Background to a World Movement; Transition

A movement began about twenty years ago that has been variously called the Transition Movement, Transition Towns, and Transition Network.  This movement was based on the book, “Permaculture, A Designers Manual” written by Bill Mollison and published in 1988.“Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability” by David Holmgren, published in 2003, served as the source for a class project at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland, taught by Rob Hopkins on permaculture.

Permaculture seeks to address problems inherent in global warming and peak oil production.  Based on the premise that oil, once an incredible bargain in terms of energy produced as a function of energy expended, will increasingly become less lucrative, and be accompanied by increasingly higher prices, until It reaches the point that it is no longer viable as an energy source.  To put this in more concrete terms, at the time that oil was first discovered it took the energy contained in one barrel of oil to recover 100 barrels of oil.  Today, the return is about 12-15 barrels of oil per barrel used.  Eventually it will reach the point that the return is 1:1, and at that point oil will be used only for manufacture of products that are made from petroleum that have no substitute.

Long before that time comes it will be necessary to find alternative fuel sources, but equally important will be the design and implementation of programs that change and conserve the way that energy is used.

Return to a community based economy where goods and services are produced and used locally is seen as a way to avoid the sizable energy costs involved in shipping over long distances.  What is lost in economies of scale can be recovered in the reduction in transportation energy costs.

Additional benefits are that alternative energy sources can be tailored to the local community instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach.  Hydroelectric power might be readily available in some areas where solar or wind power are not practical alternatives, and vice versa.  Barter, already used extensively within some communities might become more prevalent, and local trade could be encouraged by the use of local currency good only in purchasing local goods and services.  The advantages of a local economy lie in the elimination of national and international businesses which leave large carbon footprints while contributing little of value to the process.

Central in the concept is the growth of locally grown food, sold and eaten locally.  Popularly called “locovore” culture, many communities have developed farms that sell in local farmer’s markets, and to restaurants that buy locally grown produce, delivered fresh and prepared for that days menu.

The benefits to the grower are the elimination of the added cost of food brokers, transportation and grocery stores that reduce profits to the farmer.  Benefits to the consumer are fresher produce with better flavor, more nutrients with no greater cost.  Often attendant to this type of farm is the use of organic and sustainable techniques.  Benefits to the consumer are less tangible and often result in higher prices, but are highly sought after by many shoppers.  The benefits of sustainable agriculture to the farmer are the absence of dependence on chemically produced fertilizer that requires shipping and fuel consumption.  Sustainable farming practices also eliminate depletion of nutrients from the soil.

Besides the move to locally produced food is the attempt to produce other necessities for living such as affordable, energy efficient housing, alternative fuel vehicles ( steam vehicles may be coming back) and local production of textiles and clothing.

Some things are more difficult to achieve.  Preventive health care is cheap and not especially "high tech", but modern medical care of acute and chronic illnesses is not very amenable to local, inexpensive remedies.  Many have turned to folk remedies and alternative medicine.  Given the fact that half of the money expended for healthcare in the U.S. is spent in the 30 days before an individual dies, the advantages of modern, highly technical and expensive medicine may be questioned.  There is no doubt that some chronic illnesses, such as high blood pressure, have a large return in terms of dollars spent for quality of life and increased longevity.  Medications, though, are not easily made and may be protected by patents.

The Local Story

Several years ago the Transition Movement came to our area of the country.  Our own county was involved in discussions about how the concepts might be implemented here.  There was a great deal of enthusiasm on the part of a few individuals.  After a year or so of planning the idea was introduced to the county through booths at local events.

There was skepticism. 

The residents of the mountains of North Georgia are for the most part very conservative; conservative fiscally and socially.  The stranger who brought the Transition concept is a really nice man, but he is from elsewhere. Most conversations with local residents start with the statement, “My family has lived in Rabun County for five generations". The fact that your parents may have moved her when you were a small child is irrelevant. 

Furthermore, the stranger who brought us the Transition concept is a liberal and bears all of the markings of being an old hippy.  He calls himself Feather.  He wanted to hold merry prankster plays to get the message across.  We tried to explain the local culture to little avail.

