Banter 110: 11Mar26 Deep Adaptation, with Geoff Morley
community resilience, climate change, environmental challenges, key pillars for community adaptation: resilience, relinquishment, restoration, reconciliation, local food systems, short supply chains
Video Timeline (min:sec)
00:00 - 30:00 Presentation
30:00 - 70:01 (end) Q & A
Deep Adaption - presentation slides:
A markdown version of this presentation - giving text without images - is available at the bottom of this page. Please note that there are lots of links - to the books, papers,websites, etc., to which Geoff referred - in the markdown version. They have been extracted for you in the links section below the meeting summary
Deep Adaptation Meeting Summary:
Mar 11, 2026 11:53 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap
Geoffrey presented on community resilience and deep adaptation in response to climate change and environmental challenges, sharing insights from his work with the National Trust and his upcoming community interest company. He outlined four key pillars for community adaptation: resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation, emphasizing the need to build local food systems, short supply chains, and community connections. The discussion explored funding opportunities for community projects, challenges in engaging local councils and communities, and the importance of addressing immediate needs before broader environmental issues. Participants shared experiences about engaging different demographic groups, with particular attention to involving children and addressing economic disparities in community participation.
Next steps
Summary
Community Resilience Presentation Introduction
Geoffrey introduced himself as a National Trust employee working in community outreach and resilience, presenting for the first time about community resilience to this group. He explained his background in conservation management and river restoration in Norfolk, where he conducted community listening sessions to understand rural community concerns about land use.
Novel Mosaic Community Resilience Initiative
Geoffrey introduced his new community interest company, Novel Mosaic, which aims to deliver talks about deep adaptation and support community resilience projects in Norfolk. He explained that the concept of deep adaptation comes from Professor Gem Bendel's work, focusing on preparing communities for potential collapse by adapting to a different form of community organization. Geoffrey outlined plans to support community groups through resilience projects, including desktop surveys, creating edible landscapes, and restoring habitats.
Climate Change Action Framework
Geoffrey discussed the urgent need for action on climate change, noting that global emissions have exceeded 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for two consecutive years. He outlined a four-pillar framework for addressing this crisis: resilience (building community strength and adaptability), relinquishment (letting go of unsustainable expectations), restoration (reviving local skills and self-sufficiency), and reconciliation (rebuilding trust within communities). Geoffrey emphasized the need to move away from centralized systems toward more distributed community-based approaches.
Community Resilience and Sustainability Approaches
Geoffrey discussed the importance of decentralized, community-led approaches to building resilience against global challenges like food insecurity and climate change. He emphasized the need for short supply chains, local food production, and skills sharing to reduce dependence on external systems and create more sustainable communities. Geoffrey highlighted various existing initiatives like Land Workers Alliance, Slow Food movements, and Transition Towns, while also advocating for practical actions such as local currencies, repair cafes, and community gardens to strengthen social connections and support mental well-being. He concluded by urging a shift away from expectations of perpetual economic growth and towards practices that prioritize community well-being and cultural traditions aligned with environmental stewardship.
Community Environmental Resilience Strategies
Geoffrey discussed the importance of communities adapting to environmental challenges by building local resilience and connections. He outlined steps for communities to take, including conducting desktop surveys, identifying local skills and resources, and connecting with neighbors to address gaps and vulnerabilities. Graham asked about Geoffrey's experience with large organizations like DEFRA and the potential role of national funding in supporting local community efforts, to which Geoffrey explained his work with the National Trust and highlighted the benefits of community-based approaches despite organizational constraints.
Community Interest Company Discussion
Geoffrey discussed setting up a Community Interest Company (CIC) to bid for community funding and operate both as a business and a charity. He explained that CICs allow for diverse income streams and access to charitable funds, which can help support community projects and provide a wage for the operator. Geoffrey highlighted the potential for funding opportunities, including grants for land management and biodiversity projects, and emphasized the importance of engaging farmers and horticulturalists in these efforts. Peter raised a concern about corporation tax obligations for CICs and questioned the added value of such organizations in communities with similar groups already active.
Catchment Conservation Funding Discussion
Geoffrey described his voluntary work with the Felbeck Trust in North Norfolk, focusing on catchment-scale conservation projects that connect existing habitats and identify gaps for community engagement. Peter inquired about funding opportunities, to which Geoffrey responded that while national funding through Natural England's species recovery funds exists, public sector funding has generally decreased, with private investment and carbon credits expected to take a larger role. Peter mentioned available funds from Anglian Water, particularly in water catchment areas, including the Flourishing Communities Fund and AWINEP, though he noted limited funding for initial sampling and identification of issues.
Biodiversity Data Collection Methods
Geoffrey discussed his experience with desktop surveys and ground-truthing for biodiversity and community projects. He explained the challenges of gathering information from various sources like message boards and Facebook groups, noting that pre-2020 data was more readily available. Geoffrey shared insights about a heritage grain project in North Norfolk and emphasized the importance of verifying online information through direct observation. He also highlighted the value of community engagement and leadership in adapting to complex issues, suggesting that successful projects require ongoing conversations with local stakeholders.
Local Resilience and Community Engagement
Geoffrey presented on the importance of local resilience and community engagement in preparing for potential resource shortages. He emphasized focusing on vulnerable areas and people who will be affected first by price hikes in energy and food. Graham suggested using the upcoming National Emergency Briefing movie to capture attention and generate interest. Cllr. Stuart expressed challenges in getting local groups to collaborate and engage in resilience projects, while Geoffrey shared strategies like creating an edible park to increase community involvement, particularly among vulnerable populations. The group discussed the potential of involving children in resilience efforts, as they could help spread awareness to future generations.
"Deep Adaptation" banter session - Useful Links:
Geoff Morley: [email protected]
Deep Adaptation banter session - Chat:
00:13:12 Peter Bates - SSECAM: SSECAM - South East Cambridgeshire and surrounding aeas 00:14:18 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Replying to "SSECAM - South East ..."
SSECAM - Sustainable South East Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas
00:33:26 Christine Allen: Sorry, I have got to go. Please send me a copy of the slides. Christine 00:57:27 David Morgan-Jones: Thank you everyone - need to go.
01:05:45 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Which books are there that we now need to start adaptation steps
01:09:06 Katherine Stott: Replying to "SSECAM - South East ..."
Apologies, I have to duck out for another meeting - thank you for a fascinating presentation :-) 01:13:37 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: I have to go. Thank you so much. Very inspiring.
01:17:05 Andrew Clegg, Martock, Somerset: We have the same problem as Stuart. I think the problem is that things are working a bit too well. We dont have bare sheves in the shops - food supply chains are not fragile enough. Transport of food is not yet expensive enough. A bit of community hardship I think would go a long way,(My background is Africa) 01:19:02 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: I agree Andrew. If something goes wrong it’s somebody’s fault eg water company,
Deep Adaptation banter session - audio-transcript:
50 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:21.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So, thank you all very much for joining us, and with no more ado, Jeff, let me pass things to you, and please feel free to tell people who you are and what they're going to be discovering from you today.
51 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:29.769 Geoffrey James Morley: Graham, thank you, Graham. Thanks for having me, everybody. Have we got people in from all over the country, then? I've seen Great Dunmouth, Somerset.
52 00:12:30.390 --> 00:12:30.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah.
53 00:12:32.370 --> 00:12:39.519 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I confess to not knowing… remembering where Hadstock is. So, John, my apologies to you if…
54 00:12:40.300 --> 00:12:42.169 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: For my ignorance.
55 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:48.040 Geoffrey James Morley: So, I am in… Norwich, in North Norwich.
56 00:12:48.230 --> 00:12:54.970 Geoffrey James Morley: sorry, North Norfolk, near Norwich, and… I am,
57 00:12:55.270 --> 00:12:59.449 Geoffrey James Morley: Doing the first… so this is the first of these,
58 00:13:00.350 --> 00:13:04.910 Geoffrey James Morley: presentations where I'm talking to people about community resilience.
59 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:11.890 Geoffrey James Morley: I've been working for the National Trust for the last 8 years, but…
60 00:13:12.210 --> 00:13:15.510 Geoffrey James Morley: The last couple of years have been in,
61 00:13:15.850 --> 00:13:22.620 Geoffrey James Morley: a sort of conservation management role, doing river restoration on the Upper Bjorn River in… In…
62 00:13:22.820 --> 00:13:30.800 Geoffrey James Morley: Norfolk, and the, the role that I had was in community outreach and engagement.
63 00:13:30.930 --> 00:13:47.050 Geoffrey James Morley: I've got scientific training, I've got sociology training as well, so I was doing a lot of community listening through my time with Riverlands, and trying to understand what it is that the community wanted, in terms of land use and land use change.
64 00:13:47.430 --> 00:13:54.089 Geoffrey James Morley: So… we… Did a lot of, speaking to people about…
65 00:13:54.730 --> 00:14:03.650 Geoffrey James Morley: About the issues they see in the countryside and rural communities, and through the course of doing that work, I developed this,
66 00:14:03.830 --> 00:14:10.140 Geoffrey James Morley: this presentation. Just having a little bit of trouble with my second screen, trying to… get the…
67 00:14:11.210 --> 00:14:14.540 Geoffrey James Morley: Might as just share my screen and see how you find it.
68 00:14:16.110 --> 00:14:20.849 Geoffrey James Morley: This is always a little bit nerve-wracking to… to do this.
69 00:14:22.280 --> 00:14:25.239 Geoffrey James Morley: So if I get…
70 00:14:26.950 --> 00:14:30.869 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: You've got a nice picture of me at the moment. Yep, you're getting there.
71 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:36.269 Geoffrey James Morley: Alright, so I've got… Just unplug that second screen.
72 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:38.339 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: It's looking good.
73 00:14:38.680 --> 00:14:42.360 Geoffrey James Morley: And what I can't see now is my…
74 00:14:42.990 --> 00:14:47.830 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: No. You are, yes. You're on the first slide, Jeff.
75 00:14:47.830 --> 00:14:53.470 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, I know. Sorry, this is, you can tell it's the first time, don't you?
76 00:14:54.910 --> 00:14:59.619 Geoffrey James Morley: I just need to be able to see… oh, god, now it's giving me…
77 00:15:02.050 --> 00:15:05.510 Geoffrey James Morley: Nevermind, let's not do that. Okay,
78 00:15:05.870 --> 00:15:08.069 Geoffrey James Morley: what I might just have to do is…
79 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:13.720 Geoffrey James Morley: have it all out in the open, so you can see all my notes as well. I hope that's okay with everybody.
80 00:15:16.330 --> 00:15:22.159 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Usually if you pull it from your second screen to your first, then.
81 00:15:22.920 --> 00:15:23.350 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah.
82 00:15:23.350 --> 00:15:26.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Plays ball, better ball than it does with the second screen.
83 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:31.729 Geoffrey James Morley: Normally, it gives me a little box in the bottom, a bit like this, but, you know, in a different… in a better format.
84 00:15:31.860 --> 00:15:45.609 Geoffrey James Morley: That, that allows me to read it, but anyway, I'll stop worrying about that, and you can see what I'm getting at anyway, so we'll make do for the moment, and I'll replace my screen sometime soon. So…
85 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:52.600 Geoffrey James Morley: As part of the outcomes of the project I was working on, I have…
86 00:15:52.770 --> 00:16:02.399 Geoffrey James Morley: I'm finishing that role and that project, and with my redundancy money, I'm setting up a community interest company called Novel Mosaic.
87 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:15.050 Geoffrey James Morley: purpose of that is to deliver talks like this, and this is the sort of thing I've got, booked in for the next few months around Norfolk, around the catchment, is talking to community groups.
