Info, news & debate

People

Fantastic volunteering opportunity with the Permaculture Podcast – could it be you or someone you know?

| 0

Daniel Tyrkiel is so dedicated he gets up at 4am every single day. On weekdays it’s so he can to study how to regenerate soil in order to store carbon, clean water, prevent flooding and produce nutritious food, without the need for any chemicals. On weekends it’s to edit his brilliant podcast series, which documents what’s happening

Read more about Fantastic volunteering opportunity with the Permaculture Podcast – could it be you or someone you know?

Can you imagine a world without money?

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

| 28

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

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



How money causes poverty (plus war and ecological destruction), and what could replace it

| 57

Exchange has always been part of the human story, whether between individuals, tribes or nations. Some people have what others don’t, due to geography or skill, and exchange is a means of getting what you don’t have, and giving what you have a surplus of.

Read more about How money causes poverty (plus war and ecological destruction), and what could replace it


Farm Hack Cover Crop Roller Open Source Agriculture

Farm Hack : growing innovative open-source agriculture

| 0

In response to the pervasive reach of the global agro-industrial complex, growing numbers of farmers across the world are coming together as co-operative organisations to promote and protect small-scale organic food production and environmental stewardship. We take a look below at some of the groups promoting open source agriculture with farmer driven technologies, spearheaded by the

Read more about Farm Hack : growing innovative open-source agriculture


Time to ditch the corporate sector in favour of the solidarity economy

Why an economy that’s not dominated by the corporate sector would be much better for individuals, communities and nature

| 3

Lowimpact.org is an organisation that was founded by two people in 2001 because of concerns about ecological damage and what that might mean for the future of humanity. The focus has always been on individual lifestyle change

Read more about Why an economy that’s not dominated by the corporate sector would be much better for individuals, communities and nature

Examples of organisation within the non-corporate sector

Let’s build a sustainable, non-corporate world; but what exactly does ‘non-corporate’ mean?

| 0

This is the first of two articles examining the non-corporate sector, and its advantages for ecology, democracy, communities and individuals. Here’s a checklist of the benefits of reducing the reach of the corporate sector, but first, let’s work out what kind of organisations comprise the non-corporate sector.

Read more about Let’s build a sustainable, non-corporate world; but what exactly does ‘non-corporate’ mean?


Boots and tea

Smallholding with heart: advice about getting and running a smallholding from Janet Jenkins of Cuckoo Farm

| 0

Embarking on a new life in the countryside, away from the trappings of urban existence, is a dream increasingly common to many. This week we interviewed Janet Jenkins about her and her family’s smallholding journey, putting the heart back into the land at Cuckoo Farm.

Read more about Smallholding with heart: advice about getting and running a smallholding from Janet Jenkins of Cuckoo Farm


Would you like to be a smallholder with the ELC?

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!

| 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

Read more about 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!




Will we ever reach the point of 'peak car'?

Will we reach ‘peak car’, after which we can begin to reduce the number of cars on the roads?

| 3

As a baby-boomer I have lived through a 50 year period where life has become dominated by and dependent on the use of the private car. I wonder whether other people are sharing my expectation that there will be a very much shorter period, equivalent  to a revolution, where the car moves into the background?

Read more about Will we reach ‘peak car’, after which we can begin to reduce the number of cars on the roads?

'Feeding the beast': is democracy obsolete?

Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?

| 3

In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy.

Read more about Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?