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    Commons economy posts

    GM is about corporate control of our food, not ‘feeding the world’: learn more at an event this saturday

    Are you eating GM food? The fact that you are mostly* not is down to 20 years of inspiring direct action and pressure by anti-GM activists. Read more

    How the ‘One Planet Development’ policy is helping people get back onto the land in Wales

    Something special is happening in Wales. The country is using legislation to shift itself into a very different direction from England. It wants to be more sustainable. It wants to reduce its ‘ecological footprint’ to a level that’s fair compared to the rest of the planet’s population and resources. Read more

    £30, credit-card-sized, non-corporate, low-energy computers set up to run Linux; any boxes not ticked there?

    These are cheap (£30) mini computers that run Linux and will make a good second computer for children (for example), a media player in another room, or a data server. It might save people buying another laptop and it means you can reuse the peripherals of older PCs (screen, mouse etc). Read more

    Can you offer your IT skills to help build a website to challenge the pro-corporate bias in UK trade deals?

    Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP | 24-Oct-2017 | 2

    Website help needed: with Brexit, the UK will be heading into international ‘trade’ deals, which are likely to be as much about establishing corporate rights and diminishing democracy as the EU/US TTIP – a deal that is now on the back-burner. Read more

    Post-Brexit trade deals explained: how they will hand more power to multinational corporations – at our expense

    Linda Kaucher of Stop TTIP | 10-Oct-2017 | 0

    With Brexit the main aim seems to be to have trade agreements with as many countries as possible and as soon as possible. Little attention is paid (none?) to the content or purpose of those post-Brexit trade deals – and for whose benefit they would be. Read more

    Why the banks have so much power and how we can take it away from them

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 17-Sep-2017 | 9

    I mentioned a while ago that I’m enrolled on a MOOC (massive, open, online course) about banking and the money system. As promised, I’m blogging about some of the things that I’ve learnt (we’ve covered the definition and history of money so far). Read more

    Should we be reliant on cheap foreign labour to work on our farms, or is there a better way to feed ourselves?

    Recently The Guardian ran an article by John Harris called “They say after Brexit there’ll be food rotting in the fields. It’s already started.” To summarise, John is saying Brexit has made the UK look an unfriendly place to our European neighbours and with the increasing financial fortunes of eastern European nations, farm workers are… Continue reading Should we be reliant on cheap foreign labour to work on our farms, or is there a better way to feed ourselves? Read more

    It’s worse than you think: review of Douglas Rushkoff’s ‘Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Aug-2017 | 0

    Here’s an article that’s part review of the latest book  by Douglas Rushkoff (buy it – it’s excellent), part ramble about twenty-first century capitalism. Read more

    A matter of scale: how small farms provide more jobs and more food per acre

    Our new report, “A Matter of Scale”, highlights how a diverse and vibrant sector of small farms is providing employment, attracting new entrants and incubating entrepreneurs. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 12: switching to the Phone Co-op (do it today!)

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 25-Jul-2017 | 1

    The Phone Co-op is the UK’s only co-operative telecoms provider. 100% member-owned, they have a democratic internal structure and no external shareholders. You can just become a customer, or you can become a member too, and have a say in the way the co-op is run. Read more

    Starting a market garden: Q&A with Chris Smaje of Small Farm Future

    Chris Smaje of Vallis Veg | 02-Jul-2017 | 1

    Chris Smaje of Small Farm Future kindly agreed to share with us a recent blog post of his own about starting a market garden, drawing on his experiences at Vallis Veg, a small farm on the outskirts of Frome in Somerset with a veg box scheme and much more besides. Covering 13 questions collated from… Continue reading Starting a market garden: Q&A with Chris Smaje of Small Farm Future Read more

    B-corporations – yes or no?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 25-Jun-2017 | 52

    What do you consider the correct approach towards multinational corporations – tame them, or start to get rid of them? And what do we mean by ‘tame’ exactly? And what are the problems with multinational corporations in the first place? Read more

    Ecological Land Co-op share offer extended after exceeding target: help us change the way land is owned in the UK

    WOW! We’ve surpassed our initial maximum target of £340,000, and there are still FOUR days to go. Our new investors are helping us continue our work supporting small-scale, agro-ecological farming. Thank you! Read more

    Resilient networks: building a low-tech internet

    A solution to the absence of high-speed wireless networks across some developing countries and increasingly appearing in the form of WiFi based community networks in numerous countries in Europe, building a low-tech internet could have benefits for all. With excerpts from an original Low-tech Magazine article by Kris De Decker, we explore how a less resource-intensive and more energy-efficient… Continue reading Resilient networks: building a low-tech internet Read more

    Can you imagine a world without money? Summary of the ‘credit commons’ idea and how it could be achieved

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 21-May-2017 | 27

    Last week I blogged about a potentially world-changing idea that could be labelled ‘credit commons’, or the catchy ‘global mutual credit system’. It’s a system of exchange that involves no money. It’s difficult to grasp at first, but the more you think about it, the more you realise that a) it’s implementable, and b) if… Continue reading Can you imagine a world without money? Summary of the ‘credit commons’ idea and how it could be achieved Read more

    Help the Ecological Land Co-operative to set up more smallholdings

    You can join the Ecological Land Co-operative as an investor, by moving some money from your bank savings account (and receiving a better rate of interest). If you agree with the ELC’s principles, this would be extremely helpful. Read more

    New Ecological Land Co-op share offer launched: here’s a chance to help bring about change in land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for your trouble!

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 04-Apr-2017 | 1

    Please share this as widely as you can. I’m on the board of the Ecological Land Co-op, and so I know how much hard work has gone into this – it’s an opportunity for people to shift their money to help change the nature of land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for… Continue reading New Ecological Land Co-op share offer launched: here’s a chance to help bring about change in land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for your trouble! Read more

    Very worthwhile and interesting job available with the Open Food Network

    Are you interested in helping create food sovereignty in the UK? Would you like to help create food systems in which everyone has access to affordable, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food? Read more

    Low-impact & the city 11: buying a laptop without Windows – with Linux or with no operating system at all

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Mar-2017 | 2

    This is the last in a series of articles to help you to jettison Windows and corporate software generally. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 10: how to install Linux on your hard drive (alongside Windows)

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 06-Mar-2017 | 4

    This is the latest in a series of articles intended to help you become Windows- and corporate-software-free. Read more

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