88 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:27.470 Geoffrey James Morley: to talk to them about something I learned, whilst I was doing all of the other work streams that I've been doing, which is… which is deep adaptation, which I'll come along… come on to in a… in a minute.
89 00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:35.940 Geoffrey James Morley: the, the output of that will then be to support community groups with resilience projects, to…
90 00:16:36.250 --> 00:16:48.280 Geoffrey James Morley: To, start to put together things like desktop surveys of figuring out what… what you have in your community and where the gaps are, and then putting together projects to try to, bring
91 00:16:48.410 --> 00:17:01.470 Geoffrey James Morley: community groups together, to support resilience projects. And then other work streams that sort of feed into that would be, creating edible landscapes, like edible parks,
92 00:17:01.670 --> 00:17:10.290 Geoffrey James Morley: And, forest edge design gardens and things like that, and restoring habitat, which is what I've been doing in my role.
93 00:17:11.020 --> 00:17:19.910 Geoffrey James Morley: So, I've called this catchment adaptation. It was specifically called Bure Adaptation, because it was aimed at the bure catchment.
94 00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:27.079 Geoffrey James Morley: But what this is, essentially, is the key messages and,
95 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:35.270 Geoffrey James Morley: The actions and the sort of outcomes of a couple of pieces of… Cross-disciplinary…
96 00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:44.779 Geoffrey James Morley: climate science and climate work and sociology, written by Professor Jem Bendel, from Cunbury University.
97 00:17:45.340 --> 00:17:55.539 Geoffrey James Morley: who wrote a book called Breaking Together, following on from a paper that he wrote called Deep Adaptation, both of which, are along the lines of.
98 00:17:56.770 --> 00:18:03.399 Geoffrey James Morley: You know, all the things we're doing nationally and internationally, to change
99 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:15.450 Geoffrey James Morley: to do anything about carbon, carbon and climate change, and the poly crisis are not meeting their targets, as we repeatedly see.
100 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:23.910 Geoffrey James Morley: And we'll… People need to do is to start to prepare for collapse, by adapting
101 00:18:24.250 --> 00:18:34.990 Geoffrey James Morley: Our communities, our lives, and our, minds to a different Form of community organization.
102 00:18:35.650 --> 00:18:40.060 Geoffrey James Morley: So, the… you see the picture on the cover of the book there is of…
103 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:44.990 Geoffrey James Morley: Atlas carrying the Earth, but it's the, kintsugi.
104 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.930 Geoffrey James Morley: Gold repair, version of that, where…
105 00:18:49.020 --> 00:19:06.879 Geoffrey James Morley: if you know anything about that, Japanese practice, it's as something breaks, and you repair it with gold to make it more… to make it stronger, and to make it more beautiful, and more meaningful. So that's sort of, inside and out with people and communities, that is what the aim
106 00:19:07.060 --> 00:19:09.070 Geoffrey James Morley: Of this whole process is.
107 00:19:11.370 --> 00:19:14.200 Geoffrey James Morley: Any questions before I jump into it?
108 00:19:17.520 --> 00:19:18.910 Geoffrey James Morley: Is everyone still there?
109 00:19:23.350 --> 00:19:25.089 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah, press on, Jeff, press on.
110 00:19:25.090 --> 00:19:29.719 Geoffrey James Morley: Thank you. I can't see anybody, just so you know, so if you do have any questions.
111 00:19:30.060 --> 00:19:35.120 Geoffrey James Morley: just, shout out, and… yeah, I'll… we'll stop and have a chat.
112 00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:36.370 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: No hate.
113 00:19:37.610 --> 00:19:47.699 Geoffrey James Morley: So, I believe you had a talk recently from one of the founders of the transition movement about how we got here, so we won't linger too long on it.
114 00:19:47.820 --> 00:19:55.640 Geoffrey James Morley: But needless to say, it's all developing very quickly, and we're already in a world
115 00:19:56.120 --> 00:19:59.380 Geoffrey James Morley: Looking back over that planetary boundaries timeline.
116 00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:04.050 Geoffrey James Morley: In 2015, I'd not long started to…
117 00:20:04.280 --> 00:20:12.070 Geoffrey James Morley: To, learn about ecology and conservation, having come out of university in 2008, and…
118 00:20:12.270 --> 00:20:16.990 Geoffrey James Morley: By 2023, I had a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old.
119 00:20:17.340 --> 00:20:22.589 Geoffrey James Morley: And… Yeah, last year, we started to…
120 00:20:22.940 --> 00:20:34.890 Geoffrey James Morley: See that we've been above 1.5 globally, above 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial emissions, for two… for the second year in a row.
121 00:20:35.350 --> 00:20:39.470 Geoffrey James Morley: So, it's developing very quickly as an issue.
122 00:20:39.990 --> 00:20:43.229 Geoffrey James Morley: And it's not going to get any better.
123 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:51.139 Geoffrey James Morley: Without us doing something that is very different from what we've been doing, trying to do, or failing to do.
124 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:55.390 Geoffrey James Morley: So… We have a reality to face.
125 00:20:56.010 --> 00:21:00.190 Geoffrey James Morley: As a planet, and as… communities as individuals.
126 00:21:00.330 --> 00:21:04.550 Geoffrey James Morley: That we have to be honest about, and we have to take…
127 00:21:04.860 --> 00:21:10.269 Geoffrey James Morley: A courageous approach to… to look that… that situation in the eye.
128 00:21:10.510 --> 00:21:11.230 Geoffrey James Morley: M…
129 00:21:12.370 --> 00:21:23.760 Geoffrey James Morley: The traditional approaches have been insufficient, and we know that, and we do need to support each other with this, because it's a difficult truth to…
130 00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:26.619 Geoffrey James Morley: Come to terms with on an emotional level.
131 00:21:26.730 --> 00:21:30.320 Geoffrey James Morley: And there is fallout when there… when people
132 00:21:30.580 --> 00:21:36.479 Geoffrey James Morley: Come to terms with difficult truths, in a personal and psychological way.
133 00:21:37.210 --> 00:21:40.810 Geoffrey James Morley: So we have to be different to each other.
134 00:21:43.650 --> 00:21:48.340 Geoffrey James Morley: I can provide all of these links afterwards, but the four pillars…
135 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:54.340 Geoffrey James Morley: To the framework that is set out in… in these books is…
136 00:21:54.550 --> 00:21:59.169 Geoffrey James Morley: Resilience, relinquishment, restoration, and reconciliation.
137 00:21:59.580 --> 00:22:13.769 Geoffrey James Morley: Resilience, which is mostly what we'll be focusing on in this, is building that community strength and adaptability. Things that are good in any scenario, even if none of it was true.
138 00:22:13.770 --> 00:22:22.050 Geoffrey James Morley: And, you know, we could carry on living in the way that we're living globally for another 100,000 years. It is a good idea to build
139 00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:24.320 Geoffrey James Morley: Community Resilience and strength.
140 00:22:24.860 --> 00:22:30.250 Geoffrey James Morley: And be adaptable, so that's where we are going to start.
141 00:22:30.630 --> 00:22:36.479 Geoffrey James Morley: Relinquishment is letting go of the unsustainable expectations, the idea of
142 00:22:36.700 --> 00:22:49.870 Geoffrey James Morley: Perpetual economic growth, that the state is, or businesses even, are going to have our best interests at heart, and are going to do the best things for us to get us out of the situation that we're in.
143 00:22:49.970 --> 00:22:59.220 Geoffrey James Morley: Restoration, so reviving the skills and things that made our communities unique.
144 00:22:59.510 --> 00:23:10.159 Geoffrey James Morley: And… and self-sustaining, so things like growing food, and supplying our… making our own power, generating our own power, which is a lot easier now than it ever has been.
145 00:23:10.520 --> 00:23:14.210 Geoffrey James Morley: And, and reconciliation, so…
146 00:23:14.340 --> 00:23:20.469 Geoffrey James Morley: Rebuilding trust, with the people in our community, especially the people that are different from us.
147 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:27.600 Geoffrey James Morley: So what we're looking at in a sort of,
148 00:23:28.390 --> 00:23:37.570 Geoffrey James Morley: abstract concept is moving away from a centralized way of organizing our society to a distributed
149 00:23:37.760 --> 00:23:39.260 Geoffrey James Morley: Way of organising it.
150 00:23:39.630 --> 00:23:52.220 Geoffrey James Morley: So, if you imagine that your community where you are, is one of the, if you can see my cursor, one of the nodes at the end of a long stick, quite far away from the middle of power, that's…
151 00:23:52.510 --> 00:23:55.719 Geoffrey James Morley: You know, how our food system works, our…
152 00:23:56.060 --> 00:23:59.900 Geoffrey James Morley: Power generation works, our governance,
153 00:24:00.030 --> 00:24:06.570 Geoffrey James Morley: A lot of these things happen to us, rather than us having a say in what goes on in the world.
154 00:24:06.690 --> 00:24:17.030 Geoffrey James Morley: decentralized is better, we're more aware of our surroundings, but what we need is short…
155 00:24:17.300 --> 00:24:25.780 Geoffrey James Morley: Supply chains and short distribution to other communities and other resources and other…
156 00:24:26.040 --> 00:24:29.749 Geoffrey James Morley: Means of being resilient and adaptable.
157 00:24:30.450 --> 00:24:34.899 Geoffrey James Morley: I'll take you through some of this stuff in more detail with some examples.
158 00:24:35.280 --> 00:24:44.189 Geoffrey James Morley: So… Food security is something that we are a particularly vulnerable
159 00:24:44.330 --> 00:24:58.130 Geoffrey James Morley: in the UK, as you probably all know from recent headlines after the invasion of Iran, that food prices are going to spike along with energy prices, as we always find, but…
160 00:24:58.540 --> 00:25:05.010 Geoffrey James Morley: people like Tim Lang, who's been looking into this for a long time, know that
161 00:25:05.170 --> 00:25:16.220 Geoffrey James Morley: we have a particularly low, self-sufficiency of food, of all the food that we need in this country, and we import an awful lot. We import just under half, I think.
162 00:25:18.770 --> 00:25:25.769 Geoffrey James Morley: So one of the things that I've been doing in my project, and that I really want to continue doing as a CIC, is to…
163 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:31.090 Geoffrey James Morley: Change lands… lands… land use and change the landscape to make
164 00:25:31.470 --> 00:25:36.419 Geoffrey James Morley: Market gardening and short supply chains, a normal thing.
165 00:25:36.530 --> 00:25:42.359 Geoffrey James Morley: You know, at least in my local community, if not across the country.
166 00:25:43.300 --> 00:25:45.770 Geoffrey James Morley: What that does is put people back.
167 00:25:45.890 --> 00:25:53.950 Geoffrey James Morley: In the landscape, put skills back in the landscape, change the conversation between Rural people and town people.
168 00:25:54.080 --> 00:26:01.350 Geoffrey James Morley: And… Put that sort of resilience in a more spread-out way across
169 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:05.400 Geoffrey James Morley: Our communities, so that there are multiple places to go.
170 00:26:06.100 --> 00:26:16.959 Geoffrey James Morley: And take away that third party that sits between the food producers and the consumers, and that take quite a lot of money out of it, and created quite a…
171 00:26:17.350 --> 00:26:21.080 Geoffrey James Morley: A fragile system that's open to shocks.