"Elsewhere” doesn’t have to be far away.  In this case “ the  outsider”  lived in the adjoining county, but in South Carolina.  Despite this skepticism people came to the meetings and listened.  The economy is very depressed here and folks are open to ideas of how to change that fact.

There was growing interest from chefs, farmers, and residents of the back-to-nature type.  What came to light from the conversations was the fact that Rabun County already had in place many of the things that were advocated.  There are several independent, successful farms in the area.  There is a community garden.  Simply Homegrown is the cooperative effort of several small  farms, bakeries, growers of herbs, soap makers, and other similar businesses to bring their wares to market.  During the growing season the members of Simply Homegrown meet every weekend and many will deliver to order on Wednesdays. http://www.simplyhomegrown.org/simply-homegrown-growers

The website for Ladybug Farms, a member of Simply Homegrown, illustrates the cooperative effort of the growers and artisans in the area. http://www.ladybugfarms.net/

Osage Farms is a very successful farm located in a valley in Rabun Gap, Georgia between Clayton and Dillard along U.S. 441.  In addition to their own produce – grown within sight of the highway – they sell area grown produce from farms and orchards throughout the region.  More information on Osage Farms, and orchards in Rabun County can be found at: http://www.gamountains.com/community/agriculture.phpAnd, http://www.foodiebuddha.com/2009/08/14/the-super-awesome-osage-farms-agency-tomlins-barbeque-rabun-gap-ga/ 

Additionally, there are a number of wineries in North Georgia, one of which, Tiger Mountain Vineyards, is in Rabun County. http://www.tigerwine.com/

Joe Raguckas, a tasting room staff member, describes TMV wines to the author and his wife, Lynn

Returning to the topic, the Transition Movement morphed here into Resilient Rabun.  I was not at the meeting when the tension built to the point of boiling over between the liberal foreigners and the conservative locals.  What came of the fight was that local residents took over the process and renamed it Resilient Rabun.  This, actually, is exactly what Feather envisioned happening.  He just thought it would be a more organized, peaceful transition.

What has evolved is a loosely organized group that is exploring the option of converting the cafeteria of what was previously an elementary school, now home to many of the County offices, into a public cannery for locally grown produce.  There is a strong sentiment for giving local businesses a chance in everything from home renovation on down.

We have had an email delivered news service, the Rabun Town Crier, where individuals can advertise items for sale or items wanted, services offered and needed, and announce public events for some time.  What have appeared lately, are messages about good experiences with local businesses. 

What we have not yet seen are startup businesses in areas such as energy production, vehicles, or other activities intended to give alternatives to petroleum and natural gas for personal use.  With current prices it doesn’t feel like such conversion is a pressing need.  What is not apparent is that our fossil fuel prices are being kept artificially low in order to avoid a move to alternative energy.  When there is no longer an incentive to do this and prices sky rocket there will be a lot of pain before alternatives appear.

In many ways, Rabun County is positioned to be a pioneer in such activities.  This is the home of the Foxfire Museum.  For those of you who don’t remember, the Foxfire book, and its many later editions, was a tribute to the folk ways and ingenuity of residents in Southern Appalachia.  See: http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebooks.aspx

Movements of the Transition type tend in the beginning to draw a diverse group.  In neighboring areas there have been a number of mystics, conspiracy theorists, and preachers of gloom and doom.  Some examples are that in one nearby county all activity stopped because some of the members thought that the world would end because of the Mayan Calendar issue.  In another area the prevailing theme seems to be to become self-sufficient and well- armed, because there will be roving bands of starving  people fighting for food when oil is no longer available.

We are lucky that more reasonable people have prevailed here.  The people of this area are very practical and very resourceful.  A successful future requires the right mix of this practicality and vision.

Finally, there is a tangential, but critical problem facing many of the farms in the area.  Georgia is one of the states that have passed a law making immigrants unwelcome.  Since much of the manual labor has been performed by immigrants from Mexico and Central America, there was already a growing lack of individuals to work in the fields by the end of last season. 

The coming year will reveal how serious that problem is and what farmers may have done to address it.  

Apology:  This is not the right time of year to take photos of the farmer’s markets, or farms.  The images on most websites of the farms and markets in season, seem to be copyrighted.  There are beautiful pictures on the links provided above of local farms and markets.

The picture from TMV is from the website, but was used since the author appears in the photograph.