such as flour, oil and tea to try and find UK born and bred versions of these, which we will report back on as we go. We’re going to keep video diaries, blogs and reviews on how we’re doing once the diet is underway. We’re compiling the aforementioned list of ‘can’t haves’, which will hopefully eventually become a list of ‘substitutes to’. And we’re mainly talking about it. A lot. To anyone that will listen. Friends, family, strangers and people who might know things that we need to know – like Graham from <a href="http://www.berthas.co.uk/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bertha’s Pizza</a> who travelled the west coast of the USA in hope to find the best blend of flour for his pizza, or Jo Elliot from First Great Western on why they’ve decided to <a href="https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/about-us/greater-west/customer-experience-improvements" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">source from 15 miles</a> around the train tracks in the South West for the food supplied on the train.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana;">But - why?</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><br /></b>There are loads of reasons to experiment with eating locally from supporting the local economy to understanding where food comes from. I know there are important elements like carbon footprints and food miles – but my main concern is that we’re supporting farmers that look after the soil beneath our feet. And that the food we eat is tasty.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana;">My reasons:</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">1. I want to support local farmers and growers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">2. I want to be aware of the rich diversity of food in our local area</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">3. I want to understand the implications of globalisation on our food system</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">4. I want to reconnect with my food</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>What do we think will happen?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Who knows? Maybe it will be easy. Maybe it will be really hard. I’m guessing it will be more of the former due to our location – we’re not based in the Sahara Desert after all. Yet I do still keep getting these waves of fear. What about coffee? What about tea? What if I can’t find any oats for my daily porridge? What about my hangover cure of a Big Mac Meal with a Coca-cola and packet of salt’n’vinegar crisps? WHAT ABOUT BOOZE?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Below you can find a list of rules we will stoically stick by…. and a couple of caveats. There needs to be some exceptions to the rules, right? Follow us on this blog with the <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest?tag=locavore%20diet" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">locavore diet tag</a>, or on twitter<a href="http://twitter.com/GoingLocalGreen" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">@goinglocalgreen</a> and we’ll let you know how we’re getting on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b>THE RULES</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana;">All food and drink must be grown and/or produced within 100 miles of Bristol</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Cornwall is included in the 100 miles (it basically is anyway…)</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All elements of the food or drink product must be from within 100 miles: if it is bread, the flour, water, oil, salt and any other inputs and ingredients must be from within 100 miles.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same goes for booze. All ingredients must come from within 100 miles of Bristol.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we can’t get the information needed to determine where the whole product is from and we’re buying it from a shop – it’s not allowed.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If travelling further afield than Bristol, the 100 miles starts with where the individual is located.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Household ingredients that have already been bought are not allowed to be used for the trial period of month one (then we'll see...)</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When housemates or lovers are cooking for us, the meals are subject to the diet.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coffee shops mean consuming strictly only local teas/ coffees/ drinks. Sorry.</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><b>EXCEPTIONS</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Food at work meetings that cannot be avoided. ie. crew catering at Glastonbury or a work meal provided for you.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you are eating out, try to go for the meal and drinks with the most local ingredients. This doesn't mean we get to eat out every night. We promise. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If we can’t get the information needed to determine where the whole dish is from and we’re buying it from a restaurant, but over 50% of the plate is local – it’s allowed. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Family gatherings/ friends for dinner - try and discuss before hand and explain the project - forfeit some food if you know it's not local. </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the pub - only drink locally sourced beers/ wines/ whiskeys etc – don’t forget all of the product’s ingredients are relevant here – some research of ingredients in advance might help. But it might not.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wish us luck - this might be tougher than we think. You can follow us here, or on twitter:<a href="https://twitter.com/GoingLocalGreen" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@GoingLocalGreen</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-25535662226319908102015-07-29T10:13:00.001+01:002015-07-29T10:14:03.905+01:00Going Local Going Green<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm working on a research project. You can find out more about it <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/" target="_blank">here</a> or at <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/">http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'll be posting up things we learn, blogposts and other updates. But for now, this is what we're doing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="line-height: 1.2em;">Going Local Going Green is a website and project dedicated to exploring what it means to go 'local' and be 'green' in our home town,</span><span style="line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><br /></span></b></span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em;"> the mighty city of Bristol.