172 00:26:21.900 --> 00:26:36.019 Geoffrey James Morley: There's a number of things that can be done. It's not just food growing, but, you know, food preservation, local skills like that are very, very useful, seed saving, tool libraries, and all sorts of…
173 00:26:36.280 --> 00:26:45.949 Geoffrey James Morley: other schemes to assist people with, what they need. There are a number of places that are already doing this, so Land Workers Alliance are a group of,
174 00:26:46.150 --> 00:26:52.619 Geoffrey James Morley: People that you may already know that work nationally, to support market gardeners, small-scale.
175 00:26:52.910 --> 00:27:03.800 Geoffrey James Morley: Horticulturalists, smallholders, small, small, craftspeople, things like that, and they have regional hubs,
176 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:16.709 Geoffrey James Morley: And can be… you can approach them directly and get a pretty good idea about who's doing what in your local area. It's a very different group of people to farmers, so they are usually…
177 00:27:16.760 --> 00:27:19.110 Geoffrey James Morley: younger,
178 00:27:19.130 --> 00:27:38.500 Geoffrey James Morley: It's not difficult in the farming sector to be younger because of, you know, the issues they're facing. But they're usually early career entrants, that are politicized and would like to make a different sort of world for themselves, and have some amount of anxiety about the future themselves.
179 00:27:39.430 --> 00:27:43.570 Geoffrey James Morley: Sit or slow is Spanish for slow city.
180 00:27:43.890 --> 00:27:50.490 Geoffrey James Morley: It's a movement around making sure that you're Local outlets are…
181 00:27:50.630 --> 00:27:55.390 Geoffrey James Morley: Producing and supplying local food that's responsibly grown.
182 00:27:55.500 --> 00:28:00.170 Geoffrey James Morley: And that it is, you know, as unprocessed as possible.
183 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:17.400 Geoffrey James Morley: we have one locally to us in Elsham, and slow food movements are part of the transition groups as well. They go hand in hand a lot. And then there's things like community foundations that sort of support in terms of administrative help and
184 00:28:17.580 --> 00:28:22.719 Geoffrey James Morley: Help with civic assets, meeting spaces, food banks sometimes as well.
185 00:28:22.990 --> 00:28:24.330 Geoffrey James Morley: And,
186 00:28:24.700 --> 00:28:35.320 Geoffrey James Morley: a lot of universities, our local university in Norwich has Sustainable Food Norwich as a, sort of, a branch of their interdisciplinary
187 00:28:36.090 --> 00:28:38.699 Geoffrey James Morley: Projects and research,
188 00:28:38.980 --> 00:28:49.270 Geoffrey James Morley: Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge have a similar thing, Cambridge University have a similar thing, and I'm pretty sure most universities that do anything in humanities, geography, or life sciences would do something similar as well.
189 00:28:49.560 --> 00:28:59.330 Geoffrey James Morley: That can connect into local, groups. And of course, the Transition Movement, which is one of the places where I started, with Transition Cambridge, is,
190 00:28:59.430 --> 00:29:05.420 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, tons and tons of different projects, as far as I'm, you know, I'm experienced.
191 00:29:05.890 --> 00:29:12.530 Geoffrey James Morley: Lots of different projects that span lots of, you know, quite a disparate range of communities and activities.
192 00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:21.660 Geoffrey James Morley: alternative economics, you may have come across this sort of thing as well, is to…
193 00:29:22.300 --> 00:29:33.450 Geoffrey James Morley: To remove, again, remove that middle person who isn't in your community, that takes a little bit of every transaction and…
194 00:29:33.770 --> 00:29:36.520 Geoffrey James Morley: Removes it from your community to the other side of the world.
195 00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:48.020 Geoffrey James Morley: there are ways around that. Things like local currencies have been trialled with some of the transition towns, and or just paying in cash can be a very…
196 00:29:48.530 --> 00:29:56.410 Geoffrey James Morley: Useful thing to do to keep wealth in the community, and to stop that wealth being eroded with every transaction that occurs.
197 00:29:56.540 --> 00:29:57.550 Geoffrey James Morley: M…
198 00:29:58.290 --> 00:30:06.679 Geoffrey James Morley: and things like skills exchanges. I don't know whether anyone's, familiar with, things like, repair cafes,
199 00:30:07.100 --> 00:30:15.830 Geoffrey James Morley: They can be as… be as small or as big as you want to make them, and be a hub for any sort of community
200 00:30:15.970 --> 00:30:18.170 Geoffrey James Morley: Skills exchanges as well.
201 00:30:18.670 --> 00:30:28.550 Geoffrey James Morley: And things like gardening, Gardens, meeting spaces, local support, local transport to support people that are un…
202 00:30:28.670 --> 00:30:36.370 Geoffrey James Morley: Unable to move around, like, car shares and, community taxis and that sort of thing.
203 00:30:40.390 --> 00:30:46.000 Geoffrey James Morley: The idea is to regenerate, nature and culture together.
204 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:57.789 Geoffrey James Morley: So to sort of rewrite our stories about our local communities through all this interaction and this activity, and to understand that all of these
205 00:30:57.810 --> 00:31:09.560 Geoffrey James Morley: Things that exist and these relationships that exist all have a reliance on natural, or on nature, on natural capital of some sort, and…
206 00:31:09.810 --> 00:31:15.850 Geoffrey James Morley: To build that into the way that we organise ourselves and that we interact with each other.
207 00:31:16.060 --> 00:31:23.659 Geoffrey James Morley: We need to… so, yeah, part of that is rejecting some of that top-down
208 00:31:23.870 --> 00:31:35.810 Geoffrey James Morley: stuff around environmental issues. Carbon footprint is one of the things that is a particular, particularly on my radar at the moment, as my local climate emergency group.
209 00:31:36.030 --> 00:31:40.440 Geoffrey James Morley: A focusing on the carbon footprints of individuals, which isn't really a
210 00:31:40.600 --> 00:31:45.729 Geoffrey James Morley: An appropriate measure for how to, how to change
211 00:31:46.280 --> 00:31:58.459 Geoffrey James Morley: behavior and how to rebuild and adapt. It's, carbon footprint is maybe quite useful for countries or large businesses, but as individuals, it's sort of…
212 00:31:58.810 --> 00:32:11.339 Geoffrey James Morley: Obfuscates the issue somewhat, and puts the responsibility on people consuming the right things, rather than doing something that is outside of our current system.
213 00:32:13.070 --> 00:32:25.210 Geoffrey James Morley: So, embracing voluntary cooperation, that's the examples that we've just seen, amongst community groups and community-led initiatives and businesses.
214 00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:31.090 Geoffrey James Morley: Everybody, every town area has some of this stuff, it's just a case of finding out.
215 00:32:31.320 --> 00:32:33.749 Geoffrey James Morley: What it is, where it is, and supporting them.
216 00:32:34.590 --> 00:32:38.800 Geoffrey James Morley: most towns as well, most,
217 00:32:39.310 --> 00:32:48.710 Geoffrey James Morley: Communities have some sort of conservation management group, whether that's doing woodland work, working on rivers, doing,
218 00:32:48.900 --> 00:32:58.510 Geoffrey James Morley: tree planting, or gardening, or looking after verges or something. They're good hubs of people that want to become
219 00:32:58.930 --> 00:33:02.440 Geoffrey James Morley: Active to do something good in their local area.
220 00:33:03.500 --> 00:33:05.729 Geoffrey James Morley: And are using the…
221 00:33:05.860 --> 00:33:11.799 Geoffrey James Morley: energy that they have to… to do something good, and that's something that, once you start to realize the…
222 00:33:12.320 --> 00:33:23.709 Geoffrey James Morley: sort of, the problems we're facing, quite a lot of anxiety tends to come out of that, and physical activity is very good for directing that in a creative and constructive way.
223 00:33:24.250 --> 00:33:32.870 Geoffrey James Morley: That… that allows people to connect with other people and… and… and find that support network that they need to get through that anxiety.
224 00:33:33.700 --> 00:33:37.510 Geoffrey James Morley: so, yeah, and the last one, preserving.
225 00:33:37.660 --> 00:33:44.040 Geoffrey James Morley: cultural traditions and adapting to new realities. I think in England, particularly, we have
226 00:33:44.490 --> 00:33:46.850 Geoffrey James Morley: Quite a big gap between our…
227 00:33:47.030 --> 00:34:04.439 Geoffrey James Morley: the version of our country that was close to the land and understood the seasons, and understood how the land works and how the ecology works and had stories around that, rituals, food, and festivals around it, that is…
228 00:34:04.820 --> 00:34:12.160 Geoffrey James Morley: not something that we can see very easily these days in England. It's easier to see in other countries.
229 00:34:12.350 --> 00:34:24.950 Geoffrey James Morley: But, you know, we can recreate these things, we can borrow with pride from other cultures that have these ways of understanding the Earth that they're standing on, and we can…
230 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:30.150 Geoffrey James Morley: Tell stories, and create new stories, which is,
231 00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:35.069 Geoffrey James Morley: Which is critical for creating meaning, you know, out of the…
232 00:34:35.350 --> 00:34:37.489 Geoffrey James Morley: Issues that are coming down the line.
233 00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:41.540 Geoffrey James Morley: So the…
234 00:34:42.070 --> 00:34:50.580 Geoffrey James Morley: This all sort of rests on the core values of, of what we want to do, and it's… it's sort of a radical kindness,
235 00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:54.980 Geoffrey James Morley: We want to be able to meet every…
236 00:34:55.710 --> 00:34:58.820 Geoffrey James Morley: Every challenge with the understanding that we are all
237 00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:10.709 Geoffrey James Morley: Going through a similar thing. Maybe not in a similar way, but we all are facing challenges that are unique to our time in human history and our…
238 00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:17.360 Geoffrey James Morley: Big and overwhelming, and that we all need compassion, and we all need, support in doing that.
239 00:35:17.720 --> 00:35:21.929 Geoffrey James Morley: However that, you know, sort of appears to us.
240 00:35:22.670 --> 00:35:25.359 Geoffrey James Morley: Or is presented to us.
241 00:35:26.300 --> 00:35:31.949 Geoffrey James Morley: Maybe if, you know, in terms of acting with integrity, maybe you're somebody who…
242 00:35:32.060 --> 00:35:39.779 Geoffrey James Morley: We'll want to just get on and do something, regardless of what that is, and it is always important to have
243 00:35:40.020 --> 00:35:47.110 Geoffrey James Morley: A sense of, communing with other people and taking information in, before we do
244 00:35:47.390 --> 00:35:50.119 Geoffrey James Morley: Anything, just to, sort of, be active.
245 00:35:50.260 --> 00:35:56.900 Geoffrey James Morley: And so, practicing being generous and being,
246 00:35:57.350 --> 00:36:04.119 Geoffrey James Morley: Prioritising your community well-being over… over your individual needs is very important.
247 00:36:04.300 --> 00:36:09.100 Geoffrey James Morley: And it's a way of practicing generosity and reciprocity with those around you.
248 00:36:09.740 --> 00:36:13.459 Geoffrey James Morley: And like I said, practical work.
249 00:36:13.770 --> 00:36:15.119 Geoffrey James Morley: can help.
250 00:36:15.340 --> 00:36:26.649 Geoffrey James Morley: maintain your mental health and your ability to adapt to these situations. But practical work with others is the best way.
251 00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:34.560 Geoffrey James Morley: So just to, sort of, recap the things we…
252 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:40.900 Geoffrey James Morley: need to let go of. Expectations of perpetual economic growth.
253 00:36:41.170 --> 00:36:53.440 Geoffrey James Morley: As we're seeing now, and we'll see more in the future, dependence on fragile chains of supply across the planet, and, lifestyles that exhaust
254 00:36:53.600 --> 00:37:00.160 Geoffrey James Morley: Our resources, so it's an awful lot to ask of people, and it's a…
255 00:37:00.310 --> 00:37:03.000 Geoffrey James Morley: It's one that will pro- will have…
256 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:05.850 Geoffrey James Morley: A lot of argument in the opposite direction.
