Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
have led many to argue that non-local sources can be easily interrupted by transport
blockages, or reduced by rapidly increasing transport costs. So if this current sys-
tem, with its just-in-time supply, became handicapped by increased fuel costs and
reduced supplies, it seems logical to anticipate real local problems will emerge in
food supply and access.
A key objective in many Transition Towns is to find ways of ensuring a greater
and more varied production from the local area and also marketing these products,
paralleling some of the Green City movements described in Chap. 4, creating a
need for a
re-localization of food supply
. In addition, it is recognized that some of
the problems of the amount of supply could be reduced by avoiding the enormous
amount of food waste described in Chap. 6, for a third of food bought is thrown out
in the U.K. amounting to almost ﾣ500 per household, while half of the food pro-
duced is lost in the supply chain (DEFRA
2010
).
Obviously many products, especially fruit, that are found in food stores through-
out the year cannot be grown in temperate climate countries such as Britain; others
can only be grown in particular seasons. But even in the cases where the British
climate is suitable for a particular crop there has been a great drop in local produc-
tion and variety by the end of the twentieth century. For example, most of the apple
and plum orchards in Britain have been removed in the last century. In addition, the
large variety of different apples and plums that used to exist, even up to the early
1960s, have been reduced to a handful of types. Hence, local Transition Town activ-
ists are encouraging
new orchard planting
, using different varieties and also seek
ways of ensuring that local production will be available in local stores. They also
advocate the
local harvesting
of crops, such as many types of berries that grow wild
in and around many British towns. It is amazing how wild local blackberries and
mountain berries are now usually allowed to rot on the plant, as few bother to collect
this crop, unlike the situation even 30 years ago. In addition Transition Town groups
support the idea of
increasing distinctive local products
from district sources. For
example, in Britain there is a new trend to create different types of cider from dif-
ferent apples—paralleling the differential varietal basis of different wines—rather
than homogenizing the cider input from many varieties. Another is the creation of
new cheese varieties from local inputs, for many distinctive cheese types originated
in particular towns or regions, and like local wines some have been given exclusive
rights to the label through national and later European Union regulation.
In another context Totnes has shown the way in increasing local food sources by
planting large numbers of
nut trees
throughout the town and in surrounding areas,
since these trees produce high energy crops. This venture has been helped by a gov-
ernment Agro-Forest Research Unit that has long been established near the town.
Research in the centre has produced new varieties of nuts which can flourish in a
British climate, such as sweet chestnuts and walnuts. The initiative of the Transition
Town activists has been approved by the local council which has made land avail-
able for the nut tree planting project and in subsequent help with the harvesting and
marketing of the crop, while individuals called Tree Guardians have been mandated
to help ensure the trees are not vandalised.
Another focus in TT's has been to increase local land use intensity, for it is
only a generation of two ago that back gardens and local allotments were full of
