What are our core messages and video development

Can also look at the following links Re vegetable production that works well for the environment

Singing Frogs Farm No-till Farmers Elizabeth and Paul Kaiser Keynote Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAn5YxL1PbM

www.singingfrogsfarm.com ( http://www.singingfrogsfarm.com/ ) - no till vegetable growers

Regards

Gary Hayman
www.nzsugarfree.co.nz ( http://www.nzsugarfree.co.nz )

As with so many social media threads these days, this one is not much different. We all have our preferences, and we swamp each other with web and video links to promote our favourite solutions and defend our beliefs. That rarely leads to a consistent message. There is no single or best solution, and there doesn't have to be. If Gary likes to eat read meat and is banning sugar instead, that's fine - there will be enough of us who are willing to eat less meat or even go vegetarian to compensate for his lack of support in that one area. If the petrolheads among us just can't live without the stink and vroom of a fossil-fuel engine, then by all means, stick to it and pay for it - there will be enough of us who are happy to switch to electrified transport to compensate for the few who can't or won't let go. It's all in the mix. But instead of promoting our favourite solutions or even proselytizing others, let's acknowledge that the problem has just as many facets as there are solutions, and that doing something meaningful in the areas we're happy to contribute will help.
So far I like Rita's crack at the core values best - a few short statements, not too much to absorb, all about stuff we can do locally to make a difference.

Olli’s comments have hit a nail for me. My experience with Transition Whangarei has been the wide ranging views on a wide range of topics, some which have the risk of polarizing folks and thus having a negative effect on any chance of collaborative progress. I try to rationalize it in my head to the simile of us all being on the same waka, but all with different sized and shaped paddles, but paddling in the same direction.

The comments remind me of Rob Hopkin’s (Transition Town founder) summary of a recent UK Emergency summit for change:

“But what was so intriguing about this event was that all of the above was really to be expected. Bringing such diverse organisations, a mixture of grizzled battle-scarred community/sustainability veterans and younger, more idealistic activists, and people with very varied degrees of anger/exclusion/distress about the state of the world was always going to be a very charged field. And to try, in such a short period of time, to get them to actually not just meet and talk, but to work together to come up with actual, tangible, achievable projects, was close to trying to put a man (or woman) on the Moon.”

For what it is worth, I believe the first requirement is to form a committed core group to drive this agenda – to or three is too little, twenty odd is too many – seven or eight is about right. That is something Transition Whangarei has not been able to achieve though many ‘sub interest groups’ have formed. But will volunteer input achieve any traction unless our elected representatives step up with assistance.
For what it is worth, I am one of the 14% of NZers who are fairly pessimistic of being able to mitigate this issue.

Hi Ollie
I don’t know what you are feeding your cattle on, but grass fed does not require any energy other than the solar aspect of growing grass.
How are you regenerating soil with your plant based diet?

What amount of carbon is being stored?

regards

Gary Hayman

Ollie,
You likewise have oversimplified your case re plants - all the things you mention are part of the plant to table process. Planting, weeding, picking, packaging transporting storage and the biggest one is spoiled food as the most common source of food waste.

You still didn’t answer my question re carbon and soil, turning and exposing soil for vegetable growing / cropping is one of the bigger sources of carbon release.

Stop using flawed science.

regards

Gary