The Venus project is amazing and Jacques Fresco is a visionary. The ideals will be hard to achieve. Permaculture is a way of thinking and designing by observing natural systems with Bill Mollison and David Holmgren the visionaries behind it. Permaculture will make the transition come sooner and be smoother. Look into it and learn how to become more independent of the current systems and thereby force those that currently 'do' to reassess their position. Transition towns is a permaculture movement and community is the key. Strong communities will be the way to bring about the changes that we wish to see. Big ups! Oh - check out 'Greening the future' on youtube etc for a practical demonstration of permaculture design in action :clap:
Disclaimer: the opinions and ideas presented on this forum are not representative of the Zeitgeist Movement UK
Hi there Nick
Saw your post thought I'd add to it in support.
I am pursuing the roll of permaculture into my everyday life.
In realising 15 months ago I needed to grow food I accidentally came across some google videos, the principle made so much sense.
I found a torrent with a great selection of videos from various names such as:
Bill Mollison
Geoff Lawton
Sepp Holzer
Masanobu Fukuoka
Emilia Hazelip
http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/36518617/permaculture?tab=summary
Not to mention
Robert Hart who helped pioneer permaculture in the UK
Ken Fern - Plants for a future database - http://www.pfaf.org/index.php
Patrick Whitefield
I have just bought 2 book from the bottom two
Also the Incredible edible Todmorden - http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/
A friend of mine lent me part of his allotment to practice while I wait for my own plot, typical the council has a huge waiting list, I have written to them at various levels expressing the 1904 allotments and small holdings act to no avail for the release land to lower the waiting list.
I have written to my MP expressing governmental push for a Cuban style food revolution based on the fact we are a food net country, 40% of our veg and 90% of our fruit and who knows what on meat? Are all imported and if the food chain is broken it can wreck havoc on the country.
I am not far from the countryside, so last year as an experiment I planted loads of crops in a small wooded area and monitored the success and failures (more failures)
I have a concrete yard and built a raised bed and got hold of free large buckets for additional food
I have registered on Landshare with no luck so far but I have big ambitions with no real experience, that's how confident I am with this system.
Now I have come to believe that Permaculture is going to be very important in preparation for transition, it is not only a way for producing food but a lifestyle. Reducing bills, reducing general spending, conscious shopping, buying local, I do not buy the global warming carbon footprint mantra that is touted on mainstream but we should push for reducing pollution in the water table, sea, land and air. Peak oil, we do need to find other methods of power, oil will diminish and fuel will rise in price, our population growth has risen in parallel with oil production. So the idea of living a sustainable lifestyle that works with nature is more appealing but it also means changing within.
Food prices are set to rise again this year, plenty of articles to support it, though mainstream media is not covering it (panic prevention I guess)
Spring is a good time for everyone to start planting edible perennial food.
Cheers all
this sounds like a good watch but i cant find it... do you have a link at all? (ideally a torrent link to a permanent download would be great but a youtube/googlevideo stream will also do fine )
thanks
just a quick bit of cross referencing here:
another permaculture thread with some videos etc... http://www.thezeitgeistmovementuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1117
I start my Permaculture Design Course in Oxford on the 27th
Forwards ever backwards never
I have just got my Permaculture design certificate.
I guess it's the diploma now
http://www.landshare.net
If we raised funds and put them towards buying land, we could grow a lot more than relying on either allotment spaces (Which we would have to pay rent on anyways..) or people sharing their land for free.
Considering how much pocket change we throw away on take-away pizza, going to the pub, smoking/etc. I reckon there is plenty spare capacity to devote some to these kind of endeavours.
I think perhaps Scotland has the cheapest land available from what I vaguely understand, with some being sold for as little as £30 an acre in the last 5 years. (Though we would need a food distribution system if all our focus was in one part of the country.. (Which is what I had in mind solar vehicles could be used for.))