Re: Alachua Transition Initiatives Contact List

[david reed]

Transitionaries,

Please note that there is a solar energy and efficiency expo tomorrow morning, (sat.) at Beta Theta Pi fraternity on UF Campus, 11AM to 1:00PM.    We had talked briefly about having an expo for petroleum-free technologies sometime, and this is in that direction.  (Of course there is also the annual festival at Swallowtail Farms tomorrow)

But I also want to share something that I just found, something pretty stunning.  I am worried about the current sterilization of farming, caused in part by the new Food Safety Act.  I found this organization:  the Wild Farm Alliance.  www.wildfarmalliance.org.   The following is taken from their 'about' tab:

"Recognizing that:

• the current rate of species extinction signifies an unprecedented biodiversity crisis.
• industrial agriculture is a primary cause of species losses and a devastating threat to sustainable family-scale farms and ranches.
• protected and interconnected wildlands are essential to assuring biological diversity and sustaining healthy rural landscapes.

We believe:

• agriculture must be conducted in ways that are compatible with preservation of native plants and animals.
• sustainable family farms and ranches nourish healthy human communities and help safeguard natural communities.
• the current biodiversity crisis calls for a new conservation ethic that promotes ecological recovery within agricultural lands and across the entire landscape.

We acknowledge:

• healthy ecosystems provide us with many life-giving services, including pollination, insect pest control, nutrient cycling, clean water, and erosion control.
• the need of farmers to succeed economically while farming ecologically.
• the right of farmers and indigenous peoples to maintain control over sustainable food production.
• the right of consumers to know how and where their food is grown, and the responsibility of consumers to support ecologically sound agriculture.

We support:

• farming practices that accommodate wild habitat and native species, including large carnivores and wild fish.
• local and regional food and fiber systems that boost rural economies.
• agricultural practices that strive to eliminate the use of environmentally toxic chemicals and contamination of soil and water resources.
• locally adapted crops and animals that are not genetically engineered.
• existing community-based efforts to create a continental wildlands network in which large protected areas are connected by wildlife movement corridors and are complemented by ecologically managed farms and forests."
• 
  

I could not have said this as well - it could be a partial manifesto for Transitioners also???  Please circulate if you like this. 




--
David Reed
cell 352-222-0651
home 352-336-0904