257 00:37:06.020 --> 00:37:12.970 Geoffrey James Morley: But there is, no time for delay, really, and I think…
258 00:37:13.420 --> 00:37:20.109 Geoffrey James Morley: It's easier, it's probably the best way to work with the people that are
259 00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:27.549 Geoffrey James Morley: on-site, and have, have enough… have that ability to put in some effort with you.
260 00:37:28.020 --> 00:37:33.709 Geoffrey James Morley: And the people that are arguing against it will come around eventually. I think,
261 00:37:34.760 --> 00:37:39.960 Geoffrey James Morley: It's important that we understand how much time we need to spend on…
262 00:37:40.210 --> 00:37:44.560 Geoffrey James Morley: Trying to convince people of realities that they're maybe not ready to take on.
263 00:37:44.870 --> 00:37:50.680 Geoffrey James Morley: But we can… we can do that ourselves, and sort of lead by example.
264 00:37:51.740 --> 00:37:54.899 Geoffrey James Morley: So one of the things there is, we…
265 00:37:55.120 --> 00:37:57.700 Geoffrey James Morley: Have no right above any other person or animal.
266 00:37:57.900 --> 00:38:05.549 Geoffrey James Morley: To a continuation of our life stories, and that is a, harsh but real fact that…
267 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:13.710 Geoffrey James Morley: The… what is happening to our planet is a physical… Complex, dynamic.
268 00:38:13.910 --> 00:38:21.609 Geoffrey James Morley: Problem that is in no way, invested in what we are interested in life.
269 00:38:21.790 --> 00:38:31.100 Geoffrey James Morley: And what we find valuable, and it will continue to do what it needs to do, with the energy that we've put into that system.
270 00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:35.379 Geoffrey James Morley: And, we have to adapt to it.
271 00:38:35.610 --> 00:38:42.160 Geoffrey James Morley: And this isn't to say that we shouldn't be slowing down or stopping our emissions entirely.
272 00:38:42.580 --> 00:38:47.569 Geoffrey James Morley: We absolutely should, but there is a lot baked in that we need to adapt to.
273 00:38:51.420 --> 00:38:57.560 Geoffrey James Morley: So I've just put in some, some, sort of project-style, steps.
274 00:38:57.610 --> 00:39:11.889 Geoffrey James Morley: So the things that communities can do immediately is, connect with neighbours, identify spaces to meet, identify local, skills and resources.
275 00:39:11.890 --> 00:39:22.399 Geoffrey James Morley: and build relationships, I'd probably start with something like a desktop survey of understanding how, how many growers you have locally, how many.
276 00:39:23.720 --> 00:39:31.069 Geoffrey James Morley: Out… locally supplied outlets, or are, you know, bakers, or butchers, or people that can do those sorts of…
277 00:39:31.210 --> 00:39:35.199 Geoffrey James Morley: Practical, skills that…
278 00:39:35.910 --> 00:39:42.689 Geoffrey James Morley: That support communities, and then start to ground truth it, start to go out and meet people, make those connections.
279 00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:49.340 Geoffrey James Morley: To see where those gaps are, where those… where those people don't exist anymore, or,
280 00:39:49.500 --> 00:40:01.209 Geoffrey James Morley: Understand what people's challenges are, what their businesses and their charities and their organisations are like, and what they… what they need from each other, what… stopping them from doing more.
281 00:40:02.900 --> 00:40:11.509 Geoffrey James Morley: And then to identify opportunities to fill those gaps, and to, deal with vulnerabilities in your, in your community.
282 00:40:13.340 --> 00:40:18.970 Geoffrey James Morley: And then as you go forward in time, Less and less detail,
283 00:40:19.140 --> 00:40:24.290 Geoffrey James Morley: gets filled in, at this point, but you would fill it in as you go. So as you…
284 00:40:24.540 --> 00:40:38.480 Geoffrey James Morley: understands those things about your community, you can start to build plans and map these things out, and start to lobby local government for backup systems for infrastructure, for,
285 00:40:38.950 --> 00:40:43.629 Geoffrey James Morley: Other, sort of assets for other community assets that are missing.
286 00:40:43.750 --> 00:40:52.369 Geoffrey James Morley: You can start to work more broadly, and put together programs of engagement, and programs of,
287 00:40:52.830 --> 00:40:55.860 Geoffrey James Morley: Community research and documentation.
288 00:40:56.300 --> 00:41:03.569 Geoffrey James Morley: And, as you… Sort of get quite… far forward.
289 00:41:04.370 --> 00:41:06.580 Geoffrey James Morley: You're then in a position where…
290 00:41:07.950 --> 00:41:11.830 Geoffrey James Morley: Shocks to food supplies, shocks to,
291 00:41:12.230 --> 00:41:19.060 Geoffrey James Morley: Water supplies and things like that may be something that will not mean.
292 00:41:19.370 --> 00:41:25.779 Geoffrey James Morley: catastrophe for your local community that will be something that might bring you closer together.
293 00:41:25.990 --> 00:41:32.579 Geoffrey James Morley: But all these things start with us being honest about where we are.
294 00:41:32.740 --> 00:41:44.840 Geoffrey James Morley: supporting our local… communities, and recognising that there are greatest assets in… in, adapting to this.
295 00:41:45.700 --> 00:41:59.460 Geoffrey James Morley: Protecting yourself from, you know, preserving your own ability to operate in your life and with the people around you, and seeking the support that you need, to come to terms with some of these messages.
296 00:41:59.570 --> 00:42:05.929 Geoffrey James Morley: And… Making… making choices in maybe a different way.
297 00:42:06.080 --> 00:42:07.120 Geoffrey James Morley: So it was…
298 00:42:07.350 --> 00:42:18.769 Geoffrey James Morley: As we saw earlier, if, if you're one of the nodes that's far from the center, and the center disappears, what is it in your community that is going to disappear with that?
299 00:42:19.510 --> 00:42:27.530 Geoffrey James Morley: So… That's, quite a quick… version of that, I think.
300 00:42:27.980 --> 00:42:30.539 Geoffrey James Morley: I was expecting more questions, but,
301 00:42:30.900 --> 00:42:33.409 Geoffrey James Morley: We can do a discussion now.
302 00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:52.029 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yes, please, Jeff, and thank you very much for running us through that. You prompted a couple of questions within me, which, the first is that you've come from a large centralized organization like DEFRA. Did working with them have a lot to do with your
303 00:42:52.030 --> 00:43:00.509 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: mindset that's saying that we can't do that any longer, we need to move to much more community-based stuff, or was there a lot of community-based stuff within DEFRA, did you find?
304 00:43:00.770 --> 00:43:15.270 Geoffrey James Morley: So I was… I was funded by DEFRA, but I was working for the National Trust, so I've been working for the Trust for 8 years, but it was only funded by the… by DEFRA for 2. And yes to both of those, essentially, is that,
305 00:43:15.560 --> 00:43:29.080 Geoffrey James Morley: the National Trust is a big, very large, very complex organization, that have a centralized need to standardize quite a lot of what they do, like a lot of big organizations do.
306 00:43:29.180 --> 00:43:45.370 Geoffrey James Morley: And we'll move quite slowly on a lot of things, which can be very frustrating. But, you know, their heart's in the right place, and they do a lot of the right things. My role was to work in the community on a very local
307 00:43:45.930 --> 00:43:49.399 Geoffrey James Morley: In a very local context, in the River Bjorn, in the catchment.
308 00:43:49.580 --> 00:44:05.710 Geoffrey James Morley: So it was wherever the water hit the ground within that landscape was, sort of our business, and we made it our business to make that as, resilient a water cycle as possible in that catchment. So I worked with community groups who…
309 00:44:06.860 --> 00:44:10.849 Geoffrey James Morley: When, yeah, who are already doing a lot of the…
310 00:44:11.420 --> 00:44:15.620 Geoffrey James Morley: Organizing and adaptation that we need to see across our landscape.
311 00:44:16.300 --> 00:44:20.700 Geoffrey James Morley: And they're able to move quicker on… because they don't have…
312 00:44:20.930 --> 00:44:30.650 Geoffrey James Morley: that organisational accountability. So, on a sort of small to medium scale, yeah, that sort of centralized model,
313 00:44:30.980 --> 00:44:32.899 Geoffrey James Morley: Slows that down.
314 00:44:33.300 --> 00:44:34.609 Geoffrey James Morley: But…
315 00:44:35.080 --> 00:44:40.969 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, that National Trust is a bigger organization, but it's by no means a country, and that…
316 00:44:41.770 --> 00:44:45.209 Geoffrey James Morley: We are still subject to that, the centralized…
317 00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:56.660 Geoffrey James Morley: Controls of government and the centralized supply chains, centralized energy networks that, make us as an organization vulnerable, as well, as one of those nodes.
318 00:44:56.770 --> 00:45:04.160 Geoffrey James Morley: That's subject to, being downstream of a lot of the changes and the, turbulence.
319 00:45:04.350 --> 00:45:07.940 Geoffrey James Morley: Going on in the country and around the world, so there was…
320 00:45:08.710 --> 00:45:16.080 Geoffrey James Morley: there's a hyper-local version, which is a good idea in any scenario, which is what I'm sort of talking about here.
321 00:45:17.530 --> 00:45:18.560 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Right, the…
322 00:45:18.560 --> 00:45:43.359 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Next thing I had was I was reading an article this morning about the UK's agricultural budget, and a substantial chunk of it is going towards rebuilding our hedgerows. So there's a goal this year, I think, of redoing 1,500 kilometres of hedgerow, and they want to get it up to 10,000 within a year or three, which strikes me as being national money put towards local
323 00:45:43.360 --> 00:46:01.280 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: work, because each farmer that receives this money is going to have to work on his hedgerows. And I think a lot of them are doing this quite keenly. In fact, I think quite a substantial income for farmers nowadays is doing common good, as provided by the government. So, are you,
324 00:46:01.720 --> 00:46:20.930 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: looking in your advice to people as to where they might be getting money from, because a lot of them aren't going to be able to raise it locally. They're going to need some sort of national support, and I would have thought that something like the agricultural policy is potentially a very powerful assist.
325 00:46:21.020 --> 00:46:24.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Do you… do you see that tying in with your ideas?
326 00:46:25.500 --> 00:46:33.910 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, so I… the next stage of this, I've not set up the CIC yet, something to do in April,
327 00:46:34.170 --> 00:46:39.619 Geoffrey James Morley: But the… the point of doing it is that I'll be able to bid for funds.
328 00:46:39.930 --> 00:46:50.819 Geoffrey James Morley: That… that can… because it's a community interest company, I would take a wage, essentially, and then every… all the other money would go into whatever community projects are being run.
329 00:46:51.260 --> 00:46:52.719 Geoffrey James Morley: So…
330 00:46:53.030 --> 00:47:03.759 Geoffrey James Morley: there are… there is a lot around. In terms of community funding, there's, a lot that can be bid into at that… at that small end, that sort of up to £20,000.
331 00:47:03.990 --> 00:47:19.729 Geoffrey James Morley: there are… there's a number of national things that you can do, there's a number of offset stuff, that you can get involved in, things like BNG or nutrient neutrality in our area, biodiversity offsets, for things. So, yeah, stuff where, you know, you're sort of…
332 00:47:20.050 --> 00:47:31.399 Geoffrey James Morley: There's some organizations that are doing things that are a bit dirty and need to pay back, and you can take that money and do something particularly useful with it.
