Local Food

Edinburgh Feed the 5000

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Edible Edinburgh

Reposted from Edinburgh City Council / University of Edinburgh – see Edible Edinburgh for more information or download Edible Edinburgh 5 Oct flier 500kB – thanks to David Somervell for alerting us to this,

Please join us on Saturday 5th October in Bristo Square and Potterrow, University of Edinburgh for this Feeding the 5,000 event, with community stalls showcasing local food related action and a discussion about the future of Edinburgh as a sustainable food city.

Community stalls open from 11am in Potterrow, with a free lunch being served outside in Bristo Square from 12pm until 5,000 portions run out or we close at 4pm!

The purpose of this event is to:

Inspire awareness about local food production, food waste and social responsibility.

Engage Edinburgh residents about the proposed strategy to develop Edinburgh as a Sustainable Food City and launch “Edible Edinburgh” – an action group of the re-established Edinburgh Sustainable Development Partnership.

Feeding the 5000 is a campaign launched in 2009 to raise awareness of the amount of food wasted locally, nationally and globally and how we can solve this. Following successful events in London, Paris, Bristol, Manchester and other cities across Europe, we are planning Scotland’s very first Feeding the 5000 event in Edinburgh on Saturday 5th October 2013.

5,000 people will be fed with a delicious free meal created by celebrity chefs and community groups from ingredients that might otherwise have been thrown away. Along with participatory cooking sessions, educational and campaign stalls and more, the two days are sure to be a must for anyone who enjoys good food and cares about food waste.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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Dalziel + Scullion | Edinburgh Lectures

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

dalziel-scullionDalziel and Scullion have been invited to give a lecture entitled Ecology of Place as part of the Edinburgh Lectures series. It takes place Monday 27th May 2013 at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.

Other speakers in the series include the zoologist Aubrey Manning, specialist on the lynx Dr David Hetherington, Geddes expert Dr Walter Stephen, author on the arctic Ken McGoogan, marine biologist Prof Murray Roberts, natural history television producer Nigel Pope, local food advocate Lady Claire Macdonald and geologist Prof Iain Stewart. 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Aardwerk: PDC course in 2012

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Netherlands (Special Municipality of Sint Eustatius)
Aardwerk: PDC course in 2012

For the time from the 1st of May to the 21st of May 2012, Aardwerk offers an international PDC course in a remote place, so that participants are able to see their environment in a new way. Instead of offering ready-made solutions, the course enables its participants to face the everyday challenges as well as the long term challenges they are faced with through their own strenghts and the collective intelligence of the group. The courses aim is to provide a new way of thinking: Rather than seeing problems, participants will be able to see opportunities.
Creative teaching methods and lots of practical field work will be part of the course. In the end graduates will receive the internationally recognised PDC certificate, which opens all possibilities for further work concerning permaculture.
There is the offer of several volunteer positions at local organic farm and nature management projects, for participants who would like to stay longer.
Benefits for participants is the development of skills throughout the course, among others the following ones:

  • greater food sovereignty
  • food and drinking water security & quality assurance
  • more efficient use of natural resources
  • energy security
  • more sustainable an resilient community life
  • practical community development & social cohesion
  • teaching traditional culture, knowledge & skills
  • more autonomy and security in essential services, products and materials
  • ways of social organisation that suit your own community’s needs and abilities

Participants will learn that following the patterns of Nature is  more satisfying and rewarding than e.g. switching Nature off and taking on the burdens of providing ecosystem services.
Furthermore the participants will contribute their share for Statia in terms of climate forest, local food security, healthy economic development and cultural enrichment.
The detailed programme, information about the location and the teachers can be found on http://aardwerk.org/school/international-pdc-2012/
Registration will be open from 1 December 2011 till 1 April 2012.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Fair trade versus Local Produce / Fair trade and Local Produce

Arcola Theatre, in association with the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, is connected with Growing Communities, an organisation that deals with the distribution of local grown produce. Growing Communities is a social business which runs community-led box schemes which can be collected from various pick-up points in Hackney, and is all local, fresh vegetables! As with Fairtrade products, local produce also have numerous benefits: supporting the local economy, reducing food miles, and enhancing community involvement and spirit.

With the concerns surrounding climate change increasing day to day, many firms, households and consumers are searching for ways to reduce our negative impact on the environment and to reduce our carbon footprint. With this in mind, the argument becomes in favour of local produce and somewhat against imported fair-trade. Thus, this raises the question: can they not both exist together?

Many of the products that we buy are only grown in developing countries and therefore it is logical to buy these Fairtrade products. For example, us Brits, we do love our tea! And tea, where does it come from? The majority of tea plantations are found in Asia, South America and Africa; places where the climate is suited to growing tea. Thus, in this case it makes sense to transport and ship over Fairtrade goods rather than growing and producing local goods. It can even be said that in some instances the level of carbon emissions is lower from transporting Fairtrade goods than producing local. In addition, the number of jobs created in tea plantations provides a boost to the local economy and their carbon footprint is reduced as they can afford to buy local food.

Buying local, however, does have its benefits and is often preferred for certain types of food. Our desire to buy local is often a result of our increasing concern over food quality and the need to trust what we buy. With local foods, it is possible to go to the Farmers market and meet the farmer and learn more about where the food comes from. This is increasingly being for advertised international foods through TV adverts and marketing, however the ease with which it occurs with local foods is unparalleled.

At the end of the day, some goods are just better suited to being produced abroad and others that we love are better made locally. A harmonious result is that balance of both types of goods in our shopping basket.

Go to Arcola Energy

Artist Commission: Amy Franceschini/Myriel Milicevic – Loughborough University Arts

Beneath the Pavement: A Garden is a project that considers biological forms in relation to political and social systems. It looks at the potential of a small plot of land on the Loughborough University campus to tell social and political stories, deconstructing systems, propagating them and watching them grow.

We often inform our economics, architecture, political structures and artwork with systems of nature. What happens if we re-impose these interpretations back onto nature or have them assume roles based on interpretations of these systems?

Launching the project, a three day workshop offered participants the opportunity to collectively debate, design and create edible landscapes based on political systems. With contributions from a diverse range of artists, academics and environmentalists, these discussions informed how the plot is re-invented; creating a site for exchange and production around issues relating to the local and global food economy.

Over subsequent months the garden will act as a meeting place, as participants help tend the land and see this newly created garden grow and thrive.

Across the 3 day workshop participants collectively debated, designed and created edible landscapes based on political systems. These conversations included contributions from political scientists and theorists, local policy makers, sociologists, ecologists and urban planners.

On the first day there was a tour of local food producers and distribution networks, and meetings with key politicians and environmentalists.  On the second day there was a number of workshops and presentations by academics and campaigners whose work is centred around creating or advocating for a more sustainable future.  The final day was taken up with deciding how the piece of land would be cultivated, and included elements of garden design, mapping the layout and content of the space.

Amy Franceschini (USA) and Myriel Milicevic (Germany) have been working together since 2004. They are drawn together under a common interest in how humans interact with the environment around them. They often use highly interactive workshop environments to play out scenarios of social and political significance.  www.futurefarmers.com

via Artist Commission: Amy Franceschini/Myriel Milicevic – Loughborough University Arts.