Positive Money Meetup - Tuesday 29 October 7:30pm

The failure of our monetary system has come up over and over again as one of the driving forces behind unsustainable consumption, inequality and environmental destruction. National campaign group Positive Money, along with their counterparts in other countries, are looking to change it, and have come up with some proposals.

Here in Norwich, we're going to have a meetup of people interested in those proposals (more information about them can be found on their website, below). The meetup will be on 29th October at 7:30pm at the Playhouse.

Please come along, meet others who are interested, and let's get our monetary system working for people and planet!

Positive Money's Proposals: http://www.positivemoney.org/our-proposals/

Norwich Group & Details of the event: http://www.positivemoney.org/get-involved/local-groups/norwich/

Low Carbon Cookbook (the book part) - 15 June

May's Low Carbon Cookbook meeting took place at the Bicycle Shop cafe, where we also welcomed Olivia for the first time.

Although this meant we had to forgo our normal practice of bringing ingredients and dishes to eat, share and discuss, we took the opportunity to look at the material we've gathered so far, which we then mapped out on a large piece of pink paper in notes and sketches.

The structure of a book began to take form as we went round the table taking turns to describe some of our favourite low carbon recipes. We talked seasons, seeds, lactofermentation, herbs, flowers and fruits as well as how to live without a fridge and what exactly organic means.

We all got very hungry! I’d already eaten, but normally we would have been enjoying Bee's winter slaw and omelettes, Charlotte's oriental slaw, Erik's pumpkin soup and pickles, my freegan pizza and medicine jelly, and Olivia's Norfolk Black Turkey Egg n’ Nettle Quiche with Spelt Pastry, and all the compotes, breads, freegan gleanings and homegrown and foraged leaves, roots and sprouts that we were talking about.

It was exciting though, to get the actual book underway. Who knows? In a year's time you may be reading The Low Carbon Cookbook, paper version (recycled, of course). Mark Watson

One Planet Community Kitchen and the Low Carbon Cookbook - 21 September

One Planet Community Kitchen is a Transition project that will be mapping sustainable food patterns in different Transition towns and low-carbon communities in East Anglia. Its purpose is to bring people, places and projects together to create an imaginative and practical infrastructure for the future.

The Kitchen combines three elements: arts, food and working together as a co-op. We’re beginning in Norwich with a project that’s been simmering in the TN kitchen for a year now - The Low Carbon Cookbook. We’ll be working alongside the Reskilling Group, organising workshops on food production, as well as the CSA and the Transition Circles and producing an intelligent, good-looking guide from scratch. At our first meeting Josiah Meldrum will be talking about how co-ops work and why he feels that they are the best working model for Transition groups. We’ll also be cooking up ideas and looking at our flatplan. Bring a dish to share (that’s the recipe!), a pen and get ready to roll your sleeves up!

Josiah Meldrum has worked as community activist, particularly with and for co-operatives producing and distributing food, for almost 15 years. He is a founder member of Sustainable Bungay and a partner in Provenance. He is also a director of East Anglia Food Link and Fordhall Community Land Initiative.

One Planet Community Kitchen (Norwich) will meet at The Greenhouse, Bethel St on Tuesday 21 September. 7-9.30pm. For further details contact Charlotte Du Cann rootsshootsandseeds@hotmail.co.uk

Homegrown cucumber; Norman's market garden; Charlotte and Josiah prepping the Greenpeace Tea Tent, 2010; molcajete (Mexico) with zatar (Palestine). All photos from The Low Carbon Life, the TN blog.

Measuring Your Ecological Footprint

The One-Planet Living group, based at UEA, would like to hear from people who are interested in using the ecological footprint as a way to measure how far we have come/still have to go to achieve ecological sustainability. In previous meetings One Planet Living has focused on real actions that could be undertaken e.g. starting a green energy co-op, and on May 27 will discuss a recent report from five students who worked to calculate the footprint of UEA. It is felt that the combination of these actions and looking at the UEA report would be extremely effective. Do join them on May 27. For further details email Erik at martinburo67@hotmail.co.uk.