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On Saturday 10th October we held a community think tank day for everyone to come and share their vision (and a free local lunch) and plan for a better future together. The aim was to draw on all our collective varied experiences so far to imagine and create a food plan for Brixton which will enable us to survive and thrive in 2030.
During the morning session, we had a brief introductory talk on food security from Bonnie & Duncan; then we had a group visioning session during which each group discussed and recorded their visions of food and growing in Brixton in 2030.
After a delicious local lunch, we had an afternoon session using Open Space technology, a powerful tool by which communities self-organise to discuss ideas and explore solutions, in this case relating to food. We were seeking to answer the question “How will we feed ourselves in Brixton in a post-oil world?” Group discussions took place on topics as diverse as ‘how to bring people of all ages & cultures together to create a medicinal garden in Brixton’ to ‘contested futures – how to bring different visions together’ to ‘how to distribute locally grown food at the farmers market’.
All the output from the day is being collated and written up (and will appear shortly on the wiki) and will feed into our food strategy for Brixton: the food section of our Energy Descent Action Plan.
This day followed the “Future of Our Food” series of events and workshops in which over 250 people from in and around Brixton came together to discuss the ins and outs of food security, local food, farming and the urban experience, with speakers including Rosie Boycott, Claire Milne, Patrick Holden, Andre Viljoen, Mikey Tomkins, Paul Richens, Ian Collingwood and Seb Mayfield. We pulled it all together at the ULTIMATE community think tank day on Food & Growing in Brixton on Saturday 10th October.
About THE FUTURE OF OUR FOOD programme 2009
The Future of Our Food programme of events and workshops, launched in April this year, highlighted the issues we face around food secuirty and have initiated constructive, practical discussions about the approaches and solutions that are applicable to the place where we live.
TTB is committed to informing and reskilling Brixton residents with a view to building bridges to a low energy future, in which our sustainable and resilient community does not have to suffer from food security knocks in a changing world. Our current system means that we are reliant on supermarket distribution chains, but supermarkets only hold enough food to feed us all for three days, leaving us “nine meals away from anarchy” should our imports be interrupted. But there are ways we can help to change our food system to make ourselves more self-reliant – even in London!
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