In one community where there used to be a hundred orchards, now there were three. Those people are planting new orchards. Parts of lawns are being dug up and vegetable gardens planted. People who don’t have a space to grow a garden are working in another’s garden and sharing in the harvest. Large farms are opening up acres for community gardens. Permission is gained to harvest fruit from local trees. Produce that isn’t eaten during the growing season is canned or stored or dried. Seeds are prepared for the following year.

The idea of more local autonomy is also part of the Transition movement. In England a crafts person is teaching how to make handy new things with old cloth. Some communities are printing (legally—it’s also legal here) their own money, to be used locally. Many more ideas and actions are springing up, for the benefit of everyone—not only locals, but the entire country and beyond.

America is beginning to embrace this movement. Mt. Shasta is the eighteenth town in our country to become a Transition city. A small group has been meeting weekly for over a year to get it started here, and began with a recent showing of the movie “In Transition,” which gives a good overview of the movement. (With DSL it can be viewed on the website shastacommons.org.) They also held a meeting to discover what is important to us locals and get different projects going. These are now happening, and anyone can join.

Lessening our dependency on oil is a large motivation within the Transition movement. We are more aware of the tremendous amount of oil-supported energy needed to transport food from one part of the world to another. One shopper reported that a quart of blackberries—which grow here in abundance—was being sold for seven dollars at Ray’s. They were from Peru. True, they weren’t available yet here—but do you get the picture? We have now used over half the extractable oil the world started out with. Its use pollutes, ruining the fresh air and the pure waters. Plastic, made from oil, broken to tiny bits by sunlight, now covers an area in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas. Fertilizers made from oil run off into the rivers and oceans, causing untold harm to life. There are 400 dead zones in the oceans caused mostly by use of oil. People in big cities can’t breathe. Most scientists blame global warming on the use of oil. We need to learn how to do things differently. Creating alternative sources of energy is thus an important adjunct to this movement.

In Mt. Shasta and Siskiyou County there are several projects already happening. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is getting going in at least one space, part of a commercial greenhouse north of town. A garden share project, plans for food storage, a group working to change restrictive policies in our county through political action, and more. One thing we want to do is make fresh local produce available to people in need. If you are interested in joining a group project, or starting one of your own, go to the website shastacommons.org and connect up!

Joanna Cherry
POB 1017, Mt. Shasta
926-6737