who am i? a brief overview of the fife diet what has worked in our project
DESCRIPTION
THE FIFE DIET - A LOCAL FOOD EXPERIMENT Big Tent Summer School - July 2010 Limits to Behaviour Change - Effective Use of Social Media. Who am I? A brief overview of the Fife Diet What has worked in our project Using Social Media (why not how) Some Obstacles to Change - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
THE FIFE DIET - A LOCAL FOOD EXPERIMENTBig Tent Summer School - July 2010
Limits to Behaviour Change - Effective Use of Social Media
• Who am I?• A brief overview of the Fife
Diet• What has worked in our
project• Using Social Media
(why not how)• Some Obstacles to Change• Asking a different question
Who Am I?
Mike Small BA, MA, FRSAGreen City Wholefoods 1986-1988 (forklift)
Institute for Social Ecology 1994-1996 (philosophy)Programming the Big Tent Festival 2006-2010
Lecture UNESCO Chair of Sustainable Development,Turin University 2007 -Director, Fife Diet, Scottish Government Climate Challenge Fund 2007 - ?
Dad to Sorley (6) and Alex (3)
A brief overview of the Fife Diet
• Started from a sense that there was something fundamentally wrong with the food system
• Developed from an informal network to a movement for change around food (2007-2010)
• Publishing carbon foodprint reports on 100 research volunteers and now all members (1000+)
• Aims to deliver stronger communities through enhanced local economy, healthier unprocessed fresh food and food with lower carbon impact
Our 5 Pledges for Low Carbon Sustainable Food
• Eat local (defined bio-regionally)
• Eat less meat
• Eat more organic
• Reduce food waste
• Compost More
What has worked in our project
• Eating together
• Being honest about the realities of change requiredMotivating through pledges
• Strategic Use of Social Media
• Not engaging in ‘general awareness rising’
• Looking after children
• Not being patronising
• Combining global picture with local realities and practicalities
Use of Social Media
Network Enabled Collaboration•Many to many
• Challenges notions of expertise
•Challenges notions of proprietary ownership
•Champions the venacular
Ref: ‘We-Think’ Charles Leadbeater
Our members have a carbon foodprint between 10-40% below the UK average on food, rising to 80%. Source: Fife Diet
Carbon Report, June 2010
10 Rules for Communicating on Climate Change
• Big Picture
• Technically correct
• Be cool
• Only stories work
• Optimism
• Glory button
• Change is for all
• We need more heroes
• Personal circle
Source: futerra
Obstacles to Change that is Sustained, Credible and Immediate:
Surround sound, Hegemony of Increment and Techno-Babble
The Daily Mail bag campaign- “a British family on their weekly shop - but their bags could be killing our wildlife”
Surround Sound
Hegemony of Increment
• Adopt little steps• Adopt marketing
strategies• Focus on green
consumerism• Create offers which
are easy, painless• Use non-
environmental motivations (-£)
• Use celebrity endorsements (‘Nicole Ritchie loves the planet’)
Source: Meeting Environmental Challenges: The Role of Human Identity, Tom Crompton WWF
Techno-babble – ‘Top-kill’ & the Twin Narratives of BP
Asking a different question...
• Is ‘our’ behaviour the problem? Depends who we are.
• To what extent do we truly believe that consumer behaviour will change society? Vote!
• When are we going to legislate? There is no point in asking people to change their behaviour if their whole social environment makes this extremely difficult.
• Tim Jackson perspective
It’s the ecology [email protected]://fifediet.co.uk/