Notes from meeting
East Bay Transition
December 19, 2008
6pm

Attending: Cheli, David, Judith, Mike A., Willow
What are the elements everyone has an interest in?
• Emerging: Food – money – water – involves everyone as a given.
• Analogous to oil
• Everything comes down to food and water
Relevant organizations - models
• City Slicker Farms
• My Farm SF
• Green jobs – Van Jones
• Alemany Farm
• People’s Grocery
• Ecology Center
• CA Coalition for Food
• Greywater Guerillas – greywater is more expensive.
• Earthboxes
• Spiral Gardens – at corner of Sacramento and Oregon in Berkeley. Fruit trees, community garden – one paid employee – 501(c)(3) status, started in early 90’s
• Bay Localize
• Strong Roots Community Gardens
• Chez Panisse – Slow Food
Awareness raising
• Developing a talk about food/peak oil
• Energyandsociety.blogspot.com
• Public service announcements (tv, newspaper)
• Awareness raising
• Cable access t.v.
• Call to action
• Human resources summoned
• Clusterfuck nation – Kuntsler
• Matt Simmons

Enroll city government
• Ron Dellums
• Berkeley hills – like suburbia
• Kris Worthington – reps Berkeley Bowl area
• Geographical/Community boundaries
• Relationships need to be built with established people
Recruitment – mode of persuasion
Alternative = marketing – looking for audience – “sorting” relationship – don’t have to convince anyone of anything.
Don’t need to tell a huge story – can be simpler
Inventory what we’re doing to transition - We’re going to be in transition for a long time
Interdependency
PTSD activism – inner psychological aspect
• Transition tales
• Guided meditation
+++++++++++
• Outdoor cooking
• Staycationing
• City Repair
• Digable Cities (Portland) – survey of unused lots
• Bamboo growing on empty lots.
• Community garden –youth
• Quesada Gardens (Bayview neighborhood)
Northern California (Willow) report on local currencies – still at the level of haircuts and lawn mowing.
What do we want to do? When you take action – you increase sanity.
• Feed Oakland 30 percent of its food? This may be tough.
Meeting food needs now: It will be tough in the cities. There are 200,000 people in Berkeley - how will they get by? 80 people can be fed in the Bayview neighborhood (1800 people live there).
Future of land stewardship – farming – sharecropping - networks of friends buy land – land prices $48K/acre.
Make our diets more appropriate to what we see coming.
• Transitional food.
• Look at food receipts
• Analyze categories of things bought
• What is packaged / processed ?
• Berkeley could hire 100 people in two years to be growing and maintain food full-time.
• Relatively decent hourly wage with benefits.
• Member owned cooperative
• Not enough gardeners
• Chris Shine – Wild Heart Gardens – permie installations.
• Installing raised beds, swales, planting
Services:
• Design consultation
• Gardening skills
• Workshops
• FOOD – eventually, placing orders
• Central info – sharing center with library and fridge
Meeting adjourned around 10:30 pm
Addendum re: Possible Funding Sources: does anyone know anyone in these organizations? If so, please contact Judith
• Gaia Fund
• Center for a Livable Future, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Center for Food Safety
• Common Ground Garden Supply and Education Center
• Ecological Farming Association
• Full Belly Farm
• Organic Farming Research Foundation
• Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation
• Sustainable Agriculture Education