The Lowimpact.org Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Lowimpact.org Podcast
Both bicycle courier co-operatives are part of a global federation of cycle courier co-ops.
with Graham Mitchell of Co-operative Care Colne Valley Graham is part of a group starting a social care co-op in the Colne Valley, West Yorkshire, and they’re also building a toolkit / step-by-step guide for people to start a social care coop in their own community. I’m interested in how this toolkit can help grow […]
with Graham Mitchell of Co-operative Care Colne Valley Graham is part of a group starting a social care co-op in the Colne Valley, West Yorkshire, and they’re also building a toolkit / step-by-step guide for people to start a social care coop in their own community. I’m interested in how this toolkit can help grow […]
Mercedes Bidart, of Quipu Markets – founded a mutual credit project for informal communities in Colombia, and eventually across Latin America.
It’s possible to provide everybody with decent living standards at levels of energy that are compatible with renewable production.
the idea was that if we use the term ‘sustainable development’ and talk about ‘green growth’, ‘decoupling’ etc. then we won’t have a fight... I think that framing, in hindsight, was kinda disastrous.
Brian Czech is the author of Supply Shock, Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train, and The Endangered Species Act: History, Conservation Biology, and Public Policy, as well as over 50 academic journal articles.
with Chris Cook, designer and builder of the Iranian Oil Bourse Highlights 1. (the US went) round to different countries, lending them dollars on a massive scale, particularly in Latin America. They create the dollars through loans. That’s how money is created, which isn’t widely understood. The Chinese are doing exactly the same thing now […]
with Naresh Giangrande, co-founder of the Transition Network Highlights 1. In one of my last blog posts, I made the assertion that maybe Transition was talking to middle-class people. The message was that if you’re really good at reducing your energy use, you may be able to retain some of your privileges and comforts that […]
Conversation with Tim Jenkin, Matthew Slater and Dil Green. Fascinating insights from three people who have spent an enormous amount of time thinking about the money system. Tim was a member of the ANC, escaped from a high-security prison and is the subject of a new film – Escape from Pretoria, starring Daniel Radcliffe. He […]
With Matthew Slater and Tim Jenkin of the Credit Commons, and Dil Green of the Open Credit Network. Fascinating insights from three people who have spent an enormous amount of time thinking about the money system, the problems it causes and what could replace it. Tim was a member of the ANC, escaped from a […]
Paul Jennings lives on a smallholding in Pembrokeshire with his family, and built his own straw-bale home under the One-Planet Development policy that exists in Wales (but not in England), that allows people to build a home on their land, even if it is outside the development zone, if they can show that they will live with an ecological footprint of one planet or less.
Chris Huskins is a smallholder tenant of the Ecological Land Co-operative, starting a veg box scheme in East Sussex, building his own home, and looking to trade via mutual credit.
Chris Huskins is going to build his own house on his smallholding. He's also trading using mutual credit, via the Open Credit Network.
Paul Jennings built his own straw-bale house and lives with his family on a smallholding in Carmarthenshire in Wales. They were able to build their house via the One Planet Development (OPD) policy in Wales.
You don’t need to swap things with mutual credit – you just get credit or debit in your account.
The Ecological Land Co-op obtained planning permission for us to build our own home on the smallholding.
Think about whether you want to be a grocer, because at the end of the day that is what we are.
Mutual credit is a way to build an alternative economy – sustainable, based on small- and medium-sized businesses, and embedded in communities.
With Debbie Clarke of the Unicorn Grocery. Highlights: The reason we set up was for these principles of fair and sustainable trade, wholesome food, solidarity and cooperation – and I think those sorts of drivers are really interesting to people at the moment. It’s an incredibly empowering way to work – to really feel ownership […]
Our entire food system has been taken out of the hands of the people and put into the hands of enormous multinationals.
It’s definitely not capitalism. All that drive towards expansion and silly speculation. We can’t afford all that.
Food will have to be much more local, along with heavier manufacturing. What’s the right scale for energy projects, transport, manufacturing, agriculture etc?
Instead of questioning why organic food is more expensive, it’s better to ask why supermarket food is so cheap.
With Alice Brown of Sutton Community Farm (Part 1) Highlights: It’s a change for a lot of people not to shop at supermarkets, and maybe to change their cooking habits too. Even if people are into the idea of shopping locally and cooking seasonally, it does take a bit of persuasion. An issue farms face, […]
People’s minds have been colonised, and ideas about alternatives, especially financial alternatives, are seen as bizarre. Decolonisation has to come first, so that people are ready for an alternative message.
It’s also a way of building community – and community is what we’re going to need to get through climate change.
The biggest barriers to the development of platform co-ops are the existing, corporate platforms.
There’s not much emphasis in the co-operative world in the UK on using free software...
Preston City Council started to look at how to use their own resources to kick-start a different kind of economy. It started through procurement
Crashes are going to come, so we’re going to have to come together and realise that we can’t do things the way that we used to do them any more.
Corporations only have power because they have a monopoly on material production. If co-ops and mutual organisations were producing food and the other necessities of life, then corporations wouldn’t have that power.
But the issue is, we’re stuck with the volume builders and unscrupulous private landlords. We can do what we’re doing, but we want to start a whole movement, where people can do this for themselves.
Mark Simmonds gave us some free advice that saved us hundreds of pounds when we were setting up as a workers’ co-op. We talk about his work, and get deeper into the philosophy of co-operation. Highlights: There’s a crash coming. We need co-ops and co-operative practices in place to catch people. The crash will probably […]