Film screening: Food, Inc.

The SuS film group are delighted to announce that the next film screening will be the excellent Food, Inc. – the controversial exposé of large scale agricultural food production in the United States and it’s damaging effects on our health and ecology. The screening will take place at 8pm on Tuesday 23 February at the Streatham Odeon. Entry will be £5 on the night.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
(extract taken from www.foodincmovie.com)

Get a sneak preview. Watch the trailer.

RE-powering Streatham

Sustainable Streatham Launches Energy Group

In its growing and continuing quest to work with local residents to help Streatham become a greener community, Sustainable Streatham (SuS) has organised a new group dedicated to domestic and commercial energy reduction.  The launch of SuS’s Energy Group will take place on Saturday, 13th and Sunday, 14th March between 1pm and 4pm at St Leonard’s Church, Tooting Bec Gardens, Streatham, London SW16 1RB. Private companies, Not For Profit organisations, community groups and key speakers will attend the event.

The impetus for this event was the need for community members to be able to get information about energy reduction and how to do it, and to find out about organisations that would support local citizens to move to reducing energy consumption and to expanding renewable energy. The exciting news that the government has decided to launch a Feed In Tariff or (FIT) which would pay households for any renewable energy they produced has created urgency and so this event is being organised.

The exciting thing about the Feed In Tariff is that households will be paid for ALL energy produced – not just the excess that they feed into the grid.  This makes the investment in renewable energy much more affordable to millions and could be a major factor in enabling the UK to reduce it’s CO2 emissions.  A similar Feed In Tariff has already made a major impact in Germany where 70% of renewable energy produced is attributed to the Feed In Tariff.

The focus of the SuS Energy Event is to:

1.Educate local residents on the steps to take to reduce energy consumption, which will result in savings to them and less CO2 to the planet.
2.Educate residents about how the Feed In Tariff, which will launch in April 2010, will generate money for them and thus enable green energy like solar panels to be affordable.
3.Provide information about a range of renewable energy options, technologies, grants, loans and payment schemes available that are making renewable energy accessible to us all.

February Green Drinks

The next SuS Green Drinks will be on Thursday,11 February 2010 @ The Five Bells, 70 Streatham High Road, SW16 1DA. From 7.30pm to 10.30pm. No agenda, no plan, just an excuse for a pint & a gas!

SuS Launch film

Green Drinks

Streatham Green Drinks is on again this Thursday 10 December at 7.30pm to 10.30pm at a the Earl Ferrers, 2 Ellora Road, London, SW16 6JF (behind the Streatham Bus Garage).  See: http://www.earlferrers.co.uk.

This is a monthly event on the 2nd Thursday of every month at different Streatham venues. No agenda, no plan, just a reason for people to come and have a drink, talk green things, meet one another and find out what else is going on.

SuS film screening: HOME

Our next film event is now confirmed. We will be screening Home by Yann Arthus-Bertrand at the Streatham Business Centre (1 Empire Mews, Stanthorpe Road, Streatham, SW16 2ED) on Friday 4 December at 7.30pm.

Home is a visually-stunning 90 minute documentary that takes us on an aerial view of over 50 different countries, displaying some of the most breathtaking imagery our planet has to offer. Narrator Glenn Close explains how our planet’s borderless ecosystem is an endangered species, and that the resources we’ve been continuously farming (especially within the last hundred years or so) are on the verge of being depleted.

The documentary shows the awful truths regarding our impact on the Earth, but also what we are now doing to combat and reverse it: including renewable energy; the creation of more national parks; international co-operation between various nations on environmental issues and the extra education; and reforms across the globe in response to the current problems facing the earth.

As the world leaders prepare for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on December 7th, SuS aims to enlighten and engage on a local level with this major global issue. We plan to show the film and hold a discussion afterwards around what positive steps we, as a community, can take. So come and join us at the Streatham Business Centre on Friday 4 December at 7.30pm.

Scott Ainslie
Sustainable Streatham (Film)

First Food Group meeting

Please come and join Sustainable Streatham’s first Food Group meeting from 7pm- 9pm on Tuesday 17th November.

It’s going to be a ‘bring and buy’ of ideas and thoughts about what you want from the food group and what you’d like to get out of it.

Questions:

• What do you think the food group should be doing?
• Should be involved in practical things like allotments or campaigning on organic food for example?
• How often do you think we should meet?
• What made you want to join the food group?
• What would make you want to stay involved in it?

Please join me your friends in Sustainable Streatham at Wellfield Centre in Streatham: Streatham Youth and Community Trust Wellfield Centre 16 Wellfield Road London SW16 2BP to get the answers to all these questions and more.

Any non members you know who are also interested are most welcome to join.

Green Drinks

The next Streatham Green Drinks is on Thursday 12 November at 7.30pm at a New Venue: Perfect Blend Cafe & Bar on Streatham High Road, opposite Streatham Hill Station.

This is a monthly event on the 2nd Thursday of every month. No agenda, no plan, just a reason for people to come and have a drink, talk green things, meet one another and find out what else is going on.

The Power of Community: Sustainable Streatham launch events

What better way to launch Sustainable Streatham than with a screening of the inspirational film The Power of Community. Directed by Faith Morgan, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is a documentary film that explores how Cuba coped with the collapse of the Soviet Union by taking drastic steps towards a (self-)sustainable future.

Almost overnight Cuba lost 85% of it’s international trade and over half of it’s oil imports. Faced with an economic, food and energy crisis, Cuba choose to reject industrialisation and instead began a steady recovery process by encouraging localised community action and urban agricultural production.

A great introduction to peak oil and a catalyst to get Sustainable Streatham on the right path to a low carbon/energy future. We hope you can join us for the screening at the White Lion, 232 Streatham High Road, SW16 1BB on Friday 16 October at 6.30pm. The film will be followed by entertainment and talks.

After an inspirational evening at the White Lion the launch continues on Saturday, 17^thOctober with a showcase of green initiatives, local businesses and other sustainable and environmental groups already serving Streatham at 2-8 Gracefield Gardens, SW16 2ST from 14.30 – 17.00.  Please join us for cake and tea, meet other interested local residents to learn about composting, recycling, food, alternative health, waste removal, cycling, energy reduction, organics, gardening, Fair Trade, solar and renewable energies.  We will also map out green areas in Streatham that could potentially grow food.

And to get everyone in the recycling mood a SWISH will run twice during the afternoon, please bring along your unwanted, clean, good quality clothing to swap.