Recent Posts
Inspired by Totnes’s “Nut Tree Capital of Britain” project, Kilkenny is setting itself the goal of becoming the “Apple Tree City of Ireland” – next year! Conceived at a Future Proof Kilkenny meeting in the back of Cleere’s pub the project to plant apple trees in the city has been widened to include other fruit trees and scores on the following points:
- promotes a local food culture
- honours our heritage as a famous apple growing region in times past
- celebrates 400 years of the city charter
- shows children where our food comes from
- provides food for wildlife and encourages biodiversity
- involves the community and promotes the idea of using urban spaces for food production
- encourages local seasonal food consumption and the concept of reducing food miles
- raises awareness of the urgent need to keep CO2 concentration below 400 parts per million (there now saying 350ppm) to avoid runaway climate change
- advocates using trees and soils to remove excess carbon from the atmoshere (the only proven method)
- beautifies the city and environs
Cllr Malcolm Noonan is very supportive and below is an interview with him published recently in the Kilkenny Voice. If you are interested in this food initiative or any other projects contact brian[at]click2go.ie
Its a while ago now but below the fold is a review of the Transition Gathering at the Green Gathering back in August.
***POSTPONED UNTIL THE NEW YEAR***
In cooperation with the emerging Transition Town Thomastown group, Future Proof Kilkenny will show two films on Peak Oil at the Watergarden in December. Each screening will be followed by a workshop/discussion examining how Peak Oil will impact our way of life and what we can do locally to prepare for this geological certainty.
Some time ago during a “post-oil” visioning exercise we imagined Dunne Stores car park turned over entirely to farmer’s markets and local shops springing up in vacant buildings throughout the town.
Well, Nellies farm shop on Upper Patrick St. is such a vision come true. What’s more, it is appropriately situated on the site of the former Land Rover garage!
Homemade jams from Laois, freshly baked bread from Wexford and the stall in the centre of the shop, I was proudly informed, contains only Irish fresh fruit and veg (not sure if that includes the bananas in the bottom right). To top it all there is talk of a bike sales and repair shop opening soon next door!
In the age of large multiples and discount stores it is a welcome sight to see the return of a local shop selling local produce. We wish them the best of luck.
Fossil fuel depletion, climate change, diminishing soil and water resources and population growth present an unprecedented threat to global food security. To address these challenges every country in the world needs a future food plan.
This year the UK Soil Association’s Annual Conference was called “Transition: Food and Farming in 21st century Britain” and coincided with the publication of a report called “An inconvenient truth about food”.