</b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On this blog you will find articles and information detailing the various experiences of going local and going green in our city of Bristol. You will hear from Jo, Tim, Cai and Holly about the areas in which we are exploring under the overarching themes of nature, food, land, health and economy. We will also explore what exactly 'local' and 'green' means to us, and using our chosen methodology (<a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-methodology" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">action learning</a>) we will amble along, digging up information now and then to <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/the-latest" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">share with you</a>, and hopefully inspire and <a href="http://www.goinglocalgoinggreen.info/bristol-projects" style="color: #999999; text-decoration: none;">connect you even more</a> with the city around us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Follow us on twitter for all the latest news: <a href="https://twitter.com/GoingLocalGreen" target="_blank">@GoingLocalGreen</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-22110555599027211602015-07-12T18:15:00.001+01:002015-07-12T18:15:26.104+01:00The child has a hundred languages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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No way. The hundred is there.</div>
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The child<br />is made of one hundred.<br />The child has<br />a hundred languages<br />a hundred hands<br />a hundred thoughts<br />a hundred ways of thinking<br />of playing, of speaking.<br />A hundred always a hundred<br />ways of listening<br />of marveling of loving<br />a hundred joys<br />for singing and understanding<br />a hundred worlds<br />to discover<br />a hundred worlds to invent<br />a hundred worlds<br />to dream.<br />The child has<br />a hundred languages<br />(and a hundred hundred hundred more)<br />but they steal ninety-nine.<br />The school and the culture<br />separate the head from the body.<br />They tell the child:<br />to think without hands<br />to do without head<br />to listen and not to speak<br />to understand without joy<br />to love and to marvel<br />only at Easter and at Christmas.<br />They tell the child:<br />to discover the world already there<br />and of the hundred<br />they steal ninety-nine.<br />They tell the child:<br />that work and play<br />reality and fantasy<br />science and imagination<br />sky and earth<br />reason and dream<br />are things<br />that do not belong together.</div>
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And they tell the child<br />that the hundred is not there.<br />The child says:<br />No way. The hundred is there.</div>
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~Loris Malaguzzi<br />(translated by Lella Gandini <a href="http://edinsanity.com/2012/09/12/the-child-has-a-hundred-languages-but-they-steal-ninety-nine/#sthash.TUojHSpe.dpuf" target="_blank">here</a>. h/t to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Key/1578340699121577?sk=info" target="_blank">Mr Key</a>)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-172356834102598712015-07-05T17:28:00.002+01:002015-07-05T17:28:37.891+01:00SLIP<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-7765887212712303022015-05-15T15:27:00.000+01:002015-05-15T15:29:19.225+01:00Hacking it out at the farm<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">New entrants to farming in Britain are often faced with a long list of challenges before they even put their wellies on. Defra’s 2013 report, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211175/pb13982-future-farming-review-20130709.pdf%20https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211175/pb13982-future-farming-review-20130709.pdf" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank"><em>Future of Farming Review</em></a>, details a vast array of barriers faced by new entrants to farming, and highlights the shocking figure that only 8% of British farmers are first generation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Across the pond in the United States, a different phenomenon is occurring: the arrival of <a href="http://www.thegreenhorns.net/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">the Greenhorns</a>. In farming terms, a greenhorn is a novice or new entrant into agriculture, and this grass-roots group aims to help them. The Greenhorns have been making waves with their <a href="http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/the-greenhorns/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">2014 documentary</a> on young farmers, and they are helping to change the landscape of field-to-fork farming by using technology to organise and up-skill new farmers. Recently, the Greenhorns have developed a specific tool to help connect the diaspora of new farmers spread across the United States – it’s called the ‘<a href="http://farmhack.org/home/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Farm Hack</a>’, and it has now arrived in the UK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What’s a ‘Farm Hack’?</b><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘Farm Hack’ is a concept coined by the Greenhorns. Think ‘<a href="https://www.ifixit.com/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">i-fixit</a>’ combined with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>. Lots of problems – and lots of solutions – all on an open-source, easily accessible platform that allows members to interact, debate and build on each other’s ideas. Although the term ‘hack’ evokes images of computers with Matrix-style numbers flashing across the screen and a virus eating your computer from the inside out, it actually has myriad meanings. These range from the ability to cope successfully with something to breaking up the surface of soil. In recent years hack has also come to mean a congregation of people (either online or offline) aiming to take action or work together to solve a problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Taking action and problem solving is exactly what occurred on a sunny spring day last month at Ruskin Mill in Gloucestershire at an event organised by the Landworkers’ Alliance. A group of farmers – some new entrants, some