This Working Paper, "Can Totnes and District Feed Itself? Exploring the practicalities of food relocalisation", by Rob Hopkins, Mark Thurstain, Goodwin and Simon Fairlie takes the need to reduce oil dependence and GHG emissions as a starting point to explore how Totnes and District (for overseas viewers this is in Devon, the South west of the UK) can develop a food system with the following qualities:
- fully contributing to the 80% or higher cut in carbon emissions by 2050
This Working Paper, "Can Totnes and District Feed Itself? Exploring the practicalities of food relocalisation", by Rob Hopkins, Mark Thurstain, Goodwin and Simon Fairlie takes the need to reduce oil dependence and GHG emissions as a starting point to explore how Totnes and District (for overseas viewers this is in Devon, the South west of the UK) can develop a food system with the following qualities:
- fully contributing to the 80% or higher cut in carbon emissions by 2050
- resilient: resilience being the ability at all levels to withstand shock, must be key,embodied in the ability of the settlement in question, and its food supply system, to adapt rapidly to rising energy costs and climate change. UK Climate Projections 2009 estimate that by 2050, the climate for the South West in 2050 will be 2‐3⁰ C warmer than present, with around 30% less summer rainfall
- delivering improved access to nutritious and affordable food
- delivering far more diversity than at present, in terms of species, ecosystems, produce, occupations, etc.
- providing a significantly greater source of employment than at present
- enabling agriculture becoming a net carbon sink, rather than the net emitter it has become
- being lower carbon in terms of transport, at all stages in the growing, processing and delivering of foodstuffs
- providing a much‐reduced dependence on fossil fuel‐based fertilisers and pesticides and other agrochemicals
- maximising the contribution of food produced from back gardens, allotments and other more "urban" food sources, collectively referred to as "urban agriculture".
The paper finds that supplying vegetables would be labour intensive but possible (doesn't say anything about fruit), cereals (esp of bread-quality wheat) would be hard, and meat harder still. Nuts could provide protein, alcohol would be mainly beer and cider, milk wouldn't be such a problem and the area would not be able to be self sufficient in fuel.'
The paper, part of the Transition Towns movement, is attached below.
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