333 00:47:31.950 --> 00:47:37.099 Geoffrey James Morley: But yeah, things like the National Lottery as well do community grants and community funds.
334 00:47:37.300 --> 00:47:40.000 Geoffrey James Morley: They are doing… they've got a new one.
335 00:47:40.310 --> 00:47:48.309 Geoffrey James Morley: I've forgotten what it's called. It is around food security, and it's quite a big one, actually. It's up to 5 million pounds over 5 years.
336 00:47:48.900 --> 00:48:02.799 Geoffrey James Morley: I think, somewhere around there. So, there are… there is a lot of that about, as a landowning, or a land use CIC, which I will be, the plot… the area of land where I'll be doing
337 00:48:03.100 --> 00:48:08.040 Geoffrey James Morley: Forest Edge design and workshops and education about how to
338 00:48:08.440 --> 00:48:14.450 Geoffrey James Morley: Use perennial planting schemes to… to do low input or low maintenance.
339 00:48:14.640 --> 00:48:17.570 Geoffrey James Morley: Productive and biodiverse gardens.
340 00:48:17.910 --> 00:48:28.190 Geoffrey James Morley: that plot of land will have a single business identifier, an agricultural number, where I'll be able to claim capital grants for
341 00:48:28.350 --> 00:48:30.659 Geoffrey James Morley: Things like fencing to keep deer off.
342 00:48:31.460 --> 00:48:36.099 Geoffrey James Morley: Deer off the, you know, strawberries, or whatever. So,
343 00:48:36.270 --> 00:48:45.430 Geoffrey James Morley: There are things like that, there are ways around that, so it's fine, and farmers have a ton of that knowledge as well, by the way, if you're in a rural community.
344 00:48:45.710 --> 00:48:50.659 Geoffrey James Morley: Farmers are definitely a group that need to be engaged with a lot of this stuff.
345 00:48:50.930 --> 00:48:55.430 Geoffrey James Morley: As they have a lot of knowledge, first and foremost.
346 00:48:55.660 --> 00:49:03.559 Geoffrey James Morley: They are multidisciplinary, sort of experts, so they… they have to be engineers,
347 00:49:03.700 --> 00:49:13.010 Geoffrey James Morley: mathematicians, business people, chemists, you know, they have to know all of this stuff, so there is a lot they do know. They're a very, very useful group of people.
348 00:49:13.130 --> 00:49:18.279 Geoffrey James Morley: That currently need an awful lot of help, because that… that subsidy money that you were talking about.
349 00:49:18.420 --> 00:49:24.640 Geoffrey James Morley: Whilst it does… A lot of it goes towards that common good, or, you know, that,
350 00:49:24.750 --> 00:49:26.729 Geoffrey James Morley: Or whatever the term is,
351 00:49:27.450 --> 00:49:37.089 Geoffrey James Morley: It is a far, far smaller lump of money than it used to be, and it won't be enough to protect the… the good interventions that they've done so far.
352 00:49:37.230 --> 00:49:52.840 Geoffrey James Morley: on their farms to protect nature and biodiversity and the quality of water entering our rivers, a lot of that will become undone because of the changes to agricultural subsidies, and the fact that a lot of them are
353 00:49:54.100 --> 00:50:13.520 Geoffrey James Morley: producing, sort of commodity goods, sugar, or, you know, carbohydrates to go into international supply chains, or they're grown biofuels or something. Something where, you know, they're in a long chain at the wrong end of it, and they're not getting a good deal on it.
354 00:50:13.680 --> 00:50:22.509 Geoffrey James Morley: But like I was saying about these horticulturalists and small-scale growers, they can make a living for themselves off of a very small area, and farmers…
355 00:50:22.730 --> 00:50:37.579 Geoffrey James Morley: And these people don't talk, typically, they're in two different… very different spheres, and it's very important to… what we… what I've been trying to do is mix that conversation up a bit, and that's where that change in land use is a… is a real necessary push.
356 00:50:37.980 --> 00:50:41.499 Geoffrey James Morley: Sorry, I think I wandered quite far off of your question there, Graeme.
357 00:50:41.500 --> 00:51:04.009 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yes, bearing in mind that your audience is largely parish and community councils and organisations, do you see a lot of funding nowadays that is specifying you need to be a community interest company, or a community land trust, or something? Is there an advantage to all of these organizations becoming CICs, or CLTs, or C-somethings?
358 00:51:04.410 --> 00:51:11.030 Geoffrey James Morley: The benefit to the CIC, model or structure.
359 00:51:11.260 --> 00:51:19.719 Geoffrey James Morley: is that it… you can operate as a business, and you can operate charitably. So, it means that as,
360 00:51:19.880 --> 00:51:26.019 Geoffrey James Morley: I think at this level, and I don't fully understand the structure yet, I'm still at that end of it, where…
361 00:51:26.310 --> 00:51:31.680 Geoffrey James Morley: I'm taking advice from people without fully understanding what it is I'm hearing. So…
362 00:51:31.880 --> 00:51:35.240 Geoffrey James Morley: at this… at this end of it, I can bid into charitable funds.
363 00:51:35.870 --> 00:51:45.189 Geoffrey James Morley: Because that money is spent charitably, and what I get is a wage, so I think what you're not allowed to do in CICs is be…
364 00:51:45.320 --> 00:51:57.980 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, skim off as much profit as you feel like. And, you know, that's just a business. So, what you get to do in a CIC is bid into funds and have
365 00:51:58.620 --> 00:52:03.120 Geoffrey James Morley: Profit, you know, work that you do.
366 00:52:03.570 --> 00:52:08.499 Geoffrey James Morley: that is paid for, so what I'm… some of the work I'm going to be doing is things like conservation, grazing.
367 00:52:08.610 --> 00:52:17.129 Geoffrey James Morley: And that money will go into the CIC, and I will receive my wage as part of that. So,
368 00:52:17.940 --> 00:52:18.570 Geoffrey James Morley: what that.
369 00:52:18.570 --> 00:52:19.260 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: who are working.
370 00:52:19.260 --> 00:52:19.649 Geoffrey James Morley: allows me.
371 00:52:19.650 --> 00:52:21.059 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: the interest, yeah.
372 00:52:21.230 --> 00:52:28.349 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, what that allows me to do is have a diversity of income streams, so it makes me more resilient.
373 00:52:28.620 --> 00:52:38.150 Geoffrey James Morley: there is… I think with CICs, I think there's charitable, incorporated organizations, and…
374 00:52:38.720 --> 00:52:53.219 Geoffrey James Morley: I can't remember what the other covenant… something else, using the word incorporated, and then charities. What you can do with all of those is bid into charitable funds. There are very few structures along that charitable
375 00:52:53.580 --> 00:53:05.720 Geoffrey James Morley: spectrum where… that don't allow you to bid into those funds. But then, obviously, being a business, you can support your own charity work by, you know, just, you know, doing paid-for gigs.
376 00:53:06.240 --> 00:53:14.020 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yep. Sign of the diamonds. In a previous life, I was the CIO myself, but it had a different meaning then. Peter, you're a guy with a hand up.
377 00:53:14.380 --> 00:53:27.540 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Yes, just one word of somebody who runs a CIC, you will have to pay corporation tax, so bear that in mind. It came as a bit of a surprise.
378 00:53:27.540 --> 00:53:35.829 Peter Bates - SSECAM: When we said for CIC, in Cambridgeshire. I'm just… but my question really is,
379 00:53:36.670 --> 00:53:49.319 Peter Bates - SSECAM: you… what you've been saying, is a lot of local communities have lots of groups doing lots of things, very similar to what you're saying… doing, so I'm trying to kind of understand
380 00:53:49.320 --> 00:53:57.259 Peter Bates - SSECAM: What actually is the added value that you would actually be able to offer a local group in that respect?
381 00:53:58.670 --> 00:54:01.700 Geoffrey James Morley: Is to bring them together, essentially.
382 00:54:01.990 --> 00:54:09.750 Geoffrey James Morley: And provide some guidance and some… some knowledge around how best to use their resources.
383 00:54:09.930 --> 00:54:13.350 Geoffrey James Morley: One of the examples that,
384 00:54:13.860 --> 00:54:19.250 Geoffrey James Morley: I'll put in the slides and I can send out to people, is the Felbeck Trust that operate in North Norfolk.
385 00:54:19.460 --> 00:54:20.970 Geoffrey James Morley: And they…
386 00:54:21.180 --> 00:54:35.330 Geoffrey James Morley: I work with them, so I'm a volunteer with them, and the project that we're running, our most recent project, is a catchment scale, so again, over the bureau catchment, catchment scale, conservation, restoration.
387 00:54:35.690 --> 00:54:37.409 Geoffrey James Morley: And that's using the…
388 00:54:37.520 --> 00:54:50.600 Geoffrey James Morley: Local nature recovery strategy map, to target areas of, particular interest to… to develop links, between existing habitats in the catchment.
389 00:54:50.800 --> 00:54:56.810 Geoffrey James Morley: So, this group is me and 3 other people, we…
390 00:54:57.080 --> 00:55:15.450 Geoffrey James Morley: go and ground truth what we can see on these maps and what we understand is already being put in place by farmers, community groups, and private individuals, and we go and find things that are also, that could also provide that link in that habitat. So things like, churchyards and church grounds.
391 00:55:15.780 --> 00:55:31.229 Geoffrey James Morley: Grazing paddocks, hedges, particularly tall… particularly big trees, or, areas of scrub, or undermanaged stuff, or areas that farmers have put into stewardship. And then we, find the gaps again.
392 00:55:31.270 --> 00:55:49.239 Geoffrey James Morley: and connect those gaps with, with local communities. We educate the local communities in what's best to go in that gap, what we know isn't there, what could be there, and how that benefits your… the wildlife in your local area, how that benefits you as a community.
393 00:55:50.080 --> 00:55:50.950 Geoffrey James Morley: And…
394 00:55:50.950 --> 00:55:58.040 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Are you actually being paid to do that at the present moment, or are you doing it on a voluntary basis?
395 00:55:58.040 --> 00:55:59.890 Geoffrey James Morley: This is voluntary at the moment.
396 00:55:59.890 --> 00:56:12.869 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Right, I mean, there is a… there is a similar, scheme in which the Cambridgeshire County Council are up… are running at the present moment, which is Nature Recovery from the ground up. Yeah.
397 00:56:13.170 --> 00:56:19.059 Peter Bates - SSECAM: They don't, well, they don't currently have any money available to do it, but would you…
398 00:56:19.090 --> 00:56:33.629 Peter Bates - SSECAM: for what you're currently doing, are you able to access or know of sources of funding to be able to do these things? Which, you know, we are… I'm actually very much involved
399 00:56:33.630 --> 00:56:40.689 Peter Bates - SSECAM: in the kind of East Campshire, kind of, area, doing something very similar.
400 00:56:40.730 --> 00:56:45.430 Peter Bates - SSECAM: But, you know, where are the sources of funding to make this happen?
401 00:56:46.090 --> 00:56:47.010 Geoffrey James Morley: If it's nature.
402 00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:51.939 Geoffrey James Morley: If it's Nature Recovery, there should be nationally available
403 00:56:52.300 --> 00:57:02.069 Geoffrey James Morley: sources of funding through, species recovery funds. So that was Natural England's last round of funding.
404 00:57:02.260 --> 00:57:05.250 Geoffrey James Morley: I think expressions of interest went in late last year.
405 00:57:05.570 --> 00:57:09.280 Geoffrey James Morley: I think that's the main source of funding for it.
