How is the film, 'Power of Community', relevant to us in Ottery?

Cuba’s a relatively small community and we’re a small community too. And we’re connected to a rural community and we have a lot of resources so there is the potential to do some of the things that were done in Cuba.

We’ve already had some experience of fuel shortages: 2001 petrol blockades, and last winter gas prices went up massively so we are getting the warning signals. We need to take notice of them.

The film is irrelevant in some ways because in Cuba living without oil was forced on them, plus 65% of the land is owned by the State. By contrast, in the UK the Government has a set-aside policy which discourages people from growing things (But don’t we need set-aside for wildlife? Not necessarily because organic farming does have wildlife.)

In Cuba they could do things very quickly – and that was because of land ownership and the government system.

The Cuba crisis was similar to WWII – ie it was forced on them. They had no choice but to ration. Farmers who didn’t produce enough had their farms confiscated in WWII in UK – same as in Cuba. In WWII, the government had the will and could convince the people how necessary it was.

Local councils in the UK have sold off a lot of their farms just at a time when we should be encouraging local food production (county doesn’t know what to do with them because they’re too small).

Cuba was a throwback to medieval times when each community was trying to be self-reliant. But is there enough agricultural land in the UK today to sustain our big population?

In WWII we had a much bigger rail network sustained with indigenous supplies of coal. We don’t have that anymore – we’re totally reliant on the road system. Can you imagine the M1 and M25 being used for horse-drawn vehicles??! Have we irreversibly changed the infrastructure so that we’re totally reliant on oil?

And could people today skin a rabbit and cook with homegrown food like in WWII? Young people today are used to buying readymade food so we need to share skills of growing food.

Our food prices are already going up – wheat etc – partly because of the effects of global warming and partly because of the cultivation of biofuels.

Transition Town model – supports transition from an oil dependent community to a community that isn’t. This will require us to reskill ourselves.

We need to respect our elders who have the skills and knowledge to live with less oil.

It’s more than a technical problem – it’s not just about having electric cars. We’ve got to regenerate a sense of community. We waste so much energy and resources just living in our nuclear families.

I’ve never felt the same way about the world since we set up SO and got involved in the Transition Town movement.

How much energy does it take to make a car?

Don’t we need to focus on supermarkets that are dominating our food production and supply? Who gives the supermarkets the power? The people who shop there – but also the planners.

Supermarkets have destroyed our infrastructure! There were no supermarkets in the film on Cuba….Likewise in Ottery we stopped a supermarket 10 years ago.

The problem is that people like supermarkets and governments do what people like. People who use supermarkets are relatively affluent because they have cars. When the local shop’s gone, those without a car have had it. So we should be shopping locally!

Totnes has printed local money which can only be spent in the local community (like Lets system). But lots of lorries are delivering loads of small amounts to small shops all over the country. You can try and change the way the supermarkets operate and push them to source food etc locally. There’s something wrong with the planning system – if Tesco wants planning permission, most councillors are cowed into approving plans because they don’t want to go through an appeal with a big supermarket.

Six units of energy currently go into one unit of food.

What can we do? As a community? As individuals?

We’ll need more land and we need to look at how to get that land, eg. allotments. SO has written to town council to make more land for allotments available. We can also dig up our own gardens.

Are there still regional markets? Lots of towns have lost them. You get retail markets but what about wholesale markets to cut down transport costs?

One model is to see what farms could produce food for people who live in the town – people in the town could decide what produce they want and negotiate with local farmers (as is happening in Japan and in US).

The butchers in the square only source from local producers.

But is a `back to the land’ approach is the solution to peak oil? Is there enough land to support 68 million people? Can we really throw out the technological solutions re alternative energy sources? And those have to be developed through investment and marketing etc so we may have to rely on our existing system to develop these. Sooner or later people will start panicking about their lifestyle. Growing food is an important contribution plus driving less etc but the technology shouldn’t be forgotten.

We need to use oil in order not to use oil – ie to develop the technology for solar power etc.

It’s not just transportation – 70% of what we buy is made out of oil. What are solar panels made out of?

Insulating lofts might be more key than waging wars to get access to oil – could make as much oil available.

Can’t we encourage councils to purchase some land – ie a land bank to encourage people to grow food on a larger scale than on allotments, as well as start-up business grants?

Ruth has managed to get hold of some land after 10 years of struggling. She has a small box scheme but she can’t get planning permission for polytunnels and packing shed so she can’t grow as much food as she wants to.

But if we think we can go back to the land, we’re kidding ourselves!

What about communes? At present people are living in their own little units. If you live in communal dwellings and share cooking etc, then it would save a lot of energy. Also if more people are involved, then the council is likely to be more sympathetic. The power of groups is what matters.

We could each take a lodger. In the past lots of people had lodgers but not now which is partly why there’s a demand for houses and for new towns like Cranbrook.

A lot more communication needs to go on. There aren’t many energy saving messages on prime time TV – compared to WWII propaganda. So what we need is national leadership….

We can’t wait for government – we need to take action locally and make the change happen….

I think we’re too late to try and get government to change….

But the mainstream media is starting to take notice – eg TT Totnes was on ITV 10oclock news recently.

National governments etc can be influenced by local initiatives.

We need to use car share and car pool. There is one at the council end but not at community end.

What about low-energy lamps? There will be a light-bulb action day soon in Ottery – energy saving trust will come and change people’s lightbulbs.

One recent initiative highlighted in the SO newsletter was the suggested action re writing to town council to get them to push for Feniton-Sidmouth cycle route to be included in EDDC local development framework. The town council received a lot of letters – an indication of how the SO mailing list can be mobilised to take action.

-----

Click HERE to go back to the Past Events page.