What is a transition town and just how does a small town in England become
an inspiration to towns all over the world?
If you have
never heard of the Transition Town
network, check it out, it is an important movement of consciousness at a
practical community level. It is about
sustainability and working towards goals of renewable energy and low carbon
foot print. It is about a community
caring enough about each other that they by moral default, at all levels of
government and business, and not for profits, make choices that benefit the
community and greater good over profit and corporate greed. It is about a community that chooses to unite
and care and be kind.
Upon
arriving to Totnes, I was
struck by the size of this thriving town.
I had been driving through the country side seeing small villages, and
had in my mind expected Totnes to be similar but with a hippy feel and I had expected
some type of self-promotion of the Transition Town movement. There was none of that. Totnes is about the size of Dundas/Ancaster,
with a Main Street, it has colleges, and churches, and castle ruins. It is a busy town.
I had been
emailing with the volunteers asking questions about their food supply and food
distribution channels, and they gave me some shop names to visit, but had
seemed somewhat befuddled by my questions.
I parked my oversized car in an oversized lot after trying to navigate
the rather narrow ancient streets and started my walk around the town camera in
hand, expecting to find some great inspiration to bring back to Ancaster. I did, but not what was expected.
There are
only a few official "Transition" office volunteers for Transition Totnes, I found the whole community is generally volunteers, and while there are some grants to help cover costs, mostly
they just do it because it is important to them. The transition movement is not organizing, they are
facilitating, the community does the organizing on a micro level. There is a group for just about anything,
and if your passion is not already being talked about, boom another group just
popped up.
I found
that local food is not even a topic here.
I was asking questions like, “What percentage of food in the shops is
locally procured?”, “How are you supporting your local farmers?”. My questions were falling on deaf ears. I think they all thought me a bit dim for
asking the questions in the first place.
Almost all the food is local and organic, it just is, people expect it,
there are no soups from concentrate, or imported meat over local grown without proper
labels. Every produce laden truck rolling down the motor way has “organic” and
“local” splattered on the side, the local food distribution system is working
here. It is regional and it is supported
by the consumers, not just in Totnes but generally-speaking in England and throughout
Europe.
In Totnes, as in most small to
mid-sized towns and villages, you will not find commercially prepared fast
foods. No MacDonald’s or Burger King or
Wendy’s, really - seriously not one did I see until I got close to Bristol at a
high way service station. They don’t
exist, and they don’t exist because people don’t support them.
Their main
street is busy and thriving and people are talking to each other and
engaged. Everyone is volunteering and part
of a discussion group, their civic center in town is active with local groups
they are collectively hosting meeting and events, and it just is, it is isness,
it is the doing, not the talking. As a collective,
they have “woken up” that they want to make the world a better place, and many
of these people I would like to point out are active seniors, this is not just
a hippy movement for millennials, this is the retired and semi-retired keeping
young and engaged in their community.
Meanwhile back
at home in Ancaster we are busy, driving our SUV’s and parking in oversized
parking lots, tearing down Heritage buildings and replacing them with McCafe, tearing
up farmer’s fields in our west end only to cover them with concrete, we shut
down aspiring Farmers Markets to allow yet another box store.
We are busy
denying local business the opportunity to do business on our “Main Street” with
complicated and cumbersome and completely un-necessary zoning regulations. Instead of interesting and local clothes
shops we have two “Winners” and a “Walmart” and a “Costo”! It is no wonder the Heritage District in Ancaster
is struggling to stay viable.
We have
numbered companies buying up all the desirable commercial properties and
leasing them back to struggling small business for profit over community.
Sustainability
and transitioning out of a fossil fuel dependent economy is not something that
can be preached It must be felt, individually, and then collectively. It is an evolution of thought, where
community and environment naturally comes first, without question.
We must do
it for ourselves, it is something that we need to feel inside of ourselves and
care enough to make it happen. We need to elect local officials that are
committed to sustainability measures and we need to support local business that
support the community. We need to stop
spending our dollars on business where profits leave the community and we all
need to get involved.
So,
Ancaster, what do we say, let’s get involved, lets prevent our West End from
becoming another Meadowlands, let’s keep our Farmers Fields, let’s in-fill and grow
our Main Street and help small business thrive, together we can do it, in fact
it is the only way!
Find your
passion and volunteer!
For more
information on the Transition Town
Networks follow this link
For more information on how Ancaster's Farmers Fields became a box store haven follow this link -
- the making of the Meadowlands - how Ancasters fields became Hamiltons suburbs https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/18291/2/parsons_jeremy_e_201509_MA.pdf)
For more information on how Ancaster's Farmers Fields became a box store haven follow this link -
- the making of the Meadowlands - how Ancasters fields became Hamiltons suburbs https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/18291/2/parsons_jeremy_e_201509_MA.pdf)