406 00:57:09.280 --> 00:57:09.879 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Yes, I mean.
407 00:57:09.880 --> 00:57:10.350 Geoffrey James Morley: Sorry.
408 00:57:10.350 --> 00:57:25.530 Peter Bates - SSECAM: It's very likely to be, kind of, because, under the Environment Act of 2021, I mean, the… the… the… that's why the local nature recovery, strategies and, and, and plans
409 00:57:25.530 --> 00:57:40.700 Peter Bates - SSECAM: were developed as a national government requirement, but at the present moment, I'm not aware of any funding that is available from national government, nor for that matter, is the County Council aware of it at this moment?
410 00:57:40.700 --> 00:57:48.170 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, there has been a drop-off, and similarly in the way that agricultural money has dropped off, so public sector money for that sort of stuff has dropped off.
411 00:57:48.200 --> 00:58:02.139 Geoffrey James Morley: I think they're hoping to stimulate private investment by doing that. I mean, that's just my reading of it, is that that's expected that private investment, things like carbon credits, that are going to take over and go… but, you know.
412 00:58:02.360 --> 00:58:10.579 Geoffrey James Morley: Biodiversity net gain legislation's being gutted currently, so that's gonna no longer be a source of income for people.
413 00:58:10.890 --> 00:58:16.799 Geoffrey James Morley: we expect, but we don't know. But there's also things like,
414 00:58:17.080 --> 00:58:23.370 Geoffrey James Morley: I think in East Cambridgeshire, you'd have the Cambridge Water money, so they're spending a lot of money at the moment on
415 00:58:23.540 --> 00:58:26.590 Geoffrey James Morley: Protecting the landscapes and the hydraulic.
416 00:58:26.590 --> 00:58:44.940 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Well, actually, we're in… we're in, it's not Cambridge Water, it's actually Anglian Water, and there are funds, quite a lot of funds available, as they would be for you in Norfolk, in particular water catchment areas, you know…
417 00:58:44.940 --> 00:58:46.379 Geoffrey James Morley: Some of the bigger funds, it's not even there.
418 00:58:46.380 --> 00:58:47.900 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Towards specific things.
419 00:58:48.460 --> 00:58:48.960 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, this…
420 00:58:48.960 --> 00:58:49.290 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Thank you.
421 00:58:49.290 --> 00:58:59.259 Geoffrey James Morley: There's some of the bigger funds at the moment that will deal with land use change and community. So there's a Flourishing Communities Fund through Anglian Water… well, not through Anglian Water, but through a Cambridge-based
422 00:58:59.380 --> 00:59:00.980 Geoffrey James Morley: organization.
423 00:59:01.130 --> 00:59:08.600 Geoffrey James Morley: And there's the AWNEP, which is their Advanced, Water Framework Improvements, Fund.
424 00:59:08.600 --> 00:59:18.500 Peter Bates - SSECAM: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm all aware of those that are actually actively involved, because, you know, we're looking at those, but, you know, it just depends upon
425 00:59:18.500 --> 00:59:32.319 Peter Bates - SSECAM: For example, I mean, we're looking at the kind of rare chort streams, which do exist in East Cambridgeshire, as well as South Cambronshire in Cambridge City, and going into Suffolk, as well.
426 00:59:32.320 --> 00:59:47.289 Peter Bates - SSECAM: And, we've looked at all the Anglian water, kind of, or off-watt, funded, funds in that respect. They don't actually, really include funding towards sampling and,
427 00:59:47.530 --> 01:00:01.439 Peter Bates - SSECAM: and looking at, kind of, what can be done. The next stage on, once there's been samples and one sampling of the water, and there's identification of where there are issues, whether it's runoff.
428 01:00:01.440 --> 01:00:11.539 Peter Bates - SSECAM: From farmers, or whether it's issues from runoff, from outfall, then there might actually be funding, but the actual… there's a limited amount of funding available.
429 01:00:11.600 --> 01:00:19.960 Peter Bates - SSECAM: For doing, looking at, sampling, rivers and streams in that respect at the present moment.
430 01:00:20.290 --> 01:00:20.980 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah.
431 01:00:20.980 --> 01:00:24.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Can we move a bit further west, please? And Jane from Milton Teens?
432 01:00:27.140 --> 01:00:36.799 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Yeah, hi, Geoffrey. Yeah, that's really, really interesting presentation. I picked up some nice sort of words there. I love that, what was it, ground-truthing, or something.
433 01:00:36.800 --> 01:00:56.080 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Really nice. So just to move the conversation a little bit, I was interested in the idea about doing desk surveys. So, I am admin person for a Milton Keynes Climate Action Network, and I've talked about doing asset mapping before, but not really… only done it with the people that have come to be members of the network.
434 01:00:56.080 --> 01:01:12.089 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: I just wondered, A, you know, how you found, you know, how much response did you get, and how wide, you know, did you manage to get your survey out there? And then secondly, would you be willing to share your survey so I don't have to reinvent the wheel and I can adapt it?
435 01:01:13.140 --> 01:01:30.850 Geoffrey James Morley: Well, when I… so when I say desktop surveys, a little bit like… So I did desktop surveys as a bio… with biodiversity, projects, where you'd, you know, delineate an area and then get every record from between a certain time period within that area, and it's sort of,
436 01:01:30.850 --> 01:01:42.290 Geoffrey James Morley: it's a lot easier with biodiversity, because you're just looking at the records that people have definitely made. With community stuff, it's looking at all sorts of sources, so probably, as you're already aware.
437 01:01:42.450 --> 01:01:53.549 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, not that information isn't all in one place, you have to go looking quite deeply through the internet, and quite a lot of it is on things like message boards, Facebook groups, and things like that.
438 01:01:53.750 --> 01:01:58.879 Geoffrey James Morley: So, it's… by survey, I sort of mean, you know, a desktop.
439 01:01:58.880 --> 01:01:59.380 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Yay.
440 01:01:59.580 --> 01:02:06.039 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, mining the internet for what's available. But I did find with, with our local one that there was…
441 01:02:06.280 --> 01:02:21.540 Geoffrey James Morley: a lot more of what I was interested in before 2020, so before COVID. A lot of this stuff that we had, I was interested in seed sovereignty, and we had East Anglian Grain Alliance.
442 01:02:21.750 --> 01:02:23.530 Geoffrey James Morley: Who were…
443 01:02:24.160 --> 01:02:32.240 Geoffrey James Morley: Growing or, like, putting money towards local farmers to grow heritage grains that were then going to,
444 01:02:32.710 --> 01:02:37.060 Geoffrey James Morley: leathering set mill, I want to say, in North Norfolk, near Holt.
445 01:02:37.190 --> 01:02:43.670 Geoffrey James Morley: Which is a heritage mill, and then that was going to local bakeries around North Norfolk, and there was…
446 01:02:43.870 --> 01:03:02.289 Geoffrey James Morley: So I went out to try to find all these bakeries, and none of them are there anymore, and Leathering Set Mills do still mill, but they've lost their connection to the, heritage grains. So, you know, there's stuff that is still kicking around on the internet that's not actually there, so, that's what I mean by ground truting a bit.
447 01:03:02.780 --> 01:03:04.419 Geoffrey James Morley: In terms of,
448 01:03:04.970 --> 01:03:10.819 Geoffrey James Morley: the sort of habitat stuff, as I was saying, in the… in the previous answer, was,
449 01:03:11.150 --> 01:03:26.200 Geoffrey James Morley: that there are a lot of interventions. There are a lot of things that people do privately in their own back gardens or their own communities that are very good and just don't get logged anywhere, don't get mapped, don't get recorded, and a lot of the mapping software
450 01:03:26.200 --> 01:03:34.509 Geoffrey James Morley: That's available for, habitats and species and conditions and things, all run from similar databases.
451 01:03:35.060 --> 01:03:45.429 Geoffrey James Morley: Not all of them are up to date, and to be able to read, satellite imagery over a period of years is a very different skill set, so,
452 01:03:45.530 --> 01:03:58.720 Geoffrey James Morley: there is, you know, it's… it can be fairly easy to say, alright, okay, in this, you know, few square miles of my local area, it looks like there is, you know, a bit of wet woodland here, a bit of coppice there, there's,
453 01:03:58.720 --> 01:04:09.889 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, a low-acid grassland over here, I'll go out and see if that's actually what's there, or whether, you know, someone's mown it or cut it all down. And you might find that some of it's missing, you might find that there's a lot more there that's not apt.
454 01:04:09.900 --> 01:04:23.079 Geoffrey James Morley: And there's stuff that farmers have put in under stewardship schemes that haven't gone on simply because, you know, that's a different data set. So, that's sort of, yeah, what I was getting at. I don't have any…
455 01:04:23.080 --> 01:04:23.590 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Huh.
456 01:04:23.590 --> 01:04:27.560 Geoffrey James Morley: In terms of the desktop survey stuff, the only thing I have…
457 01:04:27.820 --> 01:04:33.080 Geoffrey James Morley: It really is a report from… The Riverlands project on…
458 01:04:33.470 --> 01:04:39.560 Geoffrey James Morley: the community listening that I did. So, as part of the ground truthing, I went out to find these people.
459 01:04:39.580 --> 01:04:56.089 Geoffrey James Morley: And, you know, spoke to them, understood their businesses, their organizations, what their needs were, what their challenges were, and what they needed. In some circumstances, because I had community grant fund money through the project, I was able to
460 01:04:56.180 --> 01:05:03.479 Geoffrey James Morley: offer them, you know, grant fund money to do… to carry on, or to expand what they were doing. And…
461 01:05:03.830 --> 01:05:18.459 Geoffrey James Morley: that opened doors to other conversations, or I would, you know, have to go along to meetings in pubs in the evenings, or go along to talks or events in village halls and that sort of stuff. So, being local to go out and do that stuff is really important, and…
462 01:05:18.640 --> 01:05:28.600 Geoffrey James Morley: you know, just try to find those people and have the conversations. I think that's where a lot of this comes in, is that it's… it's essentially a leadership thing. If there's a group of people that want
463 01:05:28.800 --> 01:05:42.869 Geoffrey James Morley: to move in that direction of adaptation, what it takes is a lot of conversations with people, because there's a complex issue, and there's complex issues surrounded by complex issues. So, you need to be able to have long-form
464 01:05:42.980 --> 01:05:53.529 Geoffrey James Morley: conversations that are led by the curiosities and the anxiety of people that you're talking to. So, it's important to be face-to-face as often as possible on these things.
465 01:05:54.540 --> 01:05:55.340 Jane Whild, Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: That's scary.
466 01:05:55.340 --> 01:05:56.590 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Okay.
467 01:05:56.740 --> 01:06:01.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: A job description that requires you for research to go down the local pub, quite frankly.
468 01:06:01.230 --> 01:06:02.869 Geoffrey James Morley: But none, good move.
469 01:06:02.870 --> 01:06:08.699 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Yeah, it's a dream, isn't it? Living the dream. Let's continue moving further south, and it's Sue in battle, please.
470 01:06:09.160 --> 01:06:19.549 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Yeah, hi everybody. So, couple of… so I'm coming from parish council perspective,
471 01:06:19.640 --> 01:06:35.410 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: So, first of all, how do you and maybe others feel that the message that we can't carry on as we are, who and how is that going to be portrayed to people? Because I… I'm…
472 01:06:36.140 --> 01:06:39.980 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: on our town council, what we're still trying to do
473 01:06:40.100 --> 01:06:50.469 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Is reduce our footprint. What can we do to support, organisations that are caring about the environment, caring about carbon?
