Gödöllő Climate Club

2 June 2011

Minutes – English summary

People present:

Márta Kaszap, Móni and Pali Simó, Benigna Boza-Kiss, Tünde Pilcsik, Kinga Milánkovics, Simon Milton, Edina és Kristóf Vadovics, Gabi Baranyi

1. Introduction to the new members.

2. Short report of Edina and Kristóf who were invited to the KLIKK (Climate Friendly Networks and Small Communities) Conference, where they shared their experience with the Climate Club with other similarly interested participants. The conference was connected to the subject of the Climate Friendly Cities book, which was published in May. There were several people among the participants who currently organize Climate Friendly Communities or were interested in the subject. The author of the Transition Towns book and one of the key person of the movement, Rob Hopkins also “participated”: he gave a talk through Skype because according to his principles he doesn’t fly to a conference, because it is a lot of CO₂ emission.

3. We watched the Farm for the future film, which had a great effect on everyone. The film had been prepared by an English farm owner lady who realized the dependence of food production on fossil energy, mostly on oil. If we run out of this type of energy source, it will affect the nutrition of the whole mankind. In this film she looks for a solution for this problem, in other words, how we can farm without fossil fuels, and find a more natural, environmentally friendly way for food production. One solution may be the permaculture.

4. This film made us think so after we had seen it we started a discussion about different topics.

• Márta told us about their experience in permaculture gardening in Bokorliget. Márta said that they wanted to introduce it in their farm and they asked an expert to plan the execution. Even if he was very experienced in permaculture, and he spent a lot of time with planning the exact places of the different types of plants in the garden, many thing didn’t turn out the way they had expected it.

• We highlighted that it is very important that people have a little garden where they can produce vegetables and fruits for themselves. Besides it is very environmentally friendly (our food is from the backyard and not from hundreds or thousands of kilometers, with a lot of chemicals so that they stay fresh etc.), it would be important because it helps us to become more independent from the food supply and import. Although in the capital this type of gardening is not typical, in the countryside there are many families who cultivate their garden to be (near) self-sufficient. It is also important to teach the new generation this.

• Kristóf is the member of the local food council in Gödöllő (G7) and they support local food production as well. Many people think that the soil in Gödöllő is not suitable for plant growing and this misunderstanding must be eliminated.

• Permaculture was a fascinating approach for all of us, but we agreed that it needs a lot of theoretical knowledge and practical experience and you have to be very determined if you would like to achieve a successful and self-sustaining garden like we saw in the film. It is not easy to know which plant likes to grow where and in what kind of plant association because it depends on the local climate and soil conditions as well, not only on a bigger scale but also within our garden. The other problem is that sometimes it is very hard to give up traditional approach (e.g. ploughing).

• Kinga raised that although it is very good if we produce the big amount of our food, gardening usually needs a lot of time and if we do it we will hardly have time for anything else (e.g. for a job). If you have family and kids, you need money so it is hard to imagine that you do your full-time job and you have time and energy for gardening as well. One solution could be doing gardening together with other families so that it is much less time and you can share the crop. There is an attempt for community gardening in Gödöllő. Two of our club members cultivate a garden together with four other families. It is also a question of trust.

• We agreed that the whole peak oil issue is very complex and food production is only one aspect of it. It affects every part of our life: culture, education, transport etc. So if we would like to solve the problem, we have to change our lives radically.

The date of our next club meeting is not settled yet, we will send an email about it. The place will be the usual.