Your Future
If you have a vision, would like to request a workshop, or would simply like to find out more please email peakmatters@gmail.com
‘The People’ vs ‘The Markets’
Can you imagine a world where everyone with power is corrupt, dishonest and hungry for more?
This is where many found themselves at the beginning of the century in an unnerving time of great wealth and distrust. They were denying Climate Change, ignorant at best in regards to the energy situation and lining their pockets under a cloak of lies about equality. Continue reading
I have witnessed many examples recently that there is a change of attitude in the air. It may be an obvious statement as we are scrambling out of a recession and people are taking to the streets to fight for their rights. However, the change of attitude is from the media, the tone is sympathetic for the cause of people, the environment and communities.
Then to my surprise on Sunday 23rd January the news section of Top Gear aired some issues that many other media outlets do not seem brave enough to talk about. The boyish jokes of the show were momentarily interrupted with talk of the looming fuel price situation.
A free and public event on the 9th February, with a panel of national experts in organic and sustainable food, discussing what are often seen as conflicting issues in the food system. How do we balance the need for affordable food locally with:
Get the facts, take part in the debate and get inspired with some great practical examples.
Agenda for the evening:
5.30 Refreshments.
5.45 Welcome by Monty Don – President of the Soil Association.
5.50 Prompt start, housekeeping & introductions to the speakers by Kath Dalmeny, Sustain.
6.00 First speaker: Tim Lang – Professor of Food Policy, City University London.
Discussing: Problems with our present food system.
6.20 Second Speaker: Deborah Doane – Director of World Development Movement.
Discussing: The real cost of food – a global perceptive.
6.40 Third Speaker : Julie Brown – Founder & director of Growing Communities.
Discussing: Can sustainable food be accessible?
7.00 Questions and answers chaired by Kath Dalmeny.
7.20 Rounding up and ways to get involved.
7.30 End.
For Further information please visit: http://kindling.org.uk/making-food-fair
This event is being organised by The Kindling Trust and Unicorn Grocery with the support of the Soil Association. This event is free to attend and open to the public. It is part of the Soil Association’s annual conference.
This two-day event is a public debate on how organic food and farming can provide a mechanism for combating some of the major challenges that are confronting us, including climate change, health inequalities, building social cohesion and re-shaping the economy.
Addressing these issues head-on is more urgent now than ever before. With a growing population, constraints on resources, climate change, and the economy in critical condition, we need to rediscover the vital role that food can play in making us healthier, more connected to our communities, reducing our carbon footprint, and supporting local and national economies.
Drawing on practical models that enable communities to take greater responsibility for their own food choices (such as the Soil Association-led ‘Food for Life Partnership’ which is working in nearly 3000 schools to develop a healthy food culture), and the policy framework that needs to support adaptation to our changing environment and society, we bring together experts from across the food, farming, education, public health, political and civic realms to debate the sustainable way to feed ourselves now and in the future.
Green Fix: Valuing Manchester’s Nature
What does nature mean to you in Manchester? Where is the nature in your city?
Manchester is a great city. So much heritage, creativity and vibrancy. All that said, I am a boy from the country who began to miss all the nature and diversity I grew up with.
I lived in a very limited world of Oxford Road, University and the city centre for a long time when I first came to Manchester. It wasn’t until I returned to the city after university that I tried to make it my home and this would mean finding some nature.
The first thing that hit me is all the parks, Platt Fields was my favourite place in my final year of university. The events there are so full of colour and diversity, the lake is full of life and teeming with life on Saturday mornings when people brave the early morning air for the park run.
I now get my green fix when I walk to the Chorlton ease or run down the river canal or stroll around Chorlton water park. To me the green surroundings are my gateway to being a little closer to the English-Welsh border where I roamed as a child.
For many in Manchester they can revisit the industrial areas of their youth and see how the pollution is vanishing and being replaced with the calming vibrancy of nature. The Green Fix Valuing Mancheter’s Nature film takes you on a journey from the past of blue dogs and foaming rivers to a vision of the green spaces within the city.
The Kindling Trust has brought together the collective minds of 50 organisations in Manchester to come up with a definition of what sustainable food means in the city.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/16506864
What is Sustainable Food? from Kindling on Vimeo.