474 01:06:50.510 --> 01:07:07.130 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: And working on a day-to-day basis. And even that can be hard work to get your fellow councillors to agree, actually, we do really need a renewable energy source, as against any energy company. Even that gets debated.
475 01:07:07.500 --> 01:07:19.720 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: having passed a climate emergency, et cetera, et cetera. Then my… my second part of the question, of my point, is about when we in battle, and I expect most…
476 01:07:19.740 --> 01:07:29.600 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Town and parish councils have got some sort of resilience plan, but that's about what do we do when there's an emergency, and what do we do if they're
477 01:07:30.310 --> 01:07:54.460 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: I don't know, whatever. Yeah, the water goes down, and at the moment, the solution is hand out bottles and make sure everybody knows where the car park is. But what we're saying today, and Jeffrey, you talked about, is actually saying that this is going to happen. There is going to be a shortage of water. How can we… what… how can we… food is a better example, because there are…
478 01:07:54.460 --> 01:08:04.269 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: more things we can do about it, and how do we move it ahead from a town council perspective of the actions
479 01:08:06.160 --> 01:08:15.140 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: when we're short of resources, everything has to be planned a year ahead. It's hard work to make good inroads.
480 01:08:15.140 --> 01:08:23.319 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah But that's a similar, set of issues that I'm facing with our local Emergency group, who are…
481 01:08:23.560 --> 01:08:26.329 Geoffrey James Morley: Sort of 10… 10… the… the…
482 01:08:26.810 --> 01:08:39.070 Geoffrey James Morley: just outside the councils. They have one of the town councils sitting on the board for it, so it's sort of a similar thing. There's a lot of focus on carbon footprint, and recycling.
483 01:08:39.410 --> 01:08:40.569 Geoffrey James Morley: And…
484 01:08:41.279 --> 01:09:01.099 Geoffrey James Morley: there's… it's incredibly popular. As a… as a volunteer organization, I've not seen so many people turn up to a board meeting where they weren't actually going to do all the things they normally volunteer for, so I was really impressed with the amount of people that were there, and that wanted to do something, and a little bit disheartened that they were focusing on…
485 01:09:01.200 --> 01:09:07.770 Geoffrey James Morley: What are essentially dealing with… The problems of the consumer Solve.
486 01:09:07.920 --> 01:09:11.250 Geoffrey James Morley: Supply chains that we're… we're…
487 01:09:11.370 --> 01:09:28.049 Geoffrey James Morley: sort of stuck in. So, you know, what do we do with the waste that we're forced to buy in, you know, our food packaging and things like that? We're forced to buy this stuff, and then we have to do something with it. A lot of it isn't recyclable, and these people are trying to figure this out and reinvent a new way of re… you know, doing something with this stuff.
488 01:09:28.350 --> 01:09:30.690 Geoffrey James Morley: And spending a lot of time and effort on it.
489 01:09:31.220 --> 01:09:32.250 Geoffrey James Morley: And…
490 01:09:32.910 --> 01:09:51.870 Geoffrey James Morley: The council will go along, and they'll listen, and they will say what you've said, is that, you know, in order to do this, we have to take it to that board, we have to take it to that group, we have to find funding, and a lot of these things, the wheels turn, and, you know, things change, and often it's a no at the other end.
491 01:09:52.090 --> 01:10:11.219 Geoffrey James Morley: I think what they… what I would like to talk to that group about, and I'll be taking this… I was supposed to give them this presentation about 2 months ago, but they spent so long talking about recycling, I didn't have time. So, that sort of underlines my issue a little bit, but what I'm going to suggest to them is that they…
492 01:10:11.620 --> 01:10:16.910 Geoffrey James Morley: May not be focusing on the things that will fail first in the community.
493 01:10:16.910 --> 01:10:17.260 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Huh?
494 01:10:17.260 --> 01:10:21.420 Geoffrey James Morley: I think the… the honest,
495 01:10:21.930 --> 01:10:24.619 Geoffrey James Morley: Sort of truth about where we are.
496 01:10:25.010 --> 01:10:40.220 Geoffrey James Morley: I put those… that author right at the beginning, Jen Bendel, there's a few of them about, and they're coming out of the woodwork quite quickly at the moment, with everything going on. But, you know, there are a lot of authors that will give you…
497 01:10:40.330 --> 01:10:46.799 Geoffrey James Morley: a very, compl… you know, a very comprehensive view of
498 01:10:47.190 --> 01:10:54.879 Geoffrey James Morley: Why it is that you should be focusing on local solutions and making local relationships with people
499 01:10:55.140 --> 01:10:57.310 Geoffrey James Morley: And building that trust with people.
500 01:10:57.450 --> 01:11:07.989 Geoffrey James Morley: And it's because of these collapse issues, and when collapse happens and people don't have those… people don't recognize their neighbor, you know, then…
501 01:11:08.120 --> 01:11:12.110 Geoffrey James Morley: That's a… that's a situation we don't want to imagine, really.
502 01:11:12.780 --> 01:11:20.029 Geoffrey James Morley: what I want our local group to do is to start to look at the vulnerable areas in the community, the vulnerable people.
503 01:11:20.130 --> 01:11:24.460 Geoffrey James Morley: Who are going to be the first to be subject to
504 01:11:24.580 --> 01:11:27.389 Geoffrey James Morley: Price hikes in energy and food.
505 01:11:27.590 --> 01:11:32.549 Geoffrey James Morley: Who are going to sort of suffer first in that, and see…
506 01:11:32.810 --> 01:11:44.190 Geoffrey James Morley: and try to figure out something to do for them, and engage with them. Once there is that groundswell of support, that there is a need, a solution that needs to come.
507 01:11:44.870 --> 01:11:52.210 Geoffrey James Morley: From a local government, then you can lobby with a lot more people, but, it's very easy for a local government to ignore
508 01:11:52.540 --> 01:11:56.939 Geoffrey James Morley: One or two people from a… from what they would look at as a niche group.
509 01:11:57.090 --> 01:11:58.860 Geoffrey James Morley: I would have thought.
510 01:11:58.860 --> 01:12:10.109 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: So, in terms of catching people's attention, overcoming, reluctance to make a decision, are you familiar with the National Emergency Briefing movie that's coming out next month?
511 01:12:10.110 --> 01:12:12.540 Geoffrey James Morley: Yes, yeah, I'm putting on a screening now.
512 01:12:12.540 --> 01:12:21.910 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: to get hold of that and show that to your people, because I think… I suspect you'll find there's a lot more interest, suddenly, being taken care of what happens next.
513 01:12:22.420 --> 01:12:31.159 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, we're doing a screening. I took the logo out of the presentation, actually. I put it in earlier today, and then took it out in favor of something else. But yes, we're putting on only…
514 01:12:31.160 --> 01:12:43.619 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: If you come into the Knowledge Base, Sue, and search for National Emergency Briefing, it's in there. But basically, you can sign up to get a copy of the film sent to you. It's being released, I think, on April the 7th is their target date.
515 01:12:44.820 --> 01:12:49.710 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Could somebody put in the chat the book that you mentioned earlier, please?
516 01:12:49.710 --> 01:12:51.290 Geoffrey James Morley: I can send all the links.
517 01:12:51.400 --> 01:12:52.520 Geoffrey James Morley: to Graham.
518 01:12:52.520 --> 01:12:54.600 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: It'll go up into the Norwich base, too.
519 01:12:54.600 --> 01:12:55.530 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Thank you.
520 01:12:55.610 --> 01:12:57.510 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And Stuart, your turn, please?
521 01:12:59.430 --> 01:13:00.210 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Thanks.
522 01:13:00.470 --> 01:13:01.270 Geoffrey James Morley: Thank you.
523 01:13:01.500 --> 01:13:09.199 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I realize we've run out of time. I'd just like to thank Jeffrey. It's a very interesting talk, and a lot to think about.
524 01:13:09.540 --> 01:13:17.520 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: But I think my main problem is trying to get momentum from other people.
525 01:13:17.830 --> 01:13:26.660 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: We have quite a few local groups who are doing, say, gardening, local beekeepers, local this, that, and the other.
526 01:13:27.070 --> 01:13:33.530 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: But they don't tend to come together or work together. They're all in their little silo.
527 01:13:33.730 --> 01:13:36.939 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Me, as a counsellor, trying to get
528 01:13:37.220 --> 01:13:42.120 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: The public more involved in this, is proving very difficult.
529 01:13:43.020 --> 01:13:46.809 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I only seem to get a big reaction from
530 01:13:47.460 --> 01:13:52.030 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: our local community, if we're putting up car parking fees.
531 01:13:52.270 --> 01:13:55.640 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Or we're doing a bit of development, which they don't want.
532 01:13:56.070 --> 01:14:00.850 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Then they all come out of the woodwork, but, trying to get them together and act
533 01:14:01.460 --> 01:14:05.450 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: together on projects like this, so that I find it very difficult.
534 01:14:06.520 --> 01:14:07.300 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah.
535 01:14:07.820 --> 01:14:10.519 Geoffrey James Morley: I totally appreciate that, and
536 01:14:10.730 --> 01:14:20.580 Geoffrey James Morley: I had a similar issue with, the Riverlands project, is that we had really good engagement with our, land use and soil health
537 01:14:21.750 --> 01:14:38.869 Geoffrey James Morley: stuff that we were putting out around the catchment, except for in one area, and it was, in the… in the village in the catchment that had the lowest income, had the highest, disability PIP, claims and… and things like that. So, I think there was a… I think…
538 01:14:39.130 --> 01:14:43.480 Geoffrey James Morley: spoke to an issue that I've dealt with before in, in sort of, areas
539 01:14:43.640 --> 01:14:51.429 Geoffrey James Morley: Where… it's specific… more in areas where there's deprivation, but, you know, quite generally in a lot of places, where,
540 01:14:51.720 --> 01:14:59.489 Geoffrey James Morley: There are a lot of people that are… that don't have the time, don't have the bandwidth, the psychological bandwidth to deal with new things right now.
541 01:14:59.660 --> 01:15:01.840 Geoffrey James Morley: And they don't have that,
542 01:15:02.390 --> 01:15:16.040 Geoffrey James Morley: that motivation that a lot of people that… I think, you know, Transition Cambridge are great, and Transition Movement's great, but is… does suffer from that sort of middle-class priority list of things to do, and, the…
543 01:15:16.040 --> 01:15:35.059 Geoffrey James Morley: lower down that economic income scale that you go, the more you're dealing with keeping your head above water, and that, you know, these are… you're dealing with your immediate issues, immediate problems, and I think start… if we look at how to solve those immediate problems, or to support them, or to bring messages along with
544 01:15:35.060 --> 01:15:39.550 Geoffrey James Morley: some of that support, then I think we'll get a lot more traction on this stuff.
545 01:15:39.630 --> 01:15:49.840 Geoffrey James Morley: One of the projects that I ran in North Cambridgeshire, was an edible park. We called it a forage orchard in the end.
546 01:15:50.020 --> 01:15:55.789 Geoffrey James Morley: The idea was that it was supposed to… we put in a load of fruit trees, and
547 01:15:56.070 --> 01:16:05.010 Geoffrey James Morley: Nut trees, other things, forageable species, into a design that we didn't have to do any maintenance on, and then invited the community to
548 01:16:05.250 --> 01:16:10.159 Geoffrey James Morley: Tell us what else they wanted to plant, what do you like to eat, and come out and we'll plant it all together.
549 01:16:10.190 --> 01:16:17.780 Geoffrey James Morley: And the message was, we're giving you free food. This is free to access, you can go in and harvest it whenever you want, if you're local.