old hands – gathered together to find solutions to their shared problems. From Fife to Devon and Norwich to Pembrokeshire, farmers and those with technical expertise travelled from far and wide to share their knowledge and see how they could help one another address a wide range of issues faced on the farm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>UK Farm Hack #1</b></span><br style="line-height: normal;" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Farm Hack was launched by Severine von Tscharner Flemming, the founder of the Greenhorns, with guests of honour <a href="http://www.latelierpaysan.org/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">L’Atelier Paysan</a>, an innovative group of French farmers, that are reclaiming farming knowledge. The Farm Hack got off to a flying start, with the attentive attendees ready to soak in the energetic atmosphere. The highlight of the morning’s demonstrations was a bicycle-powered mill from Fergus Walker and the <a href="http://fifediet.co.uk/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Fife Diet</a>. Coined the ‘<a href="http://www.ferguswalker.com/flourmill.htm" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">People Powered Flour Mill</a>’, it was an ingenious box that looked like a red rocket, and it ground wheat into flour at the turn of a pedal. The afternoon saw a host of inspiring workshops, covering compost tea preparation, 3D printing and how to set up food hubs with the <a href="https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Open Food Network</a>. Alongside all this were welding, blacksmithing and green wood-working drop-in sessions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The second day felt like the crux of the event. It culminated in an extremely productive Open Space session that identified projects for collaboration, with a short period devoted to the development of these projects. The Open Space session allowed attendees to get stuck into what they really came for – exploring their ideas, finding solutions and offering help to others. Suggestions were made for regional working groups to skill share and to create training and barter systems, as well as tapping into expertise outside of farming from engineers, CAD experts, coders, academics and architects. These other networks provided an alternative perspective on solving farming problems by framing the issues differently. For example, a blacksmith may have the expertise to fix a broken tool, but an engineer may suggest a different tool with a new shape or a different attachment to do the job better. It was a team effort – and if you didn’t know the answer, there was almost always someone in the room who did!<strong> </strong></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Is technology the solution?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Technology is often seen as the golden ticket to problem solving. But driverless tractors, drones and robots are not necessarily the answer (despite what the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2648499/From-robotic-milk-maids-self-driving-tractors-drones-monitor-crops-Scientists-reveal-future-farming.html" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank"><em>Daily Mail</em></a> may want you to think). Instead, we need problem-solving tools that can make a real difference in the hour you have at the end of the day when you choose either to sit at the computer or water the tomatoes. The introduction of organisational tools such as <a href="http://www.farmathand.com/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Farm at Hand</a>, <a href="https://trello.com/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Trello</a> and the Farmhack wiki could potentially change the face of farming. <a href="https://www.farmbrite.com/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Farmbrite</a> is designed for record keeping and is mobile enabled so it is accessible out in the field. The <a href="https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Open Food Network</a> and<a href="https://www.farmdrop.co.uk/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Farmdrop</a> support small-scale farmers by connecting customers directly with producers in their local area. And there is <a href="http://www.buckybox.com/" style="color: #568786;" target="_blank">Buckybox</a>, an organisational platform designed specifically for community-supported agriculture (CSA) projects – my local grower at CSA Sims Hill Shared Harvest was raving about it over the seed beds a few mornings ago. These are tools that allow CSAs to manage their members without ever seeing each other face to face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the best ideas of the day was to invite older and more established farmers to share their expertise to help find better working systems. Meeting in real life rather than by email meant ideas could flow more freely, connections could be made and interests shared. Farmers need support through shared best practice as well as from new developments in the field. The wisdom imparted from established farmers who have seen it all before is incredibly valuable. Once this group of farmers got going, the ideas were flowing faster than Severine could note them down – a sign that a network of farmers, old and new, focused on solutions and assisted by technological tools is just what the future of farming might look like.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>First published by the Sustainable Food Trust <a href="http://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/hacking-it-out-at-the-farm/" target="_blank">here</a>. </i></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-14806524473228078682015-05-15T15:23:00.000+01:002015-05-15T15:23:07.578+01:00Farming, speed dating and smart phones<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the UK <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17537153" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the average farmer is 58 years old</a>, which presents our nation with a big challenge. Not only does this suggest that farming is often not seen as a desirable career choice for young people in the UK, but some farmers of this age can find themselves ‘technologically challenged’ due to their generational relationship with technology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Don’t get me wrong, I’m not tarnishing all farmers with the same brush – many farmers and growers out there are extremely technologically adept – and not all of them are young in age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Often, when we talk about technology on farms, our immediate impulse may be to think of tractors, machines and even drones – money and energy intensive machinery and equipment created and used to make farming easier and therefore more profitable. But, what about technological systems on a more personal and immediate level, such as internet based tools to help organise the farm?