Bioregional Economy

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Isabel Carlisle introduces the panel for ‘Bioregions: a powerful way to reconnect people to land’

Yesterday I attended the Oxford Real Farming Conference, primarily to attend the session on bioregions which featured a panel chaired by Isabel Carlisle of the Bioregional Learning Centre and included Green Party MEP Molly Scott Cato,  the writer John Thackara, and my friend Andy Goldring – the Permaculture Association CEO. I’ll try and capture more of what I learned in a subsequent post, but hearing Molly Scott Cato speak reminded me that I had reviewed her book The Bioregional Economy; Land, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for Permaculture Magazine back in October 2014, but that they never ended up publishing it.

Here’s that review: Continue reading “Bioregional Economy” →

Community Wealth Building

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This morning I’ve been thinking about the ‘Preston Model’ and how this model of ‘new municipalism’ might inform bioregional praxis – with special attention to how it might work out here on the Dengie. In my workshop on bioregionalism at the UK Permaculture Convergence in September  I briefly mentioned the Preston Model as a possible technique that might emerge as appropriate from a bioregional design and now seems a good time to think some more about that. I’m generally not keen on beginning with a technique and working backwards but going through some survey and analysis of the local economy with the model in mind may help reveal aspects that would otherwise be unapparent. Continue reading “Community Wealth Building” →

Climate Emergency

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On 8th December I posted on social media about trying to find a point of agency in the face of the wicked problem of climate change – partly re-energised by the Extinction Rebellion actions:

‘I’ve never been a member of a political party, I’ve always been against it on the basis that joining a political party seemed to indicate you supported implicitly everything their representatives ended up saying or doing, no matter how idiotic, and even the barmiest parts of their manifestos. No thanks, I favoured the Groucho Marxist position. Continue reading “Climate Emergency” →

National Permaculture Convergence 2018

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Your humble correspondent setting up with a BGS geology map and Robert Szucs’s river basin map [photo courtesy of Alan Charlton]
Ed Tyler and I delivered a workshop on Bioregional thinking at the 2018 National Permaculture Convergence, which took place in Hulme, Manchester last weekend. The session was well attended and enthusiastically received which was a relief after all the stressing out and prep I did beforehand. I didn’t manage to cover everything I wanted to include, so the slideshow linked to here Continue reading “National Permaculture Convergence 2018” →

Eastern Region Permaculture Gathering

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Next weekend is the Eastern Region Permaculture Gathering in Norfolk, where I’ll be presenting a workshop on Bioregionalism. I launched Managed Retreat at the first Eastern Region Permaculture Gathering, so in many ways this will be an update on how on my thinking has developed since then. It’s also an opportunity to shine more light on this Dengie Bioregion project and the Confederation of Soviets of the Atlantic Archipelago. Continue reading “Eastern Region Permaculture Gathering” →

MAD about Bees

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I’m looking for the QueenBee

Last weekend Claire and I attended a beekeeping taster workshop in Ulting run by the Maldon and Dengie 100 Beekeepers. We already have a hive (bee-less) and made contact with Peter Davison, who oversees of the management of the Divisional Apiary based at the Arcadia Road Allotment Site. The taster workshop is designed to give would be beekeepers the opportunity to have some hands on experience with real live bees as well as Continue reading “MAD about Bees” →

Refill Burnham & The Plastic Problem

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I just attended the launch event for the ‘Refill Burnham & The Plastic Problem’ exhibition at Burnham-On-Crouch & District Museum opened today by town mayor Wendy Stamp and councillor Vanessa Bell. It’s an exhibition about both problems and solutions. Continue reading “Refill Burnham & The Plastic Problem” →

A forest of raspberry canes

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east Coast

As part of the research I’ve been doing into the local history of fruit production, I came across William J. Tate’s 1899 book East Coast Scenery: Rambles Through Towns and Villages; Nutting, Blackberrying, and Mushrooming; Sea Fishing, Wild-fowl Shooting etc. which was apparently illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The book is a collection of articles contributed to ‘the columns of the Civil Service Guardian in 1890-91, and the Bristol Times and Mirror in 1897-98.’ Amongst his trips about the Eastern counties Tate and an associate visit Burnham and Southminster, and in his account of the two locales he reveals Continue reading “A forest of raspberry canes” →