550 01:16:17.810 --> 01:16:32.959 Geoffrey James Morley: you'll, you know, you can nip out, get some herbs, or get whatever, and it's free, healthy food. And we had more response from that. We had response from the local homeless charities, the food kitchens and food banks.
551 01:16:33.000 --> 01:16:38.610 Geoffrey James Morley: and the charity that did outreach for the Eastern European community in that town.
552 01:16:38.670 --> 01:16:45.020 Geoffrey James Morley: Who were… There's a massive problem with rough sleeping, in that town.
553 01:16:45.260 --> 01:16:58.219 Geoffrey James Morley: So they… that local charity did the outreach for us, for that group, and we were able to, bring a lot of different people together on that site. So…
554 01:16:58.620 --> 01:17:08.779 Geoffrey James Morley: I think food, free food, is always, always a win. That's been a win with getting difficult-to-reach farmers out to engagement events as well.
555 01:17:08.980 --> 01:17:10.430 Geoffrey James Morley: And I think…
556 01:17:10.790 --> 01:17:16.399 Geoffrey James Morley: food is one of those things that links us all together, so I'd… personally, I'd start there.
557 01:17:16.510 --> 01:17:20.880 Geoffrey James Morley: And, don't know, did… Did Stuart say he was still here?
558 01:17:21.050 --> 01:17:25.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: He's probably listening, but he's got someone coming into his room, I think.
559 01:17:26.330 --> 01:17:27.140 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Andrew.
560 01:17:27.140 --> 01:17:29.289 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Alright, still here.
561 01:17:29.620 --> 01:17:33.539 Geoffrey James Morley: Yeah, I think that, I mean, food is a good place to start, but I think the general,
562 01:17:33.800 --> 01:17:41.419 Geoffrey James Morley: message of these texts that I'm drawing on is that we find those vulnerabilities in our communities, and we
563 01:17:41.750 --> 01:17:48.330 Geoffrey James Morley: figure… we understand them, we understand what they need and how they're going to collapse. And that will…
564 01:17:48.860 --> 01:17:57.939 Geoffrey James Morley: generate support, because it will start to take the pressure off of people. It might start to help support people with the immediate issues that are stopping them getting involved in other things.
565 01:17:58.060 --> 01:17:59.319 Geoffrey James Morley: Does that make sense?
566 01:17:59.680 --> 01:18:06.249 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yes, it does, but I think for the vast majority, these things just don't impinge on them.
567 01:18:06.430 --> 01:18:15.260 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: The supermarket nearly always has food in it, the taps always work, the electricity's always on,
568 01:18:15.810 --> 01:18:17.350 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: What's all the fuss about?
569 01:18:19.750 --> 01:18:20.310 Geoffrey James Morley: It's great.
570 01:18:20.310 --> 01:18:22.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: you didn't have insurance. Right now.
571 01:18:23.230 --> 01:18:34.309 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Stuart, I was going to ask a question of, children. Do you find that talking to the children and that they then badger their parents to get involved with these things, or is that not being tried?
572 01:18:35.660 --> 01:18:40.729 Geoffrey James Morley: It's not something I've… I've tried, and…
573 01:18:41.160 --> 01:18:44.920 Geoffrey James Morley: having young children myself, I find it easier to
574 01:18:45.850 --> 01:18:52.489 Geoffrey James Morley: To put forward that message of, of restoration, and…
575 01:18:52.870 --> 01:19:03.999 Geoffrey James Morley: being good to one another and doing the responsible thing, they're far more open to, well, this is the way the world should work, so let's make it work that way. So…
576 01:19:04.260 --> 01:19:07.669 Geoffrey James Morley: that's been… Quite a good way to get…
577 01:19:08.440 --> 01:19:13.950 Geoffrey James Morley: kids on side where I have worked with them, but it hasn't been a lot, I gotta be honest with that. That's a limitation of…
578 01:19:14.080 --> 01:19:30.250 Geoffrey James Morley: My experience in that is that in my catchment, the demographic for what we were looking at, there was, you know, children and young people were at the, you know, were not very well presented… represented in that. So, we did some engagement, but not a lot.
579 01:19:30.590 --> 01:19:47.290 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I can't help feeling, though, that if you're going to try and get people to change the way they think and their expectations, one of the major issues I would like to see changed is the educational system, because I don't think it teaches people to start thinking these ways. They're not set in the right directions.
580 01:19:47.330 --> 01:19:51.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Of course, you can always argue who's right and who's wrong, but…
581 01:19:51.090 --> 01:20:07.490 Geoffrey James Morley: I totally agree with you, and a lot of these projects, I encourage my kids to come out to get involved in this stuff with me. We do tree planting together, we grow food in the garden, we do, go out to… they come along to my… a lot of my work events as well, and they… they,
582 01:20:07.900 --> 01:20:23.050 Geoffrey James Morley: I want them to mix as much as possible with other generations, and I think that's really important. And one of the groups that does do that in our catchment are those small-scale growers, the horticulturalists and the veg box schemes, and those people are…
583 01:20:23.270 --> 01:20:34.219 Geoffrey James Morley: So, you know, they're on the bottom end of that income scale in terms of, people that do land-based jobs. They're on minimum wage, essentially. A lot of them are living in vans.
584 01:20:34.290 --> 01:20:49.439 Geoffrey James Morley: But they take any advice and any support and any help they can get, and they do… and they, you know, spread their message as far and wide as possible to try to make that sector more resilient. And that involves a lot of outreach, a lot of education, a lot of open days.
585 01:20:49.440 --> 01:20:55.670 Geoffrey James Morley: Tours and visits and things, and so they do have a really good intergenerational mix.
586 01:20:56.340 --> 01:21:09.520 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: I also think there's a ripple effect. I mean, your children interact, probably, with 100 kids at their school, and they'll interact with other people, and you're suggesting resilience and tree planting, and some other kid will come along and say, well, I think we should be…
587 01:21:09.630 --> 01:21:18.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: focusing on clean water, and so it goes. So, I do think that we ignore the children at our own risk.
588 01:21:18.330 --> 01:21:30.809 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Frankly, because they will spread the word for the next 20 years, and then their children will spread the word, and so you'll, you know, you'll change people's culture, if you start at the bottom end rather than the top.
589 01:21:31.960 --> 01:21:34.400 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Anybody else for any questions, please?
590 01:21:35.730 --> 01:21:45.779 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Well, we sort of had to shrink because of the time, I think. So, thank you very much to all those of you who are still with us. Thank you, Jeff, for,
591 01:21:45.880 --> 01:21:55.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: Giving us the presentation, and as other people have written in the comments section, there's plenty there for you to think about, or for us to think about.
592 01:21:55.300 --> 01:22:03.569 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: If you could send me a copy of the presentation, please, I will get it up on the knowledge base where everyone can see it and share the links that you've got.
593 01:22:03.690 --> 01:22:06.290 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: And the links included in the presentation, they are.
594 01:22:06.290 --> 01:22:11.359 Geoffrey James Morley: I had to put them all back in last night, they'd all… they'd all disappeared. But yes, they're in.
595 01:22:11.630 --> 01:22:16.610 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: If you could send that, that'd be wonderful. Thank you all very much, and see you who…
596 01:22:16.610 --> 01:22:16.970 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Cheers.
597 01:22:16.970 --> 01:22:18.230 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Bembridge: See you next week. Take care.
598 01:22:18.230 --> 01:22:19.079 Geoffrey James Morley: Thanks for having me.
599 01:22:19.080 --> 01:22:22.090 Sue Burton Battle Town Council: Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye.
Deep Adaption banter session - presentation markdown:
Geoffrey Morley, Founder
Catchment Adaptation
Novel Mosaic
Resources from Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse
Key Messages for Community Self-Preservation
Cover image reference: Breaking Together — Jem Bendell “Kintsugi Earth / Atlas” Novel Mosaic Catchment Adaptati…
Understanding the Reality
Climate change and converging crises are driving societal collapse.
We must face this reality with courage and honesty.
Traditional approaches are insufficient for the challenges ahead.
This calls for a fundamental shift in how we organize and support each other.
(The slide also illustrates the “planetary boundaries” framework showing increasing boundary breaches from 2009 to 2025.) Novel Mosaic Catchment Adaptati…
The 4Rs Framework
Four pillars for community response to collapse
Resilience
Building community strength and adaptability.
Relinquishment
Letting go of unsustainable expectations.
Restoration
Reviving neighbourhoods and self-sufficiency skills.
Reconciliation
Acknowledging shared challenges and overcoming divisions.
Building Community Resilience
Practical strategies for local strengthening
Upgrade local community halls as resilience hubs with backup power.
Establish community support networks and mutual-aid groups.
Develop emergency preparedness plans together.
Create knowledge-sharing systems for essential skills.
Community organisation models illustrated:
Centralised
Decentralised
Distributed
Food Security & Self-Sufficiency
Localising our food systems
Establish community market gardens and urban farming initiatives.
Share skills in food growing, preservation, and preparation.
Develop local seed banks and tool libraries.
Create community composting and resource-cycling systems.
Alternative Economics
Building resilient local economies
Explore time-banking and exchange systems.
Develop skills-exchange networks.
Support local businesses and cooperative enterprises.
Create community-owned resources and shared assets.
Examples mentioned:
Downham Solidarity Fund
Community Action Norfolk
Communities Together East Anglia
Eco-Libertarianism
Regenerating nature and culture together
Reject top-down, elitist solutions to environmental crises.
Embrace voluntary cooperation and community-led initiatives.
Restore natural ecosystems through collective action.
Preserve cultural traditions while adapting to new realities.
Example organisation mentioned: Felbeck Trust
Core Values for Action
Principles guiding community response
Nonviolence and compassion in all interactions.
Acting with integrity, even when outcomes are uncertain.
Prioritising community wellbeing over individual gain.
Maintaining hope through practical solidarity.
Relinquishment – What We Must Let Go Of
Expectations of perpetual economic growth.
Dependence on fragile global supply chains.
Consumer lifestyles that exhaust resources.
Entitlement mindsets that prevent adaptation.
Immediate Action Steps
Where to start in your community
Connect with neighbours and form local support groups.
Identify and secure community spaces as resilience hubs.
Assess local skills, resources, and vulnerabilities.
Start small projects:
gardens
tool-sharing
skill workshops
Build relationships across different community groups.
Long-Term Strategies
Building lasting community resilience
Develop comprehensive collective resilience plans.
Create backup systems for essential services.
Foster inter-generational knowledge transfer.
Build alliances with neighbouring communities.
Document and share what works.
Moving Forward Together
We face unprecedented challenges, but we face them together.
Local action and mutual support are our greatest strengths.
Every small step toward resilience matters.
Community self-preservation begins with connection and commitment.
The future depends on the choices we make today.
Adaptation Enters the Headlines (2025)
Other NGOs and political movements broadening the narrative:
WWF — food and nature resilience
RSPB — farming and habitat
Greenpeace — accountability
Green Party — local resilience
Key message:
Adaptation is now on the map, but still often seen as government failure rather than shared responsibility.
Decarbonisation Is Global — Adaptation Is Local
Why this matters
Reactive coverage cannot build resilience.
Adaptation is where agency lives.
For the climate majority, this means moving adaptation out of emergency mode and into everyday language:
fairness
safety
community capability.
Changing the Conversation
Be strategically honest.
Make adaptation tangible.
Shift the frame.
Keep fairness central.
Use stories, not slogans.
From Insight to Influence
Bring adaptation into every climate dialogue.
Champion local resilience initiatives.
Support campaigns that build accountability.
Encourage funders and media to measure credibility.
Use your voice to make adaptation the language of responsible leadership.
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