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Recently I volunteered on <a href="http://www.essexfarmcsa.com/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Essex Farm</a> in Essex, New York State. Essex Farm is a community supported agriculture project where each farmer has a smart phone and the farm team used the organisational tool <a href="http://trello.com/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Trello</a> to administrate day to day, weekly, monthly and seasonal activity. Each farmer logs on and updates their cards each night. Every morning, over a coffee, Mark – the farm owner and manager, goes through the cards for the day and tasks are prioritised and allocated. Easy – and no scraps of paper in sight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Of course, on snowy winter days when the internet struggles, Trello struggles too - but overall it enables the increasingly available every day tool (the smartphone) to help run the farm – a tool that most young people, whether farmers or not, tend to have in their pockets all day, every day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Of course, in the UK we have our own issues with <a href="http://www.fwi.co.uk/business/rural-broadband-roll-out-still-too-slow-say-campaigners.htm" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">rural access to the internet</a>, which is slowly, but surely, getting better year by year. Yet, farming in the USA is being revitalised aided by the simple fact that the new generation of young farmers grew up with easy access to the magic of the internet and jazzy technological tools previous generations have not seen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A grassroots not for profit based in New York state, the <a href="http://www.thegreenhorns.net/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Greenhorns</a>, aim to promote and support young farmers using technology such as; audio, video, events and publications (amongst other tools, such as ‘weed dating’ – a farming take on speed dating to help young farmers meet like minded souls) to help enable young farmers, promote best practice and to share successes and importantly – their social lives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This farmer driven community has developed tools such as <a href="http://www.farmhack.org/home/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">‘farm hack’</a> – an internet based community where farmers can share information. Farm hack is based on <a href="http://opensource.org/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Open Source</a> principles, allowing an horizontal exchange of information sharing and ideas. A brilliant tool designed and run by those who need it most, the farmers themselves. Farm Hack also enables farmers to build beneficial new relationships with members of the local community with desirable skill sets such as engineers and designers, bringing a social aspect to the mostly internet based tool.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Join a Farm Hack</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And now for the exciting news… Farm Hack has arrived in the UK. On April 18<sup>th</sup> the <a href="http://landworkersalliance.org.uk/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Landworkers Alliance</a> held the first ever <a href="http://landworkersalliance.org.uk/farmhack/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Farm Hack</a> outside of the USA. Combined with the <a href="http://www.communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk/" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">CSA network</a> designed to link up community supported agriculture projects across the UK by promoting information sharing, best practice and promote a fairer food system, and some great apprenticeship programmes like the <a href="http://www.soilassociation.org/futuregrowers" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;">Soil Association’s Future Growers</a> scheme – we’re making steps in the right direction. Watch this space!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Originally published on the Soil Association's blog <a href="http://www.soilassociation.org/blogs/latestblog/article/1088/farming-speed-dating-and-smart-phones" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Holly is a freelance communications and digital communications consultant working mainly with the food and farming industry and specialising in digital communication, social media and web copy. Follow her on <a href="http://twitter.com/hollynoir" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a> or connect on<a href="http://uk.linkedin.com/in/blackh" style="color: #009dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.</span></i></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-18081859363772335252015-05-06T00:59:00.002+01:002015-05-11T22:39:29.501+01:00faraway nearby<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Like many others who turned into writers, I disappeared into books when I was very young, disappeared into them like someone running into the woods. What surprised and still surprises me is that there was another side to the forest of stories and the solitude, that I came out the other side and met people there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> Writers are solitaries by vocation and necessity. I sometimes think the test is not so much talent, which is not as rare as people think, but purpose or vocation, which manifests in part as the ability to endure a lot of solitude and keep working. Before writers are writers they are readers, living in books, through books, in the lives of others that are also the heads of others, in that act that is so intimate and yet so alone."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rebecca Solnit - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/books/review/the-faraway-nearby-by-rebecca-solnit.html?_r=0" target="_blank">The Faraway Nearby</a></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12210971101732757864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8730487157496385535.post-46476014738775263742015-04-20T23:45:00.000+01:002015-04-20T23:45:00.318+